Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bish]

Hi, our school teaches from a (rubbish) textbook and I always try to add my own activities/ideas or borrow them from others online. I wouldn't mind getting hold of a couple of extra books which focus on listening/speaking activities and games.

I am also going to start teaching conversation in extra classes and would like to find a book to help with ideas for this too.

Anyone got any reccomedations of books (available in Korea), bookshops (in Seoul, Bucheon) or websites?

[ttompatz]

[rray]

Check out books by Penny Ur. Creative and communicative.

[elliemk]

Get friends and famlies to send you magazines from home. Cut out pictures and ads. Spin off from the books provided. Use online resources to get activities, games, etc. Make the classes fun - clapping hands, using a silly voice sometimes - get their attention. Ask a simple question every day (Where are you going for Chuseok?; Who will you see? What will you do? What will you eat?, etc.)
I HATE most of the books at my hakwon. And my director has thousands of them! But I have been able to get some activities from the books that aren't used in the class. Take a mini field trip to the market, the river, the store, etc. Teach them English while you buy them a hot dog! Find out what's on their minds. When I saw one of my students before class today, I asked her how she was. She said, "Not so good." I asked why. She said, "I had a fight with my mother today." I told her that fighting with mothers is awful and that fighting with my daughter is awful. I then told her that I hoped tomorrow would be better. She had a smile on her face at the end of our conversation.

I certainly don't know it all. Every day I find out how little I do know about teaching children. But I'm also finding that viewing them as human beings with pretty hard lives helps a lot.