ESL Teaching

  This blog is not really an ESL blog... It is more just ramblings and mind vomit. In saying this, we have to remember that I AM actually an ESL teacher, and occasionally I do some work. I also occasionally get asked by other people about my work, and what I actually do. I can't remember if I have done this before, but I will give you a brief run down of my average day. Let's pick Friday because it is one of my longer days, and also a more varied day in terms of the classes I take.

ESL on a Friday

  I leave my house/cell at 8:15. Get to school by 8:30 where I sit at my desk for 15 odd minutes, checking FB and reading the Herald Sun online. At about 8:45 I go into the classroom and turn on the comp in there and play cookie run on my phone until the kids arrive. Friday I have Grade 6 for the first 3 classes. Generally Co does not turn up to the first class, and I take it alone. Luckily, I love Gr 6-3 and we usually have a fun lesson. Lots of chatting and maybe watching something stupid on YouTube, as well as following the book. Then Co will come for the next few classes and they will be bored and not paying much attention unless they are called on. Then Gr 5, which is usually ok. Lunch is at 12:10 where I do exactly what I did in the morning, but this time with food. Then there is one class after lunch, on Friday's its Gr 4 who are awful and I usually take this class alone. Then, for the rest of the afternoon, I derp around online. If I am feeling especially motivated I might blog like I am now, or I might do some Korean study. And that, my friends, is my day.  At 4:30 I head home.

  Let's briefly go back to the point I made about me being an actual ESL teacher...
Here are a few tips I have thought about for teaching -  

 If you are teaching any grade, but specifically Gr 6, find some common ground. It's a pretty shitty age group, unless you can find something they all like. They all have their favorite songs, and like certain things on TV. If you can connect witht hem then you are half way there. It isnt about speaking their language fluently, its about understanding them on a more basic level. 

  Get to know who their fave k-pop stars are - the girls will love you and the boys will tease you. Personally I like Infinite and B.A.P (curtesy of the girls in Gr 6-1). Also get to know Larva, this stupid animated show they all love. Paint your nails a cute colour, or if you are a guy get a cool hair cut. It doesnt seem like much but little things will go a long way. 

  USE THE HAGWON KIDS THEY ARE YOUR FRIENDS IN CLASS.

Most of the kids I teach are low level English. I speak more Korean than some of them speak English (and this is a disaster, let me tell you). So if you have a kid in your classroom that has a decent grasp on the language make them your friend. Give them candy, pat them on the head whatever. You need him/her to help you out. I am lucky, I get along well with most of the kids, but the ones who fucl around all the time really grind my gears. I have the hagwon kids tell them off all the time. Works a treat.

  Threats don't work if you never follow through on them. I used to say things like "i'm gonna get Co if you guys don't shut up" but naturally he was no where to be found, so this turned into a hollow threat. Now I say "if you don't shut up I am leaving this class" and I leave. Ain't nobody got time fo dat.

  Teaching tools I love include:
- any online game. Obvs if its an English one that's cool, if you can turn it into a team activity even better.
- YouTube... I have soooo many videos I could recommend. And basically all of them you can turn into a lesson if you have a bit of time. And the kids love watching things.
- fluffy dice... we have these fluffy dice thingies in the classroom that you can use. Couple this with a deck of cards and you have hours of fun at your fingertips. Again, teams.

  If possible, ALWAYS DO TEAMS. They are stupidly competitive here. And you can use this competitiveness as a way to discipline too. For my little kids (Gr 3 and 4's) I give the teams points. If they are bad they lose points. The winning team gets stickers. Very basic stuff... and it generally means they will police themselves. If their friend sucks and it talking the whole team gets mad at them. This also works for the older kids but you need a better bribe than stickers. Leaving class 5 mins early is a good bribe item :)

  These are just things I have picked up as I have gone along. And most I have stolen from other teaching sites. It got to the point about 2 months ago where Co was hardly coming to any classes and I was like "Fuck, I actually have to teach these kids something" but I hate preparing lessons. And the other issue was that Co would never tell me if he was coming or not, so I didn't want to go to all this effort and prepare something only for him to turn up and make them study the book. So all my plans are based on something that I can pretty much pull out my ass at the last minute. 

Is this normal?

  For me? Yes. For everyone else in Korea? No. 

I am not required to do lesson plans, and I do not teach with Co. Either he teaches and I stand there or I teach while he is... well... wherever he is. The time in the afternoon is for lesson planning, and I actually have heaps and heaps of plans that I have made but will never use. So at least I have emergency plans if I need them.  As camp approaches I plan for camp. This is the extent of my planning. I also have a word doc of games I want to play, and activities. So I do plan, but there just isn't really anyone to plan for. Are my planned lessons very good? No idea, Co seems to think they are shit so I just leave it. 

  If you are coming to teach in South Korea, you will have a different experience to me. A different one to all my friends, and different to their friends. All schools and situations are different and you will come into this world with no idea what to expect, regardless of what research you do. All I can say is that I hope you get a good co teacher, and that you have at least one kid in every class that speaks some English. 

Field Trip

  I went on my first ever field trip with Gr 3 yesterday. I love these kids, they are still cute and they crack me uyp. We went to some Independence Park in Cheonan which was interesting. Let's just say if every single elementary student visits this park, I can understand why they all hate Japan. Not gonna lie, some of it came across as propaganda (not taking away from what happened, I also agree that occupation was awful) but the wording of some of it was... interesting. I wonder what the translation was like. Anyway here are some pics from the day - 

I took a heap more photos, I just think these kids are adorable. And for the most part they were very well behaved, until the very end where they decided it would be a good idea to run fully clothed through the fountain... We teachers were off having a coffee while the kids were running wild (something that would never happen at home I am sure) when one of the girls came screaming up to us to say that - 

- One boy has slipped and cut his head (bleeding very badly... just above his eyebrow)

- Kids from another school are yelling at our students for splashing them

- Some of the boys are taking their clothes off

We went running back over to the kids and yes, they were bleeding, dripping wet and getting naked. So the other teachers yelled at them a bit, the boys put their shirts back on and fixed the bleeding kid. They had stopped splashing the other school at this point so no harm no foul. We ushered them all back onto the bus and headed back to school. It was a fun day, and I got to go home at 4pm. 

  And this week our school has given us both Thursday (a national holiday) and Friday off, so LONG WEEKEND. 

I am sure there will be something fun to report next week!

xoxo