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

Teacher's Second Worst Nightmare

What is your worst nightmare as a teacher?

  Mine would be something dangerous and life threatening happening to one of my students. My SECOND worst nightmare is the class losing their minds and me having no control whatsoever and achieving nothing. It happened today with all but my last class... There was something dodgy in their milk this morning I swear. 

Grade 4

  First up this morning was grade 4. I go into the room at the normal time and set everything up and wait for Co. And wait. And wait. In the meantime the kids have arrived and are asking me where he is, and I am just saying I have no idea. So they start slowly working up to a volume similar to that of a Metallica concert. I have no way to calm them down, I have tried yelling and everything but nothing is working so I quickly scan YouTube and put a Pixar Short on (these save my bacon, i'm fucked when I run out of Pixar Shorts). They are quiet for long enough to get their attention to the text and to start the lesson. The peace lasts approx 5 minutes before they are wild again. I am over it and I sit down at the desk. They all just fool around for a bit then I snap. I do my best "YA" and they all freak out and stop - and I start pulling boys up the front of the class and making them sit and face the wall. It works, we finish the lesson in relative quiet.

  The next grade 4 class comes in. Still no Co, but at least I am prepared this time. They all ask where he is, and the noise level starts to increase as they all catch on that I am teaching along. But I am ready. I stand in front of them all and say "GAME" at the top of my lungs. They all cheer! And then get quiet while I try and explain what to do. They all line up as asked, but are so feral that it takes nearly 5 minutes for the boys and girls to form separate lines. And I am asking them in Korean and they still aren't doing it. I crack it for the second time today.

"YA" 

They all stop. I say:

"You ruined the game, everyone sit"

And as they sit, chaos ensures. They start swearing in both English and Korean. I start pulling kids up the front again, even a girl this time. They are reasonably quiet while we do some "Listen and Repeat" before one of the boys at the front is poking the kid next to him. I send him outside the classroom, and the rest of the class is cheering - I don't know if they cheer for me or for him. And this is what happens for the rest of the lesson. At the end of the class there are 4 boys outside fooling around and 6 kids sitting up the front. This strategy is no longer feasible... But that's the last grade 4 class for the day. Grade 3 will be better, right?

Grade 3

  When they came in my throat was already aw from freaking grade 4, and I had resigned myself to the fact that Co wasn't coming. I was certainly wondering why he didn't tell me he wasn't coming in but had no time to worry. I played some retarded "Days of the Week" song and they all sang which was nice. Then got into the lesson just fine, and then it got to the game time... The text book games are always lame but this one could have been fun... could have been fun...

  They just wouldn't line up properly. My little helper (a girl with decent English - her mother is Russian) tried to help but she also got frustrated. She cried. Another gild was upset becuase her pencil case broke and her pencils went everywhere. There was no control. Quick - put on the Pixar Short (for everyone who is interested, today's saving video was Partly Cloudy) and the lesson was over.

  The next class was worse. I witnessed the worst bullying I have seen since arriving in Korea. This little girl is a bit strange, she clearly has autism or something, and it forever grinning to herself and making a ruccous. My Co says its ADHD, but I think its def a form of Autism. 

Side note - 

Many teachers in Korea throw ADHD around a lot - any kid with a behavior problem is said to have ADD. My Co is not one of these people... He thinks that most kids these days simply need a good smack on the head or the back of the leg - and I think in some cases he might be right (I DO NOT condone hitting kids... What I mean is that dicipline starts in the home and parents need to spend a bit more time with their kids). Anyway, for him to say that a kid has ADD then I would be inclined to agree with him. Not in this girls case.

  Anyway, the other kids were awful to her. They wouldn't let her be in any of their teams, and pushed her around. They punched her, and one boy spat on her. By this stage I was beside myself... In the end I had her come and sit on the floor in front of me, mainly to keep the other kids off her. They were like a wild mob - of 3rd grade kids. It was so awful. I had another bout of screaming at them all in English, so they had no idea what I was saying but they knew I was mad. And they knew I was seriously unimpressed with how they were treating the little girl, but they didn't understand why. 

"But she is crazy, Bonnie" one other girl told me. 

"That is no reason to hit her" I replied, but they had no idea what I was saying. 

And the boy who spat? I will admit it. I grabbed him by the arm and led him out the classroom. He stayed outside. That silenced everyone pretty damn quickly. I was furious but I had lost control of the class and they were all just being ultra rowdy  So back came the video... I was angry at myself too, because its like I have rewarded them for their bad behavior  Thank God the bell went and they went to lunch and I was left to lick my wounds. 

  After lunch I had the final grade 3 class. I was ready. Co was not there, so I was not going to teach the book. They needed something a bit different  I had found a cute video called Getting Round, and had decided that we would do shapes and colours. I didn't give a shit if they already knew it - it could be a revision lesson.

They sang their normal annoying song and then we watched the video. We talked briefly about shapes and colours then watched it again. Then we all drew our own "shape worlds" and added a "problem" to it (for example, in the square world, the wheels on the car were also square - it was a "problem"). We compared each others pictures and laughed at the "problems". At the end I showed them the same movie all the others had seen, but this time it was a reward not a distraction. And at the end of the class they all got up nicely and thanked me and left. It was perfect.

So what is the moral of this story???

  To be prepared for your classes. I was practically assaulted by kids today - they completely owned me all morning, and I already know now it is gonna be difficult for me to get the control back. They took advantage of the fact that I don't speak Korean and that Co was not there. I was simply not prepared for class. I knew what lessons they were up to, but knowing my own limitations I should have had back up activities ready just in case things went pear shaped. They had too much energy and not enough to do. 

  From this I have learnt that I need to prepare better. I can't always rely on Co to show up - this is the downside of him trusting me to teach. He simply doesn't turn up. I never know if he will be there or not. So, I need to prepare different random lessons for different grades on the off chance that he isnt there. I need to have spare worksheets to fill time at the end of classes. I need to find more funny/interesting/cure shorts for them to watch. And I need to be more assertive from the start. I am their teacher, so they should listen even if they have no idea what I am saying. I WILL DO BETTER NEXT TIME!

In other news...

  I have uploaded another video to YouTube, please check it out if you have a minute. I know I really need to spend a bit more time on the channel, and I really enjoy working on it so stay tuned for more in the future. 

  I was at Rach and Changsu's wedding on Sunday and it was awesome. The bride looked amazing and the groom very handsome. The food was good and the best part - it was in Pyeongtaek. So hardly any travel! I actually really love Korean weddings, I think I might just have to marry a Korean guy myself so I can have a cool cheesy wedding (and lovely hybrid babies) . 

  I never found my stuff. I mean, I never actually went back to Hongdae to look for it but I am convinced its gone. Now I just need to get to immigration and get a new ARC... SO ANNOYING. I totally learnt that lesson too...

It has clearly been a big few weeks for personal growth.

  Sissy arrives in less than a month so excited!!! And, in case you haven't noticed, I have not talked about North Korea. It's because there is nothing to talk about. We are all fine here (still) so again, please do not be concerned. Stop buying the newspapers and stop watching the news... Every time a new story comes out all it does is scare people living OVERSEAS (not us here) and fuels Mr. Kim's ego. So stahp plz ppl!

Till later or, whatever

xoxoxox