One of my coTs regularly plays basketball with a few of his, and even takes them out to movies. He uses it to bond with them, and it works, they're usually problematic students in general, but they behave in his classes.


I don't know if I agree with the going to movies part, but playing sports with students has definite benefits. Back in SA, teachers are coaches of the many sports offered at school and I found that was an ideal time to get to know the difficult customers in your class. Being their coach and praising them, even if they aren't particularly good, solved a lot of problems for me in the class. Usually kids that are problematic in class are doing it to get attention and on the sports field that is an ideal opportunity to give them some attention in a positive way and the outcome is usually good.

My co-teachers and a handful of students used to come by and visit my wife and I in Korea regularly. We'd cook for them. I'd make pizzas and various breads and cakes and my wife would make traditional SE Asian dishes. They loved the different foods and the stories about us living abroad being from different countries.

But....it was my wife and I. I think it's a little weird that an adult male would seek to hang out with young kids. There may very well be nothing going on, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck...............

Yeah, I think with your wife and having them drop by is fine.  But texting and chatting and hanging out with them socially like the guy I mentioned from the Gepik page is odd no matter how you slice it.  Even if he just liked feeling like a star and a popular guy around the middle school girls it's still very effed up.  He lived in a populated city in the Gyeonggi area and was choosing to hang out with his students during his free time. 

I found out that many school have programs for some of the poorer and more troubled students. It is usually carried out by a male teacher (but they have one for females, too, from what I understand) and it usually consists of the things you've mentioned. They also go bowling and do other things. It is actually subsidized and the teacher gets some kind of benefit as well. It is like a mentoring thing. I have heard that many of the other students who aren't a apart of it, don't know exactly what it is, as it doesn't apply to them.

My school has this program and, based on what my co-teacher told me last year, many of our students in the program don't know about it either. They told the students different things like, "You did really well on your exams recently so we want to take you bowling as a reward," or, "You seem a bit stressed and unfocused in class. You must need to blow of some steam so let's go bowling and have some fun."

I found out that many school have programs for some of the poorer and more troubled students. It is usually carried out by a male teacher (but they have one for females, too, from what I understand) and it usually consists of the things you've mentioned. They also go bowling and do other things. It is actually subsidized and the teacher gets some kind of benefit as well. It is like a mentoring thing. I have heard that many of the other students who aren't a apart of it, don't know exactly what it is, as it doesn't apply to them.

we had this in my secondary school. all of the naughty kids would get rewards for being not naughty, while the rest of us who weren't badly behaved got ****** nothing. it caused A LOT of resentment

One of my coTs regularly plays basketball with a few of his, and even takes them out to movies. He uses it to bond with them, and it works, they're usually problematic students in general, but they behave in his classes.


I don't know if I agree with the going to movies part, but playing sports with students has definite benefits. Back in SA, teachers are coaches of the many sports offered at school and I found that was an ideal time to get to know the difficult customers in your class. Being their coach and praising them, even if they aren't particularly good, solved a lot of problems for me in the class. Usually kids that are problematic in class are doing it to get attention and on the sports field that is an ideal opportunity to give them some attention in a positive way and the outcome is usually good.

Yeah, I know those programs exist, but they're (or at least they're supposed to be) structured and planned. They're on the books and usually involve several people.

So what do you do with stuff that isn't?

I agree that playing sports with your students is a great way to bond with them. There are definitely kids out there who could greatly benefit from having a mentor, and that's what a lot of KTs are trying to be whenever they involve themselves in their students' lives outside of school. But, there's a lot that can go wrong with that when not done through the right channels and without anyone else also involved in that process to maintain appropriate boundaries.

Most people mean well, but, the way they have it set up right now, it's just super easy for people to take advantage of others, and where I come from this way of doing things is considered super inappropriate and sus. So it still weirds me out, lol. It's fair when activities are being done as part of a group at least, with others also involved, but when I hear KTs talking about how they had gone to the movies with so-and-so student, and it was off-the-books and just the two of them, it's all I can do to not raise my eyebrows.

I tried to play sports with the kids in Korea. The girls were not interested and the boys didn't care about anything other than soccer, a most useless enterprise. They were afraid of football - danger! - baseball, frisbee...pretty much anything requiring eye-hand coordination they were useless at.

That is sad, children aren't encouraged to play in Korea or socialise too, just study, study. Little robots. I taught some of my elementary students some games kids play in SA and they loved it, they used to fetch me in my office everyday to play with them.

And I occasionally play frisbee with my kids at my elementary schools.
Trying to teach and then play a proper game of ultimate frisbee is always good for a laugh!

Huh. Seems like basketball is more popular than soccer at my main school

At my previous middle school the girls wouldn't play anything, at this one they are out there throwing bows on the field (and court). It is refreshing to see (almost) everyone into something and not just sitting around during recess (aka lunchtime)