Hi Waygooks,

I am a fresh new EPIK teacher in the tiniest town in Gyeongnam.  So far I feel like I am drowning and I am a terrible teacher.  My co-teacher does not help at all with lesson planning and is not capable of producing a complete English sentence. 

I have to teach one grade 1 and one grade 2 afterschool class.  This isn't much I know, but I am lost as to what I should be doing with them.  For grade 1 I have the grade 1 teacher to help me out which is nice except that I think she has her own idea of what a good English lesson is and it is not what I am doing.  Since I wasn't given a textbook I just jumped right into teaching "Head & Shoulders" and Phonics.  With tons of repetition my last class seemed to be working.  However, the teacher was 'surprised' that I didn't have textbooks for them and told me I should get them...as though it's my responsibility.  How does this work?  Am I actually supposed to travel 1.5hrs to the nearest city so that I can find a bookstore that might carry some lame textbook for 6-year-olds?  I have to teach them tomorrow and I have no idea what to do.  I was going to stick with phonics but I'm worried that the grade 1 teacher is going to think I'm terrible.

Grade 2 is another story.  I don't have a co-teacher for that one and they tore me to shreds last week.  Half the class was listening to me until they got distracted by the other half of the class that seemed to be training for MMA in the back.  Why do these kids constantly hit each other??  Any ideas for how to structure lessons in a way that keeps their attention as well as ways to maintain control?

Any help on these issues will be much appreciated.  Thanks fellow Waygooks!

Thanks a lot, Teacha!

It's an afterschool program at my school and it is part of my regular teaching hours.  So I guess by what you're saying is that I do in fact need to get textbooks.

My co-teacher mentioned something on like the first day but I didn't really understand and I actually took it as just a casual suggestion.  It still kind of boggles me that I would be expected to research textbooks and have them ordered within a week of arriving and not knowing anything about my Ss or teaching little kids in general. 

How did you go about finding your textbook?  Did you find that the Sadlier Phonics book that you mentioned was a good one?

Half the class was listening to me until they got distracted by the other half of the class that seemed to be training for MMA in the back.  Why do these kids constantly hit each other?? 

No useful advice for you but this cracked me up. I have 12 first graders afterschool with no co-teacher and I know exactly what you mean. Fortunately (or unfortunately) mine isn't a 'real class', which the kids know, so I'm just planning to do crafts with the kids that are interested and let those who aren't run amok as long as they aren't hurting each other.

I teach both 1st and 2nd Grade once per week and struggled to keep their attention until I began using a very simple system of reward/punishment.
 
I draw three squares on the board and put an 'X' in a square every time there is a disruption. It's actually quite funny to see how serious the kids get and to watch them scold their classmates for misbehaving.

I tell them that the choice is a fun game, if they're good or '손모리' (hands on your head) game for three 'X's. I've yet to fill those three boxes!

The first month is gonna be slow going and with lots of disciplining, just accept it. And yeah, you're gonna have to be a shouty teacher for a bit. At the end of the month if they all know the alphabet and some phonics that's enough.

Personally I have a bell system, (one ring, clap, two rings, clap hands on head etc) and I will just keep going with that until every single child is co-operating. Put them in teams and do team points. Kids don't care about individual points, but they love to tell off other people in their team. Boys that are fighting can stand at the back facing the wall for five minutes. Even if you can't really control them, after a while they'll be complaining to their moms about how it's not fun and they won't be signed up again, to be completely honest.

As for the textbook....I'd just ignore it until someone actually makes you do it...

Added: also structure. I write everything we're gonna do on the board at the start, make sure it's clear you'll be playing a game, but that they have to do other stuff first.

I'll tell you, I feel bad for you. What they're doing to you is really unfair. You aren't supposed to have to teach them alone. That's not how the system is supposed to work. What you've got are lazy co-teachers who would rather sit in the teacher's room and play with their phones than help you, right?

What I would like to suggest is telling one of the handlers that you really, really need some help in the room during the AS classes so that the students understand what they should do and how they need to behave. You have tried to tell them but they don't understand. Given this, you cannot teach them anything and the classes are not helping the students. They need to help. Not teach, but help.

If they just won't, you'll have to dial back your expectations. For the smallest ones, you'll have to work with songs. Use ABC Song and various others like Body Song. Do lots of worksheets involving coloring. As to the horrible ones who won't sit down and fight and etc, just ignore them. Really. If you ever get any complaints, just say, 'I asked <co-teacher> to help me deal with these students, but they wouldn't help. So, I had no choice but to only work with the students who would listen/behave.' Don't get caught up in the hopeless cause of trying to discipline a first grader who doesn't know any English. That won't get you anywhere.

For the older ones, what I would do is lots of stuff about them. And creative stuff. They like to draw and make things, so do like art classes. Have them make their own house after you talk about rooms. Make monsters after talking about body parts. Draw their town using location words. Make family trees. Make class schedules. Make calendars so they can talk about their birthdays. They take FOREVER to finish these things, often, so you can stretch it out over several classes. All you need is the paper [colored is best] and crayons. Scissors and glue will let them go further, though. Once they start with that, they will become MUCH quieter. Then you can have them come up and do 'presentations' to you, which you can reward with stickers [they LOVE stickers. Trust me on this. Go to Dream Depot and ask to see their sticker racks, and get a few sheets. They will go crazy to get these, especially if you give them a badge or something where they can 'collect' them and compare theirs to their friends'].

For the record, I STRONGLY object to this idea that NETs should be expected to handle disciplining and teaching 1G and 2G ES students alone. These students know NO English. They hardly know [written] Korean. It is completely unreasonable and irresponsible to expect a NET to handle them alone. I've done it and it's a zoo. Korean CTs HAVE to be present or it's meaningless. Even the good ones won't learn anything in that environment.

Hi, I also teach grd 1+2 (and 3-6)

My first grade text book looks like this:

1. Hi Minsu
2. Good bye
3. Thank you
4. one, two, three
5. Jump and stop
6. I like gimbab
7. May I have some water?
8. I love you

The only useful thing about my textbook is that is has songs and animated videos which allows me to talk less. my co still makes me plan a game or activity for these kids to do. And because they are young they lose interest so quickly so its very challenging!

I highly recommend having a routine in your class, like starting each class with head shoulders or the abc song. It lets the students know that you know what you doing and they can become familiar with a song.

I'll tell you, I feel bad for you. What they're doing to you is really unfair. You aren't supposed to have to teach them alone. That's not how the system is supposed to work. What you've got are lazy co-teachers who would rather sit in the teacher's room and play with their phones than help you, right?

What I would like to suggest is telling one of the handlers that you really, really need some help in the room during the AS classes so that the students understand what they should do and how they need to behave. You have tried to tell them but they don't understand. Given this, you cannot teach them anything and the classes are not helping the students. They need to help. Not teach, but help.

Well (and maybe your post wasn't directed at me), I kind of feel it is unfair, only because I am so new at teaching, but my co-teachers aren't being lazy. One is at another school on Mondays, and the other one is teaching the other regular classes. It's just how the school made the schedule, where I have to be alone. Co-T said she'd join my next after school class (3&4) to observe/help with discipline (just this once) but the class I really need her for is 1&2 (Mondays).

I've been told to limit coloring/crafts and do more speaking. I guess the previous NET did coloring almost the whole year, managed to stretch the alphabet out the entire year (wtf?). (This is for after school classes. I have no idea what she did for regular classes.) I did a cut & paste activity today with 3&4 and ... I think they liked it. They were engaged. It wasn't chaos. However, we ran out of time, which I kind of expected. Next time I would have some of the items pre-cut for them to speed up the process. So here's a situation where stretching the lesson over two weeks would be great, but I've chosen my topics already. I've been told that some changes to the list are okay, but I'm not exactly going to know which lessons to change until I have more experience, right?

Anyway, yeah ... limit the coloring and do speaking instead ... by myself ... with hyper little kids... and discipline them, too? Gahhh!

Steps to teaching English in Korea:

1) Hire most unqualified candidate possible in order to keep salary at minimum (this is not an insult to anyone, I was dangerously under qualified when I first got here, and still may be).

2) Tell them they are only assistants and not real teachers

3) Pair them with someone who doesn't speak English, resents their presence, hates their job or, preferably, all three.

4) Provide no guidance, feedback or support by 'real' teachers

5) Throw them into multiple grade levels with multiple comprehension levels with no information on special needs students, target of lesson or resources available

6) Expect new foreigners to know which books to purchase, where to purchase them, and how to get them in the classroom within 3 hours of plane landing at Incheon.  Look baffled when this is not done.  Under no circumstances offer help.

7) Expect children to be fluent within 2 weeks, maximum

8 ) Blame foreigner for all problems, but don't even mention to them that there is a problem

9) Release report that the NSET program has been a failure because foreigners don't work as hard as Koreans.  Well, release it after your afternoon nap and 6 hour soju dinner.

10) Repeat, expecting different results.

Good luck!  It really isn't all that bad once you learn how to play the game.  And it is a game.

@fisholas11 that website looks pretty good! Gonna try it out today

Meant to post this earlier, but Procrastination wanted me to come out and play

Two songs i find very successful:

Toonbo Alphabet Song


Phonics Song



Finally, here is a lesson plan and a ppt along with a pass the ball game. Little kids go nuts for the game. A good portion is work I can't take credit for and have found on this life saving website.

I hope it helps give you an idea of what to do!


Btw, clapping different rhythms gets their attention pretty well. Good luck, it'll only get better!