About teaching

Here is a quick message I wrote to one of our clients who asked me about teaching in Korean classrooms. I will expand on these ideas soon as I know it will help a lot of other first-time teachers avoid a lot of stress.

 

Hello Yvan,

 

To be honest, before coming to Korea, I really didn't have any formal teaching experience. So, I was thrown right into it without any idea of what I was doing.  It was really tough at first as I had no idea how to control the kids and get them to do what I wanted.

 

It took me a while to learn that they need a consistent environment and to have very obvious standards to follow in order to give them a sense of what they can and can't do in class. 

 

I think kids are very similar no matter where you go.  There will always be kids who try really hard, then there will be the average kids, and of course, there will be the ones who are more of a challenge. That's the same in Korea.

 

The main thing that I have learned is that kids need consistency and they need obvious boundaries. If they have that, then there are few problems. 

 

Specific to Korea, if you eliminate Korean speaking in class, you virtually eliminate bad behavior.  It's almost a magical formula.  As long as you have a specific system for not allowing Korean in the classroom, you eliminate the majority of your stress.

 

Talk to you again,

 

Jason

www.asknow.ca