Summer is here

People that aren't teachers often don't really understand the tiredness that comes at the end of a long semester.  It's not that my job is physically demanding, or even especially mentally taxing, it's just that I'm on stage, performing in front of groups of 3-40 people for a lot of hours each week.  I always have to be "on," and while I try to minimize my teacher talking time because I'm all about the student-centered classroom, it's not like I sit at the front of the class inactively.  And....it's tiring.  And, I'm always happy when vacation rolls around because I can breathe, and rest, and relax. 

Here are some tips for how to get refreshed before the new semester starts:

1. It's quite tempting to do overtime in vacations to make more money.  You don't need to resist this urge completely, but a happy balance is best.  Work a bit, and rest a bit.  I'll usually work intensively at a camp for 2-3 weeks during my 10 week vacation, or I'll try to work 8-12 hours/week for most of the vacation period. 

2. Go somewhere.  Even a trip somewhere in Korea is helpful.  I generally try to leave Korea and go somewhere fabulous in Asia.  It reminds me of my happy life here.

3. Try not to get too burnt out during the semester.  Boundaries are extremely helpful.

4. Finish your grading as soon as possible. Don't let that stuff linger on for longer than necessary. 

5. Schedule an intense planning session of 1-5 days (depending on courses taught, etc), rather than doing it gradually over the vacation.  If you do this, you'll always be working.

A Fabulous Writing Textbook

Hello readers, sorry I've been MIA recently.  No excuses really, but just busy and haven't had a lot of inspiration.  I've been teaching at my school's English camp for the past 3 weeks and my subject is "writing." I've been using an excellent textbook called Great Paragraphs and so far, it's fabulous.  Lots of example paragraphs, grammar and vocab building exercises and a nice framework for teaching the process of writing.  My level is low-intermediate and I find that book 2 works well for this.  This is a 5-part series, so it would work for just about any level beyond basic beginners.

It rivals in fabulousness toReady to Write 2: Perfecting Paragraphs (4th Edition) and you actually couldn't go wrong with either of them.

Summer Camp Ideas

Thanks to all the readers for their good ideas.  Here are some of theirs and some of my own as well:

1. Paper-Airplane contest.  Distance and/or accuracy.

2. Building a bridge with straws/Popsicle sticks, etc.  The one that can hold a certain amount of weight for the longest time wins.

3. Scavenger Hunt

4. Water Balloon Toss.  You know the one where 2 people face each other and toss balloons back and forth and see who can get the furthest apart?

5. Foursquare competition

6. Egg Drop

7. Building the highest tower possible out of straws in a certain amount of time.

The Simpsons...Lesson Plan

This is the lesson that I've made for the last day of Toiec Camp.  It will be "learning" hopefully disguised as "fun." 

Here are the questions that the students have to answer.  The link to the show is at the top, and it conveniently already has Korean subtitles. 

And in case your students have never watched the Simpsons, here is a (basic!) Powerpoint I made with the characters. 

Make a list of games/activities

One of the best things I've done to help myself in lesson planning is to make a list of games/activities that I've used in class.  I actually started doing this my first year teaching at a hagwon and I've been adding onto it every year since.  Usually, I can look at a topic in the book and come up with a few activities or games that will work with the material.  But, if I'm at a loss, I just open up the document (in Google Docs) and quickly scan down the list to see what will work.  Often, I find something perfect that has been long forgotten. 

If you don't already make a list like this, I suggest starting!  It's perfect for things like camps where you see the same group for an outrageous amount of time (like 40 hours over 2 weeks!) and don't want to repeat things.

Camp time!

I'm on my way home from a quick visit to Canada for Christmas. 2 week Kids camp starts tomorrow. Although I am no kids teaching superstar, I will admit that they are pretty cute, and usually eager to participate in class, which is a welcome change from my uni students. More updates soon, I promise.

Did you know......

....that Korea has 4 seasons?  Joking!  Of course we all know that.

Anyway, did you know that English Grammar has 8 basic parts of speech?  Despite being an English Teacher, I didn't know this for the first couple of years I was teaching.  Here is a little site for Grammar Newbies:

Basic Grammar for ESL Teachers

And did you know that Flashcard games and activities are where it's at!  Here are my Top 5 Flashcard Games honed from my years at the Hagwon and teaching kids camps here at my uni.

Free: 40 Tried and Tested ESL Games and Activities

Email Address

Making my life easier

I've talked about this before, in that there needs to be some sort of motivation in classes in order for the students to perform. While there are some highly motivated students around, I've found it to be the exception rather than the rule in Korea.

For the rest of them: rewards are key. In my uni classes, it's all about the final grade at the end of the semester.

Everyone else: candy and prizes. If I'm doing a single class with students that I won't see regularly, I'll buy a few cheap candies and such and hand them out liberally for games and activities. If I'm doing a camp with students over a week or two, I'll make a chart with their names and give them stickers for the winners of games or good behavior or whatever. I'll let them know at the beginning of our time that there will be small prizes for the top 4 or 5 students. I'm currently doing a camp and I picked up the following: a hula hoop, colored pencils, jump rope, pen and pencil. This system made my life considerably easier every day and it was all for under 10 000 Won. Well worth it, in my opinion.

The things I like about doing this:

1. It make a little excitement in the classroom, about things that are often not so exciting.

2. People like candy and prizes.

3. And most importantly of all, it rewards good behavior and I can ignore the bad after the first day or two. If someone is misbehaving I'll just generally give them no acknowledgment and it usually stops pretty quickly. Instead, I can focus on the well-behaved and give a lot more attention to them (as it should be!)

Techings Kids Style

Over the course of the week at the kids camp at my uni, I've had a chance to observe all the Korean TA's and a number of the other foreign teachers and their style of teaching/leading. And I've noticed one major thing that sets a few people apart from me, and that is how much feedback they give the kids. I'm not talking about feedback directly related to activities in class and their English and spelling of words and stuff. Of course, I am pretty active in that regard. But it's all the other stuff I'm talking about.

For example, my TA keeps telling the kids to be quiet and to not talk, when they're waiting in line and stuff. But, in my eyes they are waiting very quietly and in an orderly fashion, so I don't really care that they're chatting a little bit with their neighbor. What difference does it make...and I wonder if he even has any clue how much negative feedback he is giving them and that that has a way of making kids not like you. Shouldn't camp be fun?

And some of the other people are yellers. Even yelling (as opposed to talking at a normal level) at other teachers without even really realizing it because they're so hyped up from yelling at the kids the whole day I guess. Yelling chants while walking down to lunch. Yelling at kids in the cafeteria to put down their umbrella and about where to sit. I will never yell. Never. Instead, I use the stare until quiet ensues. It will almost never take more than 20 seconds or so. Or I just use a gentle touch on the arm to get their attention and give them some directions. Walking down to lunch, I just don't care that they want to talk to their friend in Korean. They need a break from me and English. If they want to have a little conversation, in English with me, I'm happy to do it (and most of them do). In the caf, I just don't care if they bring their umbrella into line with them or where they sit. Basically, I see no need to yell or give directions to kids for things that just don't matter, or can be done at a much quieter level.

Now, I'm not a kid superstar, I fully admit this. These are just some thoughts. What do you experts out there think?

A Fun Camp Game

I'm working at a summer camp at my school and we played a pretty fun camp last night, that the kids seemed to enjoy for the most part. It was called Mission Impossible and they had to go in their classes around to 10 different stations, seeing if they could complete various challenges in 5 minutes.

Some of the stations:

1. Trying to make one of the teachers laugh.
2. Having to guess 10 words in 5 minutes, based on the teacher explaining them. Example. Teacher: "It's an animal that eats bananas" Student: Monkey!
3. Making shapes as a class. Square, diamond, etc. They did 2 in 5 minutes.
4. Listening to a song and writing down words they hear. If they get a certain number, as a class they get their challenge completed token.