It’s one thing to talk about establishing clear rules right from the start of class, but it’s another thing to implement them effectively. It’s crucial for classroom management, to have a simple set of rules that you enforce consistently and fairly.
Talk to just about anyone involved in South Korean education, and you quickly learn that the pupils of this rising Asian nation are tired. Not only because of the daily school grind, the fatigue also comes from the invasion of continued academics into what little break they have.
As an ESL teacher, there is a good chance that you’ll find yourself teaching a class of total beginners. This doesn’t just mean that they will struggle with basic sentence patterns or pronunciation – it means that when you step into the classroom and say “Hello, what’s your name?” you’ll be greeted by blank stares and the sound of crickets chirping.
Do your students greet the words “Take out your journals” with a collective, resounding groan? For most students, expressing their ideas on paper is a challenge even in their native language, let alone doing so with creativity, style, and decent grammar. Throw a foreign language into the mix, and writing can seem utterly daunting.
The learning curve for a new ESL teacher can be pretty steep. But don’t get discouraged. Here are five things that every new ESL teacher should know. Master these basic concepts and ideas, and you’ll be well on your way to teaching like a pro and feeling totally comfortable every time you step into the classroom.
It’s difficult to take control back from a class that is used to acting out and behaving badly, but it’s not impossible. What it takes is patience, persistence, commitment, and a long-term strategy. Follow these guidelines for taking back control from a difficult class, and you’ll find things starting to turn around before you know it.
Every teacher has, at some point in their career, experienced that deer-in-the-headlights moment when you realize that you’re completely out of lesson material with twenty minutes left in class. For those of us who aren’t improvisational geniuses, having a solid repertoire of “filler” activities is crucial for those moments.
The education system in South Korea is changing, and the thing about change is that it takes time to perfect. I learned this the hard way and it’s greatly impacted my year as an English teacher in The Land of The Morning Calm in many positive (and sometimes not so positive) ways.
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