So I got to spend a full week working. It was quite an experience I must say. The children are the cutest things in the world but as a foreigner I feel that I do not have a lot of power when the kids start to act up. I will raise my voice sometimes to try and get them to settle down but it does not always work. Many times they will continue to act crazy (especially the boys) and will not stop until one of the Korean teachers comes because they heard a ton of noise coming form my classroom and will give the children a very stern talking to (in Korean so I don't know what they say). It's pretty interesting to see a Korean teacher get serious with the children, they shape up fast.
Course I saw this week what happens to the kids when they are bad a lot. The children will be removed from class and a teacher will basically chew the kid out. Again they speak in Korean so I have no idea what is said but I've seen kids break down into tears in a few seconds. I think it's kinda funny really. Maybe that's bad.
Anyways enough on the negative stuff. The kids for the most part are pretty good :) They just have tons of energy. My task this week has kind of been to learn how to allow the kids to express that energy while at the same time making sure they are learning something. I don't really have a structure to my classes (yet) so I'm kinda just going on the fly. I would have them do activities such as reading from giant cards.
One of them is called Umbrella, which reads something like this:
Umbrella, Umbrealla
Point to the sky,
Umbrella, Umbrella
Keep me dry.
They read it in a singing style. Seems to make it more interesting for them as opposed to just reading it in a stale monotone.
Other things I would have them do is stand up and sing songs. One of the songs is called Hold Hands With a Friend. That song starts off having everyone stand up and turn around a couple of times and then everyone holding hands to make a circle.
After that the song tells everyone to walk in a circle. This usually result in the kids getting crazy and doing a lot more than just walking (such as screaming, running into walls etc).
After walking in a circle they are directed to march in a circle. Some of the kids are really good and actually march in some fashion. Others however don't do anything remotely close to a march. Some of the kids, and it usually is really cute and makes me smile whenever it happened, would just keep there eyes on me the whole time and march exactly how I was marching :)
When marching was done they are directed to skip in a circle. This is one of the more dangerous things requested by the director because the room is rather small. The kids again don't do much skipping. It seemed to usually turn into the kids jumping around and often into each other which would result in people falling over. I'm quite amazed there were no significant injuries from this over the week.
I believe after skipping they are told to stop and wave goodbye to everyone. Some, in rather animated fashion, would begin acting like they were crying and fall to the floor in sadness haha. Some students would smoother me with hugs lol.
After goodbye the kids were directed to tiptoe to their chairs. This usually seemed to go over pretty well. The kids would, again very animatedly, walk slowly (not necessarily quietly) to there chairs.
After everyone was seated the song director would go "KIDS!! ARE YOU READY TO ROCK? STAND UP!!" And then the kids would basically be free to go crazy. Again this is one of those parts of the song were I am quite amazed that someone has not been injured. After a few seconds the director tells everyone to fall down on the floor.
Those are a couple activities I do with the kids. There are lots more but I would like to keep this blog reasonably long.
So over the week I did things trying to figure out the best ways to get through to the kids. I hadn't had much success until my co-worker Jonny said that he tries to gauge how the kids are acting during the class. If they seem to have lots of energy then he would probably have them do a song that makes them really active for a time and then try something that requires more focus later in the class. And then on the other side if the kids seem pretty mellow at first he may do a more focused activity first and then maybe some more active stuff later in the class. That seems like a pretty common sense way to do things but I hadn't thought of it until he said that to me.
On Friday I kind of tried that strategy and it seemed to work reasonably well. I will continue to try and refine it as time goes on.
Also of note this week my co-workers had a little birthday celebration for me on Friday. They got me this super fancy cake and we all enjoyed it. They sang happy birthday to me and I got to blow out candles. It was very nice of them to do.
Hmmm...That seems to be the most significant things to talk about at this point. If I get more I'll add it later. Anyways, until next time my dear followers, I bid thee farewell.
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