Dear Reader,

Another 3-day STEAM under our belt, we ventured to Gimcheon (city) to Yulgok Elementary from Monday to Friday to teach 5th-grade students English classes. It was another fun experience, it never gets old walking into a brand new school with butterflies in your belly not sure what to expect from the school and students. I had a good time. We had a witty Korean host that helped us around the school and in our classrooms, her name was Kang Hye Gyeong, more on her later.

But first, this week I wanted to write about some of the thoughts I've been having on teaching and how to perfect my communication with the students, along with classroom management, and effective ESL teaching in general. Thoughts about this have started to percolate over the last month as I've had a wide range of classes that got me thinking on how to better handle certain situations and things in the future. 

The classes here in Korea have been good so far and a lot has been learned on my end. But something I’ve been thinking about is classroom management; I have been in classes with kids that keep talking or are distracted or not engaged and I've struggled with figuring out a good solution for this, other than to keep yelling "please be quiet.” So I went looking on the internet "how to be an effective teacher” and "how to manage a classroom" - never been a teacher so here I am searching for wisdom. I found a great ESL teacher online with videos on how he structures a class and some effective techniques that I think will work in my classrooms. What made me feel more inspired to go looking for techniques was Kang Hye Geyong's presence in my classroom this week: she started out in my first period on Monday. The students and I were putting together name cards and picking English names for the three days. We then got into our books and were filling out the "self-introduction" section: what things do you like, favorite subject, favorite food, where are you from, etc. and I was having to talk really loud, some could say yell, as they were talking constantly. I was stoping and doing a countdown but as soon as I would turn to the board the students would start back up again. Mrs. Kang got up towards the middle of class and berated them in Korean - all of a sudden I saw her pointing to her throat and saying my name haha saying that I was going to have a sore voice and then in English, she said "You must listen to the teacher, do not embarrass us." It was a fantastic moment as I loved her pointing out how much of a struggle it was for me to talk over them and it felt good that she saw how unruly and disrespecting they were being - on the other hand I said to myself "I need to have my own classroom management tool" and I will not have a Mrs. Kang with me everywhere.

So it took me some searching to find 1. teachers that were teaching a similar grade as me 2. along with finding the kind of techniques I was seeking. There are many classroom management ideas out there but we have very odd English classes here at DGEV and our STEAM is a short program. So not all solutions seem like a good fit. Teacher Matt on Youtube was the best I’ve I came across after searching and watching many YouTube videos in TEFEL and ESL, the one I watched I immediately said this is what I'm looking for! Same grade and exactly what I'm going for.

It's a long video you probably won't watch all of it, but if you want to get an idea jump to: minute 1:31 to see his rules and structure, jump to 6:38 to see a game and rules being applied. Also minute 32.30 is what I'm battling through :) when the kids are talkative and noisy, he has good control. I use the countdown method as well, but I have nothing left after I use the countdown method and then they keep talking during a question or a student speaking. The point system is perfect for this when that keeps happening so that they have consequences. This may seem fairly obvious but it’s amazing how some of these simple tactics escape you as your up there teaching or probably for us first time teachers.

For a synopsis, main points & strategies: 

1. Point system setup - win and lose points by following rules. (The students REALLLY respond to this, they love games or battles etc)

2. Outline rules - being nice and polite, being quiet, raising your hand, no speaking Korean only English, sit at your desk nicely.

3. Build your presentations in ways to get students engaged: speaking and answering questions frequently. And LOT'S of games. 

Our 3 day STEAM is a perfect time for this type of classroom management, I have enough days to build a report with the students, it a short enough time for it to be a game for them. It also gives me a good opportunity to start off strong with rules built into a game. I can do this here on campus at DGEV, but our classes on campus are 40 minutes and you might not se those students again, so I can implement this but it might take a really unruly class for me to feel the need for it.

Eric tried something similar this last week - his cousin Kylie (Hi Kylie!) sent an email with some classroom games that she likes; one was called the "Grudge" game = simple idea - keep a trash can or bucket at the front of the room and have a ball that students can throw, students will throw the ball when they answer a "Grudge" question correctly. The grudge question can be asked at any time and can be any question. This is more of a “carrot” to use to get kids attention back again and make sure they are paying attention. It worked great for Eric, he said he loved it as well as the students. 

As a teacher and human I really respond to the energy of others, so if students are happy I'm happy, if they're quiet I get quieter, if they are chaotic I feel chaotic. My goal is to figure out how to ride the waves but also navigate my own boat so that I can pull everyone into my structured energy. So with that, I need to structure my energy which isn’t intrinsic to me and I think having the few rules set up like Teacher Matt is going to be a good start.

Pictures: dumplings for lunch, Yulgok Elementary, my class group photo, the courtyard, school books and crannies.