Teaching: Things that Work and Things that Don't

I decided to put together a list that includes some of my key experiences with teaching:

• Games. Lots and lots of games. I teach at Elementary school, which means I teach grades 3-6. The games I use are usually simple like Pass the Ball, Simon Says, 4 Corners, or other traditional ESL games. 

• What works: PPTs with a lot of special effects and funny pictures (the love pokemon, and other anime). If you find one game that is a crowd pleaser, it is ok to play it again, and again, and again... My students love BINGO, always a classic, and they ask to play it repeatedly. 

• What doesn't work: In most of my classes my co-teacher prefers not to translate my English. This means that more involved games, like Mafia, or something like running dictation are hard to explain. I have had some very awkward instances where students have no clue what is going on...but I have also learned from mistakes and now, I always use detailed ppts with pictures for instructions.

• Discipline. Elementary kids are great, because (at least in Korea) they are young enough to still respect you, and are in fact quite awed that a foreigner is even talking to them. This has worked to my advantage in the sense that I have not had to worry about discipline too much.

• What works: Sometimes, when my kids get too excited during a game, or are just not paying attention, I use this attention getter: "Eyes on me!" and they say "Eyes on you!" This is so ingrained in them, and really works. My school implements a reward system, so I will tell them, if I have to say "Eyes on me" three times before the quiet down, they will get points subtracted. This really works to keep them quiet and paying attention.
• Depending on the class, I will give them the silent treatment, which involves me staring them down, not saying a word until they realize I am not happy with them.

• What doesn't work: I have tried, and failed to talk to my kids about why they should be quiet, respect each other, etc. Maybe if my kids were older, I could actually talk to them about concepts such as respect, etc. But  I don't speak enough Korean, they don't speak enough English to really get the point across, and especially my 3rd graders are still so young. It is easier to simply set clear boundaries about class room behavior, and establish the consequences if the rules aren't followed
 

 

• Co-teachers. In Korea, at least for Elementary ETAs, we work with co-teachers. At my school I have a co-teacher for each grade I teach. Each co-teacher has a unique style of teaching, and so your team work will be different. But I have found some things to generally be the same across the board.

• What works: Bigger, complicated games. With my 5th grade co-teacher we did a running dictation where we went outside and let the kids literally run across the entire sport's field. This was great for the kids, and we were able to manage it because there were two teachers, instead of just one. Another thing that works with co-teachers is to split up teaching. What I mean by this, is that I usually let my co-teachers explain grammar points. This is helpful for my students, because they need to understand the grammar in their own language first. 

• What doesn't work: For me, it has not been effective to teach grammar points in English, because my students don't really understand, they just memorize what I say. This might have to do with the young age, and limited English skills of my students. Another thing that hasn't worked with my co-teachers is for them to instruct me in teaching. When I first started teaching I looked forward to learning from my co-teachers, and having some feedback on my own teaching. This hasn't happened, mostly due to my co-teachers' personalities and the work culture in Korea. I have had to learn from observing, and adjust my teaching based on the reactions I get from co-teachers. This has been hard.