My title, unfortunately, doesn't work very well as a joke when translated into English, as 공개수업 means "open class" while "공포수업" means "horror class". Poorly translated puns notwithstanding, what is open class? It's basically a sort of open house, a chance for parents to observe teachers and students in their natural habitats. In a word, it's stressful. In two words, it's very stressful.
I'm not sure why, but somehow the addition of just a few new faces sitting at the back of my classroom makes me forget how to put words into normal human sentences. I feel like Jack Donaghy in the 30 Rock episode where he has to act on live television: what do I do with my hands? Can I have two coffee cups? Where do my hands normally go when I'm standing?
Last year, my open class was a disaster. The timing of the event and my school schedule came together to create the perfect storm of bad teaching. Firstly, I was debuting a new lesson, something I'd never tried before that was a bit...ambitious. Secondly, the class that fell on third period on that Wednesday was bad. Super bad. Like, no matter what I did, this class was always a struggle. Needless to say, I was not very satisfied with my performance. I know I did my best, but I can imagine that a parent, seeing only those 45 minutes of struggle and mess, wouldn't come away with a very good impression of my teaching ability.
So, this year, I was determined to do better. Fortunately, the timing worked in my favor this time, meaning that the class scheduled to be the open class is one of my best, and the lesson is something I did last year, so I knew what kind of challenges to expect and how to counter them. If last year was a perfect storm of bad, this year was a perfect storm of good luck. Not sure if that metaphor works, but let's just go with it.
It was a pretty simple lesson, but sometimes simple is better, especially when you have 8 scary moms watching your every move and taking notes. We started with some L/R minimal pairs practice, and as I had the students repeat the words after me, I'm pretty sure I heard some parents joining in. Then we practiced "I can/I can't" and ended with a bingo-inspired milling activity and question and answer presentations.
All in all, I'm very satisfied with my performance. I feel like it was very representative of my teaching style, and I hope that the parents agreed. I'm not sure how much effect their feedback has on my job prospects, but just in case...rather safe than sorry, right?
Showing posts with label lesson plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lesson plan. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
EPIK Help Part 1: How to Fill Out the Epik Application
The snow is melting, yellow dust has begun to float in from China, students are shedding their winter padding coats, and you know what that means...EPIK application time! Or, you know, spring. Whatever you're into, really. Dumb jokes aside, I've been meaning to do a series of posts with advice for aspiring EPIKers for a while, and like they say, there's no time like the present.
Honestly, you probably don't need any help with the application itself. It's pretty straightforward, if horrifyingly long and annoying to fill out. They've changed the format a bit since I applied, but the basics are the same, so I'll go through the whole thing and point out whatever seems important or confusing.
Hopefully you know how to spell your name. If that's an issue for you, then you need more help than I can give you. The main important thing on this page is, in my opinion, the photo. It's unfortunate but true that a lot of the selection process is going to be based on appearance. I'm not saying you need to be hot to get a teaching job in Korea, but a nice professional photo will do wonders. Don't just copy and paste your latest selca, no matter HOW good your eyebrows looked that day.
Pretty basic, though I really don't understand why they need to know the name of every school you even attended all the way back to elementary school. I feel like I'm trying to join the secret service.
A note on letters of recommendation: make sure it's someone who has worked with or taught you recently. I tried to use a teacher from my senior year of high school and it was rejected for being too old, even though she'd known me for almost my whole life. If you're not sure if someone will be suitable, just email the EPIK people.
Ah, the medical self-assessment. Don't stress over this one, but also be honest about anything that's going to show up in your medical exam. I've heard horror stories of people who got all the way to Korea, had something serious show up in their medical exams (HIV/AIDS, etc) that they hadn't put on their application, and had to get right back on a plane (at their own expense) to go home. So yeah. If it's something that will show up in a basic health exam, write it down.
Also, when it comes to tattoos and piercings, I wouldn't stress too much. I know they're asking for photos of tattoos now, but from my own experience, unless your tattoo is huge and in a very visible place, it probably won't be a problem. I've met plenty of teachers with all kind of tattoos, and I have a total of 8 piercings in my ears at this point, and my students and coworkers love them. I've even seen students with tragus, conch, and helix piercings. Don't stress about it, but again, don't lie about it.
Sign that contract, yo.
So, they totally changed the personal essay format since I applied, but it's still covering the same basic concepts. Why do you want to teach in Korea, what is your teaching philosophy, and how do you feel about encountering cultural differences. I see these prompts as a sort of practice or warm-up for the interview, since these are the exact questions they're going to ask you. I'll talk more about the interview later, but as far as I can remember, these three questions were the bulk of what they want to learn from you.
The dreaded lesson plan. If there's interest, I'd be willing to post a sample lesson plan, but since everyone applying to EPIK now either majored in Education or took at TEFL course, this shouldn't be too much of a trial. My one tip is that if you plan to use any kind of visual aids in your lesson (pictures, PPT, prezi) make sure said visual aid is part of your lesson plan in the application. They apparently need evidence that you are capable of making a powerpoint presentation, so if you add it in first thing, it's one less reason to delay your application.
My only other big piece of advice for this is that, as you are working on the application, check back on the EPIK website from time to time to be sure they haven't updated or changed the application in any way. I know at least two people, myself being one of them, who had to deal with that issue. They seem to change the application all the time, and they will NOT accept the old version, even if the change is tiny.
Hopefully this was helpful! I know it's not the most interesting topic, but I know how stressful the whole thing is. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them!
Honestly, you probably don't need any help with the application itself. It's pretty straightforward, if horrifyingly long and annoying to fill out. They've changed the format a bit since I applied, but the basics are the same, so I'll go through the whole thing and point out whatever seems important or confusing.
Page 1:
Hopefully you know how to spell your name. If that's an issue for you, then you need more help than I can give you. The main important thing on this page is, in my opinion, the photo. It's unfortunate but true that a lot of the selection process is going to be based on appearance. I'm not saying you need to be hot to get a teaching job in Korea, but a nice professional photo will do wonders. Don't just copy and paste your latest selca, no matter HOW good your eyebrows looked that day.
Page 2:
Pretty basic, though I really don't understand why they need to know the name of every school you even attended all the way back to elementary school. I feel like I'm trying to join the secret service.
Page 3:
A note on letters of recommendation: make sure it's someone who has worked with or taught you recently. I tried to use a teacher from my senior year of high school and it was rejected for being too old, even though she'd known me for almost my whole life. If you're not sure if someone will be suitable, just email the EPIK people.
Page 4:
Ah, the medical self-assessment. Don't stress over this one, but also be honest about anything that's going to show up in your medical exam. I've heard horror stories of people who got all the way to Korea, had something serious show up in their medical exams (HIV/AIDS, etc) that they hadn't put on their application, and had to get right back on a plane (at their own expense) to go home. So yeah. If it's something that will show up in a basic health exam, write it down.
Also, when it comes to tattoos and piercings, I wouldn't stress too much. I know they're asking for photos of tattoos now, but from my own experience, unless your tattoo is huge and in a very visible place, it probably won't be a problem. I've met plenty of teachers with all kind of tattoos, and I have a total of 8 piercings in my ears at this point, and my students and coworkers love them. I've even seen students with tragus, conch, and helix piercings. Don't stress about it, but again, don't lie about it.
Page 5:
Sign that contract, yo.
Page 6:
So, they totally changed the personal essay format since I applied, but it's still covering the same basic concepts. Why do you want to teach in Korea, what is your teaching philosophy, and how do you feel about encountering cultural differences. I see these prompts as a sort of practice or warm-up for the interview, since these are the exact questions they're going to ask you. I'll talk more about the interview later, but as far as I can remember, these three questions were the bulk of what they want to learn from you.
Page 7:
The dreaded lesson plan. If there's interest, I'd be willing to post a sample lesson plan, but since everyone applying to EPIK now either majored in Education or took at TEFL course, this shouldn't be too much of a trial. My one tip is that if you plan to use any kind of visual aids in your lesson (pictures, PPT, prezi) make sure said visual aid is part of your lesson plan in the application. They apparently need evidence that you are capable of making a powerpoint presentation, so if you add it in first thing, it's one less reason to delay your application.
My only other big piece of advice for this is that, as you are working on the application, check back on the EPIK website from time to time to be sure they haven't updated or changed the application in any way. I know at least two people, myself being one of them, who had to deal with that issue. They seem to change the application all the time, and they will NOT accept the old version, even if the change is tiny.
Hopefully this was helpful! I know it's not the most interesting topic, but I know how stressful the whole thing is. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them!
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Summer English Camp Report Day 1: The Power to Make Anything Chicken
One of the hallmarks of teaching English in Korea is the often dreaded summer and winter "English Camp". What is an English Camp, you ask? In it's most basic form, a camp is a combination of daycare and conversation club. It's like English class minus any serious studying. If you plan it right, it's actually really fun.
Now, the name camp is a bit misleading. Before I started teaching I always thought of camp, especially summer camp, as a place where you go for a week or longer and stay overnight and whatnot. In the Korean school system, though, it's just a name for extra classes in various subjects. Cooking camp, guitar camp, English camp, science camp, you name it. Some camps go on for most of the vacation, while some are only a few days long.
I did a winter camp back in January that was 6 days long, but my camp for this summer was mercifully only 3 days. It's hard to keep a bunch of middle school kids interested in one topic for much longer than that. It's also hard to come up with enough material, so my strategy is to choose a theme and just run with it. For my previous camp I framed the camp around telling stories (written, visual, musical), but for this camp I decided to capitalize on the hype around all the recent hero movies and structure my camp around super heroes. Also I'm a giant nerd so. Camp is about having fun more than actually studying hard, so the best thing is to choose something you enjoy, that the students will also enjoy, and just play with them for a few days.
The nice thing about having a theme is that it allows you to do all kinds of really different activities without them seeming too fragmented. By uniting each part under the umbrella of superheroes, it all becomes a lot more cohesive.
As I said, I had three days of camp, and 4 class periods each day, so that means 4 activities for each day. For the first class on the first day, I figured I should start out slow. Some of the students knew each other, but some were from different classes, and all of them were sleepy and shy, so right off the bat I got them standing up and moving around. I learned this game from another teacher, and it's a lot of fun, even if the students hate you for it. Basically, you go around in a circle, and each person says their name, their favorite color, and does some kind of silly movement and sound. Then, everyone repeats your name, color, and the silly movement. I like this because it's simple language that even my lowest levels can manage, and everyone gets to be a bit silly together. I also had them play the Baskin Robbins 31 game, and a couple other easy little games to get their brains awake and thinking about English.
Second period was when we got down to business with my sweet Prezi on superheroes. This was probably the hardest bit, since I had a lot of vocab to introduce about superpowers and whatnot, but my kids were total troopers. After introducing a few famous heroes and common powers, I had them work together to fill out a crossword puzzle. I like this kind of activity, because while some of it may be too easy for the higher level students, they get more practice by helping the lower level students, and it saves me a lot of work. Why do all the work when you can get students to teach each other? A lazy teacher is a smart teacher.
The next part was probably the bit I was most looking forward to: Make Your Own Hero! I'd given them the vocab they needed, I suggested the grammar they could use "I can/I have/I'm a hero because" and set them free. They're all so creative, but I so rarely see them allowed to use that creativity in their regular English classes, so giving them that chance is always a priority for me. Even my more quiet students got really involved in this activity. Some were more focused on the writing, some on the drawing. Some really seemed to reflect their personalities, and some were just silly.
I don't usually use dictionaries in normal class, but in the context of camp I feel like they're really useful. We're working outside of the book, and there are a lot of situations when the students need to find words that I have no way of knowing. Plus, it gives them the power to seek out information on their own, which I think is really important.
After they made their heroes, I had them interview each other. Usually when I do interview activities I give them a set of questions, but for this I had them write their own questions. Some students went pretty basic "What's your name? What is your power?" and some were pretty funny "Do you think you're beautiful?" or "Do you want to eat pizza?" When I'm working with so many different skill levels, I like to keep the activities open-ended. Lower level students can write simple questions and answers while higher level students can do more complicated things. Literally had a couple students that are almost fluent all the way down to a couple students who are still working on the basics. It's a nightmare but it's also fun.
After all their hard work, I figured that the final class period of the day should be a game, so I jimmied a Guess Who game I got from someone else into a superhero guess who game because I'm a lazy jerk. All in all, the first day was a roaring success. It's always a bit hard to get them talking at first, but I was very pleased with the outcomes.
Stay tuned for day 2: The Ongoing Adventures of Chicken Girl.
Now, the name camp is a bit misleading. Before I started teaching I always thought of camp, especially summer camp, as a place where you go for a week or longer and stay overnight and whatnot. In the Korean school system, though, it's just a name for extra classes in various subjects. Cooking camp, guitar camp, English camp, science camp, you name it. Some camps go on for most of the vacation, while some are only a few days long.
I did a winter camp back in January that was 6 days long, but my camp for this summer was mercifully only 3 days. It's hard to keep a bunch of middle school kids interested in one topic for much longer than that. It's also hard to come up with enough material, so my strategy is to choose a theme and just run with it. For my previous camp I framed the camp around telling stories (written, visual, musical), but for this camp I decided to capitalize on the hype around all the recent hero movies and structure my camp around super heroes. Also I'm a giant nerd so. Camp is about having fun more than actually studying hard, so the best thing is to choose something you enjoy, that the students will also enjoy, and just play with them for a few days.
 |
| Eternally Marvel biased. No regrets. |
The nice thing about having a theme is that it allows you to do all kinds of really different activities without them seeming too fragmented. By uniting each part under the umbrella of superheroes, it all becomes a lot more cohesive.
As I said, I had three days of camp, and 4 class periods each day, so that means 4 activities for each day. For the first class on the first day, I figured I should start out slow. Some of the students knew each other, but some were from different classes, and all of them were sleepy and shy, so right off the bat I got them standing up and moving around. I learned this game from another teacher, and it's a lot of fun, even if the students hate you for it. Basically, you go around in a circle, and each person says their name, their favorite color, and does some kind of silly movement and sound. Then, everyone repeats your name, color, and the silly movement. I like this because it's simple language that even my lowest levels can manage, and everyone gets to be a bit silly together. I also had them play the Baskin Robbins 31 game, and a couple other easy little games to get their brains awake and thinking about English.
Second period was when we got down to business with my sweet Prezi on superheroes. This was probably the hardest bit, since I had a lot of vocab to introduce about superpowers and whatnot, but my kids were total troopers. After introducing a few famous heroes and common powers, I had them work together to fill out a crossword puzzle. I like this kind of activity, because while some of it may be too easy for the higher level students, they get more practice by helping the lower level students, and it saves me a lot of work. Why do all the work when you can get students to teach each other? A lazy teacher is a smart teacher.
 |
| Names are hard to spell. |
 |
| Hard at work! |
 |
| Some heroes are simple. |
 |
| Some are funny. |
 |
| Some are absolutely amazing. |
After they made their heroes, I had them interview each other. Usually when I do interview activities I give them a set of questions, but for this I had them write their own questions. Some students went pretty basic "What's your name? What is your power?" and some were pretty funny "Do you think you're beautiful?" or "Do you want to eat pizza?" When I'm working with so many different skill levels, I like to keep the activities open-ended. Lower level students can write simple questions and answers while higher level students can do more complicated things. Literally had a couple students that are almost fluent all the way down to a couple students who are still working on the basics. It's a nightmare but it's also fun.
After all their hard work, I figured that the final class period of the day should be a game, so I jimmied a Guess Who game I got from someone else into a superhero guess who game because I'm a lazy jerk. All in all, the first day was a roaring success. It's always a bit hard to get them talking at first, but I was very pleased with the outcomes.
Stay tuned for day 2: The Ongoing Adventures of Chicken Girl.
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