My first and second graders knew very very very little. They start earlier here, so they're basically kindergartners and first graders. They can barely speak their own language, so how was I supposed to teach them a non-native language? Luckily I still have an immature side, and I can easily get on their level. We start off every class and end every class by singing a song. I find that when the students sing, they lose their accent. This is fantastic, because as you may know, the asian accent is pretty thick. It's also great for memorization purposes. When the students can relate the english phrases to certain tones and beats, they remember them much more easily.
Besides singing, I work with them on phonics. After two months they are already starting to read. This alone has made me feel very accomplished. Teaching phonics to the younger students is much easier than teaching it to older students. They make great imitators! So they have the ability to make sounds that is nearly lost with the older students. I'm sure every adult knows what I mean when I say they make great imitators. They repeat everything I say and do, and while this can be annoying in other situations, it's exactly what you want in a language class.
And my favorite thing to do with the students... GAME TIME.
Here are my first grade students. We learned about colors in this class period. I typed up four different colors and put them in four different corners of the room. One the tv in the front of the class, I had a PowerPoint up and when I clicked, one of the four colors would show up on the screen (the actual color, not the printed word). If the students happened to be in the corner of the room as the same color on the screen, then there would be an explosion at their corner and they would momentarily die. They love this game. I call it Four Corners.
Class is fairly similar for the older students. Their level of English is a little more advanced, so I can get a little more creative with the games. I taught the students directions this week. So we played a game where one student would hide my phone (they love touching my iPhone even though they have better phones), and then another student would have to find the phone in a given amount of time, I think it was 40 seconds. The student who was looking for the phone would find it by listening to his teammates' directions. English only and no pointing.
I really love the technology in the classrooms as well. In a few classes, we have smart tv's. They're hooked up to the computer, and the tv is a touch screen. So anything that you bring up on the computer monitor will be on the tv, and you can control the pointer by touching tv screen. I find online games, such as memory, so the students can use this piece of technology. They enjoy this version much more than playing with physical cards.
Anddd occasionally I'll let them watch a movie on the smart tv :) (with Korean subtitles of course)
This is pretty much how every class period goes. I try to have fun with the students. A typical Korean students schedule goes something like this: from 8:30am to 4:30pm they are in school. From 4:30pm to ?? they go to some type of hagwon, which is an afterschool school (usually piano or more english). And then they come home and study until 11pm or midnight. Then they go to bed and wake up to do the same thing. On the weekends they either help their parents work on the farm, or help their parents work in their restaurant or shop. This is why I choose to have more fun with the kids. They have multiple English classes throughout the day. I try to let them have fun in mine since they aren't having much fun anywhere else.
You can always tell which kids go to the English hagwons, because their level is wayyyy above everyone else. This makes lesson planning a little more difficult. As any teacher knows, differentiation is the hardest part in lesson planning. This student clearly goes to a piano hagwon...
One day I rode the school bus home and I saw where the majority of my students live. I didn't take any pictures because I thought it'd be really rude, but it was definitely an eye opener. Most of them lived in houses smaller than my garage, with mother, father, brothers, sisters, and grandparents. A few of them had larger houses with a lot of farm land. What's interesting is that they all dress the same and come to school with the newest cell phones. I later found out that the parents put a large majority of their income towards their kids. Mostly towards education, but towards fashion and phones as well. They're still poor so they can only do so much, but just seeing the students at school, you would never guess the actual conditions that they live in.
