In this weblog, I will focus on sharing my more successful ESL lessons with students in a Seoul high school (a boy's school, though I think that only matters sometimes). I teach "English Conversation". My classes generally have 36 to 40 stdents, and a Korean co-teacher. Classes last 50 minutes, and meet once a week.
I have been teaching in Seoul, at my school, since September 2008. My school was chosen as 2010's "Seoul City Demonstration High School for English Education" which might sound more impressive than it is. Three or four teacher groups (including one group from Australia and New Zealand, and one group from Singapore) have traipsed down my "English Only Zone" hallway for a Q & A session, and that's about the extent of it, in my life, anyway.
This blog will also summarize and discuss news media reports (and whatever other sources I can find) of education news and policy, particularly in Korea but also in the US and elsewhere, especially in the area of ESL. And especially if I can be witty, ascerbic, and/or devastatingly insightful on the topic.
Before coming to Korea in 2008, I labored for long years in the semi-rural environs of sub-suburban Atlanta as a science, math, computer, drama, debate, etc., teacher in a couple of small independent schools serving students from PreK through 12th grade. I was also varsity and middle school soccer and sometime basketball coach, athletic director, State administrator for Soccer and Literary, summer camp director, webmaster, school photographer and probably other stuff I can't remember.
In Korea, I teach English Conversation. Period.
It is just as challenging as anything else I've done, but it is limited and defined: I do two or three lesson plans per week, with 20 or 21 classes, and I am finished by 4:30 every day. YMMV, but I do not do grades or exams, I do not do speaking tests, and I do not go to faculty meetings--except the ones held in restaurants, where beer and soju accompany the food, rather than budget reports and curriculum notes.
I am fortunate to work with caring professional educators; my classroom has a large touch-screen display TV, a PA system with a mic, and a modern computer with Microsoft Office 2007. Still, I think the best lessons I do can be taught in less technology-rich environments--indeed, some of my favorites involve only pencil and paper, or not even that!
Nonetheless, one cannot ignore that our students live in a hyperactive world of TV, computer games and full-color images. The plain whiteboard and some markers is good for a change, but is no longer our meat-and-potatoes; I recall I went home covered in chalk dust each day for many years. I'm still looking for better ways to reach my students.
I can't say I adopted the computer into my classroom from the start-up, but I was earlier than most at my school--I was quickly made webmaster. The internet is a powerful tool for educators--it has its flaws and vulnerabilities, but you are using it right now! These days my computer acumen is mostly known by the sweet, sweet Powepoints I produce (some co-teachers have mentioned they'd rather have me teach an extra class in making PPTs over one helping them with English!)
My plan is to choose one or two of the six or eight lessons I do each month and provide a detailed breakdown, and all the materials (at least the digital ones) needed to make it happen in the classroom. In the hope that someone out there can use them. Or take some kernel of pedagogy from them, and apply it in their own ESL classroom.
If you do find something here useful, let me know by commenting with the form after each post--if you know a better way, or find a useful modification, please share it!
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