10 Teacher Hacks for English Teachers in Korea

Are you currently teaching English in South Korea? Sometimes it may be intimidating when trying to do your best to improve the English of your students if you are a newbie and have never had any teaching experience before.

I've been teaching for a while now and have come up with some helpful hacks that could help English teachers who teach in small classrooms like hagwons (Korean after school academies).

These are for teachers teaching ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS and aren't in any particular order. Just to let you know.

#10 Power Tabs!

Have the kids or yourself cut off a little corner of the pages completed so you know where to check or where you are in the book easily.

#9 STICKERS!

Who doesn't love the teacher with stickers? Also stickers are pretty cheap here in Korea and can be purchased almost anywhere. Create a simple fill in the squares sticker chart and reward your students according to whatever they accomplish. This is a great way to keep your kids engaged and desirable to get all the stickers. This one can be combined with #8. I usually award them stickers according to the amount of points they have earned throughout the day.

#8 Poker Chips for Points!

Don't be teaching your students how to play poker, however, pokers chips are a great way to quickly award the students points. I've heard of some teachers who would award them points by marking their name on the board, however, the student tend to like to have something more tangible than a few tick marks by their name. You can also use the numbers on the chips to make the point system more interesting and fun for the kids.

#7 Quizlet!

Quizlet.com is an awesome way for your kids to learn new vocabulary especially if you will be teaching a curriculum that will repeating later in the future. Simply create accounts for the student. Use your email as their parent (you don't need unique emails per account). There are games and tests they can do so you don't have to create new vocabulary tests every time. You create what the students need to study by adding the words, definition and pictures. They will get addicted with competing with their classmates. This could also be a full day class so it would get the weight off your back to lecture them for an entire class.

#6 Have Your Computer Face the Classroom

The web is full of awesome tools for teaching English but it's hard to show them cool videos or English learning games when they are all crowded by your desk. I tend to use it to show them a countdown clock. This can be a great motivator ranging from games to getting their assignments complete in class.

#5 GAMES!

It's never easy to keep the attention of young elementary kids unless you're a clown. Games are always a great tool to control the classroom and have the kids loosen up a bit so that they aren't always so tense or agitated. Also, games are good if you have 5-10 minutes left of class and don't know what to do. Games I enjoy are:

• Quiet Game (First to speak or make the slightest sound looses. Have the looser do something embarrassing like recite a funny sentence)

• Simon Says (This is also a great game to practice their listening skills)

• Making Faces (Just tell them to make different kinds of faces. Gets them laughing everytime.)

• Popcorn Reading (When reading together in class, have the kids choose who will read next by saying "popcorn" then the name of the student. It helps the kids follow allong in the reading.)

• Computer games (If your school has a computer lab, you can have the students go there and play some games to learn English.) Websites I like are:

• gamestolearnenglish.com

#4 Classroom Decorations

It's never easy to always engage your students in discussion when they really have no experience in the real world. Always be hip with the times and keep your classroom up to date with the latest trends from your home country or media (movies, cartoons etc). This will definitely get your kids attention and can also be a great learning/discussion tool during class. Teaching kids is always better with pictures!

#3 Mini Dry Erase Whiteboard

Having a mini whiteboard is awesome for small size classes.

• You can sit and teach.

• Chalk makes you dirty.

• When writing on the big board, you must write in a big font so that everyone can see and you have to stand.

• The students can easily see your writing right in front of their faces.

#2 Slippers!

Actually this is a hack for all employees who work in offices in Korea. It is acceptable to wear slippers at work as long as you aren't showing your toes. Usually people wear the slip on style slippers with socks on. It's such a relief if you have to stand when you teach all the time.

#1 Learn some basic Korean for teaching

Sometime you can just pick up some Korean while listening to your Korean co-teachers but that's not enough. Learning Korean should be something in the back of your mind while living in Korea. Easy phrases to help yourself teach the students is a great hack when you feel frustrated to teach a foreign language in that same language. I like to use phrases or words like:

Be quiet - 조용히 해

Sit down - 앉아

Hurry up - 서둘러

Stop yelling - 소리 지르지마

Homework - 숙제

Good job - 잘했어

Do you understand? - 이해했어?

Mistakes are okay - 실수해도 괜찮아

Repeat after me - 나 따라 말해

Pay attention - 집중

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