Fucking kids...and not 'fucking' as in the verb, but as in the adjective

...Continued...

Type: Elementary Kids
Age: 8 - 13 years old
Books used: Hip Hip Hooray
Balloons
English Comprehension:
- Low levels can understand simple commands
- High levels should be able to use simple phrases such as simple present and present continuous. Additionally, they should be able to start telling you more about themselves, for example, favourite foods, schedule, plans, what they did yesterday, etc.
- Exercises range from writing letters to writing complex sentences. The focus is generally more on understanding what they have written as opposed to being able to memorize and recite it back to you.
- Depending on how ambitious you want to be, you can get them doing things such as superlatives, comparatives, and story-telling.

What works well:
- Damn these little rat bastards. You have to understand that a lot of these kids don't want to be here so they really do whatever they want sometimes. You have to keep your cool and try to maintain your control over the class. Do not let them get out of line, if they mess up you should punish them or the rest of the class will think it's easy street.
- I try to bribe them with a short game every class. If they haven't been speaking Korean then we'll do a fast and simple game unrelated to English, but it'll help them nonetheless. For example, musical chairs, relay spelling, scategories, etc.
- Be sure to give them some practice spelling. If you don't keep it up all the time, their spelling goes out the window.
- I find teasing the hell out of them works really well to get their attention. Nobody wants to be teased by the teacher and it keeps them in line so they'll try to do their work. Aside from scarring one kid for life, the other kids laugh and it loosens the tension a bit. All in good fun I say.

What doesn't work well:
- Depending on the level, you may want avoid some exercises. I mean...think about asking a 13 year old student to stick stickers in their work book...or a 12 year old student to colour in the number "1". I say use what's appropriate.
- Don't speak to them in their native tongue (if you can even do it) it'll just give them the impression they're allowed to speak it as well.
- Don't tell them exactly what to do all the time. They need a little bit more freedom to express themselves.
- Try to give the impression you're checking up on them. It works wonders when I have to put a check mark in their workbook, it can shut them up real fast and get them to do work if you check a student's work.

Tips:
- Try not to get discouraged. Learning another language can be hard, especially for students who are exposed to their own language 98% of the time. If they can't do it, it might not be a reflection of you as a teacher, but them as a bunch of slackers.
- Try to get them to speak as loud as possible. This will help them down the road and will give them confidence to speak English more later.
- Give them homework. Argh, I need to do this more myself. Though I only tend to threaten them with homework if they behave poorly in class.
- Give each student some one-on-one time. Ask one student a question using a vocab they learned and go through all the students.