I am an American English teacher living in Korea. 🇺🇸 🇰🇷

I have been teaching in Korea for 4 years. Eventually, I realized the limitations of teaching with large class sizes. I couldn’t cater the class to each student, and I wanted all of my students to really improve.

So, I decided to start tutoring students individually with some help from my husband because I am not fluent in Korean.

https://open.kakao.com/o/s9geExug

Background

• I have been teaching in Korea for 3 years.
• I have taught for
  • April
  • Rise
  • i-Garten
• While teaching at April, I also taught a few grammar classes for Chungdahm students.
• Graduated from a State University in Pennsylvania, where I was born and raised.
• While I was a University student, my summer job was teaching art and outdoor activities to children at a summer camp in America.

How I Teach

I always adapt the class to meet the student’s specific needs, but here is my general technique:

<aside> <img src="/icons/megaphone_blue.svg" alt="/icons/megaphone_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Speaking

• Practice real-life conversations
  • This includes basics but also includes helping the students to express themselves more freely.
  • I will also teach them some specific phrases or words that are different in English-speaking countries.
    • ex) “real quick” or “you know”.
  • Additionally, I will correct their pronunciation, not to discourage them, but rather to make it so that anyone from America or England can understand them fairly well.
• Summarize and explain stories
  • Another way that I like to get them to practice their vocabulary and put together sentences is to have them summarize and explain stories. </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/drafts_blue.svg" alt="/icons/drafts_blue.svg" width="40px" />

</aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/book-closed_blue.svg" alt="/icons/book-closed_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Reading

<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_gray.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Students must be at a high enough level to do this class

</aside>

• Reading for fun
  • I loved reading growing up, and I want to share my love for reading with my students.
  • I like to choose high-quality books and short stories and read them to the students. Then, go over the meaning of the passages.
• Reading different types of contents
  • Reading informational passage
    • We will find the main takeaway and the most important details.
  • Reading a story
    • We will describe the genre, characters, symbols, and theme. </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/drafts_blue.svg" alt="/icons/drafts_blue.svg" width="40px" />

Writing

• Fundamentals of writing
  • In my time working at Hagwons, I noticed that many of the classes didn’t focus on the fundamentals of paragraph and essay writing.
  • I like to start by making sure that the fundamentals are strong.
• Content and style
  • After that, I like to begin focusing on content and style.
  • Writing takes a lot of practice and patience.
    • To teach this, I like to go over some examples of good writing with the students and talk about what makes it good.
    • Then, I help the students to use these techniques in their own writing. </aside>

Goals

• My main goal is for every student to make improvements. For some students, that means catching them up to their grade level. For other students, that may mean challenging them further.
• Additionally, I want them to have an academic and practical knowledge of English. If they want to study abroad someday, I want them to be able to use their English.

Objectives

• Speaking
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Expression
  3. Fluency
• Writing
  1. Format
  2. Substance
  3. Grammar/vocab
• Reading Comprehension
  1. Identify main ideas
  2. Understand details
  3. Infer meaning

Expectations

• The class will only be available in English.
• Rude or erratic behavior will warrant the cancelation of the class and no refund.
  • The examples include, but are not restricted to:
    • Racism
    • Sexism
    • Sexual harassment

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