Tuesday, December 29, 2015

ESL Activities

If you're looking for some new ideas to keep things fresh, interesting and fun in the classroom, then you'll need to check out these two other websites of mine:

ESL Activities

It has a ton of ESL activities that you can use in your classroom today. They're organized by skill (speaking, listening, reading, writing) as well as age (children or adults) so you'll be able to find what you're looking for in 30 seconds or less. Stop wasting your time wading around through all the junk on the Internet! 



ESL Speaking

The second site to check out is ESL Speaking. I know that most foreign teachers have to focus their classes on conversation and the activities and games you'll find here can help you do that. Everything is organized by children or adults and then into games or activities. Check it out-you'll find lots of new ESL games and activities you can use in your classroom today.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Foreign Teachers Returning to their Home Countries

This Blog Has Moved

Hey there everyone. In case you haven't updated your readers, this blog has moved to a new, much better site. It's still Jackie, talking about the same kinds of stuff but it's just way easier to navigate than this thing(ie: it has a menu!). Check out:

My Life! Teaching in a Korean University, take 2.

A New Book

In other news, I've been working away all summer and the result is another book which is up on Amazon. I'm heading back to Canada in a few months and am so freaked out by the whole thing that I decided to get as informed as possible about it. This book is the result of that:

Life After ESL: Foreign Teachers Returning Home



If you want a few more details about it, check out this post I did over on another one of my blogs where I talk about how I gathered the information, topics I cover, etc.:

Let's Talk Life After Teaching ESL Abroad

Over and out for the next few months!

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Like Free Stuff? Get Some Now!

I'm holding a contest where I'm giving away three of my Ebooks for free. The contest ends in 8 days, so get those entries in now. The best part about it is that if you use your custom link and someone enters the contest because of you, you'll get three more entries!

You'll have your choice of one of the following books:

The Wealthy English Teacher (personal finance for English teachers abroad)

How to Get a University Job in South Korea

How to Thrive in South Korea: 97 Tips for Expats

ESL Speaking Activities for Kids

ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults.

Use this link to register now

Monday, July 13, 2015

39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Kids (7+)



A new book on mine is available on Amazon: 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities: For Kids (7+)

This is the book that every elementary school ESL teacher needs to have in their libraries. There are 39 no-prep or low-prep, interesting, engaging and fun activities. I give you my personal guarantee that they'll make your classes awesome and lesson planning easy. Only electronic version for now, but the print version will be available shortly.

Monday, June 29, 2015

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

My Life! Teaching in a Korean University is Moving

This site will no longer be updated (although the content will remain). I've started the very (slow!) process of moving the best posts from this site over to a new one. Put it into your feed to stay updated.

http://teachinginkoreanuniversity.com/

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Working in Korean Universities- Good for the Long-Term?




An interesting topic came up during my recent Kotesol presentation on How to Get a University Job in South Korea . Someone asked whether they should get a PhD or teacher's certificate in order to improve their employment prospects at Korean universities.

My answer was that they should get a teacher's certificate which opens up the possibility of international schools, which are actually better jobs than Korean unis for a host of reasons but the way the conversation turned was whether or not Korean unis are good jobs for the long-term.

While it is amazing to have 5 months paid vacation, work 10-15 hours a week and still be able to save $2000 US/month, there are some serious downsides. Here are the 4 biggest ones:

No Room for Advancement 

Once you have a job like I do (full vacation, 3 days/week, high pay, teaching only English majors), there is quite literally nowhere to go but sideways or down. I could be promoted to the "head teacher" but this almost always involves way more work for no extra money--it's usually a total headache and I wouldn't really wish this position on my worst enemy. 

Serious teachers aren't rewarded

Korean universities generally pay all teachers equally--like someone can have 10 years experience, a CELTA/DELTA, do presentations at professional conference (me!) and get the same pay as someone who gets the job with one year of experience at a hagwon. Great teachers often get more work heaped on them such as proof-reading, organizing camps, or recruiting new teachers but often don't get any extra pay for this.

No Professional Development

I would love to work at a place that was serious about helping teachers improve their skills. Like in almost 10 years, I haven't been observed in a class, ever. It's my guess that 99% of the universities in Korea don't care about this and it's up to the individual teacher to put the work in, if they care about it. Many don't.

The Jobs are Getting Worse

It's basically an employer's market right now because of the large numbers of very qualified teachers floating around Korea. It's only going to get worse due to demographics because there will be fewer and fewer college age students in Korea. Job conditions will not be going up in the next 5-10 and I personally find it quite demoralizing to work at a job year after year and not see an increase in my salary.

To Sum it Up!

Working at a Korean university is a sweet job--for a few years. You can start a side business, travel the world, write a book, etc.  But, unless you're married to Korean, I don't recommend making this your long-term plan. It's a big world and there are certainly better jobs out there, especially if you're a "real" teacher.