#KELTChat: “Building rapport with students” (Sunday 6th September, 8-9pm KST)

After a summer off to gather its thoughts and give those niggling injuries a chance to heal, #KELTChat is back to take once more to the lush fields of Twitter and do battle with the ELT issues of the moment.

If you have never encountered #KELTChat before, here is a short introduction. #KELTChat is a space on the internet (and increasingly in “real life” too) for teachers in Korea and further afield to talk about issues that affect us in the classroom and the industry as a whole. We have a Facebook group but the greater part of teacher interaction takes place in our regular Twitter chats (lots of good information in that link).

The first such chat takes place on Sunday 6th September from 8 until 9pm Korea time (click here for the time in your part of the world). The topic will be “Building rapport with students”. Most teachers would agree that rapport is important, but it may mean different things to different people, and the ways that it is created will vary in each case. This chat is an opportunity to explore our own and others’ approaches to building rapport.

The chat will be structured around the following questions, though tangents and diversions are very welcome.

• What does rapport mean to you?
• Are there any aspects of rapport that you think might be particularly important for Korean students?
• Are there any aspects of rapport included in common definitions that you think are NOT important?
• How explicitly do you try to build rapport between students, and between yourself and the class?
• What activities to you find are effective at building rapport?
• How do you act towards students in order to build rapport?
• Is there anything else that you do to encourage rapport?
• What kind of timescale do you have for building rapport?
• Is there any value in assessing rapport between students?

We hope to see you on Sunday. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

The #KELTChat Team

• Alex (@breathyvowel)
• Anne (@annehendler)
• David (@davidharbinson)
• Dayle (@daylemajor)
• Michael (@michaelegriffin)
• Tim (@timhampson)

 

#KELTChat summary: Classroom Rules and Implementing Them (9th December 2012)

Teachers from Korea, Turkey, Ireland, Australia, and Indonesia (perhaps many more in the “lurk-esphere”) joined KELTchat to discuss classroom rules. Michael Griffin lead a smooth and insightful discussion where teachers discussed the following topics:

*Click on this Storify link to get the full chat. Please remember to click “read next page” to see what everyone had to say.

• Important classroom rules and a why to back it up
• Who makes the rules?
• Reasons for implementing rules: school policies, student behaviour or personal beliefs?
• Self-policing
• Framing rules
• Implementing and keeping the rules
• Focus on Korea

Related links:

• International Teachers Development institute (iTDi) – Rules We Follow and Breaking Rules
• Gordon West‘s Pecha Kucha – Don’t Be a Dictator at 2012 KOTESOL National Conference
• Anne Hendler’s post – Making some new rules
• Article by Michael Griffin and Manpal Sahota – Large Class Management
• Larry Ferlazzo’s post – How To Recover From A Classroom Train Wreck….
• Jim Scrivener’s book – Classroom Management Techniques
• Sarah-Jayne Blakemore: The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain
• Ali Carr-Chellman: Gaming to re-engage boys in learning
• Raising Boys: Why Boys Are Different – and How to Help Them Become Happy and Well-Balanced Men

#KELTChat Preview 9th December 2012: Classroom Rules and Implementing Them

Hi team!

There was another clear winner in the poll this week, with Classroom Rules winning out over Ice-breakers and Job-seeking. Thus Classroom Rules is what we will be discussing tomorrow from 8pm on Twitter.

I would imagine that almost all of us face behaviour and discipline issues in our jobs at some stage, and classroom rules can help to combat this, and create a well-structured and positive environment for our learners.

Our experience of rule-making is going to be extremely important to the chat, so before we get started you might want to think about how the following questions relate to your experiences past and present, and how can they explain both successes and failures.

• Who makes the rules in your class, and why?
• What do you try to achieve through the rules?
• How do you make the rules?
• How are the rules communicated/displayed?
• How are the rules implemented?
• What are some effective strategies to deal with rule breakers?
• What are the roles of punishments and rewards?

These questions are intended to give people a head start during the chat, but are not the limits. Please feel free to come with questions, ideas and experiences of your own. I hope you can join us from 8pm on Sunday.

If you’re new to Twitter chatting and aren’t sure quite how it works, check out this handy guide. If you have no idea what #KELTChat is, have a look here or here. You can also contact us through Twitter (@breathyvowel, @JosetteLB, @michaelegriffin, @alexswalsh, @annehendler, @johnpfordresher) or on our Facebook page.

Cheers

Alex G (@breathyvowel)

 

#KELTChat 3, Sunday 1st April 8pm: Fostering confidence in Korean students.

*** SPECIAL ANNOUCEMENT ***

If you’re going to the Seoul KOTESOL Chapter Conference on Saturday, some of our members are meeting for a #KELTChat lunch. Anyone is welcome to join us. We will be at the main gates of Sookmyung University at 1.10pm, and then heading to a restaurant of our choosing nearby . It’s number 19 on the map on this flyer. If you can’t find us, send us a DM on Twitter with your number and we’ll call you. 

#KELTChat is back once again for another Sunday session and we are expecting to see numbers grow again. If you missed last week’s chat, you are strongly advised to check out @josetteLB‘s wonderful summary. This is a great chance to improve your own knowledge and that of the Korean ELT community by thinking, sharing, listening and challenging each other’s ideas. It’s also, more importantly, great fun.

I’m sure that all of us have at some point here spent ages planning an activity based on the latest, most communicative theories, only to see our learners shrink down in their chairs, and try to get through it by saying as little as possible to the teacher or each other. While we should recognize that all learners have their own needs, styles and foibles, they are still affected by the culture of their nation. On Sunday we will be discussing the common features of Korean learners, and the best practice for helping students to be confident within our context.

The discussion will tackle the way that Korean culture affects learner attitudes to confidence and success in the classroom, for example how fitting in may be a greater measure of success here than standing out. From this, we hope to find some strategies to help learners better in terms of group dynamics, classroom management and activities, and how to define success in the Korean classroom. We hope that you’ll join us to share your ideas and doubtless pick up some from others.

If you’re new to Twitter chatting and aren’t sure quite how it works, check out this handy guide. If you have no idea what #KELTChat is, have a look here or here.

We’d be delighted to see you on Sunday.

Alex (@breathyvowel)