Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

For some reason they installed little two way intercoms in all the classrooms. The idea was they would no longer have to send one of those oh-so-overworked front desk people from class to class to take attendance. The front desk people would no longer have to get up. They would just buzz each classroom and the teacher would report who wasn't there. Of course they didn't count on that you're putting a thing with buttons and wires and a plastic cover that can be pried off in a classroom of children who are not always being watched. One only has to examine how long a poster on a wall lasts... or the battery charge in the escape flashlights to grasp the future. Anyway, the kids started monkey around with the thing, buzzing into the front desk all the time.

So they turned off the interncom system after about 2 weeks and went back to attendance via the sneaker net.

There was also the time they hired some cheerleaders...

[tomato]

I nominate the Child U curriculum.

I once had a director who never listened to a word that the teachers tried to tell herabout foreign language education, but she believed everything a textbook salesmen told her.

One day, a Child U salesman got her believing that if she sunk a four-digit investment into a Child U franchise and hung their poster on the wall, she would have parents rushing from all over town, clamoring to enroll their children.

Not long after that, her business dropped to the point where she had to downsize.

[alabamaman]

Catch 1- 3 series

[Junior]

Cassettes, DVD's and storybooks.

I never use any of that stuff...

[excitinghead]

At an adult hagwon I worked at 3 years ago, there was a tiny coffee shop in a little room to the side of the main entrance, owned by the hagwon. The coffee was relatively good for Korea, but more importantly it was the only place selling coffee for miles before 7am, when many classes started. That coffee was literally black gold, and the only thing that kept all of the staff and most of the students going in the mornings.

Wanting to make the hagwon look cooler and more techo, I guess, 4 months after I started he told the coffee shop girls to take a hike and changed it to a tiny room with 2 PCs for students to use in between classes.

Not many students particularly liked sitting in front of computers with hundreds of commuters and passerbys gawking at them 50cm in front of them through a window, and the rest of the day the sunlight meant you could barely even see the screens, let alone tolerate the heat of the greenhouse the room had turned into.

While those brand new computers never got used, 4 foreign and 16+ Korean teachers had to fight over a Window's 98 PC in the staffroom that crashed when it did anything too exciting, like use the internet or print an activity.

In the meantime, the attendance of most morning classes just kept going down and down, and my ex-boss is probably STILL trying to figure out why.

If you're ever in the Nampo-dong area of Busan, it's the hagwon that still has "Coffee" written in 3 storey-high letters on its side

[patongpanda]

I got a present it's a kind of digital projector it looks really expensive, I don't have a clue what to do with it. Would have preferred a laptop!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My school got a grant for special education and they've kitted out a classroom with a huge TV and all sorts of A/V equipment they never, ever use but would be perfect for my school's non-existant English zone classroom.

[ilovebdt]

A big arse green fence.
They also put flowers in all the borders, which in time will be trampled to mush when the kids retrieve their basketballs/footballs etc


ilovebdt

[oskinny1]

Spent ￦20,000,000 on the opening ceremony but cut off our heating because the electric bill was too high.

[spliff]

[formerflautist]

At my last school they fireproofed the classrooms. That included moving a classroom wall to make room for a fire exit. Great idea except the fire exit was locked. That's okay, nothing will happen because now there's fire retardent fake wood to protect us.

[kat2]

I dare anyone to beat this one:

My director imported one of those big yellow school buses from America and transported kids around in it here. It was his pride and joy. It was ancient and looked like my dad probably rode it. Whenver we took kids on fieldtrips, everyone would get sick b/c of the fumes.

[mindmetoo]

[VirginIslander]

My Korean Head Teacher.

[awalk2remember]

My school installed a Bidet in the women's washroom...

Being a woman, I would say its a really nice luxury ....crazy, though because our school is so old ...