Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MCGusto]

in your experience, when you first arrived were you just thrown into teaching right off the plane or did your employer give you some training, or at least guidelines? You dont have to supply you own materials right?

[ttompatz]

[normalcyispasse]

[ontheway]

At my current school (hogwan) every teacher is given at least a week of paid training. The school tries to arrange for the teacher to arrive on the Friday or weekend before the training week begins, so he or she will have time to rest up and acclimate. The training period is the beginning portion of the contract, so it's paid at the regular rate. Materials are provided to the teacher by the school. No photocopying by the teacher is necessary.


I have had the experience of showing up for the first day at a school and having to teach immediately, with no materials, large classes not grouped by level and no preparation time possible. I had to go in and just begin, assess the levels of the students on the fly and create a class program off the cuff that was the appropriate level, educational, entertaining and could be done with a white board, markers, paper and pencils. (Sort of like when I was an engineering management consultant. I had to do the same thing when I flew in to meet a new client, only the "kids" were older.)

[thegadfly]

Our school gives you a day to rest, a day of orientation, two days of observing (usually 3-4 classes each day, then yer done), a day to prep, your weekend, then you start fresh-ish the second week. Give or take a day -- some folks get luckier than others.

Your salary starts as soon as you get picked up -- for example, if you are picked up on the 14th, your payday is the 14th (14th to the 13th of the next month is the pay period).

Of course, at my first gig, I got off the plane and to my apartment by 11pm and was teaching kindy at 9 am the next day.

Do your homework -- mileage DOES vary!

[yingwenlaoshi]

Especially if you're a first-time teacher, treat your first month as training even though they're actual classes.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Training is not the norm here.

Most bosses rightly assume that if you applied for the job, you think you can do it.

[MCGusto]

alright cool, thanks guys

[lastat06513]

That was my situation; I was given 2 days to adjust to coming to Korea as a teacher before I was flung into my first class- I can say it was a very dreadful experience that I wouldn't want to relive....


ESL/EFL/TESOL is more of a trail and error concept than any kind of formal training- though I hear that EPIK offers some kind of orientation that includes some kind of teaching observations that seem to help alot of people in the program...

Just keep these questions in mind;

- Who are you teaching?
- What specialized subject, if any, are you going to deal with?
- What do your students already know?
- What kind of experience can you bring to the classroom?
- How much grammar do you know?
- Think of your favorite teacher in school and what kind of delivery method did he use?
- How much time do you have to teach the students?
- What subjects or topics does your school want you to cover and within what period of time?
- What kind of motivation can you bring to the class?
- What can motivate you to teach the class? (besides the money)
- Will you or won't you have a co-teacher to help you explain the material to the students?
- What are the ages of your students?
- Why are they there?
- What kind of material do you have to work with? (do they have their own curriculum or can you make your own)
- What kind of books do you have to work from?

These are just a small percentage of the questions you have to ask yourself before you step into a classroom...