Korean Job Discussion Forums

oldfatfarang · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: On the road to somewhere.

Pardon me if I'm wrong, but isn't this 'teacher' teaching in a Korean public middle school? If so, he will be co-teaching - in effect, sharing the responsibility for educating his students with a Korean co-teacher (who has a Korean teaching license that allows them to beat and humiliate students to attain classroom control).

And as for other Western teachers banging their 'love stick' on the blackboard to get students' attention. This is a very crude (and threatening) method that doesn't have any place in a civilised classroom. You are demeaning yourself when you this as you're threatening your students with future corporal punishment (implied or actual).

Why not use the tried-and-true method of just 'raising your hand - and whistling' - and not speaking/teaching until the class comes to attention. This works - but only if you do it religiously (everytime you need attention). After a while, students will police your classroom for you - and they'll shout-down inattentive students so their lesson can continue.

This works for me, but I'll admit that I sometimes have to tap the W/B with a marker to gain attention after an enthusiastic speaking task.

funinthesun · Joined: 16 Jul 2007

GaryCooper · Joined: 10 Jun 2006

What's the reason for this thread? Certainly the opinion piece has good comments mixed in with a little woe-unto-you-who-don't language. It's hardly something to scream at so vehemently. But rather than quote the one sentence the OP found disturbing, he quoted the whole thing, then suggested some profane comments, and left it at that. One drawback to the piece invalidates the whole thing, as far as the OP was concerned. That is a key to understanding why this thread is here.

Notice that various threadsters have taken aim at KOTESOL, a professional organization for teachers. KOTESOL and groups like it can invigorate teachers, give them ideas, help them to reflect on their practices, and so forth. This is not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, unless wanting to be a better teacher were a bad thing. What does it accomplish for people to suggest that KOTESOLers are dweebs?

Age has also become an issue. One person suggested that being over 40 and teaching in Korea is proof positive of insanity. From my side north of Highway 40, it would seem like many of those south of it lack experience and maturity, although some of them are more mature than me. (Some past 40 have the same problems as well, but it's less common than in the under-40 crowd.) I know a teacher who's been here since the 1970s, and I was hired by someone who's been here since the 1980s -- and both have done extremely well in Korea. Maybe they know something that others haven't figured out.

I think the comments in the opinion piece hit a little too close to home for some people. Hangman, stickers, and the like are severely overused, and there are teachers who are poor at taking control of the classroom. People at schools in Korea will know who's pulling his weight and who's biding time between weekends and vacations.

In my opinion, many "teachers" who are Wayne and Garth know they're lousy, but, for one reason or another, have chosen not to face their inadequacies. According to their need to stay unreconstructed, the opinion writer must be misinterpreted as advocating assault in the classroom and people therefore suggest he is incapable of any worth insights. People who reach a mature age (whether or not their attitude follows suit) are to be written off, as are people who may participate in teacher development organizations. One infraction means the whole lot of them are to be discarded. This is throwing the baby out with the bath water -- and stepping on the baby.

That's my speculative impression, for what it's worth, of the vitriol in this thread. I hope I'm wrong about it.

The_Eyeball_Kid · Joined: 20 Jun 2007

CentralCali · Joined: 17 May 2007

Gary,

You seem to be unaware of Schertzer's arrival, so to speak, here. His sole thesis then was "Schertzer is the only good foreign teacher here and that's because I use the Callan Method which you guys don't have a clue about."

Few who read his first posts will forget that attitude. Nor will they forget his defense of the "right to view kiddie porn in one's home."

GaryCooper · Joined: 10 Jun 2006