Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The_Eyeball_Kid]

[makemischief]

[oldfatfarang]

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]

[GaryCooper]

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]

[CentralCali]

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]

[billybrobby]

I think it was on the Office where somebody said, "I've never seen so little power go to someone's head

[The_Eyeball_Kid]

[GaryCooper]

Eyeball Kid,

Technical aside: Is your avatar from Le Chien Andolou?

I'll agree that there is a strong component to respect that must be earned. The writer may overstate the case by sounding like respect is a one-way street. Granted. I think he does have a point that there is a command component to teaching. Teachers should be leaders.

Don't know how much football history you know, but I think of two coaches with regard to your statement: Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns and Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers.

Paul Brown was a control-oriented coach who virtually invented the modern football game. He came up with the cup formation for defending the quarterback, brought a classroom-like atmosphere to preparing players, made them study playbooks, required players to leave cleanly outside of their work -- and he even invented the face mask. He even called every play for the team!

Bill Walsh, on the other hand, trained players for various contingencies on the field so they would not have to run to the coach for everything. He brought in psychologists to do personality profile tests of players to find out who was strong in what psychological aspect of the game and what weaknesses they had. His approach was to empower the people on the field and to make it seem as if they were the ones in charge.

We can adapt both models to our teaching, though with some caution. The first method can be overbearing if not done well, and the second method can be invasive and potentially lacking in structure or guidance. It's possible to combine the best of both worlds and the worst of both worlds.

There may be players that take more to one method than to another. In Korea, there are plenty of students who respond better to Paul Browns than to Bill Walshes and vice versa. It may also depend on experience of the player. A beginner may need more Paul Brown at the beginning, and a seasoned player may need a Bill Walsh. Hard-line coaches like Paul Brown and "benevolent dictator" Vince Lombardi were coaching at a time when the modern football game was still new in many players' minds. By the time Bill Walsh, Don Schula, and other less overbearing coaches came around, players knew the modern gridiron extremely well, and they were aching for a little self-expression.

We can't analogize completely from sport, but I think you get the point. Shertzer appears to be Brown-based, but that doesn't mean the Walshes out there can learn a little from those teachers that are parameters-setting, control-marking types.

[jinju]

Hiting students:

if a teacher hit my son I would go in the very next day right into his classroom and cause the biggest scene he ever saw. if it was a foreigner, id go in there with a bat. And then Steve would find out that his classroom is only his classroom as long as the other people are too small and too young to take a bat to the desk he is taking refuge under.

[CentralCali]

[Lizoid]

I agree that making an effort to set some boundaries in the classroom alleviates classroom management problems but it's really hard to do that without the support of a co-teacher and the school.

I CAN'T get over the fact that he published that he has occassionally beat his kids!!

However the fact that he's "been teaching for ten years" but is a TA in Korea pretty sums him up.

[The_Eyeball_Kid]