Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chaz47]

Let me preface this by saying that I have never been ill at this school, nine months in and not one sick day... maybe not such a big deal.

Anyway, I have had a cold all week. You know the kind that starts in your head, runny nose, headache. Goes into your throat and then your chest. Your standard cold. Well today I woke up and could barely speak above a whisper but I only had two classes and they were going to let me go early to get some rest and do some banking so I figured I'd give it a try.

My first class was third grade middle school boys whose behavior has been sliding gradually since their exams. Anyway from the get go it was obvious that if I couldn't raise my voice they weren't going to listen. After 10 minutes of watching them ignore me and throw stuff at each other while my coteacher tried to restore order I told my coteacher that this was pointless and that I was leaving.

I said that if I couldn't speak and she couldn't keep them in order then it was a waste of time. I then said that I should have called in sick anyway and that I was going home. She tried to apologize for the class but I just repeated what I had already said.

A few of the kids, maybe 6 of 40 had any interest whatsoever and only one of them was attempting to participate.

Eventually she agreed to take over and I left. If it had been my managing coteacher's class she would have asked me to leave and punished the class before I had suggested leaving.

So I went to the main office and told my minder for the day the situation and that I was going home. No problems.

Do you think I have anything to worry about? I feel a little guilty about just leaving her hanging but I know my managing coteacher wouldn't have tolerated their behavior and I couldn't speak loudly enough to get their attention. The only alternative to conducting class would have been to take them to the English Cafe and let them watch a movie... too much like a reward for misbehavior in my mind.

As for my second class of the day, which I never made it to, my voice was completely spent from trying to raise it in the first class. I probably should have given the teacher some notice though. Hopefully my minder let her know. It sucks that she has to scramble to cover the content but what else do you do when someone leaves work due to an illness?

[renzobenzo1]

Ehh you should have told someone and made it official.
I doubt it will come back to bite you though.

Maybe just give out worksheets next time...always have a few spare in your bag/satchel.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

That's where it's useful to have something loud you can bang. It also shouldn't take too much miming to tell them all to raise their hands in the air for a minute or two until they quiet down while you patrol the rows with a look that says the next one to act up will be turfed.

Thankfully I've never been completely without a voice.

[chaz47]

...and the fallout is a bit of talking to from my managing coteacher about how it wasn't the most professional thing to do. That truly does sting.

I was a bit emotional I have to admit. To me it seemed they were being disrespectful and my coteacher couldn't wrangle them. I couldn't speak and the coteacher of the class insisted on asking me why I wanted to leave in front of the class only exacerbating my already failing voice.

I expressed my desire to leave the class early as I knew the managing coteacher would have simply asked me to leave and then disciplined the class. As she is my "boss" and has taken a special interest in disciplining the third graders after their exams I thought that her level of discipline was at least a standard I could expect. I went on to say that if I had known I was going to be unable to speak long enough to conduct a class I would have simply called in. I told my managing coteacher all of this this morning and it seems that she understands.

I can talk today but my chest hurts. I've had pneumonia a few times and am worried about this cold hanging on the way it is. One thing that kind of irritates me is that no one seems to understand how I could have gotten so sick as to lose my voice and still feel under the weather 3 days later. I think that they assume I have been boozing non-stop and it is little wonder that I am sick. I think they fail to realize that we have no native resistance to colds on this side of the planet and as such tend to get a bit sicker when we do get sick.

I also think I really need a vacation.

[renzobenzo1]

[Snowkr]

No, we don't have the same resistance to colds here but that doesn't often matter to Koreans. They work when they are half dead. In their mind, so should we. I was in the emergency room overnight one weekend and back in the classroom less than 24 hours later. As far as my employer and co-teachers were concerned, I was alive and therefore I could work.

[T-dot]

Agreed that it wasnt professional and you hung your co-teacher out to dry.

[mrsquirrel]

I've been looking for a gong.

One of those big fark off ones.

THat will keep them quiet

[Colorado]

I have the same thing. itchy throat, raspy voice, cough, sniffles. I've had it for 7 days now after shaking hands with one of my students (never touch your students, or at least be sure to wash your hands afterward). I took off early on Friday, after coming in to school and coughing all over my vice-principal until she told me to go to the hospital and take the rest of the day off. I stayed in bed most of the weekend with my fistfull of pills from the doc and did a lot of sleeping. Here it is Monday morning and I've still got it, but it does seem to be receding. I'm at school (fighting!) and hanging in there. Thank god we've got finals starting tomorrow so I won't have to teach.
Anyway, you probably should have told your main co-teacher before you left, or coughed all over the vp like I did.

[chaz47]

^ My managing coteacher was out of the office today. She had told me to report any problems or whatever to the other English teacher that sits near me. I did so and went home. Aside from the class I left early, I only missed one that day.

...

We also had a sit down and chat with myself, the coteacher, my mangaging coteacher and the vice principal. She's actually my favorite coteacher and usually her classes and kids are the best. Seriously, it blows my mind that her students who are usually so awesome would be that way.

The long and short is she is pissed at me and almost started to cry. She thinks that I am blaming her about the lack of discipline in her class. I told her that I wasn't and that normally I love her classes but that day they were rude and I couldn't talk. The situation was only getting worse as she insisted on discussing it with me, in a raspy whisper struggling over the din of the class becoming increasingly chaotic.

I apologized to her.

We had a class together immediately after that. It wasn't rainbows and butterflies but it was OK.

Two things were said that I wonder about though.

1.) My V.P. thinks I am trying to be an "English salesman"? Does that imply too much hagwon experience? I thought I was an edutainer.

2.) Whose responsibility is discipline?