Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ilsanman]

Just a little background, I am working a temp job in an elementary school. I teach a few morning classes of grade 6ers and then teach a sort of after school program. It's a good job, but my biggest complaint is my morning co-teacher. She's a nice person, but a useless teacher.

The ironic part is she is a trained teacher, straight out of university. My co-teacher for afternoon (different person) is like a hagwon teacher. She speaks English much better and is a better teacher in general.

My morning teacher likes to sit at the desk and use a CD/book to teach. She burns through the material as fast as she can. taking little or no time to check if the kids understand it or not, and even less time for any kind of review.

The biggest part that irks me is that she doesn't control the kids at all. She is often sitting so she can't see anything. The kids are always fighting, playing with something, doodling, chewing gum, using their phones, etc. When I call them on it, she acts like she's laboured to do something about it, or to support me.

One day I talked to her about some class that's very badly behaved. her answer was 'They're bad. I give up.'

So the other day a kid told me that some other kids is the subject of a lot of bullying. I make sure to keep an eye on him in the classroom to make sure he's not being bullied. Well the other day it turns out some other kid has drawn on the back of his jacket with chalk. The kid behind him proceeded to slap him on the back as hard as he could, masking it as 'helping clean the chalk off'. I scolded him, saying it's not necessary to hit him, but the other teacher said 'he's just trying to help.'

Luckily I am done here in 2 weeks. I pity the kids next year. They're losing out on any opportunity to learn anything.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

There seem to be a lot of young, female, and absolutely useless Korean teachers about these days, both at elmentary and middle schools. We just got a 25-year-old (not an English teacher, thankfully) at my middle school, and it will be interesting to see how she turns out.

[Bibbitybop]

In my job description, I am not supposed to punish students. That's the Korean teachers' responsibility. Luckily, my co-teachers are good. But I have some friends that simply walked out and refused to teach until the Korean teachers started doing their job. OP, the phrase "I give up" can be met with "So do I. Let me know when you are ready to help teach, I'll be in my office." I'm sure the teacher's higher-ups wouldn't appreciate her work ethic. You can also say "They WANT to be bad, but you can help me stop that. Teacher Kim's students are good in my class. Here's how Teacher Kim handles the bad students....."

[matthews_world]

[Isis]

welcome to public school.

I have the same co teacher except mine hasn't figured out how to use the CD ROM so she just wanders off for hours at a time.

I missed class once because I was in a meeting. She burned through like 2 1/2 chapters in 30 minutes. When I came back she was actually shaking she was so nervous about being infront of a classroom full of kids.

[Bibbitybop]

I should clarify my friends' situations: They tried to have meetings and work on solving in-class problems with the co-teachers. It was only after the co-teachers refused to do anything about very bad behavior did the foreign teacher leave the classroom. This was a final form of "negotiation" and it worked. The Koreans finally, finally saw they had to start doing something in the classroom.

[Ilsanman]

The violence is the part that irks me.

I didn't much like that self appreciating rant that Bobster did a while back, but I agree with him that violence needs to be kept out of the classroom. From what I've been, violence is the norm and not the exception with boys of that age. Almost every class, I have to scold or punish someone for fighting, or tell 2 kids who are play fighting or wrestling to stop it.

Teachers can't stop all of the violence of these kids. It'd be like trying to drown the ocean. But they can choose not to tolerate it in the classroom.

[icicle]

[tob55]

There seems to be a common sentiment regarding the issues here in Korea. I have just spent a bit of time working with a few teachers who have asked my advice on several school related issues. They ring true to the same things being said here. Rather than wholeheartedly jumping on the bandwagon I just want to mention a few things about Korean classrooms. Take it for what it's worth:

1. Koreans will never see you on the same level in terms of being a professional or a person in their eyes. This is not a slam against Korean, but just an observation about their culture and the way they view themselves.

2. The Korean co-teacher has been taught in a certain way to manage the classroom. Corporal punishment is the rule here rather than the exception. With that said, it is okay for the co-teacher to administer the corporal punish but not the native speaker. PLEASE, don't get yourself into trouble by hitting a student or losing your temper. It only makes you look bad in their eyes.

3. This time of year is exceptionally bad for everyone. It isn't about being good or bad, it is just about the way the educational system works in this country. This is the time of year when they are winding down, and nothing seems to work in terms of actual learning taking place in most any classroom.

4. Violence is violence. If the KT is not controlling the situation in your classroom then you must take it to someone who will remind them that this is their responsibility to do control their students. The KT is responsible for the students, and they should be made to fulfill that part of their job requirement. If you don't generally like their methods of punishment then you can leave the room.

I have many more things to say, but keep your chin up. The end is near and the students will go away from the school term to do whatever they do. You can save a lot of misery and headache by just trying to fit into their system and place the responsibility for management back onto the shoulders of the person who is supposed to be doing their job in the first place. There are ways to work around the behavior and poor management on the part of the KTs, but it takes time to figure out what you can do.

[icicle]

tob55 ... A good response ... I do agree with you ... and accepting how things are ... for me has gone a long way towards coping with these things in the classroom ... The point about this time of year is also a very good one ... and finding something that the students will enjoy ... or engage with ... has made a big difference to behaviour in the classroom ... in the last week or so ... In the last 2 weeks I have used questions around a short clip from Mr Bean to get effective lessons ... and better behaved classes ...

[Yu_Bum_suk]

For sure this is a difficult time of year, but when it comes to taking control of the classroom an effective teacher always has to be ready to take the initiative himself. If I had waited for a few certain CTs with whom I've worked to figure out how to manage our classroom it would have been a recipe for disaster.

[rockstarsmooth]

[davetw]

I read the posts about useless co-teachers. I teach in Taiwan, not Korea; however, the situations are identical. We have co-teachers here at most schools. IN my 3.5 years experience, I've found co-teachers to be an annoyance at best. In the sveral schools I've worked at, I've had co-teachers who were polite to my face but spies for the boss. One day the boss will say "Please don't use your cellphone in class...or Can you play a different learning game with them next time....you play the same game often (though the kids like it)....you ended class 2 minutes early yesterday.......how does the boss know all of these minor transgressions?..Well, from the co-teacher of course. So I watch my back at all times, when they are present. A few times, I thought that maybe I had hooked up with a cool co-teacher, who I could teach comfortably around, only to be sadly disappointed later. It's them against us, guys. Watch your back. I know some foreign teachers are also useless and that maybe diming them out to the boss was necessary. Still, most of us are good teachers. Watch your back, they're all the same. On the matter of discipline, regarding co-teachers. Either they are totally useless to help control the kids or else the opposite: scream at kids constantly, even when things are well in hand, and kill the good mood and rapport I work hard to build up, with the kids. They find it impossible to allow the student to answer a question. They always answer the question for the student as soon as I ask it. Very annoying. When that happens I turn sarcastically to the co-teacher and say "good job!" in mocking praise. I personally can't stand co-teachers and I do my job 100% better without them in the room. I know that I'm generalizing and that someone will answer that they have a great co-teacher, but I have enough experience here to be able to make this more or less accurate generalization.

[Hank the Iconoclast]

The only times my co-teachers do anything at for me is on Thursday and Friday. I have tried to use them on Tuesday and Wednesday but they don't control the classroom or even help reinforce what I am teaching. On Thursday and Friday, I coordinate my lesson plans with my co-teachers and I have a great time teaching the students. The students learn so much more with a good KT and NT relationship.

[renzobenzo1]

I have mixed views about my co-teachers-all 6 of them.

I teach at 2 middle schools.
At 1 school a co-teacher is never in the class with me. There is only one male co-teacher at that school and he gets me to teach on my own.....The plus side of this is that I have more freedom to teach what I like and it is more relaxed and I can show a bit more video time occassionally, the downside is that discipline is a real issue and sometimes the kids rule the class so often I just concede. It is a school in a bad neck of the woods and the discipline at the school is generally quite poor.
At the other school, the 5 female co-teachers are a mixed bag. Mostly they just intervene to translate now and then or to tell the class to shut up.....however some days they just stand up the back like zombies and do nothing. Other times they will answer the questions before the students have a chance to which is extremely annoying.....
So much for an 80% to 20% ratio of input between foreign and native teachers