Korean Job Discussion Forums

[plus99]

I have about 2.5 hours every day that are supposed to be devoted to prep time but it mostly just winds up being me trying to look busy. There was a Bill Hicks joke that went something like:

Boss: "Bill why aint you workin?"


"Aint nothin to do."


Boss: "Why don't you pretend like you workin?"


"Why dont you pretend like Im workin?"

Personally, Id rather be teaching a class than spending time sitting there trying to look busy. Its unreal that anyone could expect me to think for 2.5 hours every day about how to teach "The dog runs in the park." Im wondering if there are any ultra-anals who will say that Im wrong and I should actually be using all this time to plan lessons.

[Norith]

2.5 hours / day is not an insane amount of prep time...assuming you have no curriculum to follow. If you are at a public school that has no books, 2.5 doesn't seem like too much time.

However, if you are at a hogwon where you are expected to follow the books they give you...and you don't have much free time to teach what you want/how you want to....then you should have plenty of time between classes (3-5 minutes) to take a peek at the material and familiarize yourself with it. Especially since hogwons generally use a whole series of books...after a week or two of using the series, you know how to find the information you need in a few seconds, spend 30 seconds reading it (depending on the skill level), figure out whether it will fill the class time, and make copies of supplements if necessary.

My (hogwon) boss told me that a day of classes generally takes 2 hours to prep....but, he's been covering one of the FT's schedules for the last week, and I've yet to see him come in early... He speaks English very well, but he's probably only taught for three weeks in the span of 5 years, covering for FT's. It's not like he knows the material before stepping into class, and he seems to do fine without prep. 2 hours my *beep*.

[plus99]

yeah, im at a hogwan. personally i find the time i spend trying to look busy to be at least as exhausting as actually teaching a class. maybe its an allergy to ridiculousness.

[Biblethumper]

If your children can see a picture or encounter a situation and know when to say, The dog runs in the park, and when to say, The dog is running in the park, or The dog ran in the park. If so, then your curriculum must be sufficient to require no forethought or extra homework or resources.

But I have found that most of the students I am given, they can read "The dog walks in the park" in a passage or a fill-in-the-blank exercise; but if I just say, All right, tell me what is happening in this picture, to get them to answer well requires more than following a textbook. I usually need to find some songs and dialogues to memorize, extra writing homework to practice with, and various useful activities to keep the material fresh while I keep drilling on certain points of structure.

[plus99]

even if that is the case, i dont see anything wrong with using exercises from a book. i dont see why i am coming us with lesson plans. ive been doing this three months, and intend to do this three years max. i dont think i am the one who should be trying to come up with the creative stuff.

[Biblethumper]

I dearly wish one of the publishers or chains of schools or whoever would write a truly effective curriculum, but I have given up hope on that: therefore I must resort to doing my own preparation. The results are immediately rewarding.

[Thunndarr]

This practice of having the hagwon teacher prep 2+ hours each day stems from the unrealistic expectations some Koreans have of foreigners.

For some reason *cough* foreign asshats on tv *cough* Koreans seem to have this expectation that the foreign teacher will jump around like a monkey in a tuxedo entertaining their kids with wonderful and innovative English games every single class of every single day. This, in addition to completing every page of every textbook in depth, grading homework and diaries, making tests, and filling out bogus report cards.

Now, if you've got a set curriculum at a typical hagwon, you've got to bust your ass getting those books finished. That generally doesn't leave any extra time for other activities (such as creating situations in which the kids actually use what they learn) on a daily basis.

However, again, certain types of Koreans expect you to finish the books and be the super clown edutainer they see on tv. Which is why you've got all that prep time.

(Before anyone gets defensive, I am not talking about all schools. But I have seen enough examples of what I've described that I don't think it's completely ridiculous to suggest that the practice may in fact be quite widespread.)

[Mi Yum mi]

Does your contract say 2.5 hours a day? If not start showing up a little bit late. Keep increasing your "lateness" by small amounts until you arrive about 30 mins before class.

Teaching GoGo to kids requires 0 prep time. After you do it a few times yo can have the book memorized.