Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MollyBloom]

I am curious what the differences are between the public school jobs.
This is the criteria I am looking for:

1. Which level do you teach the most classroom hours?

2. Is there one level where you take home more work than another?

3. Which level offers the most vacations? Which level makes you work during vacations, and how long?

4. Which level do you have to plan more lessons for?

That's all I can think of for now, but I am really trying to see which level offers what, and what I can be prepared for when working a certain level.

EDIT: Sorry for not being clear. When I said "grade," I meant elementary vs. middle school v.s high school. I changed the subject title to "level."

**Also, to avoid people thinking I don't want to "work" while I am in Korea, I will be writing my MA thesis this time around and don't want to work a job where I will be bringing home a lot of work (as compared to my 40+, 6 day a week hagwon job I worked at last year).

[ttompatz]

[Bibbitybop]

Take home work? In a public school?

In mine (SMOE), I don't give homework at all, give grades, give tests or anything like that. I also have a 40 hour work week, but teach 22 45-minute classes a week. Any extra work can be done in my office and I still have time to read the news, write friends, take care of personal business, burn time on websites like this one and watch tv shows.

[Otherside]

In terms of "working hours", a standard PS contract involves 22 "teaching hours" a week. For elementary a "teaching hour" is 40mins, while for middle school it is 45min and 50min for High school. Under normal circumstances you will still be at work 8 hours a day (9-5etc). There should never be any "take home" work as you will have plenty of time to prepare etc. for your 22 classes during the 40 hours a week you spend at work.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

The older the kids get the more lessons get cancelled for exams. If you're teaching HS, what's more siginficant is whether they're academic, vocational, or technical students, not grade 1, 2, or 3. With high school it just seems that some class dynamics are better than others, regardless of whether they're grade 1, 2, or 3. With MS, the grade ones are very excited about everything being new and generally enthusiastic. The grade 3s are often taking school more seriously and their marks matter more; and the grade 2s are generally the hardest to motivate and make pay attention.

[Dome Vans]

As ttompatz says you'll rarely be teaching just the one grade.

It also depends on a few factors:

Usually for PS, either Elementary or Middle you will be contracted to teach 22 hours max. There is always the chance that it will be less, but also the chance that you can work extra and be paid extra for it.

The amount of work can vary. Some schools will make you teach the text book to the word, others will let you plan all your own lessons based on the chapter, others will make you teach something and others will make you co-teach (so therefore no planning). It differs from school to school, city to city.

I work out in the countryside at 2 middle schools and 1 elementary. Last year it was 2 middle and 2 elementary. You have no say if you get moved, or where you want to go. My contract is with the Office of Education. Each school will have you for an alloted time and they'll do with you as they wish for that time. Where I am, there are only 1 or 2 groups for each level so I get to teach each group of each level once at each school. My friend teaches at a big middle school in my city. Each level has 6-7 groups so she will usually only teach one level a semester, seeing each group once. It depends.

As with the work. I suppose you put in as much as you expect to get out. I work hard for each lesson and I probably spend the same amount of time preparing for middle as I do elementary.

[sargx]

I once took work home with me and the teacher told me not to do it again . I personally like high school the most. The kids are hilarious.

[yuria]

I work at a public school, and I only teach the grade 6 students. I guess it can be quite comfortable just teaching one grade as you don't have to make so many lesson plans, however it can get dull at times, repeating the same old thing 10 times in a row...

[thatwhitegirl]

I've taught elementary and high school.
The little kids had longer holidays at our school, no winter/summer camps, and other odd days off.
The high schoolers have quite a few exams, which are extra days off for me.
But their holidays are shorted, and they have the winter/summer camps.

The little tots were fun (1st-2nd grade), although their levels were so low that you drive yourself nuts with crappy little songs and stuff. But they were eager and didn't fall asleep in class.
The high school boys (academic) are good most of the time. Some sleep in class, some are really good and eager, some could care less. They are more interesting to teach, and they make me laugh.
I don't like teaching middle schoolers though. I prefer the older or younger kids.

It all depends on what age group you are more comfortable with.

[nobbyken]

A privately owned public (High) School will probably offer the longest vacation time.