Korean Job Discussion Forums

[reimund]

I recently hopped onboard the Public School train, and like everybody else, I'm loving the free time I have after the lessons are finished.

I'm still a little worried about my role/duties involved with this school, though. I usually like to work hard, and I've always done everything that's been asked of me in a typical adminsitrative office setting. The classroom setting, however, is completely new to me, and I'm having a hard time navigating and understanding what I need to do. What makes it difficult is its free environment (as opposed to administration, where the work assigned is pretty straightforward; that is, doing a bunch of paper pushing), and the co-teaching structure.

First and foremost, what is the heirarchy supposed to be in this situation? I'm assuming the Korean Co-teacher is the higher up, and the Native Co-teacher is supposed to do everything the Korean Co-Teacher asks of him/her.

What bothers the heck out of me, though, is that my Korean Co-teachers pretty much said that the lessons are supposed to split 80-20, with me doing the 80, and the KT doing the 20, which amounts to just translation and helping out with the materials.

The frustration arises when I try to step up and do whatever I had planned for the lesson. The Co-teacher interrupts what I say, and kind of bursts the bubble or disrupts the flow I had going with the lesson plan. And then she just kind of takes over.

So these days I'm kind of sitting there in class, not knowing what to do.

Am I caught in the middle of a "have her cake and eat it, too" scenario? Her cake being, not being responsible for the workload, yet her eating it, by trying to take credit for everything? In other words, it sometimes feels like I'm being hijacked, yet being held responsible for the workload. When it comes down to a review of my performance (the open classes), or when it comes time to possibly re-sign the contract, I'm afraid of what the teachers might say about my fulfillment of responsibilities and duties.

Am I imagining things? Or is this sometimes how it is with the Korean working culture?

Finally, any suggestions for lesson plan ideas (for a first-timer like me) would be greatly appreciated.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[KYC]

ditto. Every school is different. I have a ct but I have never and probably will never teach with him. The Korean teachers don't even come to my class. I am responsible for everything...even discipline. It's pretty rough. Would you like my job instead?

[smilehappy]

[majolica]

it SO depends on your school and your coteacher. technically, you should be equal in the classroom, but since they usually have the upperhand in information, communication, possibly even training and experience, it can be hard to have a truly equal relationship.

there's no easy answer either... i spent all year trying to work with a difficult coteacher, and i never managed to satisfactorily change anything. right now, it probably does even out to us teaching 50/50, but only because he has a habit of randomly not showing up for school or class. when he does, however, i only teach as much as he feels like... sometimes only 5 minutes!

i did manage to force things around in my favour by getting into the habit of always starting the class off myself. that way if i have something specially prepared, i can make sure to get it in at the beginning, then it doesn't matter too much if he ignores me for the rest of the class (although i have even been forced off oscar style before... he started playing the CD while i was in the middle of talking, didn't notice that i walked right up to the TV and muted it, and spent the next 10 minutes while i was STILL talking, noisily trying to "fix" it). and then he has the nerve to tell me that i should "talk to the students more"!!!

if your coteacher is open to discussion at all, try explaining to her that it's insulting when she does that to you... my coteacher wasn't interested in any sort of dialogue, so i understand that might not an option for you either, but i was able to make my point a few times. i don't like that our relationship has taken on this passive aggressive quality, but there's not always much you can do.

good luck! i know this coteacher thing can be so luck of the draw sometimes!

just wanted to clarify: i know that outside of teaching, your coteacher is probably senior to you, but there still is a lot of confusion about the teaching part. some education offices like to emphasize korean-led teaching, others NT-led teaching.

[Easter Clark]

[matthews_world]

My CT just usually is there for crowd control in my middles school and to translate anything the kids don't understand. I take in my own stuff depending on the level of the students. K teachers go through the dull and boring books. I teach them extra vocab with appropriate activities and try to review over the process.

[aarontendo]

Sorry someone had to say it! hehe ;p

[Smee]

One of my cts comes to every class, and another shows up once in a while. The others never show up, don't come to the workshop, and don't say anything to me in the halls. I teach on my own, create my own stuff, lead the class, and handle discipline. I wouldn't want it any other way. My time with the students is so limited---once or twice a month compared to 3 times a week with the Korean teacher---that it doesn't make sense to cut it down even further. Besides, with Korean English teachers who are so . . . I dunno, standoffish and weird, I can't imagine splitting time with them would work out at all.

edit: and yeah, teaching on my own helps make my classes a little more useful, and makes me (feel like) less of a clown or Phonics Monkey.

[mnhnhyouh]

I just sort of took over from the beginning. I do the lesson plan, classroom control, and all of the teaching.

I guess it helps that the teachers know that I am a qualified teacher, but I would have done so anyway.

Today I asked one teacher in my office what the feedback to her from the other teachers was, she said they are all happy. I will talk to the other teachers as the week progresses. So far the feedback has been good.

I guess that if I wasnt doing a good job they would let me know. My age helps, I think, I am older than all my co-teachers, bar one, I think.

h

[ddeubel]

You can never walk in the same river twice......
-- Heraclitus

Or he even put it better -- "Latent structure rules obvious".....

DD

http://eflclassroom.ning.com

[Motto]

'you can never walk in the same river once'

let alone twice

[Dome Vans]

[agoodmouse]

Yea, I'm sending a message out to my colleagues that we should all buckle down and speak English as much as possible. It's counterproductive for students to see me demonstrate how to do an activity by speaking in English when the KT immediately follows up my instructions verbatim.

Most of my classes are 90%/10% in my favor; I prefer no KT in the classroom, though (don't they already get enough of spoken Korean in their other classes?). I work at a high school. I'm in the midst of my second year.

[gangpae]

Okay, this is how it works. If she's young and cute, and you'd like to date her, I strongly suggest you make it look like you give a damn.