Korean Job Discussion Forums

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

At my current place we have a weird policy. The foreign teachers teach the student books, and the Korean teachers teach the workbooks. I always thought it would be better to teach both together in the same lesson period, using the workbook to reinforce what was taught in the student book. And yes, 1 page a day has been the standards at all the hakwons I have taught, regardless whether the students have learned the material or not. Rolling Eyes

Given that, 3-4 months seems about right.

weatherman · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

AT my university's hogwon we teach kids in the late afternoon. We use the let's go books, but they (the bosses) force us to finish the book in 7 weeks. Shocked

This makes it kind of a joke, and our kids class are an incredible 70 minutes long and with no Korean teacher support. I go over the book (with tape) and workbook, and play some games that sometimes have more or less relevance to what we studied. In the end, if some child didn't get the lesson, we move on. The boss takes completion of the book as top priority.

Eazy_E · Joined: 30 Oct 2003 Location: British Columbia, Canada

ryleeys · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: Columbia, MD

I'm only allowed to photocopy with permission from my director... paper costs money and all... I get around that by taking paper when she isn't looking and having my students write the important things 10 times... Pisses them off and undoubtedly I'm gonna get yelled at sooner or later by a parent or my director, but whatever, I'm just trying to do my job. I'm not a good teacher to begin with, don't take more resources away from me.

justagirl · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Location: Cheonan/Portland

ryleeys, why don't you just buy a reem of paper? It's about 3,000 won or less and then your boss doesn't have to pay for it. How about approaching the boss and telling her that you've been working on some lesson plans, have gone out and bought some paper and you'd like to make some copies with the paper you bought for your students.

In response to the original post, I teach the Let's Go books, too. We just changed from 3 months to 4 months, which is less than 1 page a day...actually 2 days for each page, since we have class 4 days a week.

justagirl

ryleeys · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: Columbia, MD

Eh... I'm thinking about it... also gotta consider the costs of ink and stuff I guess. I use the extra time to do my own lessons... I've got my kids writing letters to students at the elementary school I went to back in the States...

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

Son Deureo! · Joined: 30 Apr 2003

ryleeys · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: Columbia, MD

What drives me batty is that I have to teach two other books combined with Let's Go... so my students are getting lessons on completely different vocabulary, grammar, and phonics all in one week and are expected to learn it all.

Oh well, it's not my fault if the system is screwy...

(well, to Koreans it is my fault, but what the heck do they know... they're the ones that made the friggin' system)

sprite · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: canuckville

we did the let's go books in two months, but it was expected that most kids would need to go through it 3 times. younger kids love singing songs; lots of the nursery rhymes or skipping songs you know can be good too.

"my father is a garbage man" was a great chant for teaching jobs.

there is a huge gap between what demanding parents want and what their kids are capable of producing. imagine how the little tykes feel!

it helps to makes the kids the focus of the lesson; try not to let them see how panicked you are.

the other possibility is simply to coast, do the bare minimum. lots of folks do. but then you waste all your time and never learn anything.

best of luck.

Son Deureo! · Joined: 30 Apr 2003