Korean Job Discussion Forums

[timetotravel]

im wondering what the difference between elementary and middle schools are, for those who have worked in both.
i work at a middle school here but am an elementary teacher at home and was thinking of switching for next year.

is vacation the same, or close to? hours?

[nomad-ish]

my friends who teach elementary tend to do all their regular classes in the morning time, and then have the afternoon to sit around or do afterschool/OT classes. i hate the thought of back to back classes, but it'd be awesome to have a huge block of time off in the afternoon.

we all get the same vacation though, no difference there. although one of my elementary friends might be getting some half-days during the break.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

The difference in how kids under 12 learn a language vs. how kids 13+ do is quite profound and requires a very different set of skills.

[D.D.]

Elementary is easier and you have less discipline problems, but it can become quite boring. I do one day of elementary and 4 of middle school each week. I think doing elementary all the time would drive me mad.

[rayjoy]

I teach elementary school, haven't taught at middle. For elementary school, you follow the national textbook curriculum so "lesson planning" takes like 10 minutes, depending on how many extra activities you want to include. I generally teach all my classes in a row in the morning and spend all afternoon doing stuff like this. 4th & 5th graders are pretty great, they generally grasp English but 3rd graders can be unruly (though enthusiastic) and 6th graders are rather comatose/prone to humiliation (such as making them speak).

I have no patience for the "too cool for school" attitude so I tend to like the younger students, even if their attention spans are short.