Korean Job Discussion Forums

[D.D.]

This year the 1st year students will be split up into skill levels. I wonder how this will work out.

I bet in English class some of the best students will still be put in the lower classes.

The best classes will have the brains who don't like to talk.

[LostinKSpace]

My school has had this for the past year and it is easier to teach and prepare for, although my lower level classes can be hard work as they consist of kids who generally struggle and kids who generlly don't give a fcuk and if your co-teacher allows them carte blanche in their classes it can make you life very hard. I noticed this last year when the co-teachers switched for the second semester, the switch brought a very distinctive change in behaviour, for some it was better for others not so

[afsjesse]

That's how my classes are. Most of them are equally bad. Some are better however. Good luck!

[MissT]

My middle school did that the other year. Basically you end up with dream classes, all the best most well behaved kids in the 'advanced' class, and the lower classes are well, the opposite. I really didn't like it. The kids in the lower classes still had to learn the same curriculum but didn't have the more enthusiastic students to help them. These students were pretty depressed about being in these lower level classes, especially in the first semester and lacked motivation. It was really hard to encourage them to 'forget' that they are in the lower level and to try their best and have fun.

After two years of teaching with this school this leveling totally changed the job for me. Some of these classes were just awful and I had very little support from one older teacher in particular, who came to our school just when my school was making these changes. He was given the lower classes because of his lack of skill... he was one of those teachers who got tenure a long time ago without actually having a teaching degree. I actually walked by some of his classes where he was �teaching� -lecturing with his head down looking at his desk, while students talked on the phone, and some were crawling around on the floor and out the door. Honestly, I can take a lot, but I ended up crying after a couple of classes from the lack of level and help from my 'coworker' with students completely disrespecting me. At the end of the second semester of the leveling + very unprofessional help from a CT, I decided to quit. It was a really tough decision for me, but it turned a beautiful job into a lot of stress.

If you have a great CT for your lower level classes you'll be okay. I wish you the best of luck.

[sobriquet]

my school did that.

We ended up with one class of fat bad male students

and one class of skinny bad male students.

Odd it was.


Nightmare to teach, but sometimes good fun

Poor buggers couldn't say the alphabet without singing the alphabet song.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

My school's done this with a few different grades and while it's more work to prepare for, it's easier to plan a lesson that's right to the students' level.

[blackjack]

It can work provided there is the possibility of advancement. If the kids know that they will be in the bottom class for the whole year what motivation do they have to try. It also motivates the higher level kids to keep the grades up

[nomad-ish]

my school's done with this with one grade level last year. i hate it. if you work from the book, it won't be half bad, however if you have to plan lessons from scratch, it just adds another whole lesson to plan

[aquaponics08]

I teach in 2 private rural middle schools. One's OK and the co-teacher is great. Starting my 3rd year there. The other school is a VERY rural with less than 80 students and most of them coming from the poor and badly educated farming area the school is in (some are shipped in from the nearest city).

About half the grade 1 students last year didn't know the alphabet. In the level 3 class, only about 4 out of 25 could do the text book. We had to split them up, and actually use books I've used to teach 1st and 2nd grade elementary school students. One was Let's Go Phonics. It was the only way the students learned letters and the alphabet. We went on from there, but it's amazing how badly some of these rural kids do.

The teachers are stuck as well and many don't care, either. My co-teacher at this school was getting ready to retire and did not care at all if the kids learned anything. Hopefully, this year will be better there. There's some great kids there, but it feels like very little is being accomplished overall. You can only do so much a couple days a week.