Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

If you teach high school or middle school, what are your schedule and classes like?

I read someone talking about teaching 22 different individual classes per week - seeing each group of students once a week. Is that the norm? What is your situation?

I know some counties in Georgia, USA will do similar things when they start an ESL program as the immigrant community expands out into the countryside. I have talked to recruiters for counties that will hire one or two TESOLers for the entire county and have you drive from school to school to "teach." I don't give such jobs any consideration...

But, in getting back to Korea, I'll have to deal with whatever they give me. I would obviously prefer to be in a place where actual teaching were possible.

What is the norm? What have you seen or heard in secondary schools?

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

I did 22 classes seeing each of grades 1 and 2 classes once a week. My recruiter had told them I would do 23 no problem but I made up for the first month of doing that without O'T by dropping a class a week until we were "even"

I managed to remove the 1st grade classes during the second half of the year, seeing grade 2 classes twice a week.

Seeing a class once a week was a waste of time. I also found the first grade students really obnoxious in general (worst school in rich neighbourhood Bundang)

[iggyb]

Thanks.

I could use my imagination to get something out of twice a week. Once a week is just a false show of education in terms of language learning.

[Epicurus]

[iggyb]

So - once a week is the norm? What percentage - 90% 60% ???

I'm going back to Korea for a few reasons, and if I end up placed in a situation where real teaching isn't realistic, these other things will make the time worth it.

I'd much rather believe I am being effective in my job, but if the system makes that impossible, I'll adjust and do what I can - and concentrate on these other items...like learning Korean until I get fluent, being with my mother-in-law during this difficult time, doing volunteer work with NK-related NGOs, going to historical sites I'm interested in, and so on...

[E_athlete]

i teach 20 classes a week. The same class twice per week normally.

I also teach 3 extra 1.5hr convo classes a week for 150000. I get an extra 600000 in my pay in addition to the 2.1m base salary. I guess in reality I work 24.5 hrs a week. The rest of the time I'm desk warming which is basically browsing forums like Dave's, checking my e-mails and reading manga.

My contract says 22 hrs but I have yet to get more than 20 classes. Some weeks I only have 18 classes. You never know what you will get. I'm with EPIK btw.

[bassexpander]

iggyb, it is common to see students just once per week.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[E_athlete]

[thoreau]

[oldtactics]

I teach 20 classes a week, 40 students in each class. I teach 800 students a week and I see them each once. Academic school.

It's... not ideal.

[E_athlete]

[iggyb]

One time a week isn't teaching, but if schools only have one native speaker - well... Sounds like a no win situation for everybody involved...

I'll be in Seoul.

[iggyb]

I don't know how this would work with 40 students, but one thing I did in hakwons with adults was bring in a TV and VCR with tapes of a popular Korean sitcom at the time.

I played it in short 1-3 minute segments between pressing pause and asking the students to tell me what was going on or asking specific questions about their actions or what they said.

The students responded to it well. We got a lot of practice correcting mistakes and generated talk about cultural differences.

And it was something that required no preparation work on their part before class or after. It was something everybody could engage in instantly...

I wonder if I could get away with something like that occasionally at a high school?

As a lesson, it really did work in getting students into the discussion and worked on common grammar and vocabulary in a non-boring way...

If I'm going to only see the classes one day a week, I'll have to have some routines to use, and right off the top of my head, that is the first one I can think of that I've used before and had success with...

[Epicurus]