Korean Job Discussion Forums

fakeplastiktree · Joined: 15 Oct 2007 Location: Northeast Seoul

What exactly are a co-teacher's obligations? I'm not talking about what to expect from the average co-teacher (although, I'd be interested in hearing about that as well)... but rather what co-teachers should be doing.

D.D. · Joined: 29 May 2008

I always hope they get out of the way.

asmith · Joined: 18 Jun 2009

SweetTea · Joined: 14 Jul 2009

I'm not sure if the Korean teachers that work at my hagwon are co-teachers or not (we don't teach class at the same time) but I can usually depend on them to step in when I'm having a problem with a student. In my teaching manual it says to go to the student's homeroom teacher if I have any problems.

andrewchon · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:38 am Post subject: obligation

There are lot of things they ought to do for you, but in the end s/he is obligated only to treat you with respect deserving of just another school employee. It's their duty as teachers to do what is best for the students' education. How much you are involved in the classroom depends on what they think is best for the students. How much they'll help you to be happy and ready to work depends on what they think is best for the students.

fakeplastiktree · Joined: 15 Oct 2007 Location: Northeast Seoul

Are they expected to take care of disciplining the students, like let's say if a student is talking at the same time as me or if a student is not cooperating during an activity or something like that? I'm talking about a public school co-teacher, for the record.

andrewchon · Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:27 pm Post subject: co-teacher

If you say expected then no. You can ask the co-teacher to do it if you can't do it yourself, but you should learn how to do it yourself. Whether they'll do it if asked is up to the co-teacher's opinion of what is best for the students.

If you say this is awfully convenient for them and leaves a lot of room for abuse on their part, yes it is.