Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ilsanman]

I am teaching at 2 places. One adult place in the morning/afternoon and 1 children's place in the evening.

It's a fulltime position, and a darn good one at that. I get paid a very fair wage and only do 5 hours of classes a day, blocked. 1 hour, 10 minutes off. Repeat. Curriculum is decent. Class prep doesn't take more than 5 minutes per class. Other things are good too.

But I hate my job. How is that?

In 2008, I was so burned out on kids, I moved to an adult academy and took the dreaded split shift. Though the hours sucked, I loved my job. I did it for a while.

After the contract was up, I changed to my current job situation to make more money while shortening my work day. I barely had any time to play with my daughter with the old schedule.

I came into the kids job with a fresh mind, after not teaching kids for more than a year. While my co-workers were getting irked by every little stupid thing the kids do, I was calm and collective. I laughed it off and just ignored them in their stupidest moments.

Now I am feeling stressed by the kids. Little by little, they ground me down to the point that I go into the teacher's room and avoid them during the break. I find myself dreading certain classes with certain idiots.

These kids are not even the worst I have seen. They are the normal, hyperactive, lazy, ADHD Korean kids I have always taught.

5 1/2 months is my limit but I will need to tough it out until the end of the contract. It'll be a fun ride.

[E_athlete]

what do you think about applying corporal punishment?

[Starbucks]

Good luck man! What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, and it takes a strong person to stick it out. Kudos to you for not running, your employer is lucky to have you.

[cwflaneur]

Yeah that's why I switched to adults, myself. Kids are just not worth the god damn hassle. The stress level is just too high.

[D.D.]

It is you who is stressed and the kids just help you to feel that. As you said when you were not stressed the kids were no problem. Find ways like massage, meditation, hiking , acupuncture, tea to take the stresses away.

[iammac2002]

Ja Ilsanman, my mate, go hashing. The beer will relieve your stress. Hmm, maybe you need some change. I shaved my hair one day, and had to wear wigs for 3 months! Maybe you should grow your hair really long. Or get a beard.

My worst kids are going to middleschool in Sept, and I can't wait to get rid of them. Then I'll only have the the ones with the ADDH, and not the ones with the ADDH and the bullying.

[Ilsanman]

The kids are the largest source of stress in my life. I barely even get irked by ajumma shoving anymore since I give it back to them 2-fold. Except maybe the asshole living downstairs from me and his village-drunk friends.

Today the director took aside our 3 worst kids and scolded the hell oput of them for something not related to my class. I kicked one of them out for being disruptive, and he refused to leave. I got the boss and he promptly left. Go figure.

I seem to be the most popular teacher there, since I play a lot of games (most of them legitimate learning games) in class and don't go too hard on them. If I turn into nasty angry teacher, it'll be their own fault.

I am pretty sure I can go the distance.

Hashing? Of course. On on.

[ddeubel]

Teaching is a roller coaster ride. One month ecstatic, one month of hell. One week of feeling on top of the world, two weeks of dragging yourself there.

My advice : 1: accept the situation , merely accepting something means you have overcome it. 2: take solace in the simple things. You are making a BIG difference just by showing up. Let that keep your head high. Teaching is a vocation, not just a pay check.

Many here just for a paycheck. Nothing wrong with that. But if you really want to let this experience satiate your soul and make you "more" human - trying being committed and feeling that the sun also rises....

Keep up the good work and even just making one kid "happy" , is a success...

DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com
http://teachingrecipes.com

[PatrickGHBusan]

ddeubel...that was an outstanding post. It really breaksdown what teaching is.

Well done and great advice there.

[iammac2002]

In my worst class today, the kids kept switching the light off, and hiding behind me. So the next time they did that, I just kicked the one behind me in the balls. And CCTV didn't even see me, so he couldn't go running to the Korean teachers.

[iggyb]

This is why teachers need a winter and summer vacation like the kids get in the US. You really do need to recharge your batteries after a time.

Your history with the kids was like mine in Korea. I actually had fun with little kids at times. More than I expected, but it does wear you down. I think you really have to want to work with kids to do it for years. With adults, you might wing it enough to get by and just be in it for the pay check, but with kids, it takes more of a commitment and mind-set to do it or you burn out.

I'm going back to Korea to teach for a couple of years, but I'll only do children as a very last choice.

But I'll also keep reminding myself -- high school teens in the US can routinely be a major pain with some classes just being rotten.

That's just teaching...

I watched the veteran teachers and took some comfort that they still had classes from time to time that were a net bad and regularly frustrating...

[andrewchon]

iammac:
Thank you for sharing that blissful moment.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[cwflaneur]

[iammac2002]