Korean Job Discussion Forums

[beckett]

Ok so had meeting about my winter camp today with another school and I am freaking out big time.They have asked me to supply a ridiculous amount of lesson plans in two weeks time.On top of this a load of materials / music etc. In fact the direct quote was "We need to make a book!". I did not get to meet with other NET's so I have no clue what is going on.All I know is that the topics are music, cooking , sport , science and the body.Is it normal for them to drop a bombshell like this on teachers? I mean I have an open class this week and 25 reports to write on an after school class this week aswell as my normal lessons. I know I will be able to make pancakes and play sport and maybe watch a movie for part of the camp but it's a ridiculous amount of work in 2 weeks ?? I feel like my head is going to explode. I am obviously a newbie and did not expect this all

Whats everybody's winter camp schedule like ?
Any tips or good websites to blag some stuff off ?
Cheers in advance !

[beckett]

just spotted the music section on this site some good stuff on there

[rationality]

What they probably mean about the book is that they want you to just print out a bunch of worksheets relating to those topics you mentioned.

You still have another month and a half to go. Just search some ESL websites for free worksheet handouts, and consolidate and stack them together, and hand them to your co-teacher. She will know what to do with them.

Then you may have to make up some lesson plans that don't have to be too detailed for each day you teach during camp.

And if you are having some trouble with obtaining all the worksheets, then ask your co-teacher to help you out with it. You co-teacher may have some stuff on file from her/his previous camps.

Don't freak out too much. It will come in due time. I know others will probably give you some links to help you out. I can't right now, I am on the road. Good luck.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

Maybe you could suggest they buy a single ESL textbook from the bookstore and simply photocopy the first few lessons. I have spent hours editing books and changing page numbers because of some neurotic @#$holes who only lost the thing when the camp was finished-- but ultimately this is always acceptable-- they usually don't care about copyrights, and definitely don't offer to make a table of contents or change page numbers, because it's hellish. But it beats writing a new one.

And yes... you can usually find lesson plans online. Actually... you'll probably be able to to do up a textbook from a single site.

[OculisOrbis]

Ask them for the books from previous camps and most of your work is done. There is no reason to try and reinvent the wheel. Also, teachers usually take one section/theme and teach it to a number of different groups during the camp. Ask about that and offer to take the one that interests you the most. It is pretty unreasonable to think that you would have to plan the entire camp for all the other teachers.

[VanIslander]

[DosEquisXX]

I am actually wondering about this myself.

My summer camp was one week at one school (8 classes per day) and one week at another school (interrupted by a family tragedy). The first school now wants to expand the camp from 1 week morning/afternoon to 3 weeks morning classes only without any pay increase. Then I'd have the one week at the other school.

Are there any rules or restrictions on what public schools can do regarding these camps? If they wanted to, could they just have you work straight through the vacation in a summer camp program?

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Love your sarcasm Van. Though the last-minute BS comes from the school being poorly organized and not planning ahead rather than them waiting a long time just to screw you over.

[DosEquisXX]

[buildbyflying]

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

[VanIslander]

[Rusty Shackleford]

[jonpurdy]

When they say that they need to make a book, they mean that they will take all the lesson plans from all the teachers and compile them into one book. Each lesson plan you do can be extremely simple. Ask them for a template; in Ulsan they provided us with a template that we just fill in for each lesson.

AFAIK, lesson plans in advance of camp are standard practice here. I've done both winter and summer camps and we were required to submit lessons about a month before the camps started.

The topics that they give you are intentionally vague. You can teach anything you wish as long as it falls under that topic. So for music, you can choose to teach about Korean music, American pop, classical, whatever you want. You can also do worksheets, games, listening activities, etc. It's totally your choice. I always have a bit of trouble coming up with ideas so look at lesson plans and activities on the internet.

Keep in mind that you don't have to make amazing detailed plans, just basic details are fine. And you can also change them once you start teaching.

As far as pay goes, check your contract. For EPIK, anything over 22 hours per week is extra pay. However, the contract is worded that they can actually have you teach 22 class hours per week, which means if classes are 40 minutes long you must teach 33 classes with no extra pay. It's stupid, but that's how the contract works. It's something that I really wish they would re-word properly. Of course, any teaching outside of M-F 9-5 is paid at overtime rate of 30,000 won/hour.

For vacation time, sometimes your main school and camps overlap and plan for you to teach such that you can't use your vacation. Simply talk to your VP or the MOE and have them sort it out. Make sure that you are firm in saying that you must take your vacation time as it's in your contract, but try to be flexible with the dates. I split my vacation time (conveniently) such that I spend two weeks in Canada for Xmas and a week in Thailand in February. My VP wasn't happy about me missing some February classes but it was necessary to use my vacation days.

[DosEquisXX]

[Easter Clark]

Take a look here:

http://iteslj.org/t/tmm/

There may be some activities you can use.