Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TCK]

Teacher burn out. What are the signs?

Hate teaching? Yep. Hate coming to work? Yep. Feel like you want to explode at the next slow student who walks through the classroom door and kick 'em in the butt to get them to speak quicker?

Well, maybe not yet. But that's the way I feel as of lately. Burned out. . .at the end of my patience. . .like I need some other source of inspiration, etc.

Doing this kind of teaching is not your regular teaching. It's more. We don't have those times of refreshing like real teachers do, i.e., month vacations or summers off. Although university teachers have this, our jobs are sheer drudgery.

So how do you prevent burn out? Read a book? Change of routine? I honestly feel my mind needs a break, but these measley one week vacations, just won't give me a real rest.

[Alias]

A really healthy sex life helps a lot. It does for me anyways. Of course it might be different for girls over here. For guys this is paradise.

[wildBillLee]

Burn out has to do with stress, too. If you've had enough, it may be time to consider moving on. Get out of the country. Burn out in Korea has a number of contributing factors. That's my view.

[W.T.Carl]

Burn out is teaching 45 to 50 hours per week for anything more than a month.

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Question was:

[weened]

While you won't get a true break until you finish your contract you should try getting out of your city at least once a month. The change of scenery does wonders to remove you from your rut. A week sitting in my apt. drinking relieves far less stress than a day and a half out of my everyday environment. When your contract does end take at least a month off and go to another country.

I never did figure out how to stop projecting my frustration onto my students...

[Squaffy]

speaking as a non-newbie to the ESL world - I'd say jus bash them n then quit. Hate it when the iccle buggers n their mothers get it on. Go get 'em and make a stand.

[Tancred]

teacher burn out....i hear ya, i hear ya....i've even started smoking again....

[Len8]

Where do you live? If you live in a down town area, take a walk around the neighbourhood. Go into the Korean bars,the tabangs the coffee shops. Check em out at night. Don't stay home. Get out of the house. Some of those places are very foreigner friendly. Even what appear to be korean bars are foreigner friendly. If you don't drink order juice. most of them have girls who are passable in English. Often some of the men in those places will speak in english to help you relax and seetle in. Then they leave you alone.
Check everything out.

[MrTESL]

Not knowing your situation, I'll tell you mine:

My first year in Korea was at a split-shift adults hagwan - sometimes 3 shifts a day. No vacation, drinking every night and up again at 5:30 am. After 8 months I was burnt out.

Some things gave me brief respite - weekend trips, booze, sex - but the only real cure was finishing that contract and taking a few months off.

Hang in there.


___________________________________
Cheap, fast TESL certification - http://members.rogers.com/tesl/

[gajackson1]

Ever see the old, old Tom Hanks movie, Bachelor Party?

Yeah. Get something like that. Not sure where to find the donkey, but the other stuff is very do-able.

G. [/b]

[VanIslander]

I agree with the exercise advice since it's helped me greatly of late.

But, most of all, getting more sleep is key. It really takes off the edge.

As does changing how you teach in the classroom a bit, maybe by introducing a new activity, challenging yourself to do something different, first by researching alternatives or by impulsive whim: experiment!

These ways have helped me shake the early signs of burnout in my second year.

[captain kirk]

I felt really snappy and mad as a hatter the last few weeks for having a strained back and not being able to get out beyond going to work with a tilt, hunching around. I'm at month four, the dreaded real reality wall smack dab at the end of an extended honeymoon period, looking for the inspiration to do unpaid overtime conjuring up some new wrinkles.
Mobility does it for me, being able to get around town and out of it on your own, without a bus, train, taxi, etc. Like a motorbike, or a car.
As well as getting out into nature on the weekend, walking off into the woods following not a road, but a stream to see what nowhere, wild garden regions it leads to. Nature is not Korean with big signs all over it, and is neutral in a relaxing way with the sensory input, like breezes and visuals being non-hazardous to your health (like exhaust and the dolorous grey of concrete).
Also, some kind of off-time hobby that pushes you to get absorbed and produce, get results in it so that when you get to work you haven't been thinking of, or anticipating, being at work. Watching videos or drinking to excess or both is passive and leads to a caged feeling like that of being at work when it comes down to it (sure, work is exhilarating).

[Crois]

At the moment i am fighting teacher burn out.
What i am doing is this,

Learn the language and try and find out what they are saying. Becoming more Korean in some ways helps.

I now go for long walks in the mornings just to get out. It's better than staying in the flat.

Also I am going to Busan, been to Seoul and other places.

Getting a cat to amuse me.

Try and meet other people and go for drinks with them. Even off Dave's. Look at a map and ask if anyone wants to go for a drink or lives there.

[sistersarah]

i'm fighting it too....sometimes i can't get out of school fast enough. one thing i've been doing to fight it is just relaxing, even in class. i don't mean sitting and letting them do whatever....i've just realized that if i loosen up a bit in class, waste the first ten minutes just talking to them about anything...rollercoasters, dinosaurs, anything...it gets me in a better state of mind for the rest of the class and i'm less likely to lose my patience....

oh ya...