Korean Job Discussion Forums

Cerberus · Joined: 29 Oct 2009

my contract expires later than the usual beginning of school year one.

coming into the final stretch of my 2nd year here. Up until now I've been treated magnificently.

I knew before I came in today.. that the P and VP would be gone, replaced by new ones.

The new VP is an old guy, doesn't speak a lick of English and shook my hand like a fish (this one doesn't look good)

I learned my old dept head resigned (I had great relationship with her) because she didn't want the stress, so I have a new dept head. Damn!
Well, at least this guy seems nice and affable enough.

Tons of new teacher faces, I feel like a stranger. The good news is that there are some younger female teachers to look at and the one that actually interests me got moved into my current office and sits right behind me (would've been better if she sat directly across, but oh well)

Have yet to see/meet new P.

the opening ceremony hasn't begun and of course I know nothing about my upcoming schedule, but that was to be expected. It's always like that on the first day of the new year or semester.

at least my handler is back, which I knew she would be and we get along quite well.

but all of brass I had great relationships with seem to be gone.

If they get net funding and offer to extend my contract (I was told by old brass if they get money, I can happily stay), I may decline.

but it's only been 1.5 hours. We'll see what happens?

how about YOU? how has your school/how have your conditions changed ?

they also shuffled around my desk/dept but that's not a big deal though I preferred my old spot.

reactionary · Joined: 22 Oct 2006 Location: korreia

I was late for the first time and on the first day - poor form on my part. Called my handler and she told me we could just not tell the new VP.

Went to get my slippers from my usual cubbie and they were missing. I found one labeled "NATIVE" in korean, which had an unidentified pair of slippers. So I'm wearing the loaners. Good thing the ones I lost were just the throwaway faux adidas ones.

New coteachers, should meet with them today.

Cerberus · Joined: 29 Oct 2009

Bloopity Bloop · Joined: 26 Apr 2009 Location: Seoul yo

Well, this past term I had an absolutely amazing co-teach and the total opposite in another.

As luck would have it, the former is taking the rest of the year off and the latter has been promoted to head teacher of my dept.

Replacing the awesome one is a dude who just graduated from uni. Considering that we are both very new teachers with only my 5 months of experience between us, I can already tell this will be an interesting 6 months.

So far, the new co-teach has been pretty untalkative. Probably nervous or something and there's a pretty big language barrier. Seems like a nice enough guy, though.

I'll try to make the most of it without thinking about how easy/care-free my job was prior to all the changes.

dirving · Joined: 19 Nov 2009 Location: South Korea

My new co-teacher seems nice, but I wish that she'd answer my questions and inform me of critically important information before the last minute. For example, there are no classes today. She just told me about this fact five minutes ago. Also, I had to call an interpreter to find out that, although she understood my questions, she did not think that it was necessary to answer them. Shocked

thoreau · Joined: 21 Jun 2009

My one co-teacher left and the replacement is from the other side of town. Looks good so far.

My other co-teacher said she was leaving - but she returned. That's good too because we work well together.

My VP rotated out after only 1 year at the school. It seems that a high school in the city wanted him and he worked his connections.

The old Head Teacher is gone and one of the old teachers now has that role. He's a good guy.

The new music teacher seems friendly. The old music teacher never spoke to me at all during the last semester. The new art teacher is quiet but that would be an improvement over the last guy.

Prior to today I had decided that I would not return this school and most likely not to Korea. But that might change based on what I'm feeling today.

Cerberus · Joined: 29 Oct 2009

Cerulean · Joined: 19 Aug 2009

My lazy co-t is staying and another lazy one is joining in our schedule.

I know how they operate so it's less figuring out for me to do. New co-t's require a trial period and I'm glad I've by-passed this for this year.

Cerberus · Joined: 29 Oct 2009

met my new co-teacher.

I think that relationship will turn out quite well.

SW · Joined: 08 Sep 2009 Location: Korea

This new "share your class with one K-teacher" thing they have at SMOE is already turning out to be more horrible than I expected (and my expectations were already execrably low). Anyone else with SMOE have any ideas on how it'll work out at their school?

Kurtz · Joined: 05 Jan 2007 Location: ples bilong me

My new co-teacher announced after 10 mins that I earn more than her so I have to do more work.....could be an interesting year.

Cerberus · Joined: 29 Oct 2009

wallythewhale · Joined: 12 Mar 2009

New Principal - the guy is pretty cool I guess. He's like all the other principals...don't really talk much and knows little to no English.
New coteachers - had 3 last year (1 left to another school, another wanted nothing more to do with English, and the last decided that she'd like to stick around and help me out again this year). My handler last year is also one of my coteachers this year so I'm stoked about that because we joke around a lot and she communicates well with me. The other co-teacher is rather old and decided she wanted to take on the 6th graders. It's going to be an interesting year with her.
New teachers - I honestly don't know them at all but I guess I have the whole year.
New English "conversation" teacher - She's Korean...doesn't seem like she understands English (I've spoken to her and she barely gets by in our conversations). Not exactly sure why they hired her because I honestly thought that the whole conversation part was my job? Someone correct this.
New Title - I'm no longer an assistant or the conversation Teacher. I'm the English Grammar Teacher now. Not liking the new title at all.
Still have my old desk, old teachers still love me, and so overall, I think it's going to be another great semester/year.

Manuel_the_Bandito · Joined: 12 Sep 2009

Same as always. No problems.

hockeyguy109 · Joined: 22 Dec 2008 Location: Daegu

New Principal - First staff meeting today, declared "Men are superior to women. Only a fool would think women can take charge. The bible says so!"

He said this in front of our staff of 30 women and 3 men (including myself).

Dude is nuts. We also have to wear ties to work now. He looks like Kim Jung Il and sounds like Hitler on the intercom. (I'm not just saying that. His speech patterns are uncanny..volume, etc too.)

My contract ends in a couple weeks. Thinking about leaving a note on the desk for my replacement that just says "RUN AWAY!"