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SW
Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Location: Korea
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 Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:14 am Post subject: PS people - how would you handle this? |
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I've posted on this forum before about my intense dislike of my SMOE job. Predictably, things got a lot worse with the beginning of the new year. Regular teaching hours were upped from 20 to 22, I'm going to be "asked" to work two after-school classes (bringing my hours up to 30), I'm tasked with writing review questions for other teachers I don't work with anymore, and I now must teach in tandem (not be assisted by, not alternate with) with one co-teacher for all of the regular hours.
On top of this, a new policy has been instituted in which part of a student's grade is how much they approach me to make conversation. This means that before school begins, at lunchtime, after 3 pm, and sometimes even in passing periods, there's always kids coming to me for a chat, after which I'm supposed to sign in the back of their assignment books.
First of all - am I the only one who has to do this, or was this a SMOE-wide thing?
Secondly, my personal feelings on it - most of the time I actually enjoy talking with my students, and wouldn't mind doing it more often. But they've instituted this policy at the same time they've cut planning time and increased other work I have to do, so obviously I can't get too enthused.
Third, a question - what would you do about it? Obviously there is still a great deal of difference from PS to PS, but I'm curious anyway. Personally I'm not one to make a stink. SMOE is the worst job I've ever had (and I had some BOTTOM jobs back in the States, believe me), but I haven't complained once in more than six months of working there. I'm wondering if it's time to start. I can't help but look at this new policy as a tricky way of violating my contract, since I'm already at 22 hours, and they are giving me a duty to make contact with students outside of that, with no extra pay.
So, if anyone has any constructive input, I'd greatly appreciate it. and btw, I'm 95% sure quitting is out of the question. If I had the resources I would have done it long ago. And I'm already almost 7 months in, so what the heck... |
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Faunaki
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:31 am Post subject: Re: PS people - how would you handle this? |
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| SWquote] wrote: |
| Regular teaching hours were upped from 20 to 22, |
That's the normal amount of hours every NSET is supposed to work. If you work less you may not be renewed - even though you hate your job you may want to stay another year - you never know.
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| I'm going to be "asked" to work two after-school classes (bringing my hours up to 30), |
You will be getting paid extra for those classes. So if you get 30,000 times 8 thats an extra 240,000 a week times a month = an extra mil a month. Have fun with the kids, don't sweat it and enjoy the extra cash.
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| I'm tasked with writing review questions for other teachers I don't work with anymore |
I don't really fully understand this one. Is it more of a paper thing, that should be done but no one really cares about? If that's the case just write some questions and don't put too much thought into it.
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| , and I now must teach in tandem (not be assisted by, not alternate with) with one co-teacher for all of the regular hours. |
Is it a crappy co-t? Cause that would suck. If it were a good one, that'd be OK. SMOE is always trying to get the KETs to teach with the NSETS but all involved know that won't be happening, as most KETs have way too much going on or couldn't give a rat's. I wouldn't worry about it and see how it turns out. Just continue with what u were doing before.
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| On top of this, a new policy has been instituted in which part of a student's grade is how much they approach me to make conversation. This means that before school begins, at lunchtime, after 3 pm, and sometimes even in passing periods, there's always kids coming to me for a chat, after which I'm supposed to sign in the back of their assignment books. |
Who made this rule? Could you talk to someone about it? I know I wouldn't like it because it would get in the way of prep time. Did no one talk to you about it before it began? I would ask around and talk to whomever is in charge, tell em how you feel and let them know you can't prepare for classes properly. Get it changed. |
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jonpurdy
Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:52 am Post subject: Re: PS people - how would you handle this? |
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They're trying to make use of you as much as possible. It sounds like they don't have any ill intentions but (Korean style) they didn't ask for your input on any of it.
| SW wrote: |
| Regular teaching hours were upped from 20 to 22, I'm going to be "asked" to work two after-school classes (bringing my hours up to 30) |
Twenty-two hours is normal. If you were teaching less than that before then you were lucky.
As far as after school goes, you can refuse this or teach as little as you like. If you feel like you need more time to prep, request for four or two classes per week instead of the eight you were assigned. Mention that if they consulted with you beforehand they wouldn't have to change anything now.
| SW wrote: |
| On top of this, a new policy has been instituted in which part of a student's grade is how much they approach me to make conversation. This means that before school begins, at lunchtime, after 3 pm, and sometimes even in passing periods, there's always kids coming to me for a chat, after which I'm supposed to sign in the back of their assignment books. |
This is both fun and terrible at the same time. It'd be nice to have the kids talk to you but the random interruption of work would kill the deal. Perhaps holding office hours (like 2pm-3pm every other day) might work. But I'd definitely let them know that you need your downtime and lesson preparation time. This might be another time to mention that if they asked for your input before they wouldn't have to change things now.
| SW wrote: |
Third, a question - what would you do about it? |
The first time I did after school classes I agreed on eight per week. However, after three months of this I was burned out. So I cut it to four for the next semester. I said that I needed more time to properly prepare for classes otherwise I'd be wasting the student's time. The administration bought this. Make sure that your after school contract (if you have one) isn't for an extended period of time otherwise you could get forced to teach them.
Just remember that they aren't being malicious; a lot of this is probably just to impress the principal and demonstrate that they are using your time effectively. It was probably planned at the last minute (per usual) and not thought of completely through. So keep that in mind when discussing it. |
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sas
Joined: 18 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 3:07 am Post subject: Re: PS people - how would you handle this? |
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| SW wrote: |
On top of this, a new policy has been instituted in which part of a student's grade is how much they approach me to make conversation. This means that before school begins, at lunchtime, after 3 pm, and sometimes even in passing periods, there's always kids coming to me for a chat, after which I'm supposed to sign in the back of their assignment books.
First of all - am I the only one who has to do this, or was this a SMOE-wide thing?
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Oh dear, I feel for you on this one. I had to do this last semester and it nearly killed me. Every single moment of my down time was taken up by students thrusting vouchers into my face so they could have five sentences of free conversation.
I just explained to my co-teacher that it was affecting my ability to plan lessons and that something more structured needed to be implemented. I've sacrificed twenty minutes of my lunch hour each day to give the students the chance to visit me and each grade is allowed to visit me on a specific day (fridays is open to all grades...so I expect mayhem). However, those twenty minutes now count towards my weekly classes and I get paid for them, which makes the whole rigmarole much easier to handle on the whole.
Edit: I work for GEPIK not SMOE |
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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22 hours is the norm as per our contract (as others have stated)... Anything above and beyond that you have the right to refuse...
It's good money if you take it on, but teaching 5-6 hour blocks w/o a break is going to wear you out pretty quick.
Writing review questions for teachers you don't work with... That would piss me off... I would talk to my handler and express in clear and set terms that because I had no idea what those teachers were teaching, it would "therefore be impossible for me to write those questions, so sorry"... You can also just not do them and say that you didn't have time to get to them because you spend all of your prep time talking to kids.
As for that pain in the ass, if they really want you to do is set some sort of "office hours" where kids can come to you, and stick to them. There's nothing worse than kids coming up to you when you're trying to grab a quick bite to eat, or during the 5-10 minutes you have between classes to reset and recharge. Maybe something like 20 minutes before school starts, and an hour or hour and a half after school? |
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oldfatfarang
Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: On the road to somewhere.
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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You're having the most English extracted from you in your contract year. It sounds like you need to be more assertive, and demand some prep (and student free) time. If not, you'll burn out very quickly. That will be your problem, not SMOES, as they can (and will) replace you in a heartbeat. I have seen this (a western co-worker literally had a breakdown in class).
Sadly, my SMOE year was also a nightmare. I had to pull my contract on my second day, to stop compulsory saturday teaching and forced lunchtime student conversation.
One thing Korea teaches us all. You have to be assertive (and polite) to survive here. If you are weak, or over accommodating, you'll have all the Englisheee (and life) sucked out of you (for no extra pay). And then they just "get another one."
Good luck. |
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MattAwesome
Joined: 30 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:10 pm Post subject: |
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that chat thing cant be an smoe thing. ive been doing this for a couple years and never had anything remotely resemble that. it is just a school thing. my old school is having students write journals every week. this school, nothing extra.
what probably happened was, they pressured you into it like they always try to do and you agreed or agreed by not disagreeing. understand? or i could just be wrong. to loophole those random children. have scheduled office hours. and students have to signup for chat time a day before. walk-ins are ok, but only if those are your office hours and no one is scheduled. thats how they did it my uni.
you always have the right to deny extra classes after your 22. after school should be bonus pay and not related to scheduled hours anyway. that's because from what ive experienced, they are run by some third party company.
dont be afraid to say no. it's not their style, but we have the right. |
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The Gipkik
Joined: 30 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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| That after class chat thing with the students would be a no-go for me. If I bump into students in the hall, I always chat with the kids or play fight with them or whatever. But what you mention is much more organized and has administrative consequences, which eats up my time. If the school wants you to have off the cuff talk sessions, get the school to set up a PAID OVERTIME period where students can come and talk and go as they please. This is the right way to go. Be firm but nice and tell them you are not happy with this arrangement. |
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SW
Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:50 pm Post subject: |
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Lots of good ideas here. Thanks guys.
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That's the normal amount of hours every NSET is supposed to work. If you work less you may not be renewed - even though you hate your job you may want to stay another year - you never know.
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Man, I hope not, but with the way things are today I might have to, due to the "don't change horsemen in the middle of an apocalypse" principle.
And I should have been more clear, I didn't mean to complain about having 22 hours per se (actually I was pleased about it at first, because a lot of classes are smaller now), just that it comes at the same time as the extra paperwork/student convos. Interestingly, I also heard originally that they would up regular teaching hours to 24. I wonder if the KT who told me that had misheard, or they changed their minds to avoid paying OT?
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| I don't really fully understand this one. Is it more of a paper thing, that should be done but no one really cares about? If that's the case just write some questions and don't put too much thought into it. |
Sadly, it's just the inverse, it shouldn't really be done, but other teachers care about it anyway. The combined width of all the students' texts is probably greater than an NYC phone book, and in the early chapters of the main text more than half of the material is comprehension questions. This is one of the reasons why I'm not so much a fit for public schools: doing busy-work bothers me too much, even if I am getting paid. At the hagwon a lot of stuff seemed like busy work, but in the end could be justified by the owner trying to keep/attract customers and thus make a profit. A small comfort maybe, but I guess I have a capitalistic mindset.
| Quote: |
| I just explained to my co-teacher that it was affecting my ability to plan lessons and that something more structured needed to be implemented. I've sacrificed twenty minutes of my lunch hour each day to give the students the chance to visit me and each grade is allowed to visit me on a specific day (fridays is open to all grades...so I expect mayhem). However, those twenty minutes now count towards my weekly classes and I get paid for them, which makes the whole rigmarole much easier to handle on the whole. |
Thanks for recounting your experience. I'm going to put this by my head English teacher (who did implement this policy without my consent, btw), and see what she has to say. Who knows, she might like it. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 4:53 pm Post subject: |
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| The Gipkik's 100% correct. Mandatory time to be available for teaching is a teaching period, regardless of what time of the day the school wants you to have it. |
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Gotta love it when they decide your curriculum and how you should teach it without so much as running it by you first... |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:13 pm Post subject: Re: PS people - how would you handle this? |
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| SW wrote: |
I'
On top of this, a new policy has been instituted in which part of a student's grade is how much they approach me to make conversation. This means that before school begins, at lunchtime, after 3 pm, and sometimes even in passing periods, there's always kids coming to me for a chat, after which I'm supposed to sign in the back of their assignment books.
First of all - am I the only one who has to do this, or was this a SMOE-wide thing?
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It was in EPIK as well...at least for me. Only it's not part of their grade...I was just expected to walk around and talk to the kids...to make them feel comfortable.
Now I don't mind talking to them per se but the problems are: They'd rather talk to their friends. A grown man following unrelated children around to talk to them seems a tad creepy (regardless of the intentions). And if Korean teachers don't have to do this...then it just adds to the differences they see between us and therefore feel free to treat us differently.
My reply was along the lines of "I think it is not possible."...my stock reply when asked to do something I don't want to.
"Can you come to dinner?" (announced as I am leaving for home)
TUM: (sucks teeth, looks thoughtful) " I think it is not possible."
"Can you teach 2 extra classes today?" (announced 2 minutes before the start of said classes)
TUM: (sucks teeth, looks thoughtful) "I think it is not possible."
"Can you walk around and talk to the children during [every] lunch hour?"
TUM: (sucks teeth, looks thoughtful) "I think it is not possible."
Try it, you have nothing to lose but your chains...I mean extra out of contract "obligations".
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egrog1717
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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One thing you have to learn here is how to repeat the sentence (probably in your head, but out loud for those times when the stupid comes down like a bag of hammers):
I am not a slave...
I am not a slave...
I am not a slave...
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SW
Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:13 am Post subject: |
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Well, a few weeks on, and they killed the ridiculous policy of having me teach in tandem with the same co-teacher all day. Too many students complained about it (I could have told them that would happen, had they run it by me before implementing it). For the first time, the students' dictation of policy here has worked in my favor.
I've hammered out some rules for student conversations, but haven't demanded any OT pay for them. It fits in with my strategy of killing my co-teachers with kindness and then getting my revenge when I become the next teacher not to renew his contract (none before me renewed either). However, oldfatfarang is right...
| Quote: |
| You're having the most English extracted from you in your contract year. It sounds like you need to be more assertive, and demand some prep (and student free) time. If not, you'll burn out very quickly. That will be your problem, not SMOES, as they can (and will) replace you in a heartbeat. I have seen this (a western co-worker literally had a breakdown in class). |
The latest trick they pulled is telling me, one week before the class was to start, that my after-school class wants to finish an "English book." They said that I was to select one, go to a bookstore outside of working hours on my own time, and purchase it with my own money. After running it by the teachers, they "would see" if the head English teacher could buy a copy for every student, but if not, it would be my responsibility to make photocopies. This is not only in blatant violation of my contract, it's shoddy and illegal to boot.
Assuming I would be compensated for the book at least, I went out and actually purchased several books. These were storybooks, not textbooks, since I figured if they wanted to make copies out of a textbook they could have used the pile they have in the copy room. Well, it turns out my co-teachers did expect me to get a textbook after all. So today, after working hours were over, I went to a location where one of my co-teachers said there was an ELT store to get a textbook. There was no store actually there, so I've now wasted two trips on this extra-contractual nonsense.
As you read this, you may think that I brought this on myself for being such a wimp. You'd be right. To paraphrase OfficeSpace, I'm a big p%#$@, and that's why I work for SMOE in the first place. It ends tomorrow, however. They send me to get the books during working hours when I don't have class, or they don't send me at all.
Another tidbit: about two weeks ago the staff bathrooms on two floors ran out of toilet paper. I waited, but they were never restocked. I alerted my co-teachers, several higher-ups, and the school custodian. Nothing was ever done about it. I had to resort to stocking one of them with my own toilet paper. A tax-funded public school, ladies and gentlemen. |
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Sody
Joined: 14 May 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 7:39 am Post subject: |
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| SW wrote: |
Another tidbit: about two weeks ago the staff bathrooms on two floors ran out of toilet paper. I waited, but they were never restocked. I alerted my co-teachers, several higher-ups, and the school custodian. Nothing was ever done about it. I had to resort to stocking one of them with my own toilet paper. A tax-funded public school, ladies and gentlemen. |
This is normal in most elementary schools in Korea. Do you teach in elementary, junior high or high school? I just make sure to bring those small packets of kleenex with me wherever I go so in case of such emergencies you can use the kleenex as toilet paper. Not exactly ideal, but better than nothing.
I just emailed a friend who is working for SMOE, they don't require him to do conversations outside of the class. But he works in an elementary school. |
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