Korean Job Discussion Forums

iggyb · Joined: 29 Oct 2003

People teaching in public schools, how often are your classes observed?

I mean any formal or informal observations...

(I guess you could say that every class is observed since you are co-teaching......hmmm.....)

Where I work, they can't understand why certified teachers in their home countries with teaching experience and MAs (mostly related to teaching) don't like being observed about 15 times a semester, 30 times a year ---- when we know that Korean teachers are angry that their observations have moved from 2 to 4 a year this year....

jonpurdy · Joined: 08 Jan 2009 Location: Ulsan

Once per year for me.

tanklor1 · Joined: 13 Jun 2006

thegadfly · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

...maybe they are trying to learn something from you?

Seriously, though -- why would it bother you if you get observed once, nonce, or every day, assuming that you are doing the job you have been hired to do?

Carla · Joined: 21 Nov 2008

Only once after we hired two new Korean teachers. All the classes were recorded and "analyzed." No biggie.

iggyb · Joined: 29 Oct 2003

iggyb · Joined: 29 Oct 2003

On observations back in our home countries:

I never prepare something special for announced observations. I do pretty much what I do day-to-day, and I stick with the flow of whatever class is going to be observed.

That's why I don't really mind the unannounced observations that happen where I teach in the US...

I didn't mind at first the observation regime when I arrived in Korea.

But, that was then....

Now, I see how it undermines the curriculum and curriculum development and stems from a genuine disrespect for us as real teachers.

The bottomline is - it damages the quality of education we can offer.

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

thegadfly · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Iggyb,

I agree that micro-management and contradictory "suggestions" lead to instability -- I just didn't immediately associate those two situations with being observed.

With the growing number of cameras showing up in classrooms (either put there by the schools or carried by the students on cellphones), it really isn't such a bad idea to work from the basic premise that one is always being observed.

iggyb · Joined: 29 Oct 2003

My first time in Korea, I taught only adults at the start, and I had only a little teaching experience at the time.

Since they were adults, I tried the first two months to --- ask the students what they wanted and mold my classes to them. It didn't work out at all.

And what I learned, at least for myself back then, was that I needed to be consistent in my teaching and the leader of the class. Students will adapt to me and my teaching style.

I favored student-centered classes, and I think a teacher has to adapt to each new class at the start of a period of instruction ----- but classes need stability and a direction set by the teacher. Modifications should be made along with way, but the teacher needs to be the focal point of things.

Once students lose sight of the teacher as the leader of the class and gets the sense there is no direction - things fall apart.

The basic principles of a team work.

Team work includes everybody, but you need a leader.

Two leaders don't work well.

Leadership by committee doesn't work most of the time.

Trying to teach a class where creating the curriculum is up to you - including a semester plan done before the class begins - but then you are undermined by the system of ongoing supervision and encouragement of the "students" to think they have close to equal power to you in deciding what work gets done in the class and what methods are used ----- is a major pain in the a$$.

It breeds instability and lowers motivation -- of the teacher and the students.

I put in a lot of hours last semester. A lot...

Now I'm a 9-5er...

It is a big reason why I'll be moving on at the end of this contract.