Korean Job Discussion Forums

[le-paul]

I know its common practice for Hogwan owners to make teachers come in early to lesson prep.
In the past Ive been asked to come in around 30 mins early which is ample time becasue Im mostly using books and dont need much time to look over them. I have plenty of time to prepare for convo lessons the prior week.
my current hogwan boss is a tight a ss and asks me to come in 1 hour early everyday which is rediculous becasue Im sitting around for (at least) 30 mins everyday doing nothing. I dont get paid for this time.
Has anyone tried contesting this stupid rule?
Im near the end of my contract so Im ot too worried about rocking the boat becasue I dont care if I get a reference.
Thanks for any input

[toadkillerdog]

Making a decent lesson generally involves more than just looking over your text books. Sounds like your boss is just expecting you to act like a teacher.

[le-paul]

did you read what I wrote?
I said I have ample time to prepare during the prior week.

At the moment I have 2 text books - one is phonics (5 mins to read through) the other requires no preparation becasue I am mostly reading.
Otherwise I have to prepare conversation lessons and at the moment have enough to last me for the next 3 months.

So thanks for that, but it wasnt what I asked...

[sulperman]

My last hagwon required that we come in 2 hours before class. 1 hour is nothing, guy.

[Son Deureo!]

The fact that it could be worse is irrelevant. What does your contract say about your working hours? That's what matters here.

[le-paul]

Son Deureo! - thanks for answering - contract says 30 hours teaching - am currently here for 36

other poster -
thanks for that again - but its not what I asked.
I have also in the past come in an hour - sometimes more. But that wasnt what I asked.
My hogwan director is the kind of person that has kept me sitting here for every minute of the day and never once let me go early or cut me any slack.
He oftens makes teachers work back, overtime and never pays them -

I AM EXPECTED TO WORK 7 HOURS STRAIGHT WITHOUT A BREAK.

I am wondering if anyone has ever contested extra time rule and what if any thing happened - im asking becasue on this occasion - i dont feel like giving my free time when I get zip in return.

please dont answer unless you are answering my question

[thegadfly]

I agree with Toadkillerdog.

30 minutes is ample time to prepare one lesson, maybe two -- do you only teach one or two classes a day? If not, then you are most likely underprepared. An hour a day, assuming you are teaching 6 different classes a day, is actually quite a reasonable request.

Teaching is a profession, and as such, places demands upon the person, outside of classroom time. If you can not handle that, then perhaps you should find hourly work somewhere else.

If you are simply reading out of textbooks, then you aren't actually teaching. If you are winging conversation classes without any sort of plot or plan, then you are not actually teaching. Perhaps your job does not require you to actually teach, which is fine -- if you don't have to teach, and you don't want to teach, and your boss lets you not teach, then don't teach...but preparation time is part of teaching, and an hour prep for 6 hours of class is way under the bare minimum -- rule of thumb is 20 minutes prep for each hour of class, which would be about 2 hours of prep a day (making your 6-class days an 8-hour workday -- imagine -- a 40-hour workweek for a full-time worker! Wow!).

[thegadfly]

le-paul,

Are you willing to quit your job over the hour? If so, then make the demand. Either your boss will cave, or he won't. If he caves, you are golden; if he doesn't then look for another job. The hour of prep is not unreasonable, but unpaid overtime and 7 hours back-to-back with no breaks or other considerations ARE unreasonable -- personally, either of those other things are what I would be confronting my boss about...and I can see how, if you are dealing with those things, that the hour of prep you feel you don't need is the final straw...but I think it is the wrong straw to protest, personally.....

Good luck, and like I said, those other two things you mentioned (unpaid OT, and long shifts of back-to-back classes without a break) would have me "discussing" things with my boss and updating my resume....

[le-paul]

i wasnt really wanting to get into a discussion about my skills as a teacher.

I have been teaching for 15 years in different countries/contexts and have got around 200 fool proof teaching lesson plans as well as a list of activities as long as myu arm which I can call on (with my files of pre preapred sheets) at a moments notice- all made out with worksheets and everything if need to cover every lesson/level i will need -
therefore - i dont need to spend anytime preparing conversation classes (the majority of what Im doing). Usually, I have one free lesson a day in which to prepare anything else that I will need - this is not called bad teaching - its called time management/preparation.

If youve ever taught in a real education system, you will know that the first year or two are tough and need a lot of planning - after that - you can re-use alot of your old lesson plans. Every real teacher knows that you can re-cycle ideas.

It would be very unecessary for me to spend '20 minutes' everyday - per class going through other books that I need as they dont even require winging.

and yes I am teaching - the books are simple and most importantly - pre-prepared and do not need any preparation... - if anyone has taught at a Jungchul academy and used the 'jc book' - reading section - they will be able to support this.
My phonics classes are exactly the same everyweek and require me putting a cd into the computer 1 minute before the class - thats it. I am not allowed to deviate from that - even to play games.


I dont know why Im defending myself on here as a teacher?
And Im not getting drawn into a debate on whether or not hogwan teaching is really teaching etc etc. -
but please dont be so arrogant as to assume I dont know what Im doing and you do because Im not spending 3 hours a day planning...

[Leon]

At my academy I have about four hours of nothing to do per day. I come in at one and my first class isn't until 4:10 or 4:20. I then have at least one period each day between classes where I'm not teaching. I "prep" more than I teach mostly because the school doesn't have enough students for all the class time I'm contractually obligate to provide. My director thinks since he pays me for that I time I should be there. I tried to challenge it but had no luck. My academy is closing at the end of November so I'm just riding it out dicking around for four hours a day in the office.

[thegadfly]

Le-paul,

Ok, if you have that much experience as a teacher, that means you have dealt with 15 years worth of administrators -- and with that much experience, you honestly have no idea how your protesting the hour of required prep would go? Really?

If you are a teacher with 15 years experience, and you are not allowed to deviate one iota from a canned lesson plan, probably written by someone with less experience and less intimate knowledge of the target language than you -- but your boss won't give you even THAT MUCH freedom-- why the heck do you think he might let you out of the prep time?

He won't. It will be a fight. Thus, if it goes to a fight, you need to decide how far you will take the fight -- will you quit over it? If you won't, you may need to capitulate anyway to keep your job, except then you would be working under the same conditions, but with far less goodwill between you and your boss. In that case, I think the fight is not worth it.

However, if you ARE willing to quit over it, then go for it -- best case, you get what you want, worst case, you are out of there, looking for work where you will be happier. In either case, chances are you will improve your situation -- by checking your next job's requirements more carefully, or finding a place that is a better fit.

[northway]

[thegadfly]

Northway,

If I wasn't told about a "required" amount of prep time, but discovered that once I took the job, they sprung it on me, you can be sure I would specifically ask about prep time in my next job interview...and double-check the answers with teachers that currently work at the school (or better, with teachers that formerly worked at the school, but no longer do). Unpaid OT, the length of shifts, and required prep are pretty easy to find out about, if you actually ASK the questions -- but they are not the kind of thing that a school will offer to tell you about if you do not ask....

I am just saying, now the OP will know better what to ask...and more careful consideration of job prospects may make the OP happier in the future -- how are either of those ideas BS?

[tiddles]

I brought a school to the labor board over prep time...here's what the deal was:

Contract says x teaching hours. employer forces extra 1.5-2 hours/day for prep time, doesn't pay overtime for those extra hours. LB forces school to pay retroactively for ALL those extra 2 hours/day from the start of contract, minus a half hour each day since teacher was taking a lunch break. Ruling also said something about prep being one of the teacher's duties, but you could do that prep at home if you wanted. I got paid a pile of cash and subsequently was only in the school for my teaching hours for the rest of my contract, but was basically teaching 6 hours straight. I could've contested the 6/hours with no break thing too, according to the attorney, but at that point I was so close to being finished that I couldn't be bothered.

[PatrickGHBusan]