Korean Job Discussion Forums

[balzor]

I guess I'm not long for this school. AH well I was looking to get out anyways

[rowdie3]

Share some details please. Will help other people to avoid mistakes.

[Poker]

I have my open class tomorrow....

Please do share, how can they possibly "hate" your open class? What did you do/not do?

[lifeinkorea]

They are always going to say negative things. Parents would rather worry and change something than do nothing and feel justified. Of course, during the time you teach them without their presence, they are doing NOTHING to help their child learn at home.

It doesn't matter what another person did or not to, it boils down to communication. If the parents tell you to change and make suggestions, that means they want you to stay. Even if you carried on with the same teaching methods, they wouldn't want you to leave.

It would have to be a political move, like wanting a female teacher instead of male, or someone from another country. This would fit more "Korean" logical reasons to get rid of a teacher.

1. Plan your open class any way you want. Don't try to experiment though unless that is a big part of your daily teaching style. I pick ones that work and students enjoy.

2. Give parents a copy of your lesson, it doesn't have to be all. Just hand out a few. They like to see what you are going to do. If they see what is expected, it at least shows you delivered what you set out to deliver. Anything else is a change and something you "could" add to your lessons if the parents want.

If you don't do this, then parents won't know if you really taught what you were "supposed" to teach.

To add to this, don't try to do too many things. Focus more on repetition with the young kids and move them from the book, exercises, to speaking the same material without any help. This will oooh and ahhh their parents, seeing their child speaking independently (think talent show).

3. Make sure every student has equal time to contribute. If you see certain parents are fussing over their papers, you may want to get their child involved more.

[tanklor1]

Hey, I royally bombed my first open class as well. So, you're not the only one. Take the shots that they have to give and go out drinking with your fellow co-workers after to have a good ol' fashion bitch-fest.

[balzor]

Partly was my fault also. Make sure you have a good warm-up, I didn't. Make sure to have a lot of class interaction, including group AND individual activities. My class happened to be the lowest functioning class and my co-teacher is mute most of the time so I put the burden on myself and they didn't like that either. I talked about Thanksgiving and gave a little history of it and talked about foods and stuff. They thought I took too long to explain stuff. They said I should have given a reading material and let the class do a group discussion. This is not feasible in my class as they are mostly beginners and I would have to explain or read out everything anyways, but the evaluator insisted this was what I should have done.

I admit that I kinda rambled on a little and didn't give my co-teacher a chance to do much, but I treated it as a normal class and I should have not done so.

[asylum seeker]

[definitely maybe]

[Xylox]

[Slowmotion]

You didn't get to pick what class you were able to do the open class with? It seems most open classes are prepared ahead of time with that class, almost rehearsed.

[OThePestO]

Hi,

Is this an EPIK thing? Sorry for the n00b question.

[some waygug-in]

Is this the same as the teacher evaluation class?

I had 2 wildly different experiences with the public schools on these, none of which were anything like what you've described.

In one, I was to work with my co-teacher and a rep. from the ed-office was supposed to come in and watch.

We prepared a class the same as we had always done. When the guy came,
he stuck his nose in the door for 30 seconds, listened to me blab and asked where I was from. He walked away and I heard nothing positive or negative about the class.

I got renewed that year.

The next year, I was teaching with my co-teacher and she asked if I could take the class for a few minutes. She said she had errands to run or something. So I thought no big deal.

After she left, I was conducting the lesson as usual and I noticed 3 or 4 individuals standing in the hallway taking notes. Some were teachers from the school and some looked like ed-officials. No one said a word to me. Nothing, either positive or negative, nothing.

I was not renewed that year. Go figure.


In the next school, I was asked to observe one of the Korean teachers do a sample English class, which I did. I made sure I smiled and said only positive things.

I was then taken to a video room and was asked to make some sample videos for some "unknown" reason. Which I did.

I don't know who used the videos or what for.

I left that school on my own because I couldn't get on with the main co-teacher.


So in answer to the question, "what should I expect?''

Who knows? It varies greatly depending on the school.

[nfld_chingu]

The first class I ever taught in Korea was a "moms and tots" class (teaching mothers and their young children). They didn't like me and asked for a new teacher, so I was basically fired from that class and replaced with another one of the FTs at my school. I was very upset and very hard on myself ... looking back I guess my class wasn't that great, but they didn't really give me a chance and it was literally the first class I ever taught. I was upset about it for a while but got over it.

[Fishead soup]

[oldfatfarang]

OP. Don't worry. Just think about what you might have done better, and then try and incorporate it into your teaching style. Then forget it.

PS Koreans are flakey. Someone had to say it. I've had plenty of 'open' and 'demonstration' classes. They've all been different. Some have been for visiting K professors at nearby universities - visiting or trainee K teachers, the annual dog and pony shows for the POE suits & principals and VPs etc. After each class I've either been re-signed, let go - or I've left of my own accord.

However, this year I had my best demonstration classes. I prepared for 16 visitors, heaps of interesting realia for the students, practiced the lesson with co-teachers (but not the students), and only 3 visitors turned up to my first school's demo - and no visitors came to the second school's demo. Not one visitor/examiner.

Interestingly, the VP's and Principals of my current two schools didn't even bother to come to any of my open classes. That's when the penny dropped. "Aha ........... not interested in English Conversation classes. Now I get it. Games from now on."

Good luck.