Korean Job Discussion Forums

[grandpa]

What are the pros and cons of elementary, middle, and high school?

[lifeinkorea]

Pros on left, cons on right of the slash.

elementary - you can actually teach normal stuff / will feel like babysitting if you have too many 1st-2nd grade classes

middle - good age for students to learn about themselves and find their personal interests and hobbies / students are harder to control and their levels will be polar (either good or terrible) so you have to prepare more

high school - you can talk to the students without much confusion, whether or not they obey is another story / it's all about the tests, when can they pass, what can they score, they have no personality and desires beyond getting the answers to the tests (me robot student, you give me data, I score high, my parents are happy....I don't care about art, politics, or science....only math, English, and the next day English, math)

[happiness]

[Vagabundo]

not quite. Some HS students do have actual personalities and interests beyond those though one cannot argue with the generalization.

My perception (not backed by actual surveys or research) from teachers I've met suggest elementary school teachers work more hours and are camped to death above and beyond everyone else.

and high school teachers seem to teach less hours and have less demands put on them (like camps, etc).

another factor is that high school teachers don't follow the K book curriculum. They make up their own classes for the most part. This has advantages and some disadvantages.

[RMNC]

High School would be the way to go, from what I've seen. You don't have to babysit them, and most of the students have so much going on outside of class that they don't make you do as many camps and busywork like they do in Elementary or Middle school. You're just there to teach and get out, they've got other stuff to do.

[happiness]

Yes, its true, some HS boys play gtr, dig movies, facebook, etc. Most of them just want to get laeyeed!

As I HS teacher who just finished/lost his long-time position in a HS, Id agree its the way to be, but my school lost its financial support for the native teacher and I know a few of the areas here also cut their money for HS's. It seems every area here wants to have their own EPIK and put natives in the E and M schools.

too bad, too. It was awesome to hear how many kids want to kill the principal because he "fired" me I also love the HS boys, they were very cool to teach.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

My high-school teacher friends don't have camps, but have "winter intensive" programs.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

I like elementary best... the kids are easily impressed, super enthusiastic and just generally easier to tolerate. They are a lot of work, but usually you get out what you put in. I played basketball with some of my fifth graders and they thought I was the coolest, even though I totally suck. I like that you can keep everything fun and exciting and they'll almost always be into it. Also, you can give them a sticker and it will just make them sooooo happy. And it's kind of hard to say no to little kids...

I'm doing middle now and it's not my favorite. The kids are generally harder to impress and unenthusiastic. I don't want to play sports with them because they're all really good and I would just look like a fool. It's easy to say no to them because they're at a difficult, selfish age where they've lost all of their charms but are making much bigger demands. if you give them a sticker, they'll expect it to be part of a scheme to get some much bigger reward. If you give them a single candy, they will want a snack, if you give them a snack, they will want two, if you give them two, they will complain that it's not their favorite kind and their friend got the good kind so why can't they?, etc. On the other hand, they're probably the best if you're not really into your job and you just want to do lots of handouts and not really worry about work... because I've never had so much downtime in my life. And my co-workers have always been cooler at the middle schools... I'm not sure why, exactly. Maybe because they chill out so much.

I've never done high school... but I don't think I would like it.

[whitestboyalive]

Having taught elementary and high school, I definitely prefer high school. Students are more fluent in English, which means you can actually have real conversations with them.

I find it much more challenging. With elementary, you just play games, and teach simple English. It can get very boring if you do it for more than 2 years. But for a one year gig, it could be quite a bit of fun.

It depends how long you want to stay at the job, and if you like little kids or not. To be honest, I like kids in groups of no more than 8. Over that, they tend to get incredibly annoying.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

[nomad-ish]

i've only officially taught middle school, but i've tutored high school and university students, and i've got to say i prefer middle schoolers. they're much easier to keep interested and focussed, while there is still some amount of babysitting involved, it's not that bad.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I'd either want coed elementary or an all-girls high school. Middle-school age annoys the crap out of me.

I prefer the kids, though, camps or not. I've got my favorite 3rd grader in with me today because he thought we had camp today, and it starts tomorrow. It's too cold to send him home, in case his mom is out. We're doing arts and crafts, some worksheets that I'm not using for my camps, and might watch a movie before having lunch together.

[Darkeru]

Con for high school - at least for younger males. From what I've heard, they like to put younger male teachers in all-boys schools for HS. Though I don't know how true that is.

I'm doing middle and they can be demanding. If I play games with them, some of them demand candy for winners, other demand a movie instead. If I do a lesson with them, they demand games. The classes are difficult to make interesting too, since it's from the conversation page of the book and random phrases with no grouping of function.

[kimdeal54]

I've only taught elementary students at a hagwon, so not exactly the same as having a full class of them. I liked teaching elementary kids: they're fun and enthusiastic, and as another poster said, they think you're great.

Now I'm at a public middle school, and I love it. It's definitely my favourite age group to teach because of how challenging it is. They're just learning about who they're going to be as adults, and it's much easier to get to know them. Treating them as individuals goes a long way. Just learning a student's name can completely change their attitude towards you. They are difficult to impress, especially the third graders, but when a lesson works well, it's a lot of fun.

[RedKristin]