Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PastorYoon]

[fromtheuk]

Get tough?!! Get real! When you start to attempt to discipline them, the students will realize you have no way to make them do what you ask of them.

When they take a glance at the co-teacher who will be as unhelpful and unresponsive as possible, you'll quickly become the class joke.

1) You have no authority 2) Everybody knows it 3) If you act like you do have authority and your co-teacher snubs you, prepare yourself for mass ridicule.

This 'get tough', 'man up' approach seems to be the attitude of some deluded, 'macho' teachers on this forum.

OP - I'd suggest you don't dig yourself into the ground. The burden of the world, nor the class is your total responsibility.

I would advise you don't give a $*%t, and be as lazy as your co-teacher. When they see you're doing as little as they are, they may actually start to do something.

If they begin to chide you for it, tell them 'I am just an assistant and I await your lead'.

Be innovative, not 'tough'.

On this issue, follow the 'when in Rome do as the Romans do' concept.

If you have a useless co-teacher, be as useless as they are. That shouldn't be difficult.

[West Coast Tatterdemalion]

Agree with the UK guy on this one. Just don't give a crap. The main things that I've learned in Korea is that teaching here is all smoke and mirrors and to just not give a *beep*. This is wisdom I'm imparting to you and it has helped me and actually made my time here much easier. If you care here, it will only cause you more stress and heartache and life is too short for that.

[PastorYoon]

I've heard of classes where the teacher had to put 10 kids in chairs facing the wall at once. That teacher didn't put up with screaming or distractions. I've heard a story where said teacher was going through periods where he had to anticipate many distracting kids, so the teacher had chairs facing the back wall before the class even began as a fair warning. You don't have to be a complete hard-ass. Maybe I embellished a bit with the "get tough" thing, but not too much, really. You need to be firm, and have clear rules. Once they are facing the corner every class, they're not going to be much of a problem for you. Keep them in the classroom though, because as one person pointed out, the parents can be dumb about their precious ones being in the dangerous hallway. Put them in the corner chair, drop their book on their lap (then the parents can't say you didn't teach them), point at the wall and give a nice firm "chogi bwa!", while pointing at the wall. It works.

I heard the teacher even drew a little stick figure on the wall for one kid. He would just tell him "little man", and he knew he had to go to that chair and stare at the little man. The other kids even started calling him "little man".

I just hate hearing stories of English teachers getting crapped on, while they're genuinely trying to teach a decent class. One rule: Don't let it happen to you. Do something to prevent it. The whistle works wonders.

[West Coast Tatterdemalion]

Tell us some more about "the little man." LOL. Perhaps an EFL version of waterboarding.

[PastorYoon]

[PastorYoon]

[chungbukdo]

I also have a useless co-teacher.

The kids get roudy and out of control (I have some big split classes like grade 2-3) where I can't communicate to them very well. For example, instructions. This is a small very rural location so the English levels are low. To give you an idea, there is no hakwon or pc bang in the town.

She says and does nothing. She can see when the kids are not understanding what I said and she just keeps watching the class, she doesn't even bother to translate which I would consider the bare minimum. The students might even look confused after an instruction but she doesn't say anything. I at least need some help in maintaining order in a couple of my large classes.

...And yes I can teach fine alone. 3 days of the week I teach alone as my co-teacher can't come. But the classes are either a little smaller or are grade 5-6 which have higher levels. But for example with my grade 2/3 split, there are a lot of boys from bad families. Covered in dirt, sometimes I see them drinking a big bottle of coke for dinner wandering around the road.

Last week just before my hardest, roudiest class she told me she had a job interview to go to and I said okay... I guess. Because I had lost my voice that week from being sick and having to shout at the kids to quiet down. So I was worried about doing that big class alone.

Anyway it turned out all she had to do was submit an application online to a company. She could have done that any time. Yet she left during our hardest class because I think she finds it stressful.

The worst thing is that this company is Asiana airlines and she is an ugly midget. She's not stupid, she knows she can't get a job as a flight attendant with her looks and height. Plus she goes to podunk university out in the boonies. Being a flight attendant at Asiana or Korean Air is like the most competitive job in Korea for women.

My solution was to just tell her "Good luck with the job hunt!" and pretend like there's no problem between us. I only have May, June, and part of July left. I don't need more problems.

[Fishead soup]

[PastorYoon]

Yeah. You can still "not give a s**t" and not allow screaming. They don't have to be exclusive.