Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Alpha Steel]

Hey everyone,

I'd be interested to know how people's days are structured. Any chance you could take a minute or two to describe how your week has been so far?

You know, like what time you got up?

How much time you spent preparing for classes?

How much time was spent teaching?

How about idle time?

Will you work the weekend?

Do you feel teaching dominates your day/week or do you have time to do other things (exercise, go see a movie, shopping. meet friends etc.)?

Cheers

[Zackback]

Wake up: 7:30am.
Preparation: I just go in and begin the next page from where I finished yesterday.
Teaching: 3 classes today.
Idle Time: Hardly any. I'm pretty much always on the go.
Weekend work: Never
Leisure: It's just a job so I won't let it dominate anything.

[winterfall]

1. Get up at 5:30 AM
2. About 20 minutes, make sure I have enough copies and make slight changes to the plan. Lesson planning is done the week before, about 2-5 hours depending on how elaborate the lesson is
3. 50 minute classes
4. Web surfing? Maybe 2-4 hours, depends on how many classes I have that day
5. Weekend work: Sometimes, depends if I finished all my prep the week before, if I did, I don't need to. If I don't than I have to, it's my job.
6. Teaching dominates the week. Leisure time is only until after I've finished all my work

[Patrick Bateman]

[SeoulNate]

Wake-up at 12:20pm.

Head to school at 1:50pm

First class is at 3:00 and I spend from 2-3 prepping and checking homework.

Teach 4-5 50 minute classes and go home at 7pm or 8pm.

I am only at work for 5-6 hours a day and during that time I work the entire time, except for the rare day, such as today, where I do not have a class because all of the students are on a field trip for their school (class sizes average 5 students) So, ZERO idle time on a normal day.

I usually spend about an hour a week outside of work time doing random prep or writing student comments.

I have enough free time to do as I please, the working conditions are excellent and the students really learn so much when in small class sizes. it is truly amazing what you can do when you only have 4-6 kids to teach at a time and you see them three times a week.

[Alpha Steel]

Thanks for the replies.

At the moment I work 37.5 hours. My shifts vary from 8-4 through to 11-7. Sometimes I work the weekend.

So if I work 11-7 and the weekend I feel like it dominates my week.

8:40 to 4:30 sounds nice, SeoulNate's sounds great too - personally I'd get up earlier and hit the gym in the morning though.

The worst thing that could happen would be to teach early in the morning and then late at night. I really hope I don't find myself in that position. Weekends would suck too.

[iggyb]

Public Elementary school Seoul

You know, like what time you got up?
7:00 - at school by 7:50-8:05 (usually one of the first teachers at school) - have to be there by 8:40

How much time you spent preparing for classes?

Hard to say. Every day except one has plenty of time to prepare. If I put in a few hours on Monday, I have little prep time the rest of the week -- or -- I'll spend 30 minutes to an hour each day (or as needed).

(I have been teaching ESL for 8 years - so I have routines and things built up over time. As time passed, it took less and less time coming up with ideas and preparing ones that proved to work.)

How much time was spent teaching? Average day is 4 40 minute classes. Usually finished by 12:10 with classes. Usually, I teach half of each class, the Korean teacher half. Occasionally, she or I will do all of it depending on what activities we want to do. (Recently, she gave me all of the 4th grade classes. I cover everything for both of them.)

How about idle time?

4 days a week - done with classes by 12:10; leave school at 4:40.

Will you work the weekend?

No weekends.

Do you feel teaching dominates your day/week or do you have time to do other things (exercise, go see a movie, shopping. meet friends etc.)?

Have plenty of time to do things. More than that, due to sharing teaching duties and planning, and due to the lighter schedule than in public schools in the US, I have the energy to do things.....and I'm teaching elementary school kids...

[Alpha Steel]

I'd be really happy with that. It must be when I was reading up on Vietnam I read about the mornings evenings and weekends.

Boy I'm glad I ditched the Vietnam idea.

[iggyb]

I worked in private institutes (hakwons) (as opposed to public schools) in Korea years ago, and split-shift, shared housing, and some weekends were common.

When I checked on Korea two years ago, I found shared housing and weekends were gone. You still had split shifts (mornings and evenings) in adult hakwons. That is when the students have time (before work or school).

Hakwons are a grind no matter what - split shift or not. The amount of in-class hours wear you out.

[Sinnerman]

Woke up, fell out of bed,
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup,
And looking up I noticed I was late.
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in second splat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke,
and Somebody spoke and I went into a dream

[sigmundsmith]

finished my course work in my masters this week. working on my thesis survey questionnaire. have next week off as no classes scheduled. then prepare for 6 week summer program. but teaching 15 hours a week sucks too much time to procrastinate