Korean Job Discussion Forums

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

Lately I've had to teach in rooms with the old blackboard and chalk. YUCK. I'm coughing and spitting out dust and washing my hands between classes. Love the whiteboard and marker - hate the chalk! Why would anyone use chalk instead of a whiteboard and marker? Cheaper? This will be a factor in future job choices for me.

The King of Kwangju · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Location: New York City

I love the chalk - it's so "old school."

Plus, it leaves a residue on your trousers, so everybody knows you been teachin'.

Crazy Oz · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Ilsan, Korea

Man I want your job! Chalk, chalk, glorious chalk! How did you manage to find a place with chalk and a blackboard?
Whiteboard markers just don't have the aerodynamics of a used bit of chalk, and the chalk dust can evoke hours of humourous playsessions with the students.
You are truly blessed to be in a place with chalk, use it to its advantage.

Still crazy, still here.

mokpochica · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Location: Ann Arbor, MI

You can get dust free chalk from home (do they have it here?) and it is somewhat better. Or chalk holders for your chalk. The problem with the dust free chalk is that it leaves a residue on the board though.

Zyzyfer · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2003 5:26 pm Post subject:

Chalkboard in every classroom here, along with creaky old wooden floors and lack of heating/AC in almost all of the classrooms. It's great. I feel like I work, or something.

The markers have too many fumes.

thinker · Joined: 10 Feb 2003

before we switched to a new school the chalkdust was piling up in all the classrooms as the korean teachers wouldn't cleanup at all, i mean they were their classrooms after all, we had none at the time and no time to do it, so the boards had layers of previous lessons for the kids to mull over as we wrote the new ones> > >

love white boards, although the projection screens, above the chalkboards, did make a terriblely loud -attention getting- noise absent from their plastic counterparts. Smile

Blue Flower · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2003 8:13 pm Post subject:

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

My hagwan uses white ink markers on green boards. Works well but the erasers are filthy and if you spill a drop of the ink, when re-filling the marker, on your clothes-that's it! It's horrible stuff that must be a relation of bleach.

weatherman · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

I love chalk. But I go out of my way to find the soft type. The hard dry stuff is like writing with a stone and slate. I really don't care for the white boards that much, though I know they have some advantages. But the old boards do too, such as felling like you have created some piece of art up there on the board and you would hate to erase it. Old boards make you feel like you are earning your keep too.

waterbaby · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Baking Gord a Cheescake pie

Seatangle · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: Left of Center

As for me, I can't write as well with chalk as with a whiteboard marker, and my handwriting is bad to begin with, so I need every advantage available. I teach one course at a college in my city, and I can't stand the chalk residue. My hands feel weird the rest of the day, even after I wash them. Of course, maybe I'm just getting OCD about the whole thing. Who knows?

Here's one idea...even though my hogwan has whiteboards, the desks are such that some students can't see them very well. I got a small, portable whiteboard that I can sit at a table and use. It's easier on their eyes, and it puts me in closer proximity to the students. Something as simple as that can make a big difference in getting/keeping a student's attention.

That's my two bits anyway.

Brian