Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

I've written about this co-teacher before. She is very anal retentive.

She interrupted my activity near the beginning again.

Told me 3rd grade students can't possibly learn more than 3 past tense verbs at a time. So, I should do something else - pulling another activity out of my bum like magic.

She (finally) introduced the simple past tense before the vacation. (She also did it by introducing more than 3 verbs too - by the way.) But, now she is back to, "The past tense is not appropriate for 3rd graders."

This is after we had a talk about what activity I was going to do and about how students learn the past tense long-term through frequent repetition (starting with the most common verbs in their daily lives).

But now she is back to saying the past tense is too difficult for 3rd grade.

We had this argument/discussion early last semester when I tried to introduce the most common past tense verbs at the start with the intention of having a common class starter being to ask individual students what they did the day or weekend before...

I've used this countless times before with beginning level classes from pre-school through adults. It is a good way to have them using English to say what they want in a meaningful "conversation" concerning their own lives.

This is going on my 9th year teaching ESL. Much of it in Korea. And a little less than half of it teaching elementary school and pre-school kids and most of it teaching mixed level classes.

This is her first year teaching ESL (8th overall).

But, she refuses to listen to me when it comes to what the students are capable of.

She believes the students can only learn at the snail's pace the book uses. She uses the book exclusively ---- but -- she doesn't have me use the book. I have to create my own material, and she feels free to break in from time to time to tell me what I'm doing is wrong.

Like today telling me 3rd grade students can't handle more than 3 verbs in the past tense.

Or, like a class before the break where she broke in and spent a couple of minutes telling me I was making the "L" sound wrong.

Then after the activity, she took another couple of minutes telling me how I should make the L sound and the R sound --- telling me the proper position my tongue should have been in -- then told me to re-teach the students the L and R to make up for my mistake...

I was ready to lose it....

She has no experience teaching English. She has no idea how quickly people are capable of learning language.

I tried to explain to her early last semester that lots of research has shown that the younger the student, the faster they can acquire a foreign language.

But, in her mind, the younger the student, the more you have to "protect" them by going

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

The students are bored to death.

Most of them already know the material in the book.

We have accomplished very little so far with half the school year gone.

It's a shame for the kids. It is also a shame for the Korean teacher who will get these kids next year in the 4th grade.

She has boxed me in so much in class, but still expects me to create my own material, all I can do without having trouble with her is vocabulary memorization games - but if I stray too far in adding non-textbook words, she'll have me change it.

I will be very happy when this semester ends and I go back to teaching ESL in the US.

[Zackback]

The whole system sucks.
Ain't no way you will change it.
Do what you have to do to get by and get out.


Read the last sentence of your post and live/survive by it.

[cj1976]

I had a similar situation in elementary school, but my co-t wasn't as rude as that. We were doing ABC with grade 5 because it was in the textbook. Even though the majority of the kids could do it backwards, there were some who still didn't know it - which was the justification for doing such a seemingly simple activity.

[Malislamusrex]

You let the teacher with no experience tell you what to do....

I only had this problem once, I told her we will speak after class, I said "this is my class we do what I say, do you understand, are you sure you understand?"

rather simple really.

[iggyb]

It is too frustrating for me at times like this for a variety of reasons.

One, we're wasting the students' time. Even with the small number of students who don't go to hakwons and haven't been taught English before, we're wasting their time. They could be absorbing much more than we've given them.

Two, by going so slow, we're actually having them (those lowest level students) retain less.

So, her whole rationale for why we can't add to the book and have to go so slow --- and why she has to translate everything that is said in English immediately afterward --- is opposite what you'll find in TESOL theory.

Three, each year older these students get, the further they get from their prime-language learning period. 3rd grade is already seeing the window of opportunity beginning to shrink. So, wasting their time is really a shame...

Four, she feels she can interrupt what I'm doing any time she likes, even in the middle of an activity, and can tell me to change it or go to something else (out of thin air), but she never listens to what I have to say about how the class or an activity is going.

Five, she does this despite the fact SHE HAS NO EXPERIENCE and I have more than a few years of teaching exactly the kind of students we have in class.

That part is the real kicker...

Being interrupted and told what to do by someone with as much or more experience than me would be a pain. It would be much easier to swallow if I had little or no experience.

But having the work I've done preparing for class trashed and being put in a position where I have to "wing it" after being interrupted during class by someone with no experience and TESOL ideas opposite contemporary theory is too much.

I am grateful it doesn't happen that often since the end of the first month of school. Since I was planning on leaving after this year, I surrendered to her will as best I could.

But we still have occasional moments like this today, and it is irritating.

Stopping me last time to tell me I wasn't using the L sound properly was almost too much, though.....

[iggyb]

It isn't "my" class, however. It is her class just as they are the classes of my primary co-teacher. This appears to be the difference between teaching in an elementary school vs middle or high school.

Also, I knew from the start I was only going to be here 1 year.

If I had been planning on staying longer, I'd have asked to teach in a middle or high school. (When I finished my contract at the last place I taught, I was able to choose what level of school I would teach at next.) I would have gone there because I'd heard you get to control your own classes in middle and high school. I chose elementary school, because I wanted to see my students more than once a week or once every two weeks, and I wanted to teach young children and beginning ESL again.

Korean elementary school teachers also showed they had a better idea of how students learn a language than what I'd seen from middle and high school TEEs and micro-teaching.

At first, I thought it was a plus that both of my co-teachers were new to TESOL. I was wrong. My primary co-teacher has been fine. This one that I teach 3rd grade with has, however, been a pain.


But, it isn't worth fighting her for control of the class or causing a stink throughout the school by going over her head.

I'll just "endure" as the Koreans say.

I'm content to just whine about it here on the days where her interference has been too aggravating.

[DaHu]

Well, she IS putting forth some effort. It sounds like she is concerned about the class, even though it is frustrating you.

Many co-teachers will just sabotage or ignore you, and don't seem to care at all.

If she's against extra grammar, maybe vocab is the way to go.

I think you could probably work with her, you both sound like you want to do a good job, but have different ideas on how to do it.

[jamesd]

No matter how much more experienced I am. I am labeled as an assistant. I don't try to rock the boat. I just let my co-teacher do whatever she likes and I just follow. I do offer some advice and suggestions to her from time to time, though.

[iggyb]

I have written before about this painful co-teacher that she is doing what she feels is best for the students. It just doesn't help that she is so terribly wrong - and I say "terribly" because when she explains herself, it is opposite what TESOL textbooks used to train teachers say, and this includes in Korea, because I've used one of the primarily TESOL textbooks they use in Korea. It is the same used in some programs in the US.

Another factor is that she has given me half the class to teach since early in the semester, but it has always been "open" to me what I do - which means I'm not told what to do ahead of time....I just get interfered with just before or during doing it....Meaning - my prep work sometimes gets thrown out the window and I'm left to wing it and usually for backward reasons.

That is frustrating.

Once I found an activity she wouldn't object to, I've stuck pretty much to it as much as I can, but we still have these occasional moments.

I was very happy when they gave me half of summer camp and without a co-teacher. She taught the other half, and I was specifically told we did not have to cooperate with each other on material. The other co-teacher said she wanted me to give the students as much material as they could handle (in either the lower or upper level camp we did).

The painful co-teacher still tried to interfere just before camp started by asking me what I was going to do then objecting.

-- That is just her nature. She is a "no" person. She'll ask your opinion and start objecting before you get half a sentence out. It doesn't come off as abrasive or like she's trying to cause trouble. She just can't help herself. (Anal retentive)

I had already grown deathly tired of endless, circular "discussions" with her about what students can and can't accomplish. I had learned the best thing I could do was remain silent even when she asked for my opinion, but since the summer camp was my own, I chose a different tactic: I kept repeating over and over again "I'm going to use the material I've already prepared. I've taught this kind of class before. I'm confident it works. I'm going to use the material I've already prepared" every time she'd throw up an objection then ask what I thought...

Her tactic is to keep objecting, throwing up anything she can think of after her first objection, and then asking what "my opinion" is -- until I just give in and agree with her. But this time, there was no way I was going to throw away three weeks of camp material at the last minute when I'd been told I would be teaching them alone and had authority over the material.

[WadRUG'naDoo]

While I totally understand your situation and can relate to your beef with this individual, I don't think that expanding vocabulary (or teaching as much as you can in a short period of time) should be one of your objectives, really. You can, and should, be working with a minimal amount of unit language for the students to practice. You can base a whole lesson on like four words and one dialogue (one question and one answer or two statements).

[Big Mac]

She was trying to tell YOU how to pronounce "r" and "l?"

I would have lost it if a Korean tried to give me lessons on English pronunciation!

[some waygug-in]

That's the main reason I left Korea. Well-meaning but totally wrong-headed co-teachers ruin what could be a valuable learning experience for their students.

I only had 2 out of 10 co-teachers (over the years) that would allow me to teach, and they seemed to be getting worse and worse as the years progressed.

[WadRUG'naDoo]

[ZIFA]

[nathanrutledge]

Reading your post, you use the word "I" a lot.

Who are YOU to be telling HER what to do?

You've got the experience, she doesn't. Get some good books/articles about the theory, famous names that she MUST have heard of (if she hasn't heard of any... shudder) and back up what you're saying to her.

If you can make her see your way such that SHE thinks SHE came up with it, that's the best. "Hey, anal teacher, I have this book on teaching theory that the guys at SNU/KU/Yonsei swear by - what do you think about it?" Then give her a book that backs up your point of view.

You're a long time ESL guy, she's new. The best thing you can do is bend her to what YOU want to do without her realizing you're doing it. You've been here in Korea, you know how it works - she's the certified teacher, the boss. As the lowly employee, your ideas are inferior to hers.

Unfortunately, it could take some time - time you may or may not have. I wish you the best of luck in it though! FIGHTING!