Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Halcyon Chimera]

I finish my current teaching contract in May of 2012 (I teach at a public school in Alabama). I know that most schools in South Korea hire in either August/September or February/March (is that correct?)

Where does that leave me? Will I just have to wait from May until August, or do many schools hire at other times as well?

Also, will going in at age 27 be against me? I know most ESL teachers are young, fresh, newly-graduated, etc., but I decided to get my master's and two years of teaching experience in the States before further pursuing ESL. Was that a bad choice, or does it just depend? I guess what I'm asking is this: Will my older age hinder me in the hiring process? Or will the employers look more at qualifications and experience?

Thanks

[northway]

[Halcyon Chimera]

[Halcyon Chimera]

What about the other half of my question?

[PatrickGHBusan]

[ttompatz]

Return question to the OP (answer not required) .... as a licensed teacher with a masters degree why on earth would you want to become a teaching assistant in a Korean school or worse yet, a cash cow in a hagwan (unless of course you have some vested interest in Korea).

Look at international school positions (globally).

The pay is usually better. The benefits are usually better.
The locations are usually better and you will be used as something more than a walking tape recorder / CD-player.

http://www.ibo.org/
http://www.tes.co.uk/jobs/

as but 2 examples of places you should be looking.

.

[plchron]

Also, if you have to wait until the start of the new school year; a lot of countries hire teachers for ESL summer camps, some will pay flights. With your masters you can have your pick of the litter.

[warmachinenkorea]

[PatrickGHBusan]

Glad to see my international school comment was picked up by Ttom and another poster...

OP if you are certified/Liscenced, you should really focus on International Schools, on the better Hakwons and because of your MA perhaps look into possible University positions.

[Dodge7]

Don't be a fool. Why leave a job with a public school in America that pays you a 401K and benefits totaling over 35-40K a year to come to Korea and be a monkey?
Ok, it's your life, but you have a good gig there, and you MAY NEVER get another teaching job again in the America with the competition the way it is now if you come over here and wish to go back.
Stay there, don't be a naive, and think this one through.
I'd give anything to come home and teach, but I'm stuck here for the time being.
Be SMART!

[PatrickGHBusan]

[Halcyon Chimera]

My situation here is awful. I am stuck at a school in the poorest county in Alabama which just FINALLY (barely) made AYP after seven years of being in school improvement. Outside agencies are down our throats and requiring more and more ridiculous stuff. We've been forced to integrate technology in the classroom, which I don't mind, but we've been given a $10 million grant for technology, so we have the 1:1 student laptop ratio and are expected to/pressure into using these daily.

Everything is TEST DRIVEN. We have our planning periods taken almost every day for either a data meeting, intervention meeting, IEP meeting, parent meeting (which I expect), grade level meeting, etc. Students have to keep up with test data, we have to forcefeed them test information so they can regurgitate it.

Is some of this to be expected in a public school in the US? Yes, but take the typical workload associated with all of this and multiply it by five, and that is NO exaggeration. There is NO support from the administration, everything is backwards, and to top it off, the principal and superintendant are enemies. They constantly run against each other for the superintendant position, and my principal lost but plans to run again, so the current superintendant is making life hell for the middle school. We are required to do about five times the work that the elementary and high school teachers are doing. Not everyone is held to the same standard.

Basically, the school is jacked up. I want a change.. something fresh.. something new.. I want to travel and meet new people. I won't be missing ANYTHING by leaving this job. It's costing me my sanity and happiness. I've been to other schools, and I know what a school should be like for the most part. This IS NOT it!

Will it be tough and will I face similar problems in another country? Sure, but I am willing to risk it because it HAS to be better than where I am. I never had to take medication until I took this job, and now prozac is my friend...'Nuff said.

[Halcyon Chimera]

[Halcyon Chimera]

Who has experience as a regular education teacher as well as an ESL teacher? I would love for someone to compare the two experiences.

For example, as a regular education teacher, here is my experience:

I was hired into the poorest, smallest county in Alabama. The entire county literally only has ONE school split up into elementary, middle, and high school. We don't even have enough money to pay a custodian, so I have to clean my own classroom every day. They won't even take out our trash. Since there IS only one school in the entire county, we constantly get walkthroughs from state and county offices (like, three or four walkthroughs a week). We've been given extensive and exhausting training for standards-based instruction, differentiation, formative and summative assessment, test-driven instruction, different forms of intervention, etc.

There is NO discipline policy within the school, and the administration is incompetent and inept on the best of days. There is no communication, and it is basically the blind leading the blind. Our principal is being bullied by the superintendant because they hate each other, so the superintendant requires A LOT extra from us as compared to the elementary and middle school. They take entire days of instruction to take pre and post-tests; they spend entire periods charting their test data on paper; we spend entire days meeting with students for intervention strategies. Now, are all of these great things to do and have? Should kids get these services? Absolutely. But WAY too much work is put on the classroom teacher to do all of this. There are intervention specialists and ARI coaches out there to do all of this, but we are so poor, that everything falls onto us because we can't afford those outside resources.

An outside agency has taken over the school, pretty much, and it's made everyone miserable. I plan constantly because our lesson plans are always under a microscope. I don't mind them checking for quality lesson plans because we SHOULD have those, but they are not consistently checking for quality with ALL teachers. Most teachers do half the work I do with planning and never get scolded or reprimanded, but when I usually submit 3-4 page detailed lesson plans and one week I might have, say, two pages, they eat my ass alive and wonder what happened. What about those teachers with ONE page lesson plans with NO detail?

Anways, as you can tell, I am frustrated and everything is out of my hands. So, I would much rather take this new risk and at least experience something different... I know I will still be frustrated at times, and adapting will be difficult.. But, it cannot drain me emotionally, physically, and mentally like my current job. So, how does the "typical" ESL teacher position compare to this?

Come on, be honest. You may make a difference in this man's life

[cheezsteakwit]

Dang, OP !

I thought I had it bad at my gig subbing in Philly

( my school missed AYP 4 out of past 5 years , random gun sweeps, teaching to the state tests, special ed dominated culture , security guards everywhere BUT one of my former students got carried out on a stretcher today after a beat-down IN class - blood coming from his ears) ... We at least have janitors!

For me, February can't get here soon enough! I'll be doing EPIK for a year , then I'll look at Int'l schools / Korean Uni's after that.

I'm older than you & I've never taught ESL, but I have an MA in Educ. & 2 years teaching experience here in the states so I've read that 2 years experience helps w/ international school gigs. My plan is to get a CELTA YL while abroad as well. So who knows what the future holds & where I'll be , but I'm excited. Korea could be a stepping-stone to bigger & better things in different countries ... we'll see.

I just know working 3 jobs , 7 days a week , ALL of which are temp jobs w/o health benefits , AINT cutting it anymore. I also sell Medicare products in a call center, at night to senior citizens, so I've seen firsthand how F-ed up things are in both the school systems AND the health care system in this country.

A few years (or more) teaching ESL in a country with cheap health care & a chance to travel abroad for the first time sounds like JUST what I need right now.

Sounds like you got a plan, OP, so good luck with it. Life's too short to deal with BS & give yourself an anyeurism.