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Halcyon Chimera
Joined: 01 May 2011
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 Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:55 am Post subject: |
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| cheezsteakwit wrote: |
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. |
Amen, brother! Glad to see someone else can relate. Good luck with your plan as well! I know I am doing the right thing because just the idea of teaching abroad excites me and makes days more bearable until I get out of this job. I keep thinking "Just hold out until May.. then a whole new experience will come your way." A good experience? Who knows? But it's the possibility of change and chances for improvement and learning about new cultures that draw me to this profession. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:18 am Post subject: |
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| Halcyon Chimera wrote: |
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  |
I have such experience and can and did compare the two.
Most of the people who rant about Korea and pine about Teaching jobs back home, never had such a job and usually have no idea what it entails in terms of pressures, stress, hours, duties....
The comparison you ask for is highly dependant on the job you get in Korea. Like I said twice now: with your quals and experience you can get a very decent job in Korea. Sure you will need to adapt (you seem to be very aware of this however which is good), sure there will be some drawbacks but you can do quite well and be happy in the deal too. |
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warmachinenkorea
Joined: 12 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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I've done both and Korea can be like a burden lifted off your shoulders or be just like back home.
It sounds like you could do a University job and be satisfied.
And to the poster that said "Why leave a teaching job back home where you can make 40K?". I make more money here in Korea than I did back home teaching. After taxes and retirement I barley brought home 24K a year. And that was with a coaching supplement. |
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Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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^^yeah, but you get yearly raises of 3% unlike here in Korea--there is a ceiling. My sister makes 65k a year plus benefits teaching in Ohio after 13 years.
OP, dont be surprised at how bad your working conditions will be over here and the lack of respect you receive from BOTH students and teachers.
I'm afraid you are just going to have to find all of this our on your own.
Good luck! |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:26 am Post subject: |
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Seriously Dodge it is not as cut and dried as you seem to think!
That salary you quoted was...AFTER 13 YEARS of full time employment.
Perhaps the OP wants a change NOW? Did you read his further posts? His job does not sound all roses.
Also Dodge, I was a full-time teacher in Ontario before going to Korea in 1997. Let me tell you that while I loved my job, it was not easy and it involved a lot more stress, pressure and level of responsibility than teaching in Korea. Also cost of living in Canada along with taxes, deductions on the pay mean that my gross pay had very little to do with my actual take home pay. Also to consider, I brought work HOME nearly every night (not paid anything extra for this by the way), had to deal with admin meetings, staff meetings, parents, aggressive students that the school would not deal with (this was not a bad school either) and so on...
As for respect...I can say without a doubt that on average Teachers (yes that includes foreign teachers) get a lot more respect from students in Korea. Sure some of the kids are unruly, you may hear babo here and there but it sure does not compare to being told to f-off by some aggressive student now does it?
OP: I wish you luck with the move and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to pm me! If you do not have sufficient posts to pm me, let me know here and I will send you a pm.
Cheers |
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jrwhite82
Joined: 22 May 2010
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:32 am Post subject: |
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I don't know. I think Dodge has a point. I've never heard of any American or Canadian students Ddong-chiming their teachers before....  |
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Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 4:39 am Post subject: |
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Get an international school job, as mentioned before. Don't even bother with other stuff, if you don't have to!
Also... you are 27? If you're reasonably good looking, kind, and outgoing, then be careful. If you play your cards right, you will have soooo many dating chances. Like shooting fish in a barrel. |
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Halcyon Chimera
Joined: 01 May 2011
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| Swampfox10mm wrote: |
Get an international school job, as mentioned before. Don't even bother with other stuff, if you don't have to!
Also... you are 27? If you're reasonably good looking, kind, and outgoing, then be careful. If you play your cards right, you will have soooo many dating chances. Like shooting fish in a barrel. |
I am all of that, in my opinion, but I have one huge downfall.. I am 5'2. I am pretty confident that puts me at the bottom of the totem poll in the dating scene. Likely, taller fat, ugly guys will have me beat -lol- I know Koreans, much like Americans, are obsessed with height.
Just a look at my paycheck (I just got the stub) to let you guys know what they do to us here!
Total Gross: $3,519 (not bad, right? Wait for it...)
Federal: $327.51
FICA: $195.85
State: $145.27
RETIREMENT: $255.15
PEEHIP: $53.00
AEA: $19.37
Net Pay: $2,508
Rent: $500
Gas: around $200 each month
Take-Home (not considering internet, insurance, car payments, power, water, sewage, etc.): $2,008
I will make that much in Korea per month and rent will be paid for, some places even pay utilities. I won't have a car, thus no car insurance, gas, car payment, etc. I think it will all about even out PLUS I will be happier in Korea, I think.
Thanks for all the positive input. Keep it coming. |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 5:49 am Post subject: |
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with your experience, you need to look into a univ job its even better than an int school, low class hours, long vacations etc. there are a number of positions available for the second semester starting in late august, problem is most of them require you to be here for an in person interview, if you have the cash you could come over on a tourist visa and look or try to land a camp position for the summer etc.
best advice right now is to get your paperwork in order as in getting an fbi check started no later than feb. since it takes 8-12 weeks to get then more time to get the apostille done, if you have all that done you will be even more marketable.
based on your experience i dont think i'll be using my hs social studies credential there anytime soon, i make more money as a univ teacher here than a teacher there for 1/1000th the bs |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 6:06 am Post subject: |
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| Hogwonguy is right but I would also advise the OP (again) to look at International Schools. |
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Halcyon Chimera
Joined: 01 May 2011
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 6:19 am Post subject: |
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I'll do both. University jobs and international schools are my best bet. I think if I do a Univ. job with low hours and pick up some side jobs, I can make my ideal pay of around $2500-3000 a month MAYBE.
I think the reason I am looking at hagwons and all that is because I KNOW (well, I am very convinced) that I can get a job with one of them for at LEAST $2000/month.
It sucks having to eek out the rest of this school year here while I am so excited to be somewhere else. During my planning at school, I usually research jobs in Asia -lol- It just makes me feel better knowing that I won't have to be here another year. |
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Halcyon Chimera
Joined: 01 May 2011
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 6:28 am Post subject: |
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Another thing that I think will help me is that if I DO have to take some long-hour kindy job at a hakwon, then I probably won't even mind. Mind you, my first year teaching in the states, I got to work at 5:30AM at the LATEST and stayed until about 5:30PM. I did this the entire year. Was I miserable and tired? Yeah, but I managed. So, I can handle long hours and loads of BS, but I am just hoping that this transition leads to LESS BS. I can still handle the hours, though
I need to talk to Naturegirl about helping me find/research international jobs... I've scoured her site and registered and applied with most of the sites, but I haven't had any replies.. |
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PatrickGHBusan
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: Busan (1997-2008) Canada 2008 -
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 7:52 am Post subject: |
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| Halcyon Chimera wrote: |
I'll do both. University jobs and international schools are my best bet. I think if I do a Univ. job with low hours and pick up some side jobs, I can make my ideal pay of around $2500-3000 a month MAYBE.
I think the reason I am looking at hagwons and all that is because I KNOW (well, I am very convinced) that I can get a job with one of them for at LEAST $2000/month.
It sucks having to eek out the rest of this school year here while I am so excited to be somewhere else. During my planning at school, I usually research jobs in Asia -lol- It just makes me feel better knowing that I won't have to be here another year. |
A couple of things...
1- You cannot LEGALLY pick up side jobs on an E2 visa. All you can do is add a second work location with permission from your sponsor/employer.
You could pick up illegal side work but if you get caught you can expect to be fined and possibly deported. Up to you to weigh the risks then.
2- To apply with international schools you need to visit their sites and fill out their employment forms or submit your application to the person identified as doing the hiring for that school. Note their respective hiring periods as applying too far in advance is pretty much useless!
3- To apply at Universities from outside Korea you need to check out the Universities websites and look for job adds or look for Uni job adds on various ites (including here) during hiring period (NOW until Early Feb). The things that will tip the scale when applying from abroad are a related MA and relevant experience (ex: teaching college level classes).
Good luck. |
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Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 6:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Plenty of ladies here that will not mind your height. |
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Halcyon Chimera
Joined: 01 May 2011
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| Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2011 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Swampfox10mm wrote: |
| Plenty of ladies here that will not mind your height. |
I truly hope there is truth in your statement  |
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