| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
missmacaroni
Joined: 04 Sep 2012
Location: USA
|
 Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:02 pm Post subject: pursing a master's degree while teaching at a public school |
 |
|
Hi! I'm moving to Korea to teach English at a public school in the next couple months. I heard because the contract only requires you to teach 22 hours a week that you end up with a lot of downtime. Because of this, I heard it was a great time to pursue a Master's online...
Any feedback or advice about taking this on while teaching in Korea? How much free time do you really have (or deskwarming time) each week while just sitting in front of a computer between teaching....
thanks! |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
andrewchon
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Location: Back in Oz. Living in ISIS Aust.
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| One of my former co-t did that. He drove 2 hours to his course (MA Ethics, I think), twice each week (Tue, Thu). After the lesson, he had to go to drinky-do wit' his professori and get blinded. Then drove back home (another two hours). Next morning, he'd be shagged out, but still taught. You can do that when you're young. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
b-class rambler
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
You might have enough time, or you might not.
Amounts of downtime in PS jobs vary enormously from one situation to another. Although the contract states a basic 22 class hours a week, some people have to teach more that (for extra pay, of course) and even if not, there are plenty of other things besides teaching lessons that you might be asked to do. Remember that your contract DOES refer to other duties as well as teaching.
So you really just need to wait and see how the land lies in your particular school after you've arrived. And even then, be aware that things can change very suddenly and unexpectedly. I know one person who initially seemed to have a pretty easy 17 class a week schedule in a rural school, with one day of no classes at all. A few weeks later though, she was told that she would actually be going to another school nearby on that day and teaching 5 classes there. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
flakfizer
Joined: 12 Nov 2004
Location: scaling the Cliffs of Insanity with a frayed rope.
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:42 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Korea is great place for pursing a master's degree; your boyfriend will carry it for you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I got my masters while working in Korea. You just have to be committed. Just make sure whatever you're getting your degree in has job opportunity when your finished. I graduated three years ago and my degree isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Yet I still owe $40,000 in student loans... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
missmacaroni
Joined: 04 Sep 2012
Location: USA
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Good points! Yes, I've heard quite a mix of reports from different people at different schools. I have a hard time sitting around if there is a lot of free time, but I know a lot of the will be out of my control. And yes, student debt is scary...I was planning on getting a master's that would help me get a job upon returning to the states, but it would not be fun if it took away from enjoying Korea! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MetaFitX
Joined: 23 Jun 2009
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:49 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Dairyairy what is your master's degree in?? I am interested in attaining an M.A. in Applied Linguistics. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 2:44 am Post subject: |
|
|
| It's in criminal justice. I can't get a job in my field. I've been back for over three years and have been unemployed or underemployed the whole time. I almost got it in TESOL but those jobs are scarce here too. My cousin has the degree and lives in Alabama and can't get a teaching job. Korea can change you. I'm not sure if this has been anyone else's experience in public school, but when I started there were students who would come in and sit in the back and just goof off and not participate. My coteacher told me not to "care to them." It really bothered me, she said they were bad kids. This was elementary school, how can you just write off kids? We had extra books so I started handing them out with paper and pencils and forced them to participate the best I could. For some it worked, they really just needed someone to be an adult and tell them they had to participate in class. This translated into wanting to work with juvenile delinquents. I've done a ton of volunteer work, but with the economy the way it is, the government is cutting their budget and there just aren't any jobs. The few interviews I've had in my field I didn't get, they interviewed twenty people for these jobs and without experience in the field I don't make the cut. Be very careful. Right now I have a job in management at a local resort that pays about 14,000 a year. After expenses I have about $50 a month to live on. If you default on your student loans the government can't hire you. ANd every job I've gone for does a credit check. They don't care that the economy is bad, if you ruin your credit your screwed. I'm stuck living with my parents, I can't go out because I'm flat broke all the time. At work, I go to my car at lunch and tell them I like to read while I eat. The truth is, I can't afford lunch and I'm sick of the comments that I need to eat more and that I'm too skinny. Think really hard about taking on that debt, And research the field you want to go in thouroughly to see if your degree will translate into an actual job that pays a living wage. An education is supposed to make things better for you, get you a better job, but the reality of it is far different at this point in time. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 7:39 am Post subject: |
|
|
| flakfizer wrote: |
| Korea is great place for pursing a master's degree; your boyfriend will carry it for you. |
You're so unappreciated in your time.
Genius I say....genius! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 3:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Go for a specific skill set. That's more important than a Masters. But if you do decide to do one, go for an MBA. Just make sure you move to an economy that actually has work when you're done. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
whiteshoes
Joined: 14 Apr 2009
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 5:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I thought I'd have tons of time if I did my MA while at a public school, and I was very wrong. Turned out my co-teacher was an overachiever and expected me to be the same. I was expecting hours upon hours of "desk sitting" and instead I worked my butt off. However, I think I became a much better teacher because of him. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
No_hite_pls
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Location: Don't hate me because I'm right
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2012 8:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Go for a specific skill set. That's more important than a Masters. But if you do decide to do one, go for an MBA. Just make sure you move to an economy that actually has work when you're done. |
| Quote: |
MBA applications always go up during a bad economy. That is because business school generally attracts people who are lost, and more people who feel more lost when the bad job market is lousy.
But let's be clear: This is not the type of recession where there are no jobs for young people. This is a recession where there are no GOOD jobs. McDonald's is hiring in management. There is a bank teller shortage and a shortage of actuaries. There is a shortage of insurance agents. It's just that people don't grow up dreaming of these jobs. So they don't take them. Instead, people who are early in their career - in that time when an MBA sounds like it might work - those people are determined to have only a good job. And if they can't have that, they get an MBA.
The problem is that an MBA makes it worse.
Here are seven reasons why you should take a bad job instead of getting an MBA.
1. Business school won't help you be a good entrepreneur.
There is no correlation between being a good entrepreneur and going to business school. In fact, according to Saras Sarasvathy, professor at University of Virginia's Darden Business School, the most important skill for an entrepreneur is that you know your weakness and you can find people to fill in your gaps. So you pay a bundle to go to school to learn what you don't and how to find people who can do stuff you can't? Sorry, that doesn't add up. The ultimate irony: entrepreneur programs are booming at business schools.
2. You likely don't need an MBA for what you want to do.
There are some jobs, very few, where you cannot land if you don't have an MBA. These are mostly high-level officer-type positions in the Fortune 500. Even then, though, you probably don't need an MBA. In fact, Forbes reports that CEOs without MBAs bring more value to investors than CEOs who went to business school.
3. MBAs who are not from a top 10 school don't increase their earning power.
So if you're not one of the elite, the degree won't help you earn more. According to the recruiting firm Challenger & Gray, the degree simply does not separate you from other people in any significant way; it's too easy to get an MBA from a second-tier school. The cost of the degree is so much more than the combined cost of taking two years off of work and paying for the degree that you are better off taking a job you don't particularly like and getting a night-school MBA after work hours.
4. It's pointless after a certain age.
Let's say you do get into a top-ten school. Don't go if you are older than 28. You are too far along in your career to leverage the degree enough to increase your earning power enough to make up for the sticker cost of the degree. In fact, it is so important to get the degree early in your career that Wharton and Harvard have started accepting women earlier than men because the biological clock truncates a woman's ability to leverage the MBA early enough in their career to make it worth the money.
5. An MBA is too limiting.
You can't take an entry-level job after you get an MBA, so you had better know what you like to do. And can't take a job in a low-paying industry because you have to pay back the loans. So not only is an MBA useless for most jobs, but it also makes you unqualified for more jobs that it qualifies you for
6. An MBA makes you look desperate
Top ten business schools will not accept you unless you have a clear plan for what you will do with the degree after you graduate. You need to have shown that you have a propensity for some sort of business and that you need the degree to get where you want in that business. Unfortunately, most other schools will take you if you don't have a plan even though it's been shown that people who go to business school with no plan for their career graduate with no plan for their career. And then you look not just lost, but desperate.
7. Business school puts off the inevitable.
Look, it's really hard to be an adult. You go to school for twenty years being told what to learn and what to think and when to show up, and then you get tossed into adult life and there is no one telling you what's right for you. You have to figure it out, but you didn't go to school for that. In fact, school is the opposite of that. So it looks fine to be lost in your 20s. This is when everyone is taking time to figure things out. It does not look fine to spend $150,000 to go back to school just to put off the hard knocks of figuring out where you belong in the workforce. Face reality. Join the workforce. |
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-45040152/why-an-mba-is-a-waste-of-time-and-money/ |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
sonicmatt
Joined: 04 Oct 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 6:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I wish I wouldve pursued a master's when I worked at public school. I would be done by now. You will have alot of free time, maybe a 2-3 hrs a day. It might be an hr here or there. At least you can read your materials or get organized a bit in that time. But when winter or summer desk warming comes you will have 8 hrs of nothing to do. Perfect time to work on that masters degree. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guajiro
Joined: 04 Dec 2008
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 7:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| sonicmatt wrote: |
| I wish I wouldve pursued a master's when I worked at public school. I would be done by now. You will have alot of free time, maybe a 2-3 hrs a day. It might be an hr here or there. At least you can read your materials or get organized a bit in that time. But when winter or summer desk warming comes you will have 8 hrs of nothing to do. Perfect time to work on that masters degree. |
Or if, god forbid, you have to actually work at work, you can do it after work instead of going to the bar. That's what I'm doing!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
missmacaroni
Joined: 04 Sep 2012
Location: USA
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:12 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Awesome! Thanks for the feedback! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
