Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kingplaya4]

Nearly every hagwon is bad. I would never recommend this field as a long term career. But if you and your partner can find a good paying school together, you guys will save 20 grand in a year easy. (Everyone I've met in the flesh spends more here than they planned on.) Still it's decent money, plus if you choose the right school you'll have your severance and pension at the end.

I've never worked at Poly, but if what these guys are saying is true, 12 classes in a day is too much. I've done it during summer and winter intensives and it was okay, but certainly not for a whole school year. What you need to do is get the email address of both a current and a former teacher of that school and find out what's up. You really don't want more than 8 classes a day (that' really is a lot in itself) and maybe a few more during intensive periods. Anyways, you'll get a lot more mileage out of talking to former teachers than you will on here.

[v42mrmr]

Hi, thanks for the response. I have spoken to several people who have worked at a Poly school (this is aside from the people they personally sent me the emails of to speak to, as I am always mindful about the fact that they may be influenced to say good things.) So far, this is the picture they have painted, bearing in mind that they have not all worked at my particular campus, but apparently the daily routine is fairly standard (it's the admins that really make the difference from campus to campus):

What I have been told by previous teachers who have worked the same shifts that I have been offered is this: the 9-7:30 work hours are accurate as told in the interview.

You are asked to come in at 9 and the first class starts at 9:40. You have breakfast and prep, then classes run from 9:40-2:00 with the lunch break in that shift from 12-1. Each class is 40 minutes long with brief breaks between each.

At 2:10, you have 50 minutes for prep. Then you have classes from 3-7:30.

So the average classes you have to teach in the run of a day at this campus is 8 a day, but they incorporate time for prep, lunch, and small breaks in between into the working hours, resulting in the long work day.

The teaching material is very structured -- your lesson plans and the materials are already planned out, and some of the more seasoned teachers I spoke to disliked this as they felt they had to teach the Poly way and did not have the opportunity to create the lesson plans themselves and personalize them more. I can completely understand that, as teachers with experience surely feel more comfortable and capable of setting up their own lesson plans.

The rookie teachers expressed a bit of relief at not having to scout for lesson plans and materials and appreciated them being provided as they were new to the experience and felt that with the long work days, mapping out lesson plans would have really accelerated their stress. I suppose that aspect of the job can be positive or negative, it depends on your experience and your personal approach.