Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Draven]

I'm wondering how many of you here have Korean co-teachers and what sort of system of teaching you have developed with them. I'm not referring to the often-used hagwon system where a Korean teaches the class and then the foreigner teaches the class right after; but rather actually being together in the class.

I have 3 different co-teachers at my school. Two of them are good and one sucks. The bad one does nothing but it sit in the back of the class and read magazines or feed students answers. I've talked to her about becoming more involved in the class, but we have a really difficult time communicating.

Even for the two good ones, though, I find 'co-teacher' to be a bit of a misnomer. They don't really teach, so much as support. They provide discipline and periodically translate or explain an activity. In fact, the class almost seems to be optional for them. If they have anything else going on, they don't show. We don't discuss the lesson beforehand; they're seeing for the first time as the students are. Often I ask them to explain something in Korean, but they are unable because they haven't been paying attention.

Anyways, as I posted a few weeks back, I had a co-taught class evaluated by the Ministry of Education. It happened to be with the 'weaker' of my co-teachers. It was unlike a regular class in that my co-teacher and I actually shared the teaching. Well, shared might not be quite right. She led one aspect of the class for 10 minutes, but the rest was mine. In the debriefing that followed, the evaluator was generally pleased with our class, but stated that we must find new ways to utilize the co-teach system better. Whether he offered some suggestions, I don't know; they weren't passed along to me.

So I'm wondering if anyone feels that they've developed a positive system for their co-taught classes. What's an effective way to use the system?

[Zyzyfer]

I had five coteachers at my last school. One initially never showed up, two others simply monitored classroom behavior, another one was more or less along the lines of your described good coteachers, and then one was extremely helpful; however, none of them ever tried to really be a coteacher in the proper sense. I could've only managed something with the two better ones, anyways; the other three really didn't like me that much.

Actually, though, I didn't really like the idea of having a coteacher, and told them at the beginning of the year that they didn't have to attend my classes. Of course it's sometimes helpful to have someone who can explain a difficult point in Korean, but I rarely found myself in a position where I just couldn't get a point across to my students.

[hadeshorn]

At my last school, the Korean teachers worked harder then me. But I offset any ill-will with humour and a "Oh my god, I cant believe he got away with that" amazed look.

But yeah each class had 2 periods. First class with Foreign teacher and the next with a K-Teacher or vice versa.

Poor little things worked so hard.

[captain kirk]

Wow. You have co-teachers? Is this for especially big classes? I could see how it would be necessary for 35 students. Is this in public school?
In Taiwan teaching in the public school (elementary) the best co-worker was right up there with me. She was like a 'second me' (no, not a MiniMe . I'm not egoistical. I mean she was right involved and was up there and we were a comedy team doing our gig for the little English learners. She was never at a distance for whatever reason. Be it the pay difference, the fact I know more English than she does, or whatever. Because with elementary level and huge (35 kids) classes we just did a show. The same, programmed lesson to deliver anyway so up we both were doing our thing. It was OUR class.

[Draven]