Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mumblebee]

I'm not sure if this question has been asked before, so apologies if it has been.

I often long for my own classroom...but at my school, it is the teachers who run around with a basket of stuff, and the students stay put. I know it is the only solution at my very crowded hogwan, but I wondered how common it is...

I imagine that having your own classroom would be less stressful, and would allow you to do some more interesting programing. I can't do any ongoing projects, or even put stuff on the walls, because it will just get wrecked by the students in another class, while they wait for the teacher to arrive. Also, I would like to offer things like a mini-library, or have some great reference books on offer for my kids, but it is impossible under the set up we have now. I really feel I need my own classroom!

Maybe I am wrong, however; maybe having my own classroom is not all that I think it would be. Such a situation could feel kind of isolating for teachers. I would like to hear about others' experiences.

In the meantime, I'll keep dreaming...

[tomato]

Hello, Mumblebee!

I checked yes.
In my first job, I often remembered halfway through the class period that I needed an item, so I ran back to get it.
So ever since then, I specified in my resume that I wanted my own classroom.

[peppermint]

At my public school, there's a classroom set aside for English lessons, and my co teacher and I get to decorate it etc, and I've got an "office" next door since there's no staffroom at my school.

It's a pretty great thing, though I find the students are pretty destructive on some of the materials, if they're left on shelves away from the teacher's desk

[crazylemongirl]

I don't have my own classroom. There are some drawbacks to it, as in any classroom I'm not sure what's working or not for my lesson. But the big bonus is that I'm not responsible for cleaning my classroom. My friend has her own classroom and the students really make a mess of the place.

[JacktheCat]

I've got my own combination English Zone\office at my "private" high shool. (and the keys to it)

It's bigger than the other rooms at my high school and better furnished and admin leaves me alone to do with it as I wish.

Pluses. It's my own, I can decorate as I wish and don't have to worry about other teachers moving things around or forgetting to erase the white board. Since it's also my office, all my shit is right there; no running outside to grap something I forgot.

Minuses. I am responsible for it, have to organise the kids into teams to clean it and if any thing is broken or stolen it comes back to me. And since it is also my office there, is no privacy.

All in all it's good setup I have to say.

[Derrek]

The foriegn teachers each have a lab at my school. The students come to our room for class. The Korean teachers go from room to room, in other instances, teaching in the kids' homeroom. Sometimes we share these rooms with Korean teachers, but they don't often need them.

Our school bought long tables or half-moon table that can be placed together to form a discussion circle. The idea was a good one, however it isn't as practicle, unfortunately. The kids talk more when they face each other. Class is more difficult to control. Knowing what I know now, and if I could go back in time, I would have told them to put in normal seating that the kids are used to.

[Derrek]

The foriegn teachers each have a lab at my school. The students come to our room for class. The Korean teachers go from room to room, in other instances, teaching in the kids' homeroom. Sometimes we share these rooms with Korean teachers, but they don't often need them.

Our school bought long tables or half-moon table that can be placed together to form small-group discussion circles. The idea was a good one, however it isn't as practical, unfortunately. The kids talk more when they face each other. Class is more difficult to control. Knowing what I know now, and if I could go back in time, I would have told them to put in normal seating that the kids are used to.

[Dan The Chainsawman]

I have my own classroom right next to the teachers office. Which works well for me when I get a smart assed kid tossing him out the door tends to draw the attention of my supervisor who noramally gives them an earful. Not always, but enough to make it a credible consquence for poor behaviors.

I really don't have to even clean my own classroom, but I like to do it anyway. The thought of my Korean coworkers cleaning up my room bothers me. I tend to leave it neat, and tidy. However, being that my desk is in my classroom, I rarely ever go into the teachers office. This tends to isolate me from my coworkers. Not that it matters they tend to stop talking when I am around anyway.

Last is the huge table in my room. This limits alot of the more active lessons I like to attempt. It does make a good table for running around acting like maniacs. Seriously what Korean kid could not possibly benifit from learning the goonies era truffle shuffle?

[sarahsarah]

I have my own classroom, but I never use it except for the hour of afterschool lessons on Monday and Wednesday. I usually just travel around to the classroom of whatever class I happen to be teaching.

Both my co-teacher and I often use it as a hiding/napping/dvd watching place. It's quite handy.

I think they'd prefer that I use that room as my office, but I feel so cut off from everything up there.

[Ilsanman]

I am a nazi about my classroom. I have banned all food from my classroom. One kid was writing on the wall, and I threw his ass out after breaking his pencil in half.

It is my room, and it's kind of insulting to make a mess of it. But K kids have no respect for things like that.

[pollyplummer]

I don't have my own classroom, but I kind of prefer it that way. I dont want to be responsible to decorate. My school is a complete maze, and I usually just follow my co-teacher to the next class. I have an office with the Japanese techer, a Korean english teacher, and our supervisor. We eat snacks all day and drink coffee, and our office is sometimes a refuge from the madness that is public high school. If I did have my own class room, it would be spotless, and I'd be a nazi about it, too. Ever since I've come to Korea, I get these obsessive cleaning urges. Maybe it comes from being surrounded by such filth everywhere. It seems like it would be a better idea for the teachers to keep their own classroom clean and for the students to move around. They'd be more awake that way and less destructive.

[Saxiif]

Nope, schedules are too unpredictable in my hagwon. For the three month summer term there's going to be classes starting at 8 AM and going until late late at night and it'd be stupid to have a bunch of class rooms standing empty since you obviously can't have one teacher manning a classroom for 14+ hours that it'd be in use.

[d503]

I have my own classroom, but for the kinder classes i rotate through other classrooms. I get to decorate it, keep my stuff, and be in it whenever i need to be.