Korean Job Discussion Forums

[OiGirl]

[ambvalent]

Pleasant co-teacher for some classes. Homeroom teacher in the classroom for other classes, and they have varying levels of involvement.

Both work for me, in different ways.

I'm actually curious what others do who have a coteacher...how do you plan a lesson? Are you able to infuse the lesson with your own creativity?

[sarahsarah]

I have a co-teacher and for the most part she's goes to every class with me. Occasionally if she has something pressing to do I go alone, but it doesn't really make much of a difference.

My class would be an exercise in futility if she weren't there though as the level of my students is so incredibly low being at a countryside vocational school disgusing itself as an arts high school.

The way a typical 11th or 12th grade class runs for us is that she translates whatever it is we're working on that day and then I do the speaking part with the students and work on prounciation and other whatnot. I've tried doing more dynamic lessons where the students might actually learn something useful instead of a dialog out of a book, but they just can't handle it. Plus, they're lazy and that's made me lazy in how I prep for the classes.

As for the 10th graders I pretty much go it alone with her sitting in the back of the room simply being there for me to call upon should I need help...she also gives the answers to the student during the games. Boo.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[ambvalent]

[Veronica]

I have no co-teacher in my schools and I am thankful. They can be a hinderance in the class and also a distraction. Also, if they teach the wrong things infront of you, then at what point do you correct them?

[JacktheCat]

[crazylemongirl]

Actually I'm now having an attack of the over active co-teacher. She's doing her thesis on 'team teaching' with native teacher and I'm her subject.

For two of her classes I have the kids in small groups rather than rows. This means that I can't see all my kids at once as they are facing at a 45 degree angle to the board.

She's adding unrelated activities into my pre-planned lessons that are way too hard for my students and telling me about them at the very last minute.

She decides on the fly what's going to happen during the class. And changing the way I usually do things.

But these classes are still being assessed the same as everyone else, but now their lesson time is being cut back.

Now of course the classroom management is going to hell because of all sudden she's changing all this stuff year and it's confusing the hell out of the kids.

Later she's giving me some 'solo teaching' on stuff which is way out of my students league. For instance I'm supposed to teach these kids a math, literature and science lesson in english on the days when I'm not teaching the assesment material in those two classes.

I suppose I'm annoyed because I spent most of my first semester at this gig finding out what exactly I can and can't do with a class of 40-45 mixed ability students that I see once a week. The answer is not much.

Rant over.

[ambvalent]

crazylemon...that sounds tough. On the bright side, at least someone *in* the Korean education system is reaching out and shaking things up, right? I do hope you can find a way to bridge your goals together and find common ground.

I've actually been thinking today what I would do if I didn't have a very "easy" coteacher. She and I definitely have different teaching styles, but she's so flexible with my ideas that the only constriction I feel is my own teaching ability. If my new idea/game bombs, she usually can offer me helpful advice on next time. Or, translate to me what the kids were saying...like today: "The song's key is too high". I didn't know that! Arg, usually 4th graders love to sing!

I think hard and spend a lot of time right now coming up with good ideas for teaching and co-teaching. I have this feeling that if I really work hard at it, my coteacher and I could eventually model a good team-teaching style. There's definitely something to be said for a teacher who, although she has never left Korea, can be flexible and open to foreign education ideas. I'm learning a lot from her.

As crazylemon wrote, I think I too will be spending the entirety of my first semester figuring out just what exactly I can get away with teaching in my classroom of too many children with too many levels of understanding.

I am in a program with 19 other american teachers in gangnam, and we are going to informally meet pseudo-regularly to discuss our experiences/ideas, what's working vs. what isn't. Unlike myself, a lot of them have a lot of experience/education in teaching, and I've gotten some great ideas from them so far. If anyone here is interested and has some ideas, maybe you could join us.

[JacktheCat]

[mswiftansan]

I'm suprised to hear that some people prefer to teach without a co-teacher.
This is my first year in Korea and I landed a public school job not knowing the difference between this and a hagwon.
My classes are 45 huge - 4 40 minute classes a day. I create the lesson plan based on the curriculum and then my co-teacher goes over it and changes what she thinks won't work (up to now it's been almost eveything..whoops) I find that a bit frustrating, but at the same time I realize I need time to learn.
If I didn't have my co-teacher I would have commited murder 100 times over by now. These kids are the definition of unruly! Luckily she knows how to say "sit or I'll shoot" in Korean.
Unfortunately she is super over worked having to do all the paperwork that goes with me along with tons of other mundane tasks.
There's not one day that goes by that I don't appreciate having her in the class with me....accept for that day that she and the whole class laughed when I said "Do you want some more Song Pyeon?"

[crazylemongirl]

[ambvalent]

[Veronica]