Korean Job Discussion Forums

[buymybook]

Get a thick tipped marker and write big, 3-5 word sentences. Who knows where I'll be working on my next contract but if I find myself in a similiar situation I'd sure like to have access to previously used evaluations. For each evaluation just match with the appropriate student and maybe add 1, 2, or 3 extra sentences depending on the student. Does anyone know where to get these pre-made or previously used evaluations?

[ifa79]

40 sentences on report cars is pointless and offensive to you as a Native Teacher. Most of your kids' parents don't read them and only like to see the text.
I remember having to write three sentences for every student each month and thinking is was a waste of time.
I sympathize with you on this point.
However, all teachers should expect a reasonable amount of prep time and marking time on top of their teaching hours. It is part of any teaching job.
Discuss with your bosses about better ways to inform the parents about their child's progress.
40 sentences...wow!

[inkoreafornow]

Report cards made really easy:

http://esltool.com/

Seriously people, check this out!

[Old fat expat]

Great site!
Wow, what a time saver.

[captain kirk]

Grotto, you crack me up.

That's right why be a hagwon slave more than you have to. At our school the other foreign teacher, who just arrived, first time in Korea, agreed to come to work three hours early.

Three hours early, on a regular workday, to get down on your knees give it a good cleaning. With the owner and the receptionist. So three gals on the case.

I said to her hey, why would you give in like that. Because she had talked with the manager about it not being in the contract. She ended up agreeing to clean because it's a nice gesture.

And because 'the boss doesn't have the money to hire a cleaning lady'.

I said well, it makes me look bad. That she agreed to clean and I didn't move a muscle. And she said that, in Korea, cleaning is 'women's work' so I was exempt anyway, so no problem.

Nice one.

[ontheway]

Captain Kirk,

Is this new FT srubbing those new marble floors you mentioned on the other thread? The owner of the wedding hall palace was cleaning too?
Man, this is a funny world. BTW where is this place?

[captain kirk]

It sure is a funny world. This sounds funny but ever since igotthisguitar mentioned the figure of 10% for the amount of the human brain (in another thread) that's used it's a funny world with funny people in it.

It's hard to take anything seriously.

The owner's wife(school director), receptionist, the new FT (female) on their knees scrubbing. Luckily a 'woman's job', cleaning, in Korea. Guys like me can sit and get fat.

My 'hagwonne deluxe' is in Cheonan.

[Grotto]

New teacher=babo ya

I still say for report cards just get a giant rubber stamp or two made up. They are cheap.

(name) is doing well. (name) needs to listen more and apply themselves more fully. I am pleased with his/her progress in English and look forward to their continued success studying English. Areas where they need to work harder are: reading, writing and speaking more clearly. I would like them to watch an English movie at home once a week in order to help with their pronunciation and vocabulary building.

I have enclosed a list of appropriate movies that I feel would be beneficial to your child.

Sincerely

Your English teacher

[YoungLi]

[some waygug-in]

That's all well and fine. Personally, I don't mind putting in extra time for prep and things if I find that what I am doing is useful.

Teachers back home are also considered real teachers and their time spent on the job will be respected when they apply for future jobs.

However many extra hours teachers put in back home, at least there is the possibility that what they are doing is useful.


But writing 40 sentences a month to parents who can't read them is not useful.

I certainly would have a problem with this as well. This is just a case of a hagwan trying to impress parents with a bunch of 'busy work'.

It really has nothing to do with your ability to teach and in fact is probably going to get in your way if you have to do it every month.

I had to write 5 or 6 sentences for the one place I worked at and I found myself just writing a lot of the same things over and over, just changing a few adjectives and the sentence order here and there.

Especially when you are new to a school and you don't know the students well enough to make a proper assessment. It took me 3 months just to figure out their names and even by the end of that year I was still mixing up students.

What I would do if I were you, like someone else said

get a black felt tipped marker

Write big

You might want to consider writing up a standard form letter,leaving a space for the name and a place for a few comments. See if they will go for that.

[pet lover]

Here's an idea for all teachers. Keep copies of your report cards. This not only helps you the next time you are writing them and can't remember what you said before, but they are a great thing to pass on to the next teacher when you leave. Good way to get to know the students. I've done this at almost all my previous jobs.

Oh, and another benefit is that you can be sure to mention if so and so has improved in the areas where you mentioned extra work is necessary and you can better keep track of downward spirals and maybe even see a pattern and find a way to turn it all around.

[captain kirk]

Well, here are some extra duties at our school which the management figured makes for 'good teaching', hoo whee. Actually, you be the judge. On the whole they are to do with window dressing.

Put stickers with the hagwon's name on them on all the books in the student library. The manager did this for long hours on Saturday, unpaid.

Phone teaching. There was a big kerfluffle when this was dropped. The boss figured it would look great. Teacher phones and talks to their kid. Anyone who's done it knows it's a waste of time. I won't go all negative about why. Anyway I torpedoed this and 'almost got fired' for being outspoken. Actually, that's the way it is here. The boss shoves forward some demand. If you object, no matter what the reason, you're 'almost fired' while they sulk and don't talk, looking mean, for some days. Then they forget about it.

This phone teaching would have been unpaid.

The school's cheap, not poor. The owner had tons of dough from their main business, the wedding hall. So asking the new teacher to clean comes from the boss wanting a hagwon slave.

I agree with somewaygukin. If there's something I think is effective for my classes I do it. To keep them involved. To keep them there (so they don't drop). That's it.

What comes from the bosses is busywork. They don't realize, maybe, that there's enough work for the teacher minding their classes.

For example I asked the other FT and manager (not the big boss) if they'd be into having a halloween theme day at the haggie. I get a huge kick out of dressing up and seeing the kids dressed up. We had a party like this last Halloween at the previous haggie. But no.

Because the other FT and the manager are so exhausted from doing, or fending off, busywork. Pointless 'looks good' buffing up sort of work.

When Halloween's a gas.

[Grotto]

Sorry guys...when my contract reads : 30 fifty minute classes a week and my contracted hours are 30 hours per week for 2.2 mil then thats all they get....they get what they pay for. If you are stupid/naiive enough to put in xx amount of hours per week/month for nothing then you deserve what you get.

Korean labout laws state that work is defined as both mental and physical. Marking/admin duties/phone calls etc are all WORK. Unless you are getting paid to do this WORK dont do it.

Lots of other jobs out there.

[YoungLi]

[YoungLi]

[quote="some waygug-in"]
Teachers back home are also considered real teachers and their time spent on the job will be respected when they apply for future jobs.

However many extra hours teachers put in back home, at least there is the possibility that what they are doing is useful. [quote]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, now if that isn't the biggest myth and misconception I've ever heard in my lifetime!!!!!

Take a look at this ONE of many reports on this subject:

"Teachers say: Pay us more money and respect"

"By Beth Nissen
CNN.com Correspondent

(CNN) -- A new survey of the United States' leading teachers has a suggestion for every school struggling to recruit and retain the best classroom teachers: Pay them more money -- but pay them a lot more respect.

The survey, by Scholastic, Inc. and the Council of Chief State School Officers, asked 400 winners of national and state Teacher of the Year awards for solutions to America's growing teacher shortage -- the worst since the baby-boom years after World War II. According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 2 million new school teachers will be needed by 2002.

Eight out of 10 survey respondents cited the need for more competitive pay and better benefits. But an equal number wrote -- many at length, filling the margins and backs of their survey forms -- about the need for greater respect, from school administrators, legislators and society at large.

"Education needs to be held in higher esteem by the public," wrote a Pennsylvania geography teacher. "My best students openly admit they don't want to be teachers because they see a lack of respect for teachers."

"Instead of being denigrated at every turn, the teaching profession should be held up as something noble and respected," wrote a New Jersey high school social studies teacher. ............................................................."

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/05/08/teacher.report/

Maybe that's not enough PROOF for you then try this site and hear it from the "horses' mouth" the students themselves etc.
http://www.golivewire.com/forums/topic.cgi?topic=92801


More and more teachers are quiting these days due to lack of respect issues in the US from all ends: students, administrators, parents, and society at large. Do some research on this subject and you'd be AMAZED!