Korean Job Discussion Forums

[inspector gadget]

I am curious if other public school teachers are experiencing the same conditions as I am.

Even though the temperatures outside are cold I feel the need to get outside in the sunshine to warm up. I taught in a hogwan my first year and temps inside were not a problem. Having said that its a wonder some of these students at public school don't get carted off to the hospital for hypothermia from being at school.

Absolutley frigid in my middle school, its no wonder a few students wear the uniform, an extra sweater and a flippin parka complete with scarfs and gloves. Today I walked home to grab some extra duds so that I wouldn't freeze.

Another thing is this extra time on my hands, I honestly don't know what I will do with the insane amount of time when not teaching. Today I prepared for Fridays and Mondays lessons, studied Korean for almost two hours and surfed the web for about an hour.

One thing I would like to know is this. Has anyone gone to the principal to chat about this whole 8:30 to 4:30 thing??? I started on Feb 1 with the english camp sessions but today was my first regular day. I am certainly going to address the sitting around deal with my principal before to long thats for sure.

As long as I am prepared for the next two days there is no way I will sit there for two or three hours for no reason. My principal seems reasonable and my co teacher is cool so I think she will helo me with this issue.

Just curious if others have experienced the two issues being frozen and the whole time thing.

[peppermint]

This week or so is hardly a good indication of regular classes. The new term begins in March, and that's when the real fun begins.

As for the 8:30-4:30 thing, you knew that when you signed the contract didn't you? I know it seems like a colossal waste of time, but it's generally necessary to keep the peace with the Korean teachers, and stay in the principal's good graces. Find something to do that will make you look busy.

[BrianInSuwon]

At my school, during the winter break, the heating in some rooms is shut off to save money. If the heaters in your classroom are off, ask someone to turn them on.

What I couldn't understand is why Koreans leave the doors and windows open, even in the winter. It turned out that they believe in fresh air, even if its cold.

At first, I thought staying at school from 8.30 to 4.30 would be difficult but it actually turned out that I often don't leave until after 5.30. It helps that I have over-time classes, one for the high level kids and one for the teachers. Get BitComet and download TV shows and movies. Find a good book. Explore your school. My school has a tennis court, a billard room (which no one uses), and a drum set. Earn a degree through a distance learning program. Join some chat rooms. Take a nap. Study Korean. Bring DVDs. Download music. Join a class; no teacher at my school has a problem with me sitting in on a class; but bring a good Korean to English dictionary. Buy a handheld Playstation.

[inspector gadget]

Yes I knew about this before the contract but I am hoping that there is some flexability involved. I noticed today that some teachers did not come in till about 9:30, not sure why though.

I can understand about keeping the peace and I had no trouble making it look like I was busy.

I guess I am curious if others have attempted to discuss this issue with there principal? If they have, what were the results.

Thanks for the heads up though about keeping peace, I imagine that will be important.

What about the cold though????? Today, even though I was indoors it felt like I was back living in the Northwest Territories in Canada's grat white north.

[peppermint]

There's a certain amount of flexibility there. you can ask to leave after classes for things like banking or whatever, but make sure it's a once in a while thing.

AS for the heat- ask someone to show you how the heaters work. they might not have been turned on today. Big heavy slippers help a lot. ( I wear ones that look like these.

[chiaa]

Keep your mouth shut or they will have you teach English to the janitors.

[laogaiguk]

[denverdeath]

Although some of the rules are often broken, apparently the girls where I worked weren't allowed to wear gloves/mittens, scarves, jewelry, sweaters or anything like that. They always had teachers yelling at them for one reason or another. The heat was on maybe five times before winter break(warmer in Boo-sahn) this year. Usu I found it freezing cold in the hallways and too bloody hot in the classrooms. They thought I was crazy when I took my jacket off and was wearing a light(spring) dress shirt underneath minus the funky wife-beater style undershirt.

As others said, you may not want to push the time issue too much. I've heard people who have with success, but that doesn't mean it will work for you. You'll have lots of days and classes cancelled for many different reasons throughout the year. Just enjoy the down-time and relatively stress-free environment.

[inspector gadget]

Thanks for the input people.

I am not about to run to the principal immediately about the time thing and would certainly discuss it with my co teacher first.

Well I am not concerned about being told to teach the janitors if I do bring the issue up due to the fact that the STUDENTS ARE THE JANITORS. It seems that everyday at three pm every single student becomes the janitor, scouring every nook and cranny of the school.

I asked my co teacher about and she says it is part of there chores. I then asked if the school employes Janitors and she said no there is no need. If something needs to be done they simply outsource the contract to a local business.

I think I will go and buy some funky slippers peppermint, they look toasty.

I also did notice a room that simulated an apartment, maybe social studies class resource, might have to check it out for a nice nap.

At my school, teachers chage classrooms not the students so turning up the heat in one room is not going to help.

I think it has much to do with the construction of the building, CONCRETE, CONCRETE, CONCRETE AND MORE CONCRETE. A horrible material for keeping heat.

Thanks again for your input Cheers

[Kenny Kimchee]

Sounds like life on JET in Japan. Consider yourself lucky that you have heat at all; I'm in a junior high school in Fukuoka (straight across from Busan) and the only rooms in my school that have climate control are the teacher's room and the library. There's nothing like teaching a class in near-freezing temps in the winter and the 35+ degree humid summer. They think they're helping the kids build character and prepare for a life of salaryman suffering, but the only thing they're doing is killing the students' ability to concentrate.

Ditto on the downtime; I taught one class in an eight hour workday yesterday, one class the day before that, and no classes on either Monday or Tuesday. Schedules like this used to drive me up the wall (and still do on occasion), but also enable me to do my distance Master's in Language Education with Indiana University http://www.indiana.edu/%7Edisted/masters.html I'm gonna graduate in June and have done about 70% of my coursework while at "work."

Sitting around all the time sucks, but you are getting paid for it. I used to make a run for it but started feeling bad about it so I stopped. Like the others said, read books, study Korean, do a Master's. Have fun.

[Demophobe]

My schools have given me all afternoons free until March. They are really cool and now, after 2 years with them, they know me well enough that all of my work is finished in the morning, so they have no qualms about letting me go after lunch. Yeah...some creative ideas about what to do with the time in this thread, but home is much sweeter.

[margaret]

if you can't get them to turn on heaters in your classroom to your satisfaction you can get yourself a seat heater. I have one from a Korean home shopping catalog, cheap. I also brought long underwear with me and wear it, but if you didn't bring any you might not be able to fit into the Korean sizes though they have it.
Margaret

[sarahsarah]

Aside from the offices where people are working there's no heat. It's absolutely frigid everywhere else. I never want to go to the bathroom because it's always freezing in there.

You're lucky that there are actually people around though. There are three people in my office today: the vice-principal, the soldier that works here and me. The students don't come back until next week. I haven't had any classes in the past three weeks yet I'm still required to be here from 9 to 5. Seems a bit pointless, eh? It's all part of the game. Maybe if I'm nice they'll let me leave at 4 o'clock today.

[crazylemongirl]

My school is pretty good with the heat. However last winter they installed these new air con units, which would blow the power for the school whenever they were used.

[inspector gadget]

Once again thanks for the input. It seems the heating issue has improved, I guess having the heat off for such a long time for winter break was the problem. On Friday it seemed reasonably warm after the heat was on for a few days.

In March it looks like I will teach 3 classes (45min) on MWF and 2 Classes on T,TH. I guess I will have lots of time to study Korean at work along with adding to my already prepared business plan for when I go back to Canada next January.

There will be plenty of time for naps everyday also, I tried that out on Friday snuck in 45 minutes of ZZZZ's while I had y headphones on and my computer on an english resource site.

I am going to have to find out if there is a wieght room in the gymnasium