Korean Job Discussion Forums

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Brief review of the situation:

The administration at my boys high school has decided to select the 40 (out of an enrollment of 120) students with behavior problems and give them to me for 2 hours a morning for 'summer camp'. My only alternative is to end my employment after 11 months and give up my severence pay.

My idea: Refuse to teach the class unless there is a Korean teacher in the room at all times with the responsibility to handle discipline.

Question: Is it really a law that a certified Korean teacher be in the classroom in a public school?

It would be very helpful to me to be able to print out the relevant portion of education law and hand it to the principal on Monday morning.

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

I sat down with my district supervisor to get info. for a paper I've written on co-teaching.

I was shown the regulation in Korean and she said it stated NOT that a Korean teacher had to be in the classroom but rather that a certified/accredited Korean teacher was responsible for the students, at all times, regardless of helpers , assistants or others being in the class.

I would go to your district supervisor about this issue. They should back you up -- they are given directives about enforcing this "rule" but unfortunately principals pay it lip service and I've been told many, many times this is the unfortunate case.

DD

Paddycakes · Joined: 05 May 2003 Location: Seoul

It could be just like the "Breakfast Club"...

antoniothegreat · Joined: 28 Aug 2005 Location: Yangpyeong

i dont know about the law, but check your contract. many contracts explicitly say "to teach english with a Korean co-teacher." if your contract says this, they are violating your contract by having you teach alone.

another alternative... movies... obviously the school doesnt care, 40 of the worst kids, that means this class is either a "catch up class" that the government requires them to do and no one else wanted to teach, or they are just weeding out the "junk" so the other classes have no problems. either way, you dont want to be there, the kids dont want to be there, and odds are, the school doesnt really care what is going on in there, time to rents some dvds...

ChopChaeJoe · Joined: 05 Mar 2006 Location: Seoul

It might be quite the experience. Give it a shot with the understanding that it's a bumhole situation. Maybe you'll teach the buggers something. When I went to school in Texas, almost all of my teachers were facists. I was considered a discipline problem too. The teachers were simply the straightmen to my one-liners.

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

My sympathies. If I had to teach summer 'camp' high school classes at my school I'd be more interested in keeping Korean teachers out of classroom, actually.

As for the law, I've heard of some GIPEK regulation for elementary school teachers having a Korean in the classroom but don't know if it's the law. I work for the same district as Ya-ta and our contracts state that we A) may be used as assistants for KTs or B) may conduct classes for Korean teachers or students.

My advice would be just to bring DVDs and music videos and not worry about it, with one month to go.

matthews_world · Joined: 15 Feb 2003

Have fun w/ 'em. You could end up doing a world of good for these kids. Heck, they might even grow on you.

Go on a field trip or two w/ a K teacher, watch movies, have a lesson about the forth of July in the U.S. and watch "Independence Day" for example. Sing pop songs.

Have a blast! It's all how you look at things.

drumpounder · Joined: 20 Jun 2006

"It's all how you look at things." What, exactly, are you supposed to see when you are staring at a steaming pile of manure?

I teach those kids everyday, and have for the last year. I also have a K co-teacher for every class who acts the part of lion tamer. At times his hands and feet are truly reminiscent of the late great Bruce Lee.

cornie_man · Joined: 31 Jul 2005 Location: Sparkling in Korea

Simple. Kill them all.

Pateach · Joined: 11 May 2006

I once worked as an ed-tech or aide for a horribly managed ''behavior problem" class in the states. It was chaos at times and a big lesson in how NOT to teach, but one of the things that worked with them was music. If you get stuck with this class, you might try to play music and try to talk about it as poetry. Some hip-hop, punk, and teen popular pop repeats relatively simple English over and over in the chorus. Or if you're American, you could just teach jazz as American history and culture. Music generally reaches teens eventually.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

A glimmer of good news: my co-teacher (not for this class) says enrollment is only at 31, not 40, and may go down even more before D-Day comes.

The bad news was that no Korean teacher will be available for the job of enforcer. If the number goes down to 20-25 I won't be so intimidated. I figure I can pacify that many with food lessons.

I was amused at the poster who said to 'talk to them...' Ummm...these boys don't even know how to answer "How are you?" Several of them do not know the alphabet (so reading dialogs is out...so is filling in blanks in song lyrics). One that I know of cannot count past 12. I am not exaggerating.