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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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nero
Joined: 11 Mar 2009
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 Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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I, too, work for an afterschool program and have open classes in a couple of weeks.
First - smile a lot. Even if the parents can't understand you they want to see a happy active foreigner.
My plan:
Warmup - Go over classroom rules, select teams etc
Then for a warm up something active like the body letter game using the main vocab words.
The song and chant.
practice vocab - listen and repeat etc drilling then points activity
Listening and reading (we will practice the reading before hand)
reading in teams
reading stop game
fun activity using main language
It's tough. I go red and sweat..but what can you do?
what level are you teaching? |
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John Stamos jr.
Joined: 07 Oct 2012
Location: Namsan
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| Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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| I teach 1-6, bottom heavy, only ones I'm worried about. It's a small price to pay for working six hours a day and basically being able to screw around for the first two of those six, I guess. Half of my classes basically teach themselves anyway. I mentioned before that my school is new, so the thing I'm worried about is literally everyone in the small area coming to watch me, even people whose kids aren't in the program. Circus-esq. |
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nero
Joined: 11 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 1:57 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, I've got a couple of classes that are quite worrying. All the problems stem from students being in the wrong frigging level. One girl is seriously autistic and very disruptive, plus a couple of other behaviour problems in that class.
@John Stamos Jr -- Off topic, but right now I share my classes with my co-teacher and we change classes each day, so I see them 2 or 3 times a week (3 or 4 classes a day). They are talking about next semester: me teaching all the classes ('co-teaching' yeah right) so I would have 5 classes a day, the same classes every day. It sounds like a nightmare. What do you reckon? |
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John Stamos jr.
Joined: 07 Oct 2012
Location: Namsan
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:12 am Post subject: |
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| nero wrote: |
| @John Stamos Jr -- Off topic, but right now I share my classes with my co-teacher and we change classes each day, so I see them 2 or 3 times a week (3 or 4 classes a day). They are talking about next semester: me teaching all the classes ('co-teaching' yeah right) so I would have 5 classes a day, the same classes every day. It sounds like a nightmare. What do you reckon? |
Well, I'm no expert... but you're saying you have separate classrooms now and see the same students every other day, as is usually the norm for these jobs? And they're thinking about making your CT and you share a room, right? I interviewed for an AS job where they had that setup and I didn't like the idea of that one bit.
I don't know, if I were you I'd try to scare them... like, maybe, say something along the lines of, "My friend's school tried that and a lot of the kids ended up dropping out because they have other activities and simply can't attend classes five days a week, so a lot of them fell behind and their parents pulled them out of the program". Possibly worth a shot.
The absolute best part of these AS "jobs" in my opinion is that you usually (though obviously not in the OPs case) work in an environment free of adult Koreans who constantly try to get up your butt about trivial stuff. Yeah, you have your CT, but she's usually in the other room. My old AS director never bothered me and my current school doesn't even have a director. Maybe it would be alright if your CT was an easy going, cool person... but I haven't met too many "easy going" Koreans in this field...
Man, I hear my current CT screeching like an ape all day from the other room, while in my classes we breeze through the three pages, draw pictures, play games, and improve my Korean  . I can't imagine having to be in the same room as that insane woman for six hours. Not like she can communicate in English anyway, though. But, I like that I can show up in whatever state I'm in, not have to talk to anyone if I don't want to, teach my classes whichever way I want to, and exist in a workplace where I'm just a mysterious and handsome, kojangee white guy in a corner room on the fourth floor that only a select few have actually met. That's a good job to have in this strange country. An "OMG, handsome guy, hello" when I step out of my room to take a piss is enough for me these days.
Back to the topic, it definitely stinks that so much rides on the open class, that all three people here who have them coming up soon are worried about their job security if one little thing goes wrong. At least at my old school, it was only for one day, but I have three straight days Monday-Wednesday next week; and since it's a brand new school in a rapidly growing area with no PS teacher, I've been told I might see up to 30 parents in ONE class alone, as I'm obviously the main attraction. That's going to be a nightmare, and it's likely why my response is five times longer than I expected it to be. I'm mainly only worried about the two classes of 1st graders and the thirty moms standing behind them. The rest of my classes shouldn't be a problem. I also had to tell my CT to STFU today when she reminded me "opeen crass veery important" for the hundredth time. Anyways, time to not think about that anymore... |
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dorlore
Joined: 16 Apr 2012
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:14 am Post subject: |
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Oh god today was terrible. Next week is going to be a disaster. I basically did a mock practice teaching session of my open class next week with my 1st graders- 10 boys and 4 girls and it went terribly. The Korean teacher was even in the class and we still had trouble. Nothing works with these kids. I've been in Korea for awhile and taught middle school prior and they are angels compared to this nonsense.
I full anticipate being replaced by the start of the new semester after this next week of open class. Seeing the fact the teacher before me was fired after his open class last May and they have already fired teachers in the past month, the writing is on the wall. No sense in worrying about it anymore. I'm fully prepared and know exactly what I can teach but at this point I don't see what I can do. I don't see anyway these kids act differently in front of parents . Dog and pony show is a perfect analogy |
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nero
Joined: 11 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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| John Stamos jr. wrote: |
| nero wrote: |
| @John Stamos Jr -- Off topic, but right now I share my classes with my co-teacher and we change classes each day, so I see them 2 or 3 times a week (3 or 4 classes a day). They are talking about next semester: me teaching all the classes ('co-teaching' yeah right) so I would have 5 classes a day, the same classes every day. It sounds like a nightmare. What do you reckon? |
Well, I'm no expert... but you're saying you have separate classrooms now and see the same students every other day, as is usually the norm for these jobs? And they're thinking about making your CT and you share a room, right? I interviewed for an AS job where they had that setup and I didn't like the idea of that one bit.
I don't know, if I were you I'd try to scare them... like, maybe, say something along the lines of, "My friend's school tried that and a lot of the kids ended up dropping out because they have other activities and simply can't attend classes five days a week, so a lot of them fell behind and their parents pulled them out of the program". Possibly worth a shot.
The absolute best part of these AS "jobs" in my opinion is that you usually (though obviously not in the OPs case) work in an environment free of adult Koreans who constantly try to get up your butt about trivial stuff. Yeah, you have your CT, but she's usually in the other room. My old AS director never bothered me and my current school doesn't even have a director. Maybe it would be alright if your CT was an easy going, cool person... but I haven't met too many "easy going" Koreans in this field...
Man, I hear my current CT screeching like an ape all day from the other room, while in my classes we breeze through the three pages, draw pictures, play games, and improve my Korean . I can't imagine having to be in the same room as that insane woman for six hours. Not like she can communicate in English anyway, though. But, I like that I can show up in whatever state I'm in, not have to talk to anyone if I don't want to, teach my classes whichever way I want to, and exist in a workplace where I'm just a mysterious and handsome, kojangee white guy in a corner room on the fourth floor that only a select few have actually met. That's a good job to have in this strange country. An "OMG, handsome guy, hello" when I step out of my room to take a piss is enough for me these days.
Back to the topic, it definitely stinks that so much rides on the open class, that all three people here who have them coming up soon are worried about their job security if one little thing goes wrong. At least at my old school, it was only for one day, but I have three straight days Monday-Wednesday next week; and since it's a brand new school in a rapidly growing area with no PS teacher, I've been told I might see up to 30 parents in ONE class alone, as I'm obviously the main attraction. That's going to be a nightmare, and it's likely why my response is five times longer than I expected it to be. I'm mainly only worried about the two classes of 1st graders and the thirty moms standing behind them. The rest of my classes shouldn't be a problem. I also had to tell my CT to STFU today when she reminded me "opeen crass veery important" for the hundredth time. Anyways, time to not think about that anymore... |
Yup, that's exactly it, and exactly why I like my job. Thanks for your reply.
It will only be for the final semester, so I might just suck it up and do it. I'd rather stay and get my severance. I told my co-teacher that I don't want her in the classroom, and I think she likes the idea of sitting in the other class surfing G-Market. I would rather have that than the passive aggressive picking over of my classes.
@dorlore -- I know it's stressful but think of it this way: If it goes okay, you have a job. If it goes terribly and you get fired you will have time to find another job, maybe one with less stress?
That's how I look at things now. Getting fired would suck, but there are hundreds of things that are worse. What will be will be. Do your best, that's all you can do. Good luck! |
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thebearofbundang
Joined: 02 Sep 2012
Location: Bundang
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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In my opinion there are basically two ways that you can get fired from an AS job.
1) You bomb open class and all the parents complain to the school or directly to your company. I think open class would have to be pretty bad for the majority of parents to complain, but there will likely be a few no matter how good a job you do. The teachers who were let go from my company after open classes were not great teachers (classroom managment seemed to be the biggest issue). They knew they were in trouble heading into the open classes.
2) You lose students/Students quit. Even if it's not directly because of your teaching, if the number of students drops dramatically over the year/semester than you're likely going to be canned. A few dropping isn't a big deal, but more than 10-20 is. My old job we had around 120 when we started and 110-112 when we finished each year. My school and company were satisfied with losing about 10 students over the year. I was never told my job was in danger. Other teachers who lost closer to 15% of their students were let go.
These seem to be the only way to lose an AS job. Do a good job twice a year during open classes and try to limit the number of students who quit and you are basically good to do what you want the rest of the time.
They're the best teaching jobs in Korea IMO.
Last edited by thebearofbundang on Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:50 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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joeteacher
Joined: 11 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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I have an afterschool job and don't even sweat these open classes anymore. I refuse to do anything different from a normal day. I'm not a clown damn it.
I have the kids perform role plays with a partner almost once a week so I make sure that activity falls on open class day. Put the focus on the kids, not you. Dress nice. Introduce yourself to the parents. Don't punch any students. Explain the day before how important it is that they are on their best behavior and if they are not, there will be hell to pay.
I've had all good comments in the 4 years I've been doing this. Don't worry, it'll be over before you know it. |
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