Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fromtheuk]

My co-teacher was well enough to attend the open class this afternoon.

Throughout the open class, I pretended to be a fantastic teacher (as usual). And it seemed to work.

The feedback from Wenise Kim was overwhelmingly positive and the class basically went very well.

I didn't feel as nervous about open class as I thought I would. I almost enjoyed it!

The other good news is, on Thursday and Friday I will effectively have no class in the morning because they are P.E. days for 5th & 6th grades.

On those days, for 4th grade students we will show them a video, which means theoretically I will have only one proper class left this week e.g. teacher's class, but if nobody shows up to that, it will be cancelled, which is what happened last week.

[Fishead soup]

My personal opinion is that open lessons are essentiallybollocks

Its just a show. It has no connection in any way shape or form to the actual day to day activities of GEPIK teachers. I have attended open lessons from teachers who opening admit that they could never use these activities on a day to day basis.

[xCustomx]

It could never happen on a day to day basis because of the time required to prepare the materials. I have easily spent 20 hours creating everything from scratch, from powerpoints, formative tests, games and other activities.

[mrsquirrel]

formative fucking tests can lick my balls.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

[nomad-ish]

yup, open classes are a complete work of fiction. i have one coming up and my co-teacher and i are spending lots of time prepping the kids... "prepping" them as in basically telling them the answers, and who should volunteer

[marlow]

[nomad-ish]

[normalcyispasse]

The biggest problem I have is that the "open classes" are pretty silly. Frankly, I take a fair bit of time in preparing lessons/materials and an open class isn't *too* different from what I normally do.

That said, it takes forever to write out those stupid detailed lesson plans.

The WORST is when I have to audit classes at other schools. It's so ridiculous. I teach sixth-graders at a private elementary school; I designed the curriculum and teach according to different texts, etc. I get NOTHING out of watching a bu11sh!t lesson at (for instance, a recent required event) a class with a co-teacher at a public girls' middle school with the national curriculum and syllabi.

It makes me so smashy. . .!

[iiicalypso]

Thanks for reminding me... I have an open class coming up in a few weeks.

Last semester my coteacher was young (second year teaching) and she started stressing out about it three months beforehand (or, approximately two days after I arrived at school). I promised I would smile, answer all the questions for the nice people, and wear a tie. The rest was up to her.

This semester I have an old timer who couldn't care less about it. He holds the education system in almost as much contempt as I do (and that is saying something), and as far as I know he isn't doing anything to prepare. Looks like no milk and cookies this term!

The best part about it is that it is happening the first week in November, and between exams, school trips and the like, I will not have had this class in almost a month. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they remember their "I'mfinethankyouandyou?". The rest will be gravy.

Just out of curiousity, has anybody ever received any useful feedback from these open classes? It really bothers me that I can never get useful advice from other teachers, and it is really hard to improve in a vacuum. I repeatedly invite the other teachers to come in, any time, and watch, but rarely do they take me up on it, and when they do, all they say is "great job!" Wonderful for the ego, but not so much for professional development.

[Atavistic]