Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sandcmoeller925]

At this time I'm considering two different public school positions - I keep going back and forth between the two and can't seem to decide! Anyone have any advice?

1. Elementary school - Siheung City - 2.6 Mil w/ OT w/ 5 weeks vacation
*I like the age group but not sure about living in the middle of nowhere
*willing to work the OT for the extra pay
*decent amount of vacation

2. High School - Bundang (specifically Sunnae HS) - 2.1 Mil w/ no OT but 10 weeks of vacation
*high school is not my first choice but obviously open to the idea
*I think I would love the area and location
*10 weeks of vacation - is it worth the less pay and better location?

HELP PLEASE!

[ds_fan]

hmm, id tke the 2nd one. if its what you want, just think, after the novelty wers off in a job no one likes working, its fre time which is the most important and if your happy then good stuff, plus 10 weeks vacation is pritty sweet

[moosehead]

No. 1 question you might want to know:

How many foreign teachers are there now?

in the same mode:

if none, have you ever had foreign teachers at your school before? if yes, when, for how long, what happened?

if NEITHER of the schools have had a FT before, you need to know who will be in "charge" of you - do they have an Admin who speaks E, is it just your K co-teacher (very LOUD alarm bells here)

find out more about these schools and post the info - ok?

fyi, no FT before can mean a lot of headaches as they get used to you and during all that your life can, and probably will be, quite miserable while meaningless trivial issues keep popping up and misunderstandings occur and have to be worked through.

also fyi, vaca often changes w/camps to be worked (tho not usually hi schools I think) however, hi schools often work a lot of overtime I've heard, so until you have more info, and a contract to look at, you need more info

[ds_fan]

why do loud alarm bells ring when you are answerable to your k co teacher? im new here and this is the case for me, could get any schools which would leave me answerable to native speakers. Just curious as to what can go wrong and what to look out for so as to avoid the agro.
thanks

[PGF]

si heung is near incheon, kinda.

what's with the OT though?

trust me. You do not want mandatory OT your first year.

the other school is closer to seoul.....

[moosehead]

[teachergirltoo]

I am partial to high school. I know it can be more challenging but that is what makes my position interesting to me. 10 weeks vacation is a very good offer. Additionally, regarding the OT. In high school positions it is usually not forced, because up until this time the KT have taught the early evening classes. However you may find that due to the public school regulation changes that happened about 10 days ago that you will be offered OT if that is what interests you. Immediately after the government announcement my school came to me and the other native speaker teacher and told us to let them know if there are any evening classes we would like to teach. So the OT opportunities may be there even though it is not mentioned in the outset.

[sandcmoeller925]

Thanks everyone for all your advice.

Just to clarify - the aforementioned OT at the elementary school was not a requirement. The school just mentioned it was available if I wanted the extra $$.

teachergirltoo - could you further explain the policy changes you mentioned? Are you currently a high school teacher? What challenges have you faced teaching HS versus middle or elementary?

Thanks much!

[majolica]

in my experience, most public schools DO rely on the coteacher to communicate between the NS and the school for most issues. it's not really ideal, for all the reasons listed before, but it's not exactly "loud alarm bells"... it's pretty common.

one thing to help you make your decision would be to ask questions about curriculum. in my experience, ES almost always has a pretty complete curriculum available, and it's usually taught quite closely with the coteacher. HS may or may not have any curriculum available at all, and you will quite likely be teaching on your own. which appeals to you more?
ES is less work, but it can be suffocating and frustrating to have to work so closely with another teacher. HS offers more freedom in teaching material and style, but can be a lot more work.

[teachergirltoo]

The changes I am referring to are that prior to 10 days ago public schools could only run classes between specific times in the morning or evening. Now they have the freedom to teach classes at any time, so there are opportunities for classes to run through the entire evening now. For example, I teach at a university track high school for boys. They are required to be there until 11pm at night. Before this change they were expected to do self study for the majority of the evening hours. However, now, if the school has a teacher that will teach a class in the evenings then the school can run it. Which means there are opportunities for ot now if that is what a person wants.

Everyone has a preference as to what they enjoy teaching. I have taught all age groups through the years, and high school is the one I prefer. I realize from talking to my elementary school teacher friends that their teaching is extremely simple compared to mine because some of them just have to sing children songs and work from a book that the school gives them without often creating lesson plans, but I enjoy the day to day challenge that goes with high school and the preparation too. I create lesson plans that coincide with the lessons in the textbooks that the students must use in their Korean-English classes, in order to reinforce the information that they are covering there. We find that it better prepares them for their exams. Once you have a good set of lesson plans made and accompanying powerpoint presentations (most high schools provide an overhead projector) you will probably teach the same lessons each year but just tweek them for better response. With high schools too, if you only teach one grade as I do, then you will create one lesson per week and teach it to all your classes during that week. It is actually not that difficult. I think the most intimidating part of teaching highschool for many people is the thought of having 40+ 18 year olds staring back at you in the class. Some of my friends tell me they would rather die. However, if you don't scare easy it can be a very enjoyable and rewarding level of school to teach. Hope some of this helps you.