Korean Job Discussion Forums

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

Alright, so I'm nearing the end of my contract. I think I've done a pretty good job and my school has only made me do extra junk a couple times. It was nothing huge so I didn't make a big deal out of it.

Now it appears I'm being asked to produce lesson plans for the entire past school year without prior notice. It may not sound so terrible at first, but the computer with all my materials on it was recently formatted and the vice principal wants me to come in and make a whole years worth of lessons plans during vacation when I had planned to be gone.

I could use some good advice here. I'm a GEPIK teacher. Do you think I have the right to decline? Should I try to throw something together? There's no way I can remember every lesson even if I wanted to...

MrRogers · Joined: 29 Jun 2008

I would say that is not possible. Sorry, but you did not tell me at the beginning.

No way. Don't do it.

bejarano-korea · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

Are you re-signing for the school?

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

How close are you to the end of your contract? Do you think this is some kind of ploy to get you to reject the request, be 'unreasonable' and 'difficult to work with' and therefore be fired, no severance, no airfare? That kind of thing?

What do you mean 'on your vacation?' Do you mean the 7 business days (that's what I've got. Adds up to 12 days staight off inc weekends) or the 5 weeks off 'vacation' when regular classes are stopped until Sept 1? If it's your personal vacation then the VP is MAD, out of his tree. No way has he a right to cancel your vacation. That's contratual and over his head, of course.

Who would come up with something like this? The VPrincipal? Or did someone ask the VPrincipal to ask you for this? Why is it necessary? What's the story? Are OTHER foreigners in your town/city/county being asked to do the same thing?

If other foreigners in your town/county are being asked to do this, as well, then it's just mad weather from the top and you have no excuse but to do it, go with the flow. As long as it's NOT during your personal vacation.

If you're using the same old same old pub curriculum it'd be good to ask on Dave's if there are some pre-made lesson plans to snag off the net somewhere, and save you trouble/effort. They're only going to get skeletal lesson plans, anyway, unless they want them to give to the next, inexperienced FT. Mock up an example lesson plan and ask if that's suitable before doing them ALL. Ask why they want them? Is it for 'your file?' or some other hocus pocus?

IF OTHER FTs in your area are doing this huge task maybe you could assign and share tasks in the project, and share the finished result. Less work!

You ask, 'Does this seem fair to you?'. NO, it sounds NUTS. I HOPE nobody asks me to do the same towards the end of my contract. I'd ask who do you think I am, some kind of scribe from the Middle Ages? Where are these lesson plans going, Noah's Ark? Then I'd be fired. The End.

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:21 am Post subject: Re: Does this sound fair to you?

nuthatch · Joined: 21 Feb 2008

It's not in the contract.

It is intellectual property.

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

As long as this doesn't cut into your god-given, contract-given vacation!

That's alot of work, all those lesson plans! The VP doesn't actually need anything like that because all he has to do is look at the student curriculum ie. the textbook to get the gist of it, 'what you taught'.

I've got 'desksit' hours during the Summer break, besides Eng Camp, Teach Teachers English Camp (4 days, 2 40m classes a day my bit), my personal Summer vacation which amounts to 8 days. 8 days of desksitting. Nobody around, school empty, just me and the desksit challenge. No project or suggested activity during that period. Just prep for next term I guess.

Do you have 'desksit' regular hours during the Summer mid-term vacation besides your personal vacation, Eng Camp, etc? If so maybe the VP is giving you a paperweight assignment just to keep you honest. We are getting paid fully salary in spite of the 5 week break with drastically reduced class hours.

Did you complain of having 'white guilt' to someone who might have passed this on to the VP?

What are you going to do? If you teach six different grades a week (elementary school) that's six lesson plans a week. 24 a month. 240 over ten months. I'd go bananas sitting by myself in an empty school for the first week of August doing 240 Zeeto/Minsu/Fat Tony lesson plans. And it couldn't be done in a week. Unless you found them on the net already done someplace.

Talk to an intermediary and try to get a 'reduced sentence'?

poet13 · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:14 am Post subject:

You're not re-signing? Screw it. I wouldn't bother. They are likely assuming that you kept all the lesson plans that you prepared for all your classes. Then it would be a simple matter of printing them out once, and handing them in...

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

The lesson plans are already done just gather up the books and give them to the principle.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

I don't teach from the book, so it's not like they have a record of exactly what I taught already, it's just unreasonable to request it at this point in time.

The main problem here is that my computer was wiped, so I only have a handful of lessons and I don't even really remember what I did last year.

Unfortunately I did find a line in the GEPIK contract that says I'm expected to do "other duties" which they might be able to construe as making this mandatory. Not sure. What do you guys think?

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

White guilt is where the priviledged class members feel bad for being upper echelon. They may decide to volunteer and work for charity. Is joke.

That's the problem, the FT doesn't follow the curriculum. That's the Kteachers 'laying the groundwork' job. I give them handouts that I make which are a bunch of questions related to the lesson theme, taking the lesson theme further, more vocab, etc. And those are in a folder, an actual physical file folder (not on the computer). For grade 3 and 4 there are no such handouts since they can't read very well yet.

I think the VP is asking too much. Just tell him your computer wiped all the lesson plans out. You can, if he likes, send some from your next school next year as you make lesson plans again from scratch. Here's where an intermediary would help. Koreans respond to emotion. Work, using your intermediary, on a position that makes you look dilligent and responsible; 'the better product will REALLY come from next school year and I feel terrible about the computer crash. To try to do all 240 lesson plans in one week will result in something I will be ashamed of and which will be of little use'. Breaking into tears is optional.

Or do what you can AND promise the rest later, from your next job. It's actually your replacment's job to make up his/her own lesson plans. Just pacify the VP pleading dilligence and using a K intermediary. He'll take whatever he can get if you just look the part since it's technically vacation. All the K teachers are loafing at home for God's sake.

poet13 · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 4:03 am Post subject:

You're not re-signing. Don't bother with it. What are they going to do? Fire you? Labor would have a field day. What else can they do? Make sure you can't leave until you're finished your lesson plans? Don't think so. Be nice about it though. Explain that the computer was wiped, and that no one had checked with you first to make sure your stuff was off of it. If that's not good enough, then nothing will be.