Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MollyBloom]

Do they really not have enough teachers? There are two orientations this year because of the "surplus" of teachers. I have been pushed to the second orientation, which is good for me because I found out my school/location already (I guess those of us already in Seoul go to the second orientation).

I thought I heard the woman I spoke to yesterday say I am working at two schools, although I could have misunderstood her.

What's it like working at 2 schools? Am I going to be expected to be running from one school to another? Will I be teaching during my prep time?

[afsjesse]

I have a friend in Gangwon-do province that works in 5 Public Schools! He works at a different one each day. So I'd say it's very possible for you to work 2 schools if you are in a semi-rural area.

[slashnunn]

I work at 2 schools, a middle school and an elementary in the same area. Both the schools are small and don't need a foreign teacher full time. It's nice for me because I like the mix of age groups and EPIK pays a little extra. I do MWF, middle school TTH, elementary.

[MollyBloom]

I'll be working in the Gangnam district! Between Gangnam teachers and SMOE teachers assigned to some schools in the same district, I would hope there were enough teachers to cover the area. But, I meet my co-teacher today and we'll see what happens.

Now a decision: to eat the cafeteria food or not.

[Draz]

[driftingfocus]

I work at 7 schools here in Jeollanamdo.

It's not so bad. I see each class roughly once every two weeks, which means that I teach the same lesson plan for at least a week at a time. By the end of that week, I have that lesson down pat, and all the kinks worked out, and then I stick it into a binder for me to use when I get back to the US.

Sure, the traveling around sucks, but it also means that every day is different. I also get an extra 20,000won/day for traveling to all the different schools, as none of them are where I actually live. That adds up to about an extra 400,000/mo, which is more than worth it. That's an unusually high reimbursement though, so I would not count on that.

[ttompatz]

[driftingfocus]

[Becka]

I've been teaching at two public elementary schools over the last year and a half. I go to the smaller school 2 days and the larger one 3 days a week. I think I actually prefer it to working 5 days at one school. What I like about it is that if something goes wonky at one school, I don't automatically assume it's representative of how all elementary schools run in Korea. One school's pretty chill and the other one is quite Type A. Sometimes it works for leverage, too, as in "Here at X you want me to do what? Really? Because at school Y, we don't do that...".

And about the food: it's free at one of my schools, and 2,200 per meal at the other.

[Hank the Iconoclast]

I teach at four different schools. I'd rather be at two instead of four..it gets old.