Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stickybrit]

I hear a lot of negativity surrounding Kindy teaching positions. Does anyone have any insight as to why it's so widely griped about?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

At my first job in Korea I had to teach a couple of kindergarten classes for half a year. As a result I have no desire to have kids of my own, and get chills when I see groups of little Korean kids. It's hard to describe, but I'd rather be stuck with the worst 30 vocational high school students at my school all day long than have a class of 5 kindy kids for 45 minutes. I wouldn't teach kindy for 5.0 / month.

Yesterday and today I've started teaching my middle school students again. You'd think my grade 3s would be sick of me by now but in one class a bunch of them were telling me they missed me. One student who's been such a brat over the past two years was asking me to come over and help her fill out her handout, trying so unusually hard. My grade 2s were just angelic this morning - often that's the grade when they start going downhill but they were so lovely and listened so attentively to different pairs doing little presentations. I can't believe they were ever little snotty, screaming, crying, kicking, grabbing, toilet-assistance-needing, coughing-and-sneezing-in-your-face, teacher-climbing, spoiled little monster demons with the most unreasonable mothers in the universe just ten years ago.

[stickybrit]

[Draz]

I have yet to talk to anyone in person who worked kindy and hated their kindy students and everything about the job. In the last week I've met two guys who moved on to university gigs and said they would miss their little kindy kids. (But not the ten days vacation.)

[rationality]

[tigercat]

[Cracker006]

I did it. I loved it.

Well... I loved the children.

If you don't mind having to wash your hands and carry sanitizer...

If you don't mind having kids puke on your lunch...

If you don't mind getting puked on...

Then you probably won't mind Kindi too much.

The parents were a bit much. Korean mothers have *nothing* to do except obsess about their children. They send them with perfect hair and clothes, and expect them to come home in the same condition... after riding on a bus, playing, eating lunch, and riding home on a bus.

The single thing that drove me away from Kindi is when they switched to a korean style curriculum, and the kids really had a melt down while the hakwon tried to impress the parents w/ the amount of work they could force out of the kids. That was brutal, and I couldn't handle it.

[BS.Dos.]

Hard work and I'd only advise it in small doses if you've no experience of dealing with little shits. Like say, hour long slots if you can get it

Having said that, they're like little sponges and soak everything up...eventually. I think the best thing about kiddies is that you really can see how much they've learnt day by day, week by week, which is gratifying.

Keeping them locked-in though is demanding and you can't turn your back on them for a second, unless you happen to like blue paint in your hair and all over your trousers.

[tomato]

It's not necessarily worse, just different.
It takes a somewhat different skill from teaching other age groups.
I had difficulty at first, but after a while, I got the knack of it.
In fact, I have progressed from asking for advice to offering advice.
On the other hand, I have been fired from countless jobs because I have NOT gotten the knack of teaching middle school.
If you are interested, read some of the 35 help-I-have-to-teach-kindergarten threads which have been posted since I started keeping count:

36 [url=http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=146514&highlight=]35 34 33 32 31
30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The next time someone asks a question about kindergarten,
this will become thread number 37!

[BS.Dos.]

Wow. 2003. You're a ripe old tomato now aren't you.

[Illysook]

I love kindergarten.

Middle school, not so much. It was miserable to be a middle-schooler and it's not so easy to deal with them either.

[Arthur Dent]

I taught kindy for three years straight and the first two or three months were near hell. After that I learned a few tricks and the kids became my biggest supporters. Some tried to refuse being moved up out of loyalty to me.
I still miss them.
Though it is difficult at first, it is very rewarding. The part about germs and energy draining is 100% accurate.

The other part about teaching such young kids is that they are easily influenced, so if you work at it you can develop good habits in them early on. These kids will never develop the xenophobia of an earlier generation. As another example, I rarely failed to tell them to cover their mouths when sneezing or coughing. It didn't take long for the habit to catch on. Of course I was fortunate that the other teachers they had after me were also quite devoted and so the kids - most of whom stayed at the school for at least two years - had some stability and continuity in their lives. Important anywhere, but especially rare here, given the penchant for changing schools (Chima Param or "windy skirt").

An extra word of advice about Kindy though. Try to get a contract where you only teach the kindies - say from 9 or 10 to 2 or 3. There are jobs like that. If you insist, and tell them you will work hard and keep the kids happy, they will agree to it. Do a good job and the parents will reward you as well on the appropriate day(s).

Some schools don't have the greatest curriculum for this age, so look carefully at what they use and find some of your own material to supplement -or replace it! - with. Really though, creating the best environment is the most important thing. After that, with some imagination and effort, you can use almost any material and make it work. This is mostly about the schools making money selling books. If you are really popular you can later insist on using material you choose - or walking.

I taught a few more hours of elementary after kindy and it was definitely too much. I came to enjoy the kindy more than the elementary mostly due to the material and the pace at which the elementary students were expected to absorb it. There are definitely different skills involved as Tomato points out. Finishing at 3 means you can easily find something else to do with your time for the rest of the afternoon......

I have read a number of Tomatoes' posts and I can say for certain they are very useful. Tomato knows how to make ketchup.

[sineface]

I have worked in one terrible kindie, and I've worked in one amazing kindie. The terrible one was in the sticks, I had to stay on all day to teach the older kids too (finished 8pm ....it was my first job here), the kids hadn't been raised to have even a modicum of good behaviour, or even a vague idea of what good manners were , and by GOD they enjoyed their yelling. The great kindie was in Apgujeong, was run by a gyopo, and worked like a kindergarten in the US. One small class of kids, a sensible learning plan in place, time for play, for snacks, for story time. They understood what was deemed 'bad manners' and would tell each other off for doing those things. They knew not to yell, to help their friends, and listen to the teacher. I think it was also the only school I've been in here that had kids foamy soap in the bathrooms, and Korean assistants to make sure they washed their hands after the bathroom, and before eating.

Their parents had mostly all travelled abroad, and were all affluent. In short, my experience is that those kids who had a taste of how kids are expected to behave in kindergarten or school in other countries, were the ones who made the job great. Go figure.

[refikaM]

My grade 2s were just angelic this morning - often that's the grade when they start going downhill but they were so lovely and listened so attentively to different pairs doing little presentations. I can't believe they were ever little snotty, screaming, crying, kicking, grabbing, toilet-assistance-needing, coughing-and-sneezing-in-your-face, teacher-climbing, spoiled little monster demons with the most unreasonable mothers in the universe just ten years ago.

I've been fooled like you before! Give 'em a few weeks.. They'll be back to "normal"....

[Yu_Bum_suk]