Korean Job Discussion Forums

[retrogress]

I have to get this off my back.

About 10 days ago, I came to work to find the computer room and the English room had been changed. --but only half way.

I was no longer able to teach in the old English room, and the new one was in shambles. I used the morning to get the new English room usable before my first class at 10:00. Later, I enlisted the 6th grade boys to hall odds and ends, old hard drives, computer posters, comp. books from 8 years ago down to the new computer room. Then I brought my English stuff back to the new English room.

It was nice because there was a lot of space.

Two days later I came back to the school to find it mostly still in shambles but still much better than before. I continued to organize my stuff.

Last week I came in to find the computer desks from the English room had also been moved in (really no room for them). I sighed and ignored it.

This morning I came in to find the huge teachers desk had been moved over as well after I said that I preferred to not have it. They started reconnecting the ancient "dream lab" devices that I've never used, don't know how to use and suspect can't be used. (There was a cooling fan plugged in but nothing for it to cool--the only purpose it served was to use up the last plug on a power strip so that the speakers could not be plugged in).

They took away a new teacher's desk that had been in the back, covered with more computer crap that I didn't need (English room!). Though they took away the new desk, they decided to just dump tranformers and other garbage (obviously broken) on my tables. For some reason they also pulled the computer desks away from the walls so there was even less space in the middle of the classroom. And, they left my small desk (as if I could use it) right in the middle of the door.

I complained and they are taking this stuff away as of now, piling it in the stairwell that goes up to the roof.

I'm told that in the summer they are spending 150,000 dollars on a new English "area". I asked them why, then, were they bringing all these comptuers that I don't use, that waste my space, some that I don't even know where they came from, into the English room? The answer is that the country gave money to have 16 computers in the English room. (????)(therefore we had to set them back up--which requires that my room be in shambles while they do it, I guess).

I know that this is no one person's fault. They are all pieces of a machine, all thoroughly disconnected, no one true core component that is in charge of all the other little gears. And this is why it's like this. Perfectly unmanaged bureacracy that I am sitting in the middle of. The only way that it would have turned out better is if I had kept the 6th graders busy a little longer as they hauled all that useless clutter out to the trash.

They did manage to figure out that the English room does not need 20 Korean drums. They moved those out last week. Why they left the 5 xylophones, i don't know.

Rant ended.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

The term will soon be over. Try to weather it out and hope for the best next term. Then you can see what kind of mess $150,000 buys.

[retrogress]

I'm out of here so I won't know how they waste the funding. I am sure that it will be spent on some fancy technology that wows the education board, makes the Korean faculty feel like their school is progressive, confuses the students and is of absolultely no use to the teacher.

A funny thing that happened after I posted this...I was teaching and one of the mantainance guys came in with two computers. I said, "Oh, thank you. Just what I needed." He laughed clearly embarrassed by something. That's when I realised that those were the computers I saw him sneaking into the shed. I guess someone else saw and he got nabbed. In another country, he would be fired for trying to steal school property.

Not that I didn't ponder how to get a perfectly good monitor out of here.

[Fishead soup]

Why not try to work with the equiptment. You can't be a Chalkboard monkey forever.

[Robot_Teacher]

You have an English room? I just visit the many disorganized classrooms for each class. Some are nice and some are a dump. Sounds like OP's English room is the local E-waste dump site.

While it sounds like a good idea for the OP to put it all togethor and organize, OP doesn't know what is going to happen next even though OP is attempting to communicate. All OP knows is they said they're spending $150,000 this Summer for a new set up.

How is that so much money is available in excess at some schools and other PS schools like mine don't have any money?

[some waygug-in]

My school has one of these too. I hate it. It just gives the students the ability to mess around a lot more and hide behind their monitors. I find it's much harder to get students attention and much harder to hold it.

It's a bad set up and a waste of money, but that's nothing new.

I'd much rather just use the big screen and one computer at the front.

I also prefer to have classes in their regular classroom. When they come to the English room they see it as time to fool around, turn their monitors off and on, be smart arses and hide behind their computer.


Of course things might be different if my co-teacher actually asked me what I thought once in a while.