Korean Job Discussion Forums

[marcelery]

I would like some feedback from people working at Public High School or Hagwons for High Schoolers. Do you enjoy teaching High Schoolers? Are they difficult to teach? I'm tired of teaching children and I am thinking about switching to high school. Thanks!

[gregoriomills]

Haha... yeah, I suppose there always is an element of "the grass is greener" to whatever job you have. I've taught lowlevel high school at a PS for the past year. I teach the same level lessons you do (if not lower) but all while keep high schoolers in line with behavior, and make the lesson interesting enough to keep an uninterested, unmotivated 16 year old engaged. Pretty difficult to do for a whole year. Also at the MS HS levels, you can expect to do 100% of the lesson planning, teaching, class mngmt, etc. Almost zero help from coteachers, not sure what your situation is now. The positive is that I don't have to act like one of those jumping, laughing idiots you see on Englishee tv here. Lots of my friends have to do that at elem level. I have heard that higher level HS jobs are quite fun to teach, but the amount of work, lesson planning is MUCH greater. They expect much more out of your lessons. All I have to do is "get through" my lessons, and everyone's happy. But like you, I don't like teaching little ones, so I'm glad I'm in a HS. With prior experience, itwould probably be a breeze for you.

[oldfatfarang]

I've nearly finished a year at an all girls' school. The high school classes are split into academic (smart kids) and vocational (not so smart kids).

I delivered the same lesson to both HS classes - and my middle school classes as well (with level variations).


All these classes were great fun to teach - despite the level. But that could have been because they were all girls, or because I had really great co-operative co-teachers in my HS classes. And bonus. They never hit any kids in my classroom. It's been a fun year.

If you get stuck at a 'Technical High School' - you're going to have a very difficult year (according to daves' posts).
Good luck.

[oldtactics]

Huge, huge difference between Agri/Tech schools and Academic schools. I can't speak for vocational highschools but I know from friends that there are a lot of discipline issues and the kids usually aren't motivated to pay attention.

I teach at an all-girls academic school and I've had a fantastic time so far - the girls are mixed level (in English) but motivated to learn and the only problems that I have is that they talk too much in class, which is the same as every group of teenage girls anywhere.

My only real complaint about teaching highschool is that there's zero guidance about where the lessons should go - no textbook and no real help from coworkers besides "teach conversation" - this is good on some days because I can do easy, fun lessons but it's also frustrating sometimes because it means a lot more work in terms of lesson planning.

That said, I'd never trade highschool for any other level - I'm having a great time. In my opinion, I think that there's a lot closer level of interaction with highschool kids because most of them see you as a peer rather than like one of their other teachers. Depends on your teaching style and your age, of course, but a lot of my students spend time with me between classes and we have great conversations.

[Rteacher]

I've been at the same basically technical high school for about five years. Usually no one bothers me about how to teach so I've chosen my own textbooks and made up my own curriculum as I've gone along.

With enough experience, flexibility, resourcefulness, enthusiasm, and PR skills it becomes pretty easy to teach any age or English-level group.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I love it but it's not for everyone. My school and I seem to suit each other quite well. If I were at a tech. school it might be a different story.

[summer33ny]

I LOVE teaching high school! I don't like entertaining kids, singing songs, dealing with crying and discipline problems... Unlike being a "tape recorder" as many foreign teachers are here, I feel like I am a real teacher. I teach all my classes myself and I come up with my own lesson plans. I have freedom to do whatver I want. My classes are fun & engaging for both me and my students.

I teach at 2 high schools. Three days a week I am at an academic high school and 2 days a week I am at a vocational high school. Both are extremely different. So experiences will vary greatly between the two.

Some of the pros of teaching at a high school are:

the students are usually higher level and can engage with you more. You can actually have interesting conversations with your students. You have freedom to come up with your own lessons and materials in your classes.
At high schools, all English teachers are required to have been English majors in college...so you will likely have many co-teachers with good English speaking ability. You also will be guiding your own classes.. co-teachers generally stay in the background and will usually only intervene for translation or discipline problems. If you are sick it is perfectly acceptable to cancel class and turn it into a study hall. High school students are always studying and they appreciate this. Before major tests, I have cancelled my classes to allow students to study more. They are very grateful for this as most high school students have classes till 11pm at night and stay up even later studying. Also you will likely have many days off due to week-long exams.

Negatives:

It is a lot of work coming up with lesson plans every week. And especially when you have no specific outline or textbook of what to teach. Each week I have to wrack my brain coming up with a lesson plan that will interest my students. You also do not give grades in your class, so students develop an attitude that your class is not really important. Students often sleep, study or socialize during my class. They are not as willing to work and put in effort... and I can't blame them. Your class is seen as a supplemental class to their English class. So in order to keep their interest, you have to be more fun and less academic. This requires a lot of creativity. And with language barriers..this is even harder to do. Plus you will also have LONG summer camps. While my "tape recorder" friends have off all summer, I will be teaching 4-5 summer classes a day for 4 weeks. And I will have to make lessons plans everyday specific to each grade and level that I am teaching. IT IS A LOT OF WORK!!!

Technical High Schools on the other hand, they will be fine if you don't take your work seriously at all. The students have no desire to learn English and because they are not going to college, they don't care about the precious College Entrance Exam (that is their only reason for studying English anyway). The students have no discipline. I have had students sexually harass me many times there. They all have major behavioral problems. But it is so laid-back, class is such a joke, that it doesn't matter. As long as you have a co-teacher to translate you will be fine.