Korean Job Discussion Forums

[br_owen]

last year, my first year at the school, i enjoyed nearly 7 weeks vacation over winter break. My Principal is cool and never made me desk warm once. This year i'm told it's out of his hands. The school has received a letter stating that all native teachers should be required to come in to school and actually do something! Now my co-teacher is desperately trying to come up with an idea for me to do (parent's class, extra winter camps). What's an easy thing i could suggest? Is everyone else in the same boat? I'm at a GEPIK school.

[ippy]

yes

[ippy]

the longer answer:

(This is straight from our prefectural advisors email)

[Captain Obvious]

There are always ways out of this sort of thing if you've got the right connection.

[Fishead soup]

[ippy]

i asked about this. I was told, "yes, unfortunately that was how we always did things, but this year it is different".

The implication being of course that we arent applicable to use that form. All i got to do is get my laptop hooked up to the school network, and ill be in the computer room playing warcraft on a massive screen projector for 4 weeks. I will literally be a paid gold farmer, only ill be in battlegrounds. And if they dont let me do that, then ill just play fallout 3 instead. Honestly, it could be worse

[nomad-ish]

[The Goalie]

I don't have my contract with me but isn't there a clause which states that the principal can reward a teacher with extra days of vacation? I keep forgetting to check this when I'm at home.

[Pikkle]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Smee]

It's going to look like teachers whining about "oooh, I don't get two months of vacation this winter like I did last year?" And I can get that schools want to get the most of their teachers. Thus, it's not unreasonable to expect them to work when school is not in session . . .

But, here clearly there's no plan for actually using them. It's just "come in and sit here until somebody thinks up something last-minute for you to do, like teach parents for an hour or check somebody's essay or whatever." Clearly there is no plan, which is what led to these inconsistencies in the first place.

If schools could say "you're expected to come to school from January 1st through January 20th and teach this camp for one week, this camp for another, and work on this material for the next," then I'd support that. But instead it's just some knee-jerk reaction to schools not knowing what to do with their teachers.

Any teachers from Jeollanam-do like to share their thoughts, I've posted it here: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2009/12/deskwarming-coming-to-jeollanam-do.html

[kerbythepurplecow]

I just got the word on this. So in addition to my 22 days of camp I get to desk warm in the afternoon? Whatever, it was always going to be that way at my school because my principal doesn't believe in doing nice things for the waygook.

[nautilus]

I have 3 weeks of winter camps...

[Bog Roll]

I have from January 15 to March the 1st off, and I go home after midday finished everyday as it is.

Thats because I am in CHINA.

If you have any sense, you would make the move away from Korea and sack this crap deal off.

Next, your airfare reimbursment and your end of contract bonus will be gone. Mark my words - you can see this coming a mile off, I mean, did anyone think our Korean overlords were going to be reasonable once they had their pick of teachers to work for them?

[yingwenlaoshi]

Aren't you teaching assistants? If so, and you go by the letter, wouldn't teaching these camps and adult classes be violations of your contractual agreement?

Or do your contracts stipulate that extra classes can have you teach alone?