Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

I'm curious --

- What level school do you teach?

- Do you get to use the textbook or do you have to create your own material (this includes stuff someone else created you download)?

- Do you have freedom to use whatever material you think is best - or -how much interference do you get when using your own material?

Do your co-teachers create their own material to use in class?

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[koreatimes]

I am using a textbook now, public school job. It's a new school year in China, so we are keeping to the books for now. Maybe in a few months I'll be told to not use them and try to make the classes more fun.

However, with hagwons, what I do is use part of a book one lesson and then I add my own stuff. This way parents know what I will do next and know I will do other stuff. If you do all new stuff, you will end up wearing yourself out. It's definitely good to develop your own stuff and have it ready, but don't make the school seem like you can do this in 10 minutes or else they will expect that from you.

[Squire]

All from the book. I work three schools- two elementaries and a middle. My after school classes are my own stuff, and of course camps, but that's it. I don't mind the books to be honest. My students are low ability so there are only a few who are held back by the pace.

I only realised how limited the majority of my students were when I met a couple of girls from private schools who were with my language partner a while ago. My brightest kids will go off to high schools and in some cases middle schools in the city. It's a shame really. Some of the best students should take English classes with the older kids. They are held back

[some waygug-in]

I had to mostly stick with the book. A few times they allowed me to bring my own material into the class, but mostly it was 'stick to the book'.


The most annoying thing for me was that the KT's weren't even following the basic lesson plans as they were laid out in the teacher's guide.

I just had to bite my tongue and wait till the end of the year, because when I did try and talk to the co-teachers about it, I was ignored.


If they wanted to "follow the book'', OK there are ways of utilizing the material that help students learn. There are also ways that are largely a waste of time and make classes tedious and boring.

I miss Korea, by the way. I just don't miss co-teaching at all.

[iggyb]

Do you guys get to use the book? That is what I really meant.

My co-teachers use the book as their primary source. 1 does almost nothing but the book. One adds a little but doesn't develop that material. It is just downloaded and used for mostly display.

Now, they both want me to stick to the book, but I don't get to use the book...

That is part of what is irritating me much right now. I have people with no experience telling me what to do in the vaguest terms but giving me no resources beyond the handful of vocabulary words and 1 or 2 sentence patterns in the chapter.

I have to create my own material or find it online and modify it as my only source material, but they stick to the textbooks for the most part. They also use Korean almost all the time except for the target material in the textbook activities.

One reason I became a teacher was that I would not have to rely on other people to get my job done. (Students don't count.)

I dislike my position and am really getting to dislike how I'm being boxed in with expectations my co-teachers don't have to deal with or criticism they don't face. The fact they have no experience teaching ESL and I do is like salt in the wound....

[jamesd]

[RedKristin]

I'm not sure if you're SMOE but I know they publish a (maybe free) NSET teacher's guide for each grade level that contains all the grammar points and vocab students should have grasped by the end of the year. There are actual lesson plans and instructions in the book.
It's maybe a little more helpful than actual textbooks since textbooks run from useless to just weird and the guide tends to cover what students have to be tested on (national curriculum)

[mmstyle]

Creating all the materials for class doesn't seem like "assistant teacher" type responsibility level to me. It's way more work than an assistant teacher ought to be doing. I am not assisting them, I am running my own separate curriculum because they refuse to actually co-teach.

OP, my CTs will not share the book or any materials with me either, although when I first started they would point to a part in the book with a few sentences and somehow magically expect me to come up with 2 classes worth of material out of this stuff. They refused to tell me what/how they are teaching (I've asked questions like how a certain phrase differs from Korean, because it seems like a strange thing to teach. By this I mean, it is not a thing that would seem natural to me to teach). They refuse, I think, because it requires a lot of communication. I now create all my own materials, occasionally taking stuff from waygook.org and changing it.

It boggled my mind when a new assistant KT told me how "expensive" I was. Why bother with all of this expense if you don't give the teachers any tools?

edited because it became more of a personal rant than a response.

[mmstyle]

[iggyb]

I don't mind having to create my own material as long as they leave me alone (for the most part). 1 co-teacher has always boxed me in and I do little for that class beyond survive because I got tired of having material thrown out at the last minute for poor reasons. I am about ready to turn in my notice to quit due to the number of times she feels free to interrupt me during an activity to tell me to change it on the fly.

First semester, my primary co-teacher basically let me do what I wanted, but now it has changed. I am limited to the book material but expected not to use the book and come up with my own material - with them having the freedom to critique it.

I don't know if I'll make it another 3 months of classroom teaching like this....

I could use the money due at the end of the contract, but this is getting on my nerves too much...

[RedKristin]

[iggyb]

I think it is different in elementary school. We have no problem completing chapters on time. I think they use the book and have me not because it makes it easier on them: They have material on hand to use that requires no prep time if they really don't want to. Everything is on the CD and in the book. But, if I covered part of the book, we'd need to fill in the extra time or finish the book too early.

[some waygug-in]

It depends on the school/ co-teacher. Some will let you use the book and add your own elements here and there (very limited though).

Others will tell you to come up with your own stuff, but it must be related to the vocabulary and material covered in the textbook.

Others will just expect you to stand in the corner and help them with whatever they are doing, even when they are teaching mostly in Korean.

I've never, ever had a co-teacher who let me use the materials that are supposed to go with the textbooks. (elementary school) It was a shame because a lot of the exercises are ineffective or even senseless without the materials. (I'm referring to the masks, picture cards, word cards etc)

I was in elementary school as well.

In the MS, I was told to play games and not use the book at all.

[iggyb]

I've reassessed my new situation after a couple of days to let it sink in, and I can swallow it better.

A 40 minute language class is brain taxing for the students (or should be). I don't think we really do that. Most of the students are already pretty familiar with the material we are covering....But in theory....in a 40 minute language class, if it were taught almost entirely in English (I keep digressing), the students would need a pressure-releasing activity -- something fun.

If I were teaching the class by myself, I'd try to include an activity in most classes that students would most likely find fun. I do take into consideration the entertainment value of all activities which is one reason I like to use short video clips and student skits.

So, I can see the reason why they want me to do fun activities with the students.

I'm still boxed in on what I can use, and that is irritating, but I can accept it better now...(That and the fact that it requires me to create or locate and modify my own material while they don't for the most part...)

[mmstyle]