Korean Job Discussion Forums

[english puppet]

Just curious if anyone has ever bombed an open class at a public school?
What are the ramifications - processes if you do poorly??

Thanks.

[jamesd]

[english puppet]

[koreatimes]

Here's my history.

2003 - Worked for Nova in Japan. My observers/trainers would sit me down at a table and ask, "So, how did the class go? How did you do?" There was absolutely no advice, no help, etc... I was asked to sign a new contract with a lower salary.

2008 - I was working at a GEPIK public school, and during a class the principal and about 6 other people walked in. I noticed them, "OMG, ok ok, just continue..."

2009 - I taught 3 or 4 open classes one day. The first one was with the youngest and they didn't want to participate. Other than that, it was ok. Parents sympathized with me and made some requests. I was told the following month when a manager observed me that it seemed completely different and I had done a much better job.

2011 - I was asked to give a demo at my current school. The class I taught preferred me over another teacher they said, so I was hired.

It seems logical that I did better this year than in 2003, but still have no idea what Nova wanted me to do that I wasn't doing. I left after 3 months and worked at a smaller company for 3.5 years and never had any problems.

Push to get feedback so you can discern what needs to be improved.

[jamesd]

[english puppet]

[sulperman]

My only ps open class was bad. The kids were loud, the coteacher did nothing, and to be honest, the class I planned was pretty lame. Re-signed the next year, no problem. It's 100 times more important whether or not your coworkers and vp like you as a person for re-signing. As for bombing and, I don't know, getting fired? It would have to so far beyond bad that you'd have to try to make it happen.

Don't worry, you'll be fine.

[english puppet]

[furtakk]

I had to do two at my old hagwon. They were biannual events and we spent almost an entire month preping the kids for it. It was kind of ridiculous. We had to put an hour or two aside everyday just for this one show. The week leading up to it, we spent pretty much the entire class (nearly 4-5 hours) going over it.

[lowpo]

I have seen more open classes bomb than succeed. I have worked at the same PS for five years now. So. I have seen about 3 or 4 open classes a year for the past five years. Here are some of the open classes that bombed.
1. The KET and NET only played games during the open class.
2. The NET teacher was actually speaking Korean during the open class and the students only spoke in one work answers.
3. The KET and NET had trouble getting the middle school
kids to speak during the open class.
4. Everytime the NET would speak in English. The KET would translate what she said into Korean to the students. The KET did this the whole class.
5. This happened twice at two different schools open classes. The NET would only operate the computer and was a human tape recorder while the KET held the class in Korean.
6. Several studemts actually went to sleep and several other students started talking to each other during one open class.

[jvalmer]

[sublunari]

I once saw my co-teacher do an open class by herself with the worst group of elementary school students you could ask for, and she totally bombed it. They were out of control, practically dancing on the desks, and the principal and the vice principal actually walked out halfway through her ridiculous demonstration, frowning, shaking their heads. At the end of the disaster she was almost in tears; she told me that they had "promised to be good", but of course there were no consequences that I am aware of and I believe she is still teaching at that place.

Still, it served her right. She was one of the best English speakers I ever met in this country, she sounded like a native, and so having a NET in the classroom with her was completely unnecessary, but she conducted all of her classes entirely in Korean because that was the easier thing for her to do. She had a near-perfect command of English but she was also the kind of teacher from whom you learn how not to teach.

When the open class came along, she switched over entirely to English, none of the students understood, although they all knew it was a sham to impress her superiors. She would have been screaming yer-joom-sha at everyone and slapping the backs of their heads if it had just been me in that classroom, but in the company of people with some form of authority she had to pretend that she was a 21st century educator.

Her lesson plans also revolved entirely around the textbook all year long, with absolutely no wriggle-room of any kind for me or anyone else, and then on open class day---bam! let's talk about art! and the sound of leaves! and stuff. My god, what a load of crap.

[ThingsComeAround]

I have heard of one guy getting fired, but it was rumored he lost his job since he called in sick the day of his open class. (another rumor has it that he was doing privates, who knows)

A few teachers at my school pulled absolute disasters. The 4th grade teacher only played the CD (5 times) then went to a bomb game until the end of class. She got light praise then the other KTs joked about her behind her back.

Last year my class (didn't know it was NOT supposed to be an "average class") so I just went along as usual. At the end the head lady gave me a verbal pounding for my lack of effort. She was right

[JeffersonDarcy2010]

[chachee99]