Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

The month of August is always spoiled for me because we have to spend it teaching the kids of our regular students.

It is too hot and humid to be doing anything more stenuous than hugging an air conditioner, but we are stuck teaching. And because the boss is an incompetent fool we:

a) give a level test on the first day. Then ignore it altogether and dump all the kids of the same age in one big class. So we have flat-out beginners and kids who have lived abroad all in one group.

b) because the older kids are university students we have to use higher level books with them, even though they struggle to make a simple declarative sentence. (We're using Book 4 of Exploring English this summer.)

Why me, lord? Why me?

[Ya-ta Boy]

Up-date:

Yesterday after class one of the directors came around for a visit. He had the gall to ask, "Do you see any progress in the students?"

I restated 'a' above. Then I said something like, "If you want the students to progress, you have to design a program that takes into account the resources we have at this school. We have 3 teachers. That is enough to teach one age group that is divided into ability levels."

His reply: But we can't teach just one age group. That is unfair.

And as a result, we have a program that tries to do too much with too little and therefore fails with all levels.

And the good news: He actually got it!

He then asked if we could find six more foreign teachers who could work for the remaining two weeks of the program.

Making progress one mind at a time.