Korean Job Discussion Forums

Confused Canadian · Joined: 21 Jan 2003

Thank you.

That amused me.

Very Happy

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004

How could she fall asleep while taking an exam? It's not as if writing a test is one of the most relaxing experiences.

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

desultude · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 3:49 pm Post subject:

falling asleep absolutely anywhere and everywhere is one of those things Koreans do so well. Its a skill I really envy.

Its not a good excuse during an exam, but some of my students are really cramming for their mid terms and are exhausted.

fandeath · Joined: 01 Nov 2004

that's a good one. I had a good chuckle.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

She's 19-21 in Korean years? That makes her mental age somewhere in the 13-15 range in Western terms, so it might be best to wake her abruptly and threaten to call her parents if the problem persists and tell them to give her an earlier bed-time.

desultude · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 4:52 pm Post subject:

Koreabound2004 · Joined: 19 Nov 2003

Sounds familiar....2 years ago when I worked at an international school...one of the Korean boys didn't show up for their exam. The school even called him to try to wake him at the residence, which was a whole 5 min walk from the school. He didn't answer, and missed the exam.

When he got into trouble b/c of it, he called his parents in Korea...who in turn called the school, asking why nobody woke his son up....and telling the school to let him rewrite his exam. The boy was 19-20 yrs old. Shocked

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

Leslie Cheswyck · Joined: 31 May 2003 Location: University of Western Chile

desultude · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 5:52 pm Post subject:

I'm not saying that you have to accept the excuse, the exam has to be graded fairly, which means if you don't do the work, you fail. If one of my students cheats, they fail, also.

Compassion simply means understanding and sympathy, not lowering standards. You can actually fail someone and still have an open heart towards them.

I kicked a student out of my class this morning. It was the first time I have ever done such a thing. She hasn't come to class much at all this semester and arrived really late and totally unprepared to work. And she didn't understand me at all. I was depriving the rest of my class of my attention to deal with her, so I asked her to leave. I wasn't angry, I didn't humiliate her, I just did what I thought was appropriate in the situation.

For me, important values I have as a teacher are compassion and understanding. Actually, those values are pretty good for life in general.

Kyrei · Joined: 22 Jan 2003

desultude · Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2005 6:48 pm Post subject:

I have woken students up. There is no shame in that.

I have a couple of graduate students right now who teach school. After school, in the evenings, they have to supervise self-study. If a student falls asleep, and they don't wake him up, they (the teachers) get in trouble. Other students apparently snitch on the teacher if she allows a student to sleep during self-study.

If you have reason to believe that the student is just a goof-off, then for sure just let them sink. If, on the other hand, it is a good but totally exhausted student, I see no harm in waking them up.

Its your class, so it is your choice. I surely am not trying to tell you what to do.

Hanson · Joined: 20 Oct 2004

Different story - same idea.

I told my uni kids that they would have a quiz in their next class, dealing with all the content we had studied in our class to date. I wrote up all the content they were responsible for on the board, giving examples, all stuff we had done extensively in class.

The next class, I asked the students to clear their desks and get ready to take the quiz, while holding the one-page quiz in my hand. One student gasped, and told me in broken English with lots of body language that a quiz was supposed to be oral, not written (she showed me this by holding up her hand - as if volunteering orally for an answer "quiz like this!"). I told her that a quiz was a small/short test and that it definitely could be (and was going to be) written.

Many of my students in that class (Dance majors) failed miserably. In another class (Humanities majors), the average of the class was above 90%...

Moral of the story: Some students, especially in the "dumb" majors, couldn't care less about English. They also know that I, their teacher, cannot fail them unless they are attendance failures.

I agree with the OP, if they aren't responsible enough to do their work, why should we lower our standards to accomodate such incompetent behavior?

Final note: The student who questioned my quiz methods is one of my better students in that class.