Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Derrek]

For those of you working in a Public or Private school, how often does your schedule get changed at the last minute? As many as 3 to 8 times per month, our schedules are often radically changed within a day before, or minutes before classes start.

Does this happen to you, too?

Today they wanted to show off the foreign zoo animals to the incoming educational dignitaries. My classes were flip-flopped and changed througout the day. Oh... go here... no... go here next hour.... oh, there are no students in there? Oh, maybe next hour.

I suppose I shouldn't mind, since I'm here all day anyway, but geesh, it feels so darned inefficient.

This often happens with tests, also. They like to spring day-long tests on the kids at least twice per month. No notice until we show up for work that day. My personal favorite was last month when the parents and students complained about a Univ. entrance practice test that was planned within two weeks before mid-terms. It was promptly cancelled, and the students felt so happy. Then, after the furor died down, and apparently not to be outdone, the principal defiantly scheduled it AGAIN less than a week before the mid-term -- this tome no notice.

[Koreabound2004]

Happens to me quite regularly....sure makes you feel important eh?


Always the last to know.....

[fidel]

Never changed from the yearly schedule unless weather is a factor for some outdoor event. Then it's postponed but I get plenty of notice.

[crazylemongirl]

my schedule for last year never changed.

This year the entire school's schedule is chaning next monday... but no my school is pretty predicatble. Miht be the odd special event to cancell classes but they arre very rarely moved.

[pollyplummer]

My schedule is altered at least once/week, if not twice. For the most part this means that one of my classes is cancelled or a whole morning or afternoon, and that's why I love public school. Last week, for example, the students had their physical exams and I had no classes all morning. Sometimes they have a health education class or a meeting about a speech contest or any random thing and will tell me 5 minutes before class that it's cancelled. I rather enjoy that.

[Derrek]

[JacktheCat]

My "private" high school's class schedule is set in stone for the semester. It's a nice change from the hagwon system where the schedule would change on a day by day basis depending on the whim of the wonjongnim. I actually know what classes I will be teaching on a set day and can make real lessons plans.

Only quirky thing is, as has been mentioned, classes being cancelled because of tests, field trips, etc, and me being informed by admin 10 min before the class is scheduled to start. But this is far from being a bad thing. It's a nice surprise break in the middle of day.

[Saxiif]

Pretty much weekly. Its the trade off I get for having really small classes, I get one kid who has a one-on-one class with me who shows up pretty much randomly these days...

[FUBAR]

[schwa]

My schedule is set in stone a full year at a time & doesnt vary too much from one year to the next. In terms of fine-tuning though, its important to get my 2 cents in each spring before the cement sets!

I've got a copy of the school's event calendar for the year, & in fact I know the seasonal routines of my job better than my periodically changing supervisors.

Sounds dull maybe, but like the posters above, I still run into enough last-minute changes to keep it edgy & fun. Informed this morning, for instance, about a demo class I needed to attend this afternoon. No problem for me but it set my co-teacher scurrying to contact a dozen schools about my cancelled teachers class. Sports day was meant to be tomorrow (downtime for me) but rain in the forecast postponed that -- oh well, cant fight the weather.

No make-up classes expected when special events intervene, but sometimes I do so voluntarily if a particular class seems unduly shortchanged.

[zappadelta]

Yea, at the old public school, you get a lot of cancelled classes. Do you still get paid for this? I mean, does this alter the amount of overtime you would receive?

[pollyplummer]

Nope. I still get paid salary. A couple weeks ago I had an entire week off while they gave the students midterms. I wasnt involved in the grading or anything. Still paid the same salary. It was sweet! I expect the same thing may happen for finals.

[zappadelta]

I get paid salary too. But, I mean, if I usually work 4 hours overtime, and I get a morning cancelled for some reason, which is 4 hours of class, do I get the overtime or no? I don't know.

[pollyplummer]

I know that I do. That's because my overtime is done on a Saturday, and they know I would really rather not work ANY saturdays. I'm pretty candid about it... For example, they forgot to put my saturday pay in my account with my salary this month, and I said: "If that overtime pay isn't in my account by tomorrow, I'll never work another saturday for you again." I find that Korean admnistrators need someone to tell them how it's going to be. They need leadership, or they dont know how to get things done properly. I guess it's one downside of a group culture/ "follow everyone else" mindset. Refuse to be at school at odd hours unless they pay you overtime. If they change your morning schedule, that's not your fault. You're contracted for those hours whether they give you the opportunity to work them or not. You certainly WOULD have worked them if you had the chance, right? That's how I see it. Then project an attitude of confidence when you tell them what to do. It works for me.

[Doodly]