Korean Job Discussion Forums

[antoniothegreat]

i made a post a while ago asking what to expect for this pile of crap, and i finally had mine last friday...
I have to do some bi+ching now. I teach at a middle school, and as well all no, Korean kids cannot talk. I am sick of asking a simple question, like "are you a girl?" and having half of the girls respond by standing there for one minute with their hands over their mouths as they look around for help.
so my idea lately has been to force them to talk. my open class was this: i broke the kids up into groups of about 3-5, and gave them scenes from the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. they were a low level class, so i worte it for them, since the point was to talk, not write.
the kids loved it, they all did it and most did it well, brining in props and speaking clearly and loudly, just like i asked.
the older lady's response to this lesson
"in Korea, we have a curriculum, we must follow the book, you did not follow the book, you did not follow the curriculum, that is bad."
my response "i am the English CONVERSATION teacher, my job is to get them to talk, and that is what we did."
her response "did they write the scripts or you?"
"I wrote them, they can't even write a complete sentence, if they wrote the scripts, it would have taken three months."
her response "and you didnt write anything on the board, that is bad."
"I wrote 'speak loud' and 'speak clear' because they are focusing on speaking, and they did what i wanted."
she says "you didn't write any grammar."
again "I am the conversation teacher, i am not supposed to teach grammar. The Koreans are supposed to teach grammer."
her response "in Korea, we have a curriculum, we must follow the book, you did not follow the book, you did not follow the curriculum, that is bad."
at that point i stopped listening and could only think "and they wonder why no one can speak English here..."
bi=ching done...
I am now going to watch NFL football since and then slit my wrist intead of going to school tomorrow...

[thursdays child]

ahhh don't worry - it means nothing. The observers have been told to give feedback and Korean feedback is pretty much always the negative variety. That's just the way it is - it is considered pointless to comment on the positives. No matter what you did or didn't - something about it would have been criticized. For my open class, I too was given 'feedback' about not doing things that are not in my job description. C'est la vie!

[ilovebdt]

Hi

I have my open class next week and have been told there will be a combination of Korean English teachers from other schools and their native teachers there. Also assorted big wigs from the Seoul Board of Education.

Who attended your class?

P.S That's typical of Korea. The woman complaining that you should have followed the book. Did they tell you you should? No, of course not you are not only supposed to know everything about the English language you are also supposed to be psychic. Puhleaasee.
Don't sweat it. There is always next year

[JacktheCat]

I had my observation lesson last week (which was taped because the observers couldn't be bothered to drive all the way out to my rural high school) and this is was some of the feedback:

"You make the students talk too much in class, you need to talk more so the students can model your voice."

"You walk around the classroom to much, stand in one place and teach from there. That is better for the students."

"You make too much effort to teach the boys and girls equally. It is better to concentrate on the boys as they can use English better in life."

I think the feedback comments say more about the state of Korea's educational system than they do about us as teachers.

[thursdays child]

[manlyboy]

Could this be why the Korean Teachers' Union is fighting so hard to avoid MOE's plan to have parents, and even students, evaluate the performance of every public school teacher in the country?

Feedback, my arse! In a culture where honour and saving face is so important, this kind of demeaning criticism is nothing short of rude and insulting.

[crazylemongirl]

My education office (remember that each area is different) has never given me bad feedback on anything as yet (touch wood) that I have had asssesment on. But it's not Korea if they can't nitpick something.

That being said I would have tried to get something out of the book for that lesson as I do think it's important to at least pay lip service to following the cirrculum.

[schwa]

[antoniothegreat]

Who attended your class?


it was just a few people, my vice-principal, a Korean guy that didn't even introduce himself and left before the discussion time, a Korean highschool English teacher that wanted to talk to me mainly about my contract, and then a lady from the county (Yangpyeong, not Gyeonggi-do) who did my "constructive criticism."

Also, a few people messaged about doing a lesson swap, I am game for that.