Korean Job Discussion Forums

[marista99]

I have only been inside two hogwans in my life, mine and one other one. I'm just curious how yours are set up. How many classrooms (and for how many teachers) are there? What size are the rooms? Do you have a separate space for certain activities like games, lunch, a special study room, or anything? Is there a teacher's room? Do you have your own desk, or your own classroom, or neither, or both? In your opinion, is there enough space for everything, or does your employer try to cram as much as possible into a smaller space to save money? What would you change if you could?

[jajdude]

It is good to have your own classroom. But many hagwons are not like like that. Of course if you don't have your own classroom you need a teacher's room.

If you have neither.... hmmm... how can you operate?

[Dawn]

We've got two campuses. At both, all teachers have their own classrooms complete with desk and storage closet and/or shelving for the teacher's personal materials. Both also have a teacher's room/library where shared picture books, resource books, videos, CDs, games, craft materials, etc. are kept. One campus has a dedicated lunchroom/P.E. room/media center. The other utilizes extra classrooms for these purposes. A portion of the classrooms at both campuses were designed with removable walls. Take them out, and there's space for small productions (requiring seating for 200 or fewer people) and schoolwide events.

As for space, I'm presently in the smallest classroom either campus offers, and I still have space to spread 16+ kids out for tests, walk around the room and help individual students while they're working independently, do circle time activities, etc. For activities involving a lot of movement, we have to push the tables to one side, but they're lightweight and easily stackable. More space would be nice (the kindergarten room I had last year offered nearly twice the space, and I utilized all of it). But as hagwons go, our facilities are pretty good.

My only real complaint, in fact, is that the windows in my classroom don't open. I've got beautiful windows that allow natural light in abundance, but not a blessed one of them opens. So ... if I try to take advantage of the natural light and NOT pull the shades before noon, the classroom turns into an absolute sauna. (Yes, even in January.) Apparently the architect wanted to maintain a certain "look" from the street and functional windows in my room (the others all have them) would have messed up the symmetry.

[pet lover]

Neener neener and I have Dawn's old kindergarten room! *triumphant dance with shouts of glee* It's HUGE! What? Other teacher sick and I must put 16 more kids in my room and I already have 17? Not a problem! There's plenty of room! (And the kids here are very well-behaved as Dawn knows classroom management and I have all her previously trained students.) Anyone who wants classes full of sweet, bright, polite, and well-behaved kids should follow Dawn around and try to take over any job that she leaves.

But, getting back to the topic, if you know music and movement, you'll know that you need LOTS of room for the movement. Well, I can have all 16 kindergarten kids dancing along at the same time with room to spare so no one elbows another. It's so much fun thanks to all the space that we do it three times a week.

Something Dawn forgot to mention is that the bathrooms are NOT co-ed. (errr...they aren't at this campus...haven't been to the other one). That's right folks....a boys' room and a girls' room equipped with both squatters and thrones AND running hot water in the winter!

I could go on and on, but it's not nice to make other people scream with envy, is it?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It would be really nice if Koreans had some conception of a teachers' staff room, as opposed to a teachers' room, lobby, and play room all rolled into one.

[marista99]

Wow...sounds like your schools are really nice.

We have a very small teacher's room (I mean 6 feet by 6 feet) with no room for desks at all. I don't have my own desk anywhere, which drives me crazy, but one of the classrooms is basically mine, so I have a set of shelves in there where I keep my stuff and do my prep work.

My school's expanding (in number of students and teachers) and the space we have is really too small, but no one seems to be talking about getting a bigger place, so we don't have a whole lot of elbow room. I was just wondering whether cramped hogwans are the norm or what. Cramped apartments sure seem to be normal here.

[hojucandy]

all the schools i have taught in have had good teaching space. it is the staff room that is usually inadequate. very cramped and with no room for files is the usual complaint i have.

my current school has a sofa in the "staff lounge" but it is too short for me to sleep on. one of the ebst things in schools is a kitchen. my current one is the only one i have worked in that does not have any cooking facilities...