Korean Job Discussion Forums

[maxxx_power]

Egads! Just when I thought my hogwan couldn't possibly get any worse...

The school has been losing teachers since before I arrived due to an extremely stressful work environment, a 9am-7:20pm shift (not split mind you, but peppered with little 10 minute "breaks" during classes), and a verbally abusive, deceptive director.

Students are also abandoning the school but the owner has it in his head that it's the quality of teaching that drives the students away, not competition, his reputation for being pond scum in the neighborhood, or the complete lack of managerial organization.

He has been monitoring all the classrooms with a CCTV system linked to his office. ANY deviation from the rigid schedule warrants a tyrade from the supervisor, who enters the classroom to beat the students with a ruler who are percieved to have done wrong from the boss' view. Today I had several such interruptions due to the fact that the kindergarteners were taking too long to clean up their art projects, students who had completed their workbook assignments and were not staring blankly at completed pages (he thought they weren't working), and finally...

...My teenager class was interrupted mid lesson by the supervisor, who told me to go home as the management was not satisfied with my teaching! Mind you I just started teaching that class YESTERDAY!

I feel like I live in East Germany at this school. I'm getting out soon but this is completely insane!

Does anyone else have these classroom gestapoes (sp?) watching their every move? It's really starting to creep me out.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! As soon as I'm gone I'll post the name, for the love of GOD do not work at this school.

[The Lemon]

Sounds to me like they're panicking. They need to realize that there are some things they can't micromanage.

[Dr. Buck]

Hang in there buddy. I've been there before myself at a hellish ECC school and then I moved on to far greener and more reasonable pastures. I even broke the contract a month before the end-date. I told them to keep their severance pay and shove it us their ass. In the job I moved onto, I made that minor loss up in a month.
Try not to waste any more time at this dump since I'm sure you can do better. Just devise an escape plan and play those cards extremely close to your chest.
In the meantime, in order to ease your mental state, you might want to try some playful techniques outlined at this link:
http://www.ekran.no/html/revenge/

[GirlFromMars]

Cameras in classrooms - are these becoming the new trend?

I understand why they could be useful, not the least in catching out possible 'arnolds' (prev thread, you know which one) but how can you relax when you're constantly being watched?

It sets up an atmosphere of mutual mistrust and is open to misinterpretation.

[The Bobster]

It's been going on for a while here. Heard of some schools that connect the image to a webcam image in the school's homepage - mom can watch the class, but usually no audio, so that means she can see when her little angel has to stand in the corner holding a book over his head but she doesn't always get to know what the kid did to deserve it.

It can help to defend you against charges of misconduct, but ONLY if there is also a recording instrument attached to vid feed. My school doesn't have that. The camera is only there so the boss can watch me from his desk and later offer "helpful" advice about my performance.

The camera isn't really there to help you get out of accusations, but it's barely possible it might do that ... but not usually.

[Sliver]

Maxx

Yours sounds like a different situation but at most of the hagwons that I or my friends have worked at where there are cameras the screen are in the main entry of the hagwon. I think usually they serve as a marketing tool, to create an impression for an inquiring parent (prospective client). The web cam is also more for marketing purposes, however...


Your situation sounds different to this and has nobs on it. I would follow Dr buck's advice.


GirlfromMars wrote

[crazylemongirl]

Dude,
Thanks sounds freaky.. I don't have cameras in my classrooms thank goodness... occasionally korean teachers doing prep due to sheer lack of space in my hagwon. Don't think I could./would work at a school with cameras.

The eye of power.. indeed.

CLG

[bap]

i wouldn't teach at a school with cameras.
first of all, i didn't get a degree in education so most of the time i don't know what i'm doing. but i learn from my mistakes.
and also, having cameras in the classroom is tense. it would make me feel super uncomfortable.

[captain kirk]

been in korea a long time and never worked in a school with cameras until the last three months.
so what? the boss is busy with his own class a lot of the time. the only time he uses the cameras is if it's close to payday and he's feeling my monthly coming on, like a 'post-partum' twinge, and in that vein scanning to look like he's keeping tabs for when i come around the corner. and to show the mothers that there IS a teacher and there is something going on. for the little ones a mother once watched the whole first class for her daughter, to make sure she was fitting in all right. but, not being an obsessive type, what is there to see for the boss? my big ass, my mouth moving, arms waving around, veering left and right. teacher and kids passing the ball, going for the goal, they score...........!