Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

After successfully dodging the open class last year, I'm first up in my district this year. I've decided that after 2 years of being dragged to these things, and seeing the same stupid thing over and over again, I'm not doing the dog and pony show.

My class will not be rehersed.
My class will not be scripted.
My class will be a slighty tarted up version of my regular class.

I think my classes are good enough in and of themselves. There are enough things for different levels of students to have something they can take away from the lessons.

Sure it might not be whizz bang, and my kids might make a few mistakes, but that is part of learning. I've been to open classes where the students repsonses have not only been scripted, but the kids had started the exercises before the teacher had even assigned the tasks!

I encourage all foreigners to put an end to this waste of time. Do your regular classes at these things, but make them a bit more 'presentable'. These Dog and Pony shows don't benefit anyone. How are we supposed to gain feedback on our teaching, if we aren't presenting an accurate representation of what goes on in our class? How can we learn anything from other teachers if the class if the learning activities are so complex the require rehersals beforehand?

[Yu_Bum_suk]

It might be interesting to see the reactions of Koreans who are used to seeing only dog-and-pony shows. The one thing I would *not* want in any such lesson is a Korean English teacher in the classroom who has a tendency to give the students answers; unfortunately if it's like most schools there will probably be at least one KT, several higher ups with a bit of English and maybe their homeroom teacher all wispering answers because they think it makes their students look smarter - as opposed to creating the impression they think their students are imbeciles which is what it really does. At any rate, if it's a lesson you've already done with 5 or 10 classes that week you should have a fairly good idea of how it will go down.

Do you get to choose which class? I have some classes that could make any fool look like a genius of a teacher and a few who, on a bad day, could make a fool out of just about anyone. Fortunately the one time people from the district wanted to come by to 'evalute' my winter break classes (i.e. do a photo op) they only dropped in for five minutes as we were doing the second review of a listening exercise and my students couldn't have made me look better. The only problem was that my school made a banner that covered 70% of the blackboard.

[crazylemongirl]

No choice it's the co-teacher's homeroom class, which is an average, if slightly quiet, class.

She's actually really good about letting her kids think about the answer rather than feeding answers to them... and only steps in for translations when it's really obvious the kids don't get it.

I've actually already taught the lesson in question last year and went to an open class on it the year before so it's not rocket surgery.

I'm also not putting the students in teams, because we don't normally do that. I know that's not what the education office wants, however teams don't work if you are teaching in their regular classes because you spend so much time waiting for them to get ready, students are not always facing you (easier to slack off) and I can't move freely around the classroom so I can't move to the back if needed.

My other fight I have is because I don't get to use IT in class, I'm not using it for the open class. I'm hoping I can embrass someone into giving me a laptop or an english classroom, as at the moment I have a desktop and have to travel to everyone else's class.

I also want to get away from this tendency to jam too much into one lesson.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[crazylemongirl]

[ilovebdt]

Oh no. Does that mean I have to do another of those things this year?

[jacl]

Ha. What a pain in the arse that would be. Funny thing is that after it's done, it doesn't matter and you spend too much time preparing and worrying or whatever before.

Yeah, isn't that great having a Korean co-teacher shouting out the answers like they have Tourette Syndrome. Students do that to, but I rip 'em apart when they do it. "In Canada, we don't do that. It's not good. You can't learn that way." I think it's some sort of thinking quick on your feet kind of method. Koreans are like that when you're reading something out loud in Korean and they rush right in and finish what you're reading. Like you're in some sort of competition. "Thanks, Kim Lee So. I bow to your Korean speaking ability."

[flotsam]

I stopped my demo class dead in its tracks with a standoff in which I took the position that if they made me do it, I would only show a video composite of moments from real classes, both negative and positive, or they could find a new teacher.

Demo class requirement...instant evaporation.

In the end, I really wish they had met me half-way. I think all the weon-eo-min teachers at the demonstration would have gotten a big kick out of it and it would have spurred some real, constructive discussion.

[mack the knife]

My co-teachers have historically been uber-paranoid about the whole deal; thus, I didn't have to lift a finger when it came to planning. They just handed me the lesson plan, I added my own two cents, and that was that. We stuck to the usual lesson plan, but of course we jazzed it up a bit. The students were allowed a run-through but we left it up to them to come up with the answers on game day.

Frankly, I could give a rat's ass if we do a "real" class or a who-shot-John gig, as long as I come out of the thing smelling like a rose. I always have, so far.