Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MrRomantic]

Are writing reports, setting and marking tests and lesson preparation counted as teaching hours? How does this work?

[Gord]

No. With a general contract, you are paid for X number of hours of teaching AND the support required for those teaching hours.

This isn't McDonald's where you show up and do just what you're told.

[Son Deureo!]

It depends on your contract, but most will not pay you for time spent preparing for lessons.

The school I used to work for would frequently add dubious new items calling them "lesson preparation" in order to try to get extra work out of us. Recording storybook tapes, phone teaching, chaperoning field trips (not even considered as classroom hours), and supervising kindy lunches were somehow rolled into "preparation". We had to start refusing.

My current contract states I have to come in one hour early to prepare, but any time spent on prep after that counts towards my required teaching hours, or overtime if it applies.

Again, it all depends on the agreements with you and your boss. It is in his best interests to get as much free work out of you as possible. Your interests are obviously different. What does it say in your contract?

[kimcheeking]

[kylehawkins2000]

In General you must understand that the (Hogwan) schools here are not part of any sort of central governing body. There is no Ministry of Education involved. The schools operate in a free market. They compete with one another and some succeed and some fail and eventually fold.

Contracts, working conditions, employee moral, benefits, hours, etc. will all vary from one location to another.

It is difficult to answer your questions becuase you seem to be assuming that most places are the same, or very similar.

As a generalization, preparation time and paperwork is not included in your working hours. You should ask a potential employer about this though. The occassional place will pay. Keep in mind that you are being paid a salary, not an hourly wage. YOu are expected to put in enough time to meet the terms of your employment in a satisfactory manner.

Some places have a considerable amount of paperwork and may require that you submit lesson plans. Other places will have next to no paperwork. Some places will require that you prepare reportcards every month, other places will be every three or four months.....and some places not at all. It really varies alot.

[Gord]

[waterbaby]

Mr Romantic,

Generally speaking, they are not included as part of your teaching hours. Most often (if not all the time), teaching hours in your contract refers to how many hours you spend in the classroom.

Now, depending on what sort of job you get, you may only have to spend 10~20 mins planning per day ... or hours!

I worked at a Ding Ding Dang Franchise once and it was soooooo easy once I got the hang of the system. All the lesson plans are basically done for you - at this "frequency" (ie stage/day number of the particular level), read these pages in the reading book, do this dialogue lesson, do this phonics lesson, go over this grammar lesson. All of the tests were prepared. I started at 3:10 and arrived shortly before 3 and prepared 5 x50 classes within about 10 mins!

Now I don't have a syllabus and I have quite a lot of flexibility in my teaching so I spend a lot of time preparing for class, making extra worksheets etc.

Sure, I could ditch the prep thing and get through with "Now...kids... where are we up to???... that's right, page 45..." *shrug* But I choose not to. (But only because my bosses the usual aren't scum of the earth types.)

I teach about 23 hours per week, but I'm there and/or planning about 36~40 hrs per week.