Korean Job Discussion Forums

[519forlife]

This has nothing to do with my class, which has gotten much better since I figured out that my english class is really a joke.
I had this conversation with my K co-worker(as the place is in total chaos between classes)

Me: (laughing)
KT: what's funny?
Me: the craziness of the kids, running and jumping on desks, throwing shat and what not.
Kt: (trying to be snarky) kids aren't energetic in America?
Me: oh they are, but we give them there free time outside, where that kind of behavior is acceptable.
Kt: Why what is wrong?
Me well it might take to long to explain, but basically do these kids act this way in their own homes?
KT: of course not.
Me: then they shouldn't act that way in the school, outside is fine, but not in classrooms and hallways.
KT:(blank stare)

My question is this, what goes through people's heads to let kids run wild in classrooms with no supervision, obviously not enough lawsuits yet.

[butlerian]

Looks that way. I work in two middle schools. One is not so bad - the English teachers (except for one) are capable of maintaining discipline to a fairly reasonable standard when teaching. The other school drives me mad. All of the teachers I work with (except for one) have almost no control of the class. One (a tall man in his 50s) has no idea how to control the class and regularly has kids jumping into him, while at the end of the class he usually has stickers plastered to his back saying things like "I'm E.T.". It just makes it ten times more difficult for me to teach these classes.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I usually come to class a bit early to write things out on the board and as far as I'm concerned, why not let them run around, scream, fight, chase each other, climb on the desks, throw things around, etc., for the ten minute break they have and then switch gears completely when the bell goes? As long as that sort of behaviour isn't going on while you're trying to teach, who cares?

BTW, would you rather have 10-15% of your kids on mind-altering drugs like at many American schools?

[Lao Wai]

Yu_bum_suk,

Normally, I agree with pretty much all of your posts. But not this one. If the teachers would actually enforce general indoor/outdoor rules at all times I think the overall discipline problems in the school would diminish. For example. if kids are NEVER allowed to run down the stairs whether they are alone or with a teacher, when you are leading them down the stairs I think you'd have far fewer students causing problems by trying to run ahead. They just become so conditioned to walking. Allowing them to act like animals in the school at certain times but not at others sends mixed messages, in my opinion.

I can relate to a lot of what the public school teachers in Korea are saying. I am teaching a public school in Hong Kong. It's the same thing here. The kids tear through the hallways screaming and yelling and nobody says anything to them. I did, for the first six months I was here, but gave up. It would be a very rare ocassion in a public school in Canada (especially primary) that you'd see a kid running with everything he's got down the hallway. And, if he did, he'd get a severe tongue lashing from anyone who saw him.

I know that you're saying that it would be better for them to let loose during recess rather than in your class, but I think by allowing them to act like that it is showing them that this behaviour is acceptable in a school when it's not (or shouldn't be).


Here, the local teachers use microphones to talk over the kids when conducting a lesson. I haven't used a microphone and never will. If the kids are being that noisy that I need a microphone to talk over them, there's a problem.

Anyway, I don't know where the whole idea of these perfect 'well-behaved' Asian students came from. Because in my experience, that's just not the case.

[ED209]

[Pak Yu Man]