Korean Job Discussion Forums

[agdgirlie]

Hey all, I'm new to the cafe, and I've been do some reading in past posts about the freedoms (lack thereof?) that teachers who are in the public school system have (or not). I've come across a lot of middle school posts, but not really any for elementary schools.

So, having said that, those who are in a public elementary school-how much freedom do you have? Having talked to some of my colleagues, I know that it varies from school to school, but for me, I don't really deviate from the textbook, because my school doesn't allow me that sort of freedom.

Any thoughts?

[Smee]

I'm not allowed to deviate from the textbook either. My students are very low level, so there have been times that I wanted to teach them some baic words and phrases, but I was warned that it would be wasting time to do that. I understand why they have the textbook---partly to make everything uniform and partly to make class easy enough that a Konglish teacher could do it---but sometimes I do go a little crazy.

[rawiri]

You said it...it varies from school to school. Fortunatley my school was cool with me telling them i want to teach on my own and do things my way. Of course they observed a few classes then when they saw everything was ok they left me alone. 7 months in and all's well.

[Wrench]

I teach the book but I add my own stuff. I like it.. beats haqwon.

[chris_J2]

My Korean coteacher actually encourages me NOT to rely solely on the set texts & CD Rom dialogs, but to use multiple resources, if I have the time & inclination. (Library, internet, eg). I've also noticed a few mistakes in the set texts, which I obviously don't repeat.

Also, some of the lines in the chants are way too long for the kids, in which case, I break them down into smaller components. 12 words eg would be shortened to 2x6, or even 4x3 words.