Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Matt_22]

At least 22 but no more than 25 80-minute classes per week, along with 2.5 hours/day of lesson planning, student evaluations, etc.

That's 12.5 hours of work outside of classes, and up to 33 hours of actual teaching every week. For a grand total of 45.5 hours of work. Doesn't that seem a tad high for a measly 2.1 million won and a shared apt in Gangnam?

[PRagic]

Why bother asking? Even a 'noob' can spend 5 minutes on the jobs board and see that it's a crap job.

[trinity24651]

I'm a newbie too...does sound a bit much!!

[thegadfly]

Well, a rule of thumb is that real teaching requires about 20 minutes of prep for each hour of teaching...once you know what you are doing. New teachers probably waste a lot of time, over-prep, mis-prep, and re-invent the wheel a few times...I know I spent about an hour prepping for each hour of class when I first started teaching, and then factoring grading into the mix was another couple of hours per class.

Being a teacher is a lot of work, no matter where you teach, IF you are indeed trying to be a good teacher.

33 hours of class, 12.5 hours of prep? Honestly, for a new teacher, that sounds low to me. Would guess your school either has canned lessons or you are expected to simply follow the textbook, you do not assign/correct any homework, and attendance is the only record-keeping you are asked to do....

Heck, it takes five minutes to pull a book from the shelf, turn to the right pages, scan the notes, and mentally review the activities done in the last class, to be done in the current class, and planned for the next class. If I merely look at one sheet of homework from each student, write a single sentence comment based upon what I read, write a score on the page, and record the score in my gradebook next to the student's name, I've spent at least a minute. I have fifteen students per class, so there's my 20 minutes per hour and I haven't even generated a new lesson.

Teaching is work, good teaching is a lot of work. Unfortunately, spending a lot of time prepping does NOT automatically result in good teaching....

[TheUrbanMyth]

A shared apartment would be the deal-breaker for me. And the pay is low for the amount of classes. You can do better.

[spyro25]

i spent almost 2.1 million won on a bowl of noodles for dinner in gangnam. you should be on much more coin than that if you live in that area!

[swetepete]

Yeah, it's not horrible, but it's definitely too much work for 2.1 and a shared apartment. I disagree with the idea that every teaching hour takes 20 minutes prep, though--surely over the course of a year, there will be ample opportunities to recycle your old material.

[wylies99]

[Pak Yu Man]