Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PeterDragon]

I've just been assigned to a school in a designated rural area. I'm the first Western teacher the school ahs ever had, and their crriculum is very inadequate, not consucive for teaching speaking at all.

My school seems fairly open to suggestion, in fact, I get the feeling they're kind of hoping I'll tell them what to do. What are the best places/means to create a new curriculum? I basically have to start these middle school kids from scratch--- they have the speaking abilites of a seven-year old at a hagwon.

What are the best resources for building a curriculum? Can I get into trouble if I buy just one set of curriculum textbooks and photocopy enough for all the students? Where can I go to look for good curriculum books for students at their level, to at least use as a template and source of ideas? Suggestions for this are very valued.

[boyne11]

Make sure you charge them double or triple your salary for creating a brand spanking new curriculum. Otherwise, you're a fool.

[some waygug-in]

Another route might be to use something like "English Time" or "Let's Go".

You could suggest using a series like this as your class textbook or you could just base your curriculum around them and use ideas from them as you need.

I don't know how open they would be to this, but I have heard of cases where schools did agree to this kind of set up.

Just a thought.

[PeterDragon]

[ilovebdt]

Deffo go the text book route.

You can get Let's Go and English Time at any of the large bookstores i.e Kyobo, Young Poong, Bandi and Lunis, Kim and Johnson.

If you aren't near Seoul I am sure your co-teacher could help you order them online.

ilovebdt

[PRagic]

He wasn't joking. You should be paid well over and above for devloping that. Way back when, I did some development for a new kiddie school, but as a consultant, not an employee. I got 5 million plus expenses, and that was cheap. I just didn't have much experience at the time. That was 10 years ago or so, though. Good luck.

[Richard Krainium]

I got a great idea for you. Make photo copies of Magic Time, English Time and Let's Go. Put your name down as the author. Sell them to the students. Get rich quick. After your year is up leave town. Nobody will be none the wiser. After all, isn't that the Korean way?

[Jizzo T. Clown]

This seems to be a widespread problem in Korea. They want you to create everything from scratch then when test time comes they want control over the questions. They use textbooks that are light years beyond the students' communicative levels so when the students see things like "I like red" in English class they don't take it seriously:

"Will this be on the test" if yes--write everything down verbatim, if no, continue talking to classmate in Korean. The perceived goal of speaking activities is to get to the end of the activity in the fastest way possible--by speaking Korean or copying answers. God forbid they have to do what is designed and practice language patterns, etc. with their peers.

Add to this what seems to be minimal support in the areas of classroom management and lesson planning and what you've got is a system that's broken yet doesn't want to be fixed. They try to placate us by having open classes, where we can "share ideas" which are forgotten the moment after a Korean starts speaking.

Oh--use a book and follow it to the letter. If coteachers complain that your classes aren't interesting enough, ask them to help you write out a curriculum that will engage the students. That should send them running for the hills, or at least, they won't bring it up again.

[Leavingkorea]

Teachers teach and base lessons and lesson plans on established curriculum.

Curriculum designers develop the curriculum that teachers will use, as a guide line, for instructing their students.

These are 2 totally separate jobs. They should thus be paid independently.

Let me ad a simple example. If your construction company was hired to build a bridge for a city, would you expect the city on your first day of work to tell you to draw-up all the blue prints too?

[ddeubel]

Curriculum is the "goal" of learning. The content that students will cover and be expected to gain competence and mastery of. It is not a book, a system, a thing.

In fact, curriculum in its largest sense, is the alive portion of the English language. Huge and everywhere, mostly free.

That said, yes, teachers need guidance and especially when new or dealing in specialized subjects, need to have curriculum provided (guidance) by professional curriculum designers. This doesn't mean that they (teachers) shouldn't be adding their own content to the curriculum, putting in their own materials and "two cents" . Too many don't to any significant degree and teaching suffers when there is no personalization towards the teachers own interests/competencies. I think we as teachers should always not just adapt but create curriculum / materials / content for our students. It is our job.

So on a very general level, I disagree with this statement.

[tob55]

If you are going to write, then make sure it is something that translates into usable language for the learners. There is plenty of the sterile, mundane curriculum stuff floating around out there. This is one of the reasons the language learning levels are so low in Korea to start with. Somewhere in the mix, easy and standard became the rule for developing curriculum rather than what will help students master English more effectively... You should get paid more...That has always been the case when my school asked me to do a special project in developing curriculum...The school will take whatever you give them for free if you let them, but the people who have posted here are telling you the scoop about how to make the experience more appealing to you.

Remember, you can do it the regular way and get the regular results, or you can begin to think outside the box a little and come up with creative ways to write your curriculum that will make it fun for you and the students when they are learning English...That's my advice...

[Leavingkorea]

[tob55]

Leavingkorea, That is why when I do my projects for my school I always copyright and publish before I hand them the final project. This has saved me a couple of times already and it is easy to copyright and self publish these days, so you can quickly eliminate the intellectual property things from the start. The school has no choice, because you have provided them with their curriculum, but the rights to it are yours to do what you please with them...

[Sody]

I'm in total disagreement with the general sentiment in this thread.

Yes, we all know what it's like in other countries. Yes, in other countries they do pay you for such a service. Yes, it is a difficult thing to do and you should be recognized for doing extra.

But this isn't like other countries. Koreans simply do not know how to teach English. They are depending on teachers to do a good job, which includes making a curriculum if need be. Why shouldn't you if you are paid to do it? If you look at the majority of job descriptions, it is part of the job teaching English here. If you didn't want to do it you shouldn't have signed the contract.

Any teacher who is worth half of their claim to professionalism shouldn't have a hard time doing it. I have seen teachers in public schools who just sit there when they should be preparing better lessons.

There is no need to be so selfish with your time, you are doing it for your students.

Sody

[jangsalgida]