RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Don't spend 20 minutes asking my opinion about when speaking tests should be.  Just tell me what you want from me and I'll do it.  I don't know when the hell these people expect me to lesson plan when they just bother me all day.

And, in my experience, when you finally relent and offer an opinion they're like "Okay well we are doing this. Is it ok?"

Reply with: sorry, it's impossible. When asked why. Please understand my unique situation.

Don't spend 20 minutes asking my opinion about when speaking tests should be.  Just tell me what you want from me and I'll do it.  I don't know when the hell these people expect me to lesson plan when they just bother me all day.

Haha I'm with you on this!

My colleagues ask me stuff like that all the time.  "Does the afterschool program start today?", "When are the speaking tests?", "Which grade are we teaching today?"

Shouldn't you be telling me that? 

I hate speaking tests. so. much.

I hate speaking tests. so. much.

A+ on the Clue gif.

I hate speaking tests. so. much.

This seems pretty universal. Why? I kind of dig them, personally.

I hate speaking tests. so. much.

This seems pretty universal. Why? I kind of dig them, personally.

I have to do one in 3 weeks. It's my first so I'm not sure how it will go :p

KOREAN HARASSMENT

Are you being harassed by your Korean co-teacher or coworkers? They like to hack on my computer. My gmail account, skype account, dropbox, and icloud is blocked.  I asked my co-teacher to unblock my dropbox account and nothing happened. In fact, all my apple features where blocked the next day. I can see if they were blocking adult or porn sites but gmail? skype? dropbox?

I do have my own laptop but I am afraid that they will hack into it too.  How to solve this harassment?

Let me know if you can access gmail, skype, dropbox, icloud ?


Thanks!

That's not harassment or hacking. That's your school or MOE/POE blocking certain websites on their networks. It sucks, but it's nothing that your coteachers are doing personally. If they wanted to harass you, I think blocking your email would be the last thing they'd do.

KOREAN HARASSMENT

Are you being harassed by your Korean co-teacher or coworkers? They like to hack on my computer. My gmail account, skype account, dropbox, and icloud is blocked.  I asked my co-teacher to unblock my dropbox account and nothing happened. In fact, all my apple features where blocked the next day. I can see if they were blocking adult or porn sites but gmail? skype? dropbox?

I do have my own laptop but I am afraid that they will hack into it too.  How to solve this harassment?

Let me know if you can access gmail, skype, dropbox, icloud ?


Thanks!

That's not harassment or hacking. That's your school or MOE/POE blocking certain websites on their networks. It sucks, but it's nothing that your coteachers are doing personally. If they wanted to harass you, I think blocking your email would be the last thing they'd do.

Indeed, some school networks are ridiculous, blocking any URL that doesn't end in ".kr" or not government websites. Take advantage of Korea's fantastic data plans and tether off your phone.

And I said I don't want to go on the field trip.  Don't ask me to confirm 87 times and send two other people over to my desk to confirm that I don't want to go.  And don't tell me 7 times that I need to bring my own lunch.  I ****** get it.

Aaaaaand after discussing it with the vice principal, it has been decided that all teachers must participate in all school events.  So why the hell did they ask me.  However, the vp likes me so I think I get to stay home?  It's unclear.

I just can't comprehend how students can go so many years and not speak any English. I teach high school now, and the 1/2 graders I taught at a private academy have better English than most of the kids I teach now. I just finished a class where a student was held back and is repeating first year HS now (no one told me and this was the first class he has showed up to so I tried kicking him out, long story) but his English is so horrible he didn't even understand me telling him to go. I think he only understands yes and no.

Okay, so I'm about to launch into the pettiest rant ever, but I really hate when my one co-teacher steals my jokes (not the set-up and punchline kinds but just some stupid thing to add a little humor to the lessons or during instruction or whatever). Like, I'll explain a game to the students and typically I add a few words of caution but I do it with humor. The next class, before I even get to start explaining, my co-teacher has already gone over that part. You literally only give me game-time during class. Can you at least let me do it the way I intended to do it? It's the only opportunity I have during class to have a little fun with the students and you completely take that away because you want to be the funny teacher or whatever. Or if I go over a grammatical point before I get into the game so that the students can, you know, actually do the game, and then the next class he'll go over it himself. Can I not do anything? Am I allowed? Or am I just the game teacher but I only go over the boring rules? Seriously, F that KT.

OMG I HATE GAME TIME SO MUCH WHY MUST THAT TASK ALWAYS BE DELEGATED TO ME KILL ME NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

KOREAN HARASSMENT

Are you being harassed by your Korean co-teacher or coworkers? They like to hack on my computer. My gmail account, skype account, dropbox, and icloud is blocked.  I asked my co-teacher to unblock my dropbox account and nothing happened. In fact, all my apple features where blocked the next day. I can see if they were blocking adult or porn sites but gmail? skype? dropbox?

I do have my own laptop but I am afraid that they will hack into it too.  How to solve this harassment?

Let me know if you can access gmail, skype, dropbox, icloud ?


Thanks!

That's not harassment or hacking. That's your school or MOE/POE blocking certain websites on their networks. It sucks, but it's nothing that your coteachers are doing personally. If they wanted to harass you, I think blocking your email would be the last thing they'd do.

Indeed, some school networks are ridiculous, blocking any URL that doesn't end in ".kr" or not government websites. Take advantage of Korea's fantastic data plans and tether off your phone.

My school blocked google for like 3 days last year. lol

They were hoping you'd convert to Naver lolz

It's so annoying when a coteacher insists on making me explain the rules of an activity or game in English to third and fourth grade students, when the language in the instructions isn't part of the target language, and it's a game they haven't played before. Like, instead of forcing the students to listen to a minute or two of unrelated vocabulary that they can't understand, why not just explain the game to them in Korean? Or let me say a bit in English, then some Korean, then some English, then some Korean?

Being told instructions for a game in English is not improving the language skills of beginner students. It just wastes time and intimidates them.

Agreed!

But I've never understood the general Waygook consensus of NO KOREAN TO BE SPOKEN IN MY CLASSROOM BY ANYONE AT ANY TIME!!!!!!!

Seems like madness to me 

Probably because any dissenting opinion is shouted down.

In general, but especially for lower level kids, I always try consider the time it would take to adequately explain the game in English as opposed to Korean and the bang for the buck I get wrt that time investment.  There are a number of cases where (imo) the time investment in explaining in English is not worth the loss in English practice time.

There's always the option to inadequately explain it in English (or Korean) which should never be the go to.

The best option is to have "practice" round ready, done in English, so little to no Korean is needed.

And Cowboy, I get you. I also have the opposite. My CT actually tells the kids to speak Korean when answering my questions...

Me: How are you today?
Student: Good, I ....
Her: 한국어. English is too hard.

Well, that's just silly.

But to answer the question about WHY we should discourage the co-teacher from explaining in Korean, it is because that translation will become a crutch, and students will not bother to try understanding the English.

If it's so complex that you can't explain it in simple English w/ a practice round, play a different game.

I just can't comprehend how students can go so many years and not speak any English. I teach high school now, and the 1/2 graders I taught at a private academy have better English than most of the kids I teach now. I just finished a class where a student was held back and is repeating first year HS now (no one told me and this was the first class he has showed up to so I tried kicking him out, long story) but his English is so horrible he didn't even understand me telling him to go. I think he only understands yes and no.

Yeah, I get that people learn different ways and at different speeds, but c'mon sometimes.

You're in grade 6 and you don't know how to answer to "How are you?" or "What's your name?" or "Do you have a pencil?"

Like, WTF?

KOREAN HARASSMENT

Are you being harassed by your Korean co-teacher or coworkers? They like to hack on my computer. My gmail account, skype account, dropbox, and icloud is blocked.  I asked my co-teacher to unblock my dropbox account and nothing happened. In fact, all my apple features where blocked the next day. I can see if they were blocking adult or porn sites but gmail? skype? dropbox?

I do have my own laptop but I am afraid that they will hack into it too.  How to solve this harassment?

Let me know if you can access gmail, skype, dropbox, icloud ?


Thanks!

That's not harassment or hacking. That's your school or MOE/POE blocking certain websites on their networks. It sucks, but it's nothing that your coteachers are doing personally. If they wanted to harass you, I think blocking your email would be the last thing they'd do.

Indeed, some school networks are ridiculous, blocking any URL that doesn't end in ".kr" or not government websites. Take advantage of Korea's fantastic data plans and tether off your phone.

My school blocked google for like 3 days last year. lol

Depending on what day it is, I wont be able to access my gmail account sometimes. It seems to only happen when i really need to access it. I do remember my coteacher saying that all personal emails would be blocked starting in April, but that hasnt seemed to be the case.

I just can't comprehend how students can go so many years and not speak any English. I teach high school now, and the 1/2 graders I taught at a private academy have better English than most of the kids I teach now. I just finished a class where a student was held back and is repeating first year HS now (no one told me and this was the first class he has showed up to so I tried kicking him out, long story) but his English is so horrible he didn't even understand me telling him to go. I think he only understands yes and no.

Yeah, I get that people learn different ways and at different speeds, but c'mon sometimes.

You're in grade 6 and you don't know how to answer to "How are you?" or "What's your name?" or "Do you have a pencil?"

Like, WTF?

Yeah it's weird. I did a MASH style game with my 2nd graders a few weeks ago. They had to come up with a total of 8 things on their own (to add to the 12 or so items already there):

Two places
Two things to do
Two people/animals/whatever
Two adjectives

They seriously struggled. Like, really? I tested myself to see if I could fill out my own worksheet in French - a language I took almost 10 years ago for little more than two years in high school and did it with no problems.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that independent/free-thinking is not really an encouraged thing here. So there's little motivation to retain anything that can't be regurgitated for an exam. Any time I try to do something that allows them to be creative, they either make exact copies of the examples I show or must be fed answers. It's frustrating and depressing.

I just can't comprehend how students can go so many years and not speak any English. I teach high school now, and the 1/2 graders I taught at a private academy have better English than most of the kids I teach now. I just finished a class where a student was held back and is repeating first year HS now (no one told me and this was the first class he has showed up to so I tried kicking him out, long story) but his English is so horrible he didn't even understand me telling him to go. I think he only understands yes and no.

Yeah, I get that people learn different ways and at different speeds, but c'mon sometimes.

You're in grade 6 and you don't know how to answer to "How are you?" or "What's your name?" or "Do you have a pencil?"

Like, WTF?

Yeah it's weird. I did a MASH style game with my 2nd graders a few weeks ago. They had to come up with a total of 8 things on their own (to add to the 12 or so items already there):

Two places
Two things to do
Two people/animals/whatever
Two adjectives

They seriously struggled. Like, really? I tested myself to see if I could fill out my own worksheet in French - a language I took almost 10 years ago for little more than two years in high school and did it with no problems.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that independent/free-thinking is not really an encouraged thing here. So there's little motivation to retain anything that can't be regurgitated for an exam. Any time I try to do something that allows them to be creative, they either make exact copies of the examples I show or must be fed answers. It's frustrating and depressing.

Yeah, I've had 3rd grade middle schoolers that can't even read the alphabet. When it came time to play games and do activities my coteacher's attitude was "oh, she can't read so she just won't play the game" and let the student just sit there and sleep. I think it's really just from the students not wanting to do anything and the Korean teachers just allowing it and making excuses to not take the extra time to help them.

I also agree with the part about independent thinking not a real thing here. My students can really only copy/paste written examples from the book even when I encourage them to create their own examples.

I feel bad for my elem. kids. Quite a few struggle with English and I feel like several of them would be okay with some extra help. But that'd mean my coT would actually have to do more work. 

At least my middle school coTs actually care about the students. I hope the substitute for my pregnant coT cares at least half as much as she does.

I just can't comprehend how students can go so many years and not speak any English. I teach high school now, and the 1/2 graders I taught at a private academy have better English than most of the kids I teach now. I just finished a class where a student was held back and is repeating first year HS now (no one told me and this was the first class he has showed up to so I tried kicking him out, long story) but his English is so horrible he didn't even understand me telling him to go. I think he only understands yes and no.

Yeah, I get that people learn different ways and at different speeds, but c'mon sometimes.

You're in grade 6 and you don't know how to answer to "How are you?" or "What's your name?" or "Do you have a pencil?"

Like, WTF?

Yeah it's weird. I did a MASH style game with my 2nd graders a few weeks ago. They had to come up with a total of 8 things on their own (to add to the 12 or so items already there):

Two places
Two things to do
Two people/animals/whatever
Two adjectives

They seriously struggled. Like, really? I tested myself to see if I could fill out my own worksheet in French - a language I took almost 10 years ago for little more than two years in high school and did it with no problems.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that independent/free-thinking is not really an encouraged thing here. So there's little motivation to retain anything that can't be regurgitated for an exam. Any time I try to do something that allows them to be creative, they either make exact copies of the examples I show or must be fed answers. It's frustrating and depressing.

I usually don't agree with the people who are all, "Bawwwww why they dun English good bawww," but after reading your bit about trying to do a similar activity in French, I realized, I was a terrible French student, and barely studied it at all in elementary school. And yet, my French is better than probably 20% of my grade 6 students' English, and they've had hundreds of hours of instruction.

Same. I'm trying to get my students accustomed to the idea of creativity. Once they realize how much freedom they can have in English, I think it becomes easier for them/they are more motivated to learn.