RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

To those who write travel blogs:

When you're giving directions to the thing/place/activity, you have to be exact and precise.  It makes me want to smash my laptop to bits when I see things like

"So yea, just go to XXX subway station and take the bus from there!" 

Which exit?  Which bus?  Which direction?

"Walking from XXX just head towards the big crossing, turn right and cross the second road!"

Ok, thanks for the barnstorming directions.

 

AAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

"Go to the store with the chickens and there's a road that's past that. Go straight and then you'll see, like a bus, stop. It's to the left of that."

WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.

It's the same with a video I saw about street food in Hanoi. It's interesting to some people sure, but I was literally going to Hanoi the following month and it would have been REALLY USEFUL to tag the names of the restos in the description or the address. We all have google maps now, you don't even need to give me the name of the resto to search it, I realise these are holes in the wall in Vietnam, but the address of the building will work every time!

It's very likely a lot of those bloggers wouldn't for the life of them know how to get back to the place they had stumbled upon.

It's very likely a lot of those bloggers wouldn't for the life of them know how to get back to the place they had stumbled upon.

On google maps you can star your location and tag it with a personal description. As a blogger, this should be the route to take. Unless you're blogging about bars. That's exempt. hahaha

Anybody have students who stare at them in a way that transcends the "you're a foreigner" gaze? I'm talking mouth open, blank expression, kind of like you just gave birth to a golden retriever? I can let a lot roll off my back but this look just unsettles me to my core.

This is making me think of those cringe-worthy moments when the students are either particularly unresponsive or unruly and then you have those two or three students, usually girls, who try even harder to be on their best behavior to make up for everyone else and you can tell they kind of feel sorry for you and you're simultaneously mortified and mentally panicking. This happens to me at least twice a semester. There are bad days and then there are those kinds of days. Does this happen to anyone else? Where the good students feel bad for you on the days when you lose control?

Had one of 'those' days yesterday. My co-teacher couldn't make it to school (don't know why) and the home room teachers wouldn't stay in the class with me, so I was flying solo the entire day. My final class of the day, saw there was no co / homeroom teacher, so just went nuts. This one girl, tried really hard to help me get them to quiten down and listen, to do their work etc. She was like the only quiet student / only person doing work the entire lesson. She came to me and apologized for the class near the end too.

Next week, a bulk of the class is going to be in trouble with the coTeacher when she gets back. She freaks even me out when she gets mad too; She's small, cute, and quiet, but super scary when angry / mad haha. I'm hoping I can be out of the room when she gets mad at them, as I get pretty uncomfortable during those rare times that students get disciplined here.

ha, that's so cute of your student. I ended up apologizing to my students the other day for other students' behavior. Felt like I was letting the one's who want to learn English down.
Unrelated: I gave my class the classic "what's black and white and read all over riddle" and was surprised to get the correct answer but in such a manner that I felt like I was riddling with Blaine the mono.

I had a temporary sub-coteacher a few years back that I would have preferred never came to class, because when it was my time to lead, she would go around chatting with the students and distracting them, when they were to be following me during the presentation and practice phase of our lesson.

I spoke to her about it after class, and she claimed to understand, yet she continued to do it.

After a few more discussions about it, I asked her why she continued to do it, and she "played" ignorant.

Rather than endure, the next day, as soon as she starting disrupting, I immediately stopped the class and waited for her conversation to end.  As soon as she stopped chatting, I started again.  However, she immediately started in, so I stopped the class again.

She started laughing and I "smiled" and we all waited.

The students were 100% aware of what was taking place.

This continued for about 8 minutes, until pair practice and the production stage of the lesson began.

After the lesson, I was in no condition to speak with her (I was seeing red), so I asked her if we could have a meeting in the afternoon.

Long story short, I'm so grateful she was a temp/sub, as the only conclusion I could draw was that she was intentionally winding me up for kicks, she was a bit "bat $hit" crazy, or she was lonely and incapable of keeping her trap closed for more than a minute at a time.

I don't envy you.

It sounds like you did some irreparable damage, if she doesn't want you to be in the classroom while she is teaching.

What had you done before when she was leading?

What did she do when you were leading?

Would you care to explain how things got so out of hand?

If you are SMOE, you might consider signing-up for the training course for foreigners and their coteachers next week.

Fair enough. Yeah, perhaps the damage is irreparable and yes, I cannot in any situation claim that I cannot shoulder part of the blame and could very well do with some guidance, clearly, otherwise I would not be in the situation I am in. For clarity I lead all the classes. She floats and translates in those instances where the students need it.

i'm probably a bit late to the party, never having co-taught before in Korea before, but some of these teachers must love teaming up with you guys when all they need to do is translate a few words and then just sit back :S

i'm probably a bit late to the party, never having co-taught before in Korea before, but some of these teachers must love teaming up with you guys when all they need to do is translate a few words and then just sit back :S

There are definitely some that do. One of my coTs is happy to study English in the back of the classroom and pipe in on occasion if there's a translation issue or if the kids have a question they can't articulate in English to me. This works out really well for me though!

On the other hand, I have another coT who I think feels underutilized-- on more than one occasion she's asked me what she can do to help me more.

Then I have a coT who is sometimes just fine, sometimes way overbearing, and sometimes practically non-existent.

i never understood the need to have two teachers in the same classroom

i never understood the need to have two teachers in the same classroom

Not to put anybody down, but consider this from the parent's perspective.

NETs do not usually have training as teachers, so there is only one teacher in the classroom.

i never understood the need to have two teachers in the same classroom

Not to put anybody down, but consider this from the parent's perspective.

NETs do not usually have training as teachers, so there is only one teacher in the classroom.

Right. There always needs to be a (certified) teacher in the classroom for legal/liability issues. I imagine it would also prevent schools from taking unfair advantage in the hiring of temporary workers over permanent employees.

And just think of all the AIDS being spread if foreigners were allowed to be unsupervised with children.

i never understood the need to have two teachers in the same classroom

I kinda see it as more if an assiastant type thing. Idk about the US but in the U.K. It's common in primary school to have a teaching assistant (the school I worked at in the uk had pm one assistant per class for lower years and then one or two assistants per unit in upper juniors). One teacher can't meet the needs of 30 kids and at early years it's important to meet their needs as much as possible. English is a subject with huge disparity in levels, one foreign teacher is not going to be able to meet the needs of 30 kids who range from barely knowing the alphabet to being able to have conversations, considering we teach 100% in English and often don't have enough Korean to explain stuff to the lower level students. In my classes I view my Korean teacher as a teaching assistant type role, there to help lower level students.

The problem with this is that the Korean teacher doesn't always take the innitiative to assist lower level students, and the way classes are set up and typically run (and the fact we teach 20-22 different classes of around 30 students once a week for 40 minutes with no system of tracking students' progress or weaknesses) it's hard to run differentiated tasks, so you can't ask the KT to work with the lower level students because you will have a handful in the class sat at opposite sides of the classroom.
Alternatively we can take an assistant role, if your KT prefers to be leading the class (lol)

I mean, again, being a teacher here isn't really where I harvest my self-worth so it's fine. But why am I even wasting my voice? Why can't we just sit in relative silence, and follow the wisdom of "let's not and say we did?"

This is how I feel about some of my classes too. Honestly I feel like the best advice for people who want to teach in Korea is: If you actually care about teaching... don't come. Haha.

I was super stressed and depressed towards the beginning of my time here because even though I was doing my best I quickly realized that my classes don't really "matter" to my kids' education. Then I started throwing myself into some new hobbies and I feel much better about myself.

i never understood the need to have two teachers in the same classroom

Not to put anybody down, but consider this from the parent's perspective.

NETs do not usually have training as teachers, so there is only one teacher in the classroom.

Right. There always needs to be a (certified) teacher in the classroom for legal/liability issues. I imagine it would also prevent schools from taking unfair advantage in the hiring of temporary workers over permanent employees.

And just think of all the AIDS being spread if foreigners were allowed to be unsupervised with children.

Why, oh why. Why did you have to take it there?

i never understood the need to have two teachers in the same classroom

Not to put anybody down, but consider this from the parent's perspective.

NETs do not usually have training as teachers, so there is only one teacher in the classroom.

Right. There always needs to be a (certified) teacher in the classroom for legal/liability issues. I imagine it would also prevent schools from taking unfair advantage in the hiring of temporary workers over permanent employees.

And just think of all the AIDS being spread if foreigners were allowed to be unsupervised with children.

Why, oh why. Why did you have to take it there?

Sorry. Just trying to point out the often unreasonable and unwarranted distrust and discomfort a lot of people have with foreigners here. I wasn't sure if anyone had pointed that out on the forum here before.

i never understood the need to have two teachers in the same classroom

I kinda see it as more if an assiastant type thing. Idk about the US but in the U.K. It's common in primary school to have a teaching assistant (the school I worked at in the uk had pm one assistant per class for lower years and then one or two assistants per unit in upper juniors). One teacher can't meet the needs of 30 kids and at early years it's important to meet their needs as much as possible. English is a subject with huge disparity in levels, one foreign teacher is not going to be able to meet the needs of 30 kids who range from barely knowing the alphabet to being able to have conversations, considering we teach 100% in English and often don't have enough Korean to explain stuff to the lower level students. In my classes I view my Korean teacher as a teaching assistant type role, there to help lower level students.

The problem with this is that the Korean teacher doesn't always take the innitiative to assist lower level students, and the way classes are set up and typically run (and the fact we teach 20-22 different classes of around 30 students once a week for 40 minutes with no system of tracking students' progress or weaknesses) it's hard to run differentiated tasks, so you can't ask the KT to work with the lower level students because you will have a handful in the class sat at opposite sides of the classroom.
Alternatively we can take an assistant role, if your KT prefers to be leading the class (lol)

Yea I agree with this.

In fact, I'm stunned by the amount of people here who apparently teach without a CT even in the room. 

I don't mean classroom management, I mean how do you actually teach the material without any translation?  Do elementary and middle school textbooks have Korean in them or are they written completely in English?

I'm not the tidiest person. I know that. My desk might be the messiest in the whole office. I usually leave the textbooks and papers/materials I'm using for the week on the desk top, rather than putting them in the cubby. I was feeling recently that it was a bit too messy, though, and planned to clean it today since I only have 3 classes and plenty of free time.

Horrifically, I came to school to find someone had cleaned my desk. How embarrassing. I knew it was a mess and I planned to clean it today, but now I can't even redeem myself. My boss said she had thought about telling me to clean it, but hadn't, because (in a rare moment of tact and self-restraint) she thought I wouldn't like being told to clean up like a child.

Can anyone guess who cleaned my desk? Yes, that's right, it was the principal. Now I feel like I'm supposed to thank her but actually it's just kinda......... 

Anybody have students who stare at them in a way that transcends the "you're a foreigner" gaze? I'm talking mouth open, blank expression, kind of like you just gave birth to a golden retriever? I can let a lot roll off my back but this look just unsettles me to my core.

This is making me think of those cringe-worthy moments when the students are either particularly unresponsive or unruly and then you have those two or three students, usually girls, who try even harder to be on their best behavior to make up for everyone else and you can tell they kind of feel sorry for you and you're simultaneously mortified and mentally panicking. This happens to me at least twice a semester. There are bad days and then there are those kinds of days. Does this happen to anyone else? Where the good students feel bad for you on the days when you lose control?

Yes, like you said it's almost always the girls and the looks they give me say something like, "Teacher! Please don't make me sit next to these maniacs." It makes me feel worse because you can tell they are interested in learning and the rest of the class is screwing off. These situations seem to be happening more to me lately.  Maybe cos the year is coming to an end soon. I don't know.

I don't mean classroom management, I mean how do you actually teach the material without any translation?  Do elementary and middle school textbooks have Korean in them or are they written completely in English?

 

Fu*k no.

I don't mean classroom management, I mean how do you actually teach the material without any translation?  Do elementary and middle school textbooks have Korean in them or are they written completely in English?

 

Fu*k no.

My middle school textbooks are written completely in English