RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Man, all this talk of camp budgets, and my summer camp had no budget. zero. nada. nothing. We just came in each morning with our smiling faces and occasionally some paper.

I mean you probably did have a budget for camp. It just never made it to the camp. And you never heard of it. And somebody, somewhere, got a new whiteboard in their classroom or something.

I asked about it multiple times and was told no budget. I've been told by cots that our school is poor so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yeah, it could honestly go either way. I was told that one school had a budget of 100,000 for each camp but for my second school, there was no budget. And yet later I was told we needed to purchase English moves and books (that were never used) to use up the English budget. But some schools genuinely just don't have any allotment at all.

Yeah. And actually, every public school, regardless of how poor, has some budget for every subject, yearly. It's just a matter of whether it gets used for that subject, or not. It's not always the most transparent thing.

the amount of money that gets spent on certain stuff in public schools just seems insane. take this case: at my school the 4th graders are making kites for some subject. i asked about this when i saw all the materials in the classrooms. on top of the materials was the receipt - 350,000 Won. per class. multiplied by 10 classes in that grade is 3.5 million damn Won. to make kites that will probably take 1 period to make, will be used once and then thrown away.

and then you'll get told there's no budget for english camp to buy like ONE tiny thing you need .....

And actually, every public school, regardless of how poor, has some budget for every subject, yearly. It's just a matter of whether it gets used for that subject, or not. It's not always the most transparent thing.

Schools from more impoverished areas / rural schools actually get more funding (because of a government effort to help students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds).

And actually, every public school, regardless of how poor, has some budget for every subject, yearly. It's just a matter of whether it gets used for that subject, or not. It's not always the most transparent thing.

Schools from more impoverished areas / rural schools actually get more funding (because of a government effort to help students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds).

How that money gets used is an entirely different matter. I'm very rural and my main school got special funding this year from the gov't: around 10,000,000W. We have less than 20 students in the entire school. The catch? The money could only be used for field trips. And all of it had to be used. Hence why there were so many field trips this year. My coT said it was a bit of a burden to try and figure out how to utilize all of it and she lamented that there are bigger city schools where students have nearly nothing. A much lesser amount would still have allowed for field trips for our kids while the rest may have benefited students elsewhere.

And yet there is no definite budget set aside for camps or even just for minor supplies for regular English class. My first camp there was zero budget so I let students use my personal theatre makeup supplies. My coT fretted a lot over this and of her own volition she went to the principal and basically insisted that future camps needed some kind of budget. The following camp we had a decent budget, which was great.

Now for the upcoming camp, I've been asking my coT if there's a budget and she explained to me that if we need some supplies, to just let her know and they'll shift funds around from other places. Which leads me to think that the school budget is a bit amorphous.

Today at school

Grade 3 kids keep and use box cutters in their pencil cases

One of those kids somehow (I will never know how)  cuts his finger on a... whiteboard (????)

Deemed necessary that he has to go to the hospital (I've never seen such a pathetic cut)

Doc deems it necessary to give him a single stitch (impressive)

Complete outrage and my English class is deemed dangerous and unsafe. Now an assistant teacher has to be present every time I teach that class to prevent.... future...... whiteboard (??)...... accidents.

Yes, let's make it seem like it's the native teacher's fault, not your mental hyperactive kid

At least it's Friday. Get me a drink...

(anyone else got any ridiculous similar stories?)

I confiscate/don't permit box cutters.

Resource room has child-safe scissors, besides, box cutters scratch the desks.

Today at school

Grade 3 kids keep and use box cutters in their pencil cases

One of those kids somehow (I will never know how)  cuts his finger on a... whiteboard (????)

Deemed necessary that he has to go to the hospital (I've never seen such a pathetic cut)

Doc deems it necessary to give him a single stitch (impressive)

Complete outrage and my English class is deemed dangerous and unsafe. Now an assistant teacher has to be present every time I teach that class to prevent.... future...... whiteboard (??)...... accidents.

Yes, let's make it seem like it's the native teacher's fault, not your mental hyperactive kid

At least it's Friday me a drink...

(anyone else got any ridiculous similar stories?)

When I came here a decade ago, I thought Korean kids were spoiled but at the same time robbed of their childhood. I felt for them. Nowadays, I feel like the mollycoddlying has gone to extreme measures. Parents these days have just given up. Not just younger kids either, but even middle school and high school aged kids. It's as if the kids realize their childhood is being robbed and now have a say in what hagwon they want to go to. I would say that the kids are the ones who lose here. But, I think it's more the parents, who have to house these hooligans until they get married.

Today at school

Grade 3 kids keep and use box cutters in their pencil cases

One of those kids somehow (I will never know how)  cuts his finger on a... whiteboard (????)
 
...

(anyone else got any ridiculous similar stories?)

As embarrassing as it sounds, I actually managed to cut myself on whiteboard once, so this may have been how it happened.

The board was not a proper marker board, but a piece of glass covering a white background. The glass was not set into the frame that surrounded it, so there was about a centimeter or so between the two. I was standing at the edge of the board and noticed a stray mark at the very edge, so I just used my finger to erase it rather than getting the eraser. Well, the glass formed a sharp 90 degree edge, a bit of the skin on my finger went into the crack between the glass and the frame and as I wiped the mark away, I cut my finger, too. It was a pretty good cut.

I confiscate/don't permit box cutters.

Resource room has child-safe scissors, besides, box cutters scratch the desks.

As you should. But there's an element of hypocrisy at letting your child free with a box cutter and at the same time complaining to the teacher than their child hurt themselves. And this incident had nothing to do with a box cutter. Maybe I should confiscate pencils too, in case a kid stabs themselves in the eye with one

I confiscate/don't permit box cutters.

Resource room has child-safe scissors, besides, box cutters scratch the desks.

As you should. But there's an element of hypocrisy at letting your child free with a box cutter and at the same time complaining to the teacher than their child hurt themselves. And this incident had nothing to do with a box cutter. Maybe I should confiscate pencils too, in case a kid stabs themselves in the eye with one

I know you are being sarcastic about confiscating pencils, but my point was simply that Koreans don't understand safety.

One only has to look at school policy regarding what is and isn't allowed on school grounds to grasp the ineptitude.

As a teacher, I don't allow things to be "out" unless they are needed.

No pencil or book needed?  They are in their desks, and the desktops are clear and hands are free from distraction.

I'm more than a bit of a "nazi" with regards to these elements.

One of the most dangerous weapons that elementary students bring to school are those "switch blade" style razor cutters (not the box cutter style, these are smaller with a true razor blade mounted).  It's madness.

Anyway, sorry for what happened, but as the only "teacher" in the room, you are ultimately responsible for what went down, like it or not.  There are lots of should'ves to go around, like you should've been with a Korean coteacher, and you should've had them seated without the weapon in their hand.

They are elementary students, afterall.

they DON'T have box cutters in my class. they WERE seated. i work at an after-school program where it's NOT necessary to have a co-teacher in the class. they ONLY had whiteboards and markers. i'm not sure what else could have been done

i only mentioned box cutters as an example at the lack of concern for safety generally, and the surprise of the other staff/parents when an accident does happen (which, in this case, i'm not even sure how he managed it)

Got it.

Sorry, nonetheless, for you becoming the scapegoat for other's ineptitude.

Korean kids will injure themselves by any means necessary. It's a ploy that they use to get out of studying.
I've seen it time and time again. They will offer you a plethora of ailments. These kids are more like us when we were growing up. We would say anything to get out of what we hated doing. Well, the Western influence has arrived in its fullest form now. The kids just want to play and even though they are being good sports about the Korean way, they see the pointlessness more and more.

My friend had a student get carted off in an ambulance with a bloody nose earlier this year. They always hype things up.

The coworker next to my desk always listens to stuff with no headphones, but today she got a new speaker to use instead of just the regular computer speakers.

There's something very disheartening about listening to the elem. kids "review" with the KT by robotically reciting all of the key expressions like individual monologues.

And now they're all reciting as a group.. which just sounds creepy...

My friend had a student get carted off in an ambulance with a bloody nose earlier this year. They always hype things up.

The coworker next to my desk always listens to stuff with no headphones, but today she got a new speaker to use instead of just the regular computer speakers.

One of my biggest pet hates here. Headphones seem to be undiscovered in this land. It's almost like people have to SHARE their noise with you. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr rggggggghhhhhhhhh

My friend had a student get carted off in an ambulance with a bloody nose earlier this year. They always hype things up.

The coworker next to my desk always listens to stuff with no headphones, but today she got a new speaker to use instead of just the regular computer speakers.

One of my biggest pet hates here. Headphones seem to be undiscovered in this land. It's almost like people have to SHARE their noise with you. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr rggggggghhhhhhhhh

My middle schools are the opposite. Everyone uses headphones cause there's no audio otherwise. In my elementary schools the computers have sound on their own, though.

My friend had a student get carted off in an ambulance with a bloody nose earlier this year. They always hype things up.

The coworker next to my desk always listens to stuff with no headphones, but today she got a new speaker to use instead of just the regular computer speakers.

One of my biggest pet hates here. Headphones seem to be undiscovered in this land. It's almost like people have to SHARE their noise with you. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr rggggggghhhhhhhhh

My middle schools are the opposite. Everyone uses headphones cause there's no audio otherwise. In my elementary schools the computers have sound on their own, though.

Its so frustrating, especially when its always some weird as heck music or whatever. Its nice that that's the only option at your MS though! One of the teachers in the office routinely uses headphones, but I just wish the one next to me would.

Word. The only noise I ever hear is an occasional fit of laughter if someone is apparently watching something that tickles his/her funny bone. 

I sure do love it when an entire room full of people laughs at my pronunciation mistakes. It definitely helps get me excited about learning Korean.