RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

It sounds like they are already plastic and are cleanable and reusable. The co-teacher is just unhappy with some little bit of residue that's leftover after multiple uses.

I got that, I was just offering another way that they could make some more if they only have 10 plastic files. If there's a laminate machine with some laminate sheets lying around, which has always been the case for me, they could use that and not have to use the evil dirty plastic files that the co-teacher is averse to.

Yeah, I would do this but my camp is actually a custom English board game camp. If I laminated it I would be doing hundreds of sheets of laminate as opposed to buying 2 more clear plastic files. 

Why she thinks her problem with dirty pieces of plastic concerns me is bewildering. They won't give me the school credit cards to buy them, they don't provide them at the school (the one's I have I purchased by myself) and I'm leaving so ain't dropping another penny on this job.

I think she's pissed I didn't tell her to buy more at the time we were there but I didn't know how many kids were in my camp until Monday morning or even that a CT would be there till Friday.

This is quite odd.

Typically, students have to return a "sign-up slip" well in advance of the camp.  How or why you wouldn't have known until the first day of camp doesn't make any sense.

I will collect the slips, make groups, roll books, etc. days/sometimes weeks prior.

Again, it just doesn't seem realistic or honest to say nobody knew until the first day of camp.

I've never heard such nonsense, nor can I believe it to be true.

To clarify. I asked and was told the same as last year. No lists were given as they 'weren't ready yet' until the Monday morning. (I'll assume late Friday.)

Last year my two camp sections had 14 and 18. I split the difference and assumed 16. Each section this year has 24. Pair games require 12 plastic sheets. We bought 10. I have 20 ready to go but whatever.

Collecting sheets, organizing lists etc. is not my job. I knew most of the kids who were coming because they told me beforehand. I wasn't doing a head count though.

This lady couldn't find her way out of a 1 door room though. It's not all that surprising.

Thanks for clarifying.

It was known, but she just didn't seem concerned with providing you with the information.

If I had a coteacher like that, Uffdah...

Hang tough.  It will be over before you know it ;)

Just wrapped up my first day of summer camp. I still feel lost...

Me too.

 It was pretty pointless it seems. The turn out isn't so great. Oh well. The kids that did show up seemed to enjoy their time. Good thing I had a ton of games and stuff to keep them occupied.

I just dont know if I should actually be attempting to teach English at this thing.

this is the unspoken rule of camp: don't try to teach.

nobody wants to be there, so the resentment is already apparent. that being said, there are definitely exceptions. i had a handful of amazing camp days that usually involved a big activity: making pancakes, a paper airplane contest, soccer, etc, but that can take time and effort which is in short supply when the heat is so excruciating.

Just wrapped up my first day of summer camp. I still feel lost...

Me too.

 It was pretty pointless it seems. The turn out isn't so great. Oh well. The kids that did show up seemed to enjoy their time. Good thing I had a ton of games and stuff to keep them occupied.

I just dont know if I should actually be attempting to teach English at this thing.

this is the unspoken rule of camp: don't try to teach.

nobody wants to be there, so the resentment is already apparent. that being said, there are definitely exceptions. i had a handful of amazing camp days that usually involved a big activity: making pancakes, a paper airplane contest, soccer, etc, but that can take time and effort which is in short supply when the heat is so excruciating.

Fortunately my coT believes that camp should be a time for the students to have fun and take a break from studying. While she does say that the focus should be on students practicing English, it's easy enough to implement an English component to games and activities even if it's just simple phrases. At any rate, I'm giving instructions and directions in English (granted, with lots of gesticulations and demos) which could be considered "language immersion."

I do camps with my main middle school kids so personally I just want to facilitate fun (while giving them exposure to English and other cultures) as I know they'll soon be off to high school where they'll be stuck studying all the time.

My co-teacher implied that I could go home after summer camp and then I get a call at the bus stop asking where I am from the vice-principal. So incredibly pissed off right now. All she could say was 'the contract say you must be here 4 hour 30.' 

This is why I never got a phone.

My co-teacher suggested tie-dye shirts for camp.  I told her I'd never done it before.  She said that was ok, because she'd done it with a previous foreign teacher.

Today she has to leave early because her mother is very ill.  I can understand that.  I just wish it wasn't the day we decided to tie dye. 

I hope all goes well.  I'll do my best.

Can't you switch things around?

We had to call an audible, due to weather, which wasn't a big deal.

Best of luck.

Lots of cheating in camp class today. Sometimes it was funny, but it was more of a hassle than anything else.

Teaching first graders for 90 minutes every day without a co teacher is...a challenge

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

My co-teacher suggested tie-dye shirts for camp.  I told her I'd never done it before.  She said that was ok, because she'd done it with a previous foreign teacher.

Today she has to leave early because her mother is very ill.  I can understand that.  I just wish it wasn't the day we decided to tie dye. 

I hope all goes well.  I'll do my best.

Updates? My camp just ended and I have nothing to do for hour hours so I am waiting for your response.

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

I've been playing country music before the start of every class for the past three years. Some of them still complain.

It makes me happy.

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

I've been playing country music before the start of every class for the past three years. Some of them still complain.

It makes me happy.

Nice-uh

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

I've been playing country music before the start of every class for the past three years. Some of them still complain.

It makes me happy.

Nice-uh

We're not happy until you're not happy.

"Teacher, you are old."

Hahaha, I played some music in class while my kids were making "Korean Tourism" posters.

Some hits from Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Deadmau5, VU, DFA 1979.

Teacher, play Kpop. 

NO.  It's an English camp.

"You are old."

Yup. 

Care to share any of their slogans? Odds are they're better than what we've currently got.

Care to share any of their slogans? Odds are they're better than what we've currently got.

There were 8 posters, all of which had Namsan Tower on them with the caption "Creative Korea."

Fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkk (are we allowed to curse on here)?

Day 3 Summer camp. "MataHari teacher, we can't do any of the activities you planned for camp on Friday (morning and afternoon camps). Change it. Construction in whole school. No treasure hunt, no food make, new plan.

Movie day. That's it.

I'm not sure if this is common for everyone but it happens to me all the time and it's starting to get really annoying.

So if I'm sitting with a group of Korean English teachers, they will always talk to each other in Korean even though they know I don't know what I'm talking about. We are all able to speak English. I think it's really rude considering there is a common language between all of us, but they purposefully exclude me. How would they feel if the situation was reversed????

Hypothetically, if I spoke Korean and was talking to another native English speaker who also spoke Korean, and we were sitting with a Korean who didn't speak English, I would make an effort to include them and speak Korean to the other native teacher. To me it's just common courtesy! I wouldn't speak English to the other native teacher if we could both speak Korean just to be considerate of the other person with us!

I'm not sure if this is common for everyone but it happens to me all the time and it's starting to get really annoying.

So if I'm sitting with a group of Korean English teachers, they will always talk to each other in Korean even though they know I don't know what I'm talking about. We are all able to speak English. I think it's really rude considering there is a common language between all of us, but they purposefully exclude me. How would they feel if the situation was reversed????

Hypothetically, if I spoke Korean and was talking to another native English speaker who also spoke Korean, and we were sitting with a Korean who didn't speak English, I would make an effort to include them and speak Korean to the other native teacher. To me it's just common courtesy! I wouldn't speak English to the other native teacher if we could both speak Korean just to be considerate of the other person with us!

Lol every single time. Even the "nice" ones barely even bother. I started viewing my cos as people to put up with rather than people I should have friendly working relationships with a long time ago.

My co-teacher suggested tie-dye shirts for camp.  I told her I'd never done it before.  She said that was ok, because she'd done it with a previous foreign teacher.

Today she has to leave early because her mother is very ill.  I can understand that.  I just wish it wasn't the day we decided to tie dye. 

I hope all goes well.  I'll do my best.

Updates? My camp just ended and I have nothing to do for hour hours so I am waiting for your response.

It went better than I thought.  We tie dyed, but a few students didn't want to use rubber bands, they just wanted to dye their shirts.  I let them.  We left the shirts in bags on the windowsill.  The heat from the sun is supposed to help the color set.  We'll see how they turn out tomorrow.
Some students were a little nervous that my co-T wasn't there, but some of them speak English well enough that it wasn't a problem.

I'm not sure if this is common for everyone but it happens to me all the time and it's starting to get really annoying.

So if I'm sitting with a group of Korean English teachers, they will always talk to each other in Korean even though they know I don't know what I'm talking about. We are all able to speak English. I think it's really rude considering there is a common language between all of us, but they purposefully exclude me. How would they feel if the situation was reversed????

Hypothetically, if I spoke Korean and was talking to another native English speaker who also spoke Korean, and we were sitting with a Korean who didn't speak English, I would make an effort to include them and speak Korean to the other native teacher. To me it's just common courtesy! I wouldn't speak English to the other native teacher if we could both speak Korean just to be considerate of the other person with us!

This happened my entire first year. I shared an office with 4 other English teachers and they didn't speak English unless it was directly to me. I took it so personally at first but don't, you'll see it happens to most people. If you are a direct kind of person then ask what they are talking about and they might get the hint.

This year i share a classroom with one young teacher and we talk all the time in English and an other teacher joins us sometimes too....so don't give up hope.