RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

Are your pants to short or something? Maybe they just want to touch your hairy legs.

For other teachers that work at high schools, when a student fails, do you have to give them a chance to make up the F and get a passing grade? My class is really pretty easy to pass, do the work, come to class, and participate. But there were a few students that literally just never came to class, so of course they failed. The school has told me that I have to let them pass and to give them a special assignment to make up for it. Usually, there is a deadline that they have to finish those assignments by, but I have been working here for 2 years and the previous teacher was here for 3 years. I'm getting students that failed in her class coming to me, 3 years later, asking to pass. It just really grinds my gears.

I'm surprised any of us are given the authority to 'pass' or 'fail' students!  I work at a high school and I don't give any grades for normal classes, just give them a score in the speaking tests once a term (100 - 60).  Maybe if I give them a 60 it's considered a fail?  I'm not sure.

For other teachers that work at high schools, when a student fails, do you have to give them a chance to make up the F and get a passing grade? My class is really pretty easy to pass, do the work, come to class, and participate. But there were a few students that literally just never came to class, so of course they failed. The school has told me that I have to let them pass and to give them a special assignment to make up for it. Usually, there is a deadline that they have to finish those assignments by, but I have been working here for 2 years and the previous teacher was here for 3 years. I'm getting students that failed in her class coming to me, 3 years later, asking to pass. It just really grinds my gears.

I'm surprised any of us are given the authority to 'pass' or 'fail' students!  I work at a high school and I don't give any grades for normal classes, just give them a score in the speaking tests once a term (100 - 60).  Maybe if I give them a 60 it's considered a fail?  I'm not sure.

I think it's because my class is almost like a bonus class. They have their normal grammar classes, and then they have mine separate. I guess I shouldn't really be surprised that the grades don't matter, it's just bothersome.

The only time I've ever heard of a student being held back is if they don't attend enough school days.  Students are expected to attend a minimum number of days to be able to 'graduate'.  Like you Arm, we just have the 10-6 points for the speaking test.  So the 6 is the lowest, but not a fail.  I'm in charge of another 10 points for student assessment this year as well.  I made the students aware that I am in control of 20 of their points this year! 

This isn't for holding back the students, it just seems to be that they can't have any sort of blemish on their record at all. Although there was one kid I have that was held back from last year, so he is still a first grade high schooler. I never knew anyone back home that got held back, but I feel like it must be so embarrassing in Korea to be.

This isn't for holding back the students, it just seems to be that they can't have any sort of blemish on their record at all. Although there was one kid I have that was held back from last year, so he is still a first grade high schooler. I never knew anyone back home that got held back, but I feel like it must be so embarrassing in Korea to be.

Makes sense that students make up for it.  I know in high school the 생기부 report is important for the students at the end of the year.  Maybe for that they want to have the good report from all the teachers and with that make sure all their work is done as it'd harm their uni chances otherwise.  But given Korea is such a clear pass and fail country, if the students didn't already have a perfect record then I doubt it'd make any difference.

Oh, I wasn't aware of that report. I figured that it may have some sort of impact on universities, but at the same time, if most every students grade is whitewashed, it doesn't make that much of a difference in the long haul.

For the most part, I don't mind giving a makeup test, but it just seems... wrong to give it to those students who did absolutely nothing (again, never showed up to class the entire semester) the same passing grade as the students who worked for it. Or passing them 2-3 years later. That's on me, and I'll still do it, I just may grind my teeth over it.

We had a hweshik and there's mostly women at our school. We got another male teacher, and the behavior of most of the women was embarrassing. It was verging on sexual harassment.

Oh god, what happened?

We had a big group of new teachers, and people cheered for all of them, but it was verging on cat-calls with the new male teacher. I kept thinking, if this was a group of men with a new female teacher, people would think this is terrible, right?

We had a hweshik and there's mostly women at our school. We got another male teacher, and the behavior of most of the women was embarrassing. It was verging on sexual harassment.

Oh god, what happened?

We had a big group of new teachers, and people cheered for all of them, but it was verging on cat-calls with the new male teacher. I kept thinking, if this was a group of men with a new female teacher, people would think this is terrible, right?

Indeed.

I hate how everything can change in a school, and what was once nice, is now hell.

The new principal from last year has little to no interest in English. When I first arrived we had two great classrooms dedicated to English, now they've been knocked through and turned into a vanity project for the principal.

So last year came change number one, I would lose, for the most part my co-teachers who could speak English to an almost fluent level. The second change put me in a position of teaching two grades with the homeroom teacher. In the end, both changes were okay and I valued the time to take more of lead in the lessons. The kids also benefited by having me more often in a week.

Fast forward this year, the principal in his wisdom has decided to give me all the grades, 3rd to 6th, and has moved the only teacher who can actually speak English into a homeroom teacher. This means that I now only teach one or two periods for most of the grades, and the rest of the book is done by the homeroom teachers, who cannot even speak basic English.

This particular change makes me feel sidelined and alienated, and adds even more work onto the already busy homeroom teachers schedule. I was in two minds as to whether i should stay or leave Korea, this change has made me more determined to leave. It's a shame really, I like the school itself and the students are mostly fine. My apartment is nice and for the most part I like living in Korea and the lifestyle that comes with it, but I can see that if I stayed another year I would become a different person.

I'm always amazed and how much power the principal has in schools here, some are good, and some are fine. My principal stands firmly on the wrong side of that spectrum. His decisions seems illogical, and he seems to love spending a huge amount of money on events and projects that make him look like the messiah returned.

Why are you leaving? You get to teach in the students' homerooms, which is better than having to teach in an English room.

Also, lots of public school teachers teach grades 3-6. That's not unusual. It's kind of annoying, but it's pretty standard.

If you feel 'sidelined and alienated,' that's probably taking things a little too personally. It sounds like you've only been here for a year or two, maybe. English doesn't revolve around the native teacher, as much as we might wish it did.

I'm sorry about your difficult situation, though.

I kindly beg to differ.  What's the fun in carrying all your stuff to the homerooms 5 times a day.  You have no where to put anything, you have no real materials to speak of, each homeroom is set up differently in terms of resources.

I wish I had an English room at both my schools.  I would just hide there all day.

Well last year I taught in the homeroom, which was fine. The year before that the dedicated English rooms were the only two decent classrooms in the whole school.

This year I have my own classroom, which is nice. You're right that i'm not the only person having the same situation, but its a situation that I feel reduces the quality of English education generally. Completely fine with the school changing its priorities, but it's not something that I want to be a part of.

Definitely a first world problem, but it hasn't enamored me into wanting to stay longer.

Anyway, I'll plod on and see how the next few months go!

If a group needs a made up Hallmark-holiday to get attention, their cause isn't worth paying attention to.

If I'm not missing work or getting free crap because of it, I don't care.

I bet you're one of those "why isn't there a white history month" folks, too.

That's a leap. And I'll bet you're one of those people who think if you're a straight, white male, anytime you open your mouth it's mansplaining, and that we ruin everything.

Open mouth, fingers to keyboard etc

Seriously hard to find a straight white guy who can see past the end of his nose. Every time you make comments like this you just prove the point. Keep going & dig yourself deeper!

Keep generalising. It does wonders for civility and social cohesion.

I'm surprised when I hear of someone who gets to see a class more than once in a week.  At each of my schools, I generally teach each class only once a week, so it's harder to see progress-- especially with random class cancellations due to field trips or whatever.

Add in the coT who sometimes yammers on and on for a good portion of the class and those students are lucky to get maybe half a class period's worth of time a week practicing with the NET. Ugh

Why are you leaving? You get to teach in the students' homerooms, which is better than having to teach in an English room.

Also, lots of public school teachers teach grades 3-6. That's not unusual. It's kind of annoying, but it's pretty standard.

If you feel 'sidelined and alienated,' that's probably taking things a little too personally. It sounds like you've only been here for a year or two, maybe. English doesn't revolve around the native teacher, as much as we might wish it did.

I'm sorry about your difficult situation, though.

I kindly beg to differ.  What's the fun in carrying all your stuff to the homerooms 5 times a day.  You have no where to put anything, you have no real materials to speak of, each homeroom is set up differently in terms of resources.

I wish I had an English room at both my schools.  I would just hide there all day.

I have an English room at 3 of my schools and wish I had one at my fourth.  I've found it to be more convenient and it's nice to have a space designated for English.  Also then I can decorate once in a while or display student projects.

We had a hweshik and there's mostly women at our school. We got another male teacher, and the behavior of most of the women was embarrassing. It was verging on sexual harassment.

Oh god, what happened?

We had a big group of new teachers, and people cheered for all of them, but it was verging on cat-calls with the new male teacher. I kept thinking, if this was a group of men with a new female teacher, people would think this is terrible, right?

Wouldn't think it was particularly terrible for either gender, but no doubt someone would get offended.

Yeah, I know that a lot of teachers hate the principal too, some of them don't say outright, but they all have the same look on their face that Melania Trump must have every time she wakes up to Trump.

Especially my co-teacher, who lived and worked in the states for 10 years, is now just a homeroom teacher. She's not happy, while counting down the days till she changes schools. I'm all for change, but I feel they like a change just for the sake of a change. There never seems to be any logical changes, which i know is a problem everywhere!

Now I look back I miss my first principal, she was a proper battleaxe, but at least she valued English and made sensible decisions.

I agree about the principal thing.  Some have these big unrealistic ideas.  Some are miserable sheets.  I would say that in the majority of schools I worked in if you don't like the principal then the teachers probably don't either.  Some just sit and watch golf in their office until they retire or die, whichever comes first.   

I find this kind of principal to be pretty acceptable. The school is usually more chill as a result. 

This is my principal theory... 


Young up and coming principals are usually ok but have grand ideas so teachers might not like them because of this. They feel like a winner because they finally got where they wanted. They buy a Hyundai Grandeur. They may love volleyball and be all about membership training.

 Middle aged (I mean in principal terms...not actually middle aged) and are the WORST because they realize they haven't done anything exciting career wise for years and there isn't really anywhere to go. This is it. All that competitiveness just builds up inside them and they take it out on younger teachers. They can change the mood of a school daily.

Older Principals are the best imho, they leave shit alone and like a like a laugh because they know they can get away with it. They have accepted that it's a lonely job so mostly withdraw to their office and plants.

a lot of people complain about the korean language but i don't usually mind it unless it's the whiny sounding thing... but i really hate and cannot bring myself to use the phrase that basically equates to "please take good care of me" or whatever. it sounds so infantile and pleading...i guess it just doesn't translate well but i cut it out of my new school introduction my very first year. i dont even react well when other people say it.

Out of curiosity, what is it? I don't have such a phrase in my introduction but it's entirely possible others have said it and I've just never known

I've been teaching middle school for the past year and a half, but I taught elementary school for three and a half years before that. I've been in the same province the entire time, so I have a few students now who I also taught when they were elementary schoolers.

One of my students who started 3rd grade this year is one of them, and he has a younger sister who started middle school this year. When I taught at their elementary school, she was one of my favorite students, so when her brother told me she was going to be attending my middle school, I was pretty stoked.

However, a week of classes came and went without seeing her a single time. I mentioned that to my coteacher (who I had already told about my excitement  ), and he said "Oh, she transferred to another school. Her brother told me today."

a lot of people complain about the korean language but i don't usually mind it unless it's the whiny sounding thing... but i really hate and cannot bring myself to use the phrase that basically equates to "please take good care of me" or whatever. it sounds so infantile and pleading...i guess it just doesn't translate well but i cut it out of my new school introduction my very first year. i dont even react well when other people say it.

Out of curiosity, what is it? I don't have such a phrase in my introduction but it's entirely possible others have said it and I've just never known

"잘 보탁드립니다"

We learned it at orientation when I got here and that was the meaning they told us. I think it's probably oversimplified and phrases often have different connotations than what the exact words mean, but I just don't like it as it gets translated 

If you translate the word "부탁하다" by itself, it's more like "to request" or to "ask (for a favor)", so for me, I've alway thought that "잘 부탁드립니다", is more like saying "I will rely on you"/ "I will request help from you". Anyway if you start a new job somewhere, or start at a new school, you have no choice but to ask people for a lot of favors, or how to do things properly. It's like saying, "I'm going to try to fit in here, please help me out".

That reminds me of some Japanese films and anime where there's a new character at a school or wherever who says "Please take care of me." I'm fairly certain there's a Ghibli film with that line in it somewhere

That reminds me of some Japanese films and anime where there's a new character at a school or wherever who says "Please take care of me." I'm fairly certain there's a Ghibli film with that line in it somewhere

That's one way to translate the phrase "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," particularly in this context. That's the first thing I thought of when sevenpm first brought it up, haha.

We had a hweshik and there's mostly women at our school. We got another male teacher, and the behavior of most of the women was embarrassing. It was verging on sexual harassment.

Oh god, what happened?

We had a big group of new teachers, and people cheered for all of them, but it was verging on cat-calls with the new male teacher. I kept thinking, if this was a group of men with a new female teacher, people would think this is terrible, right?

Wouldn't think it was particularly terrible for either gender, but no doubt someone would get offended.

Did I mention that they also forced him to sing even though there wasn't a karaoke machine at the restaurant, like they expected? You had to be there to soak in the weirdness of it.

I found today that the male teacher was embarrassed by it all and felt a little harassed, so my observations were pretty accurate.