RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

So.....why were a group of us banned for a few days?

One thing j learnt during my exile, was the "other site" works better on mobile devices!

So.....why were a group of us banned for a few days?

One thing j learnt during my exile, was the "other site" works better on mobile devices!

It appears that everyone was banned for a few days. There were no posts whatsoever for 4 days.

So.....why were a group of us banned for a few days?

One thing j learnt during my exile, was the "other site" works better on mobile devices!

I saw a post on a reddit thread. Apparently one of the mods was going to ban someone, but made a huge mistake. This is the post:

Hey folks, came here to say this is my fault. It's an honest mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. The way the ban triggers work aren't the most user friendly thing in the world. Previously when I wanted to ban a user, a ton of IPs would show up or it would list 100s of users (if not more) under "possible users with this ip"-ish header. So of course I would ignore the IP option and simply ban their account and email from being used.

I had only ever previously banned 1 or maybe two spammers. Well just a few days ago, another spammer posted and as I was going to ban them, I noticed there was no super long list of IPs or users associated with the IP, so I figured it was probably safe to ban the IP (this spammer consistently changes usernames and emails in order to post their NSFW spam). Banning their IP would hopefully curb their spam for a while I hoped. Unfortunately banning that IP has caused this current predicament. I emailed Arsalan a couple days ago, and I assume other mods have as well if they are also unable to log in... Yes, I am also "banned." Feelsbadman.

Really sorry for all this shit. It's likely as much inconvenience to me as it is to you. I can only hope the fix isn't difficult, but I have no knowledge of that at this time. I had mentioned in the mod section of the forums about how there is little information about how to use the more advanced moderator features, but those with the most knowledge on that topic are quite busy these days.

I do find it genuinely funny that a couple people thought it might be my account that had been hacked considering I'm not well liked. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The reason I think this is happening is because teachers get harassed by parents and from a teacher's perspective it's not worth it to go to battle against White Wine or Tiger Moms who have nothing better to do.

Haven't come across this expression before, and Urban Dictionary is only giving me smut. I have a general sense of what it might mean, but... my general guesses usually end up embarrassing me, so...

A White Wine Mom in my mind has kid(s) and kind of regrets it. She thought it would be more like what she's seen on TV and movies. She's overwhelmed. Her husband works as a highly placed executive at a company which we all purchase products from. The family's finances are so safe that outside help can be paid for to do most of the parenting. Her friends hired Filipinas, so she does the same. Her kid accidentally called the nanny, mom. She was angry, but also felt a tinge of guilt. As they leave for the playground, she glances into her glass-door refrigerator, then at the kitchen clock. It's not too early, she tells herself.

The consequences of tenure. Unions are usually a great thing, but stuff like this is why there needs to be some balance.

in england there's an outside agency called OFSTED that periodically grades schools and teachers' performances. stressful and all teachers in england hate it, but it seems to work to some extent - to keep the teachers on their toes if not anything else

all performance grading in korea seems to be done half-arsed and in-house (i think?), so it seems there's no real incentive to do a good job

I've never seen so many rubber stamps and farces than over here.
I'll never forget my CT's, from 2yrs ago, open class. She'd just come back from teacher training in NZ and present in class to see what she'd learned were: the principal, vp, head teacher, about 14 teachers from different schools around the city, officials from the MOE and officials from the POE.
The lesson couldn't have bombed more epically than if she made a conscious effort to do so, students were throwing stationary around the class, it took 20min to explain the game which every student ignored the rules for (she would've taken longer, but the bell actually cut her off mid explanation), when reviewing (after the bell rang), not one student could remember a single key expression.
End of the lesson, she got loud applause!

The entire Epik programme, massive farce. Our renewal interviews, complete farce.

Everything seems to boil down to interpersonal relationships, specifically, do your superiors like you.

Your grounds for promotion, renewal or approval (or their opposites) oftentimes cannot be legally put onto paper. Usually, your boss likes you because you don't cause problems and do your job, then again, maybe your boss doesn't like you because you didn't kiss enough ass, perhaps he likes you because you downed half your weight in alcohol at the hweshik.

The farce of an interview or review will reflect your underlying relationship.
This entire system needs to be scrapped. Performance needs to be the sole metric.

but who would measure your performances? it seems like no korean teachers have had any proper ESL/EFL training (come to that, do many native teachers?). in the past, when i had open classes, the principal was critical of my classes, even though he had no understanding of what was happening - he didn't speak a word of english. other times, korean teachers told me i did an amazing job, when they only turned up for 2 minutes and left

i've heard many stories of native teachers losing their jobs because somebody had a grudge against them at school, and they weren't renewed and had to leave korea; even the MOE refused to help. there's a ton of these stories on the LOFT facebook group. pretty lame

That's what happened to one of my English friends recently. He was working super hard for his students here, even when we'd hang out on the weekends, he'd bring his laptop to work on his lessons. His students loved him, but his older co-teachers hated him (he had 6 co-T's at 1 school, and the 3 older ones were the ones who got to decide if he could renew), the younger ones liked him though.
The older one's didn't like that the students were enjoying his lessons, and felt like they were losing face, because their lessons weren't as good as his. So, at renewal time, they said no.

His old students have actually contacted him a few times, to say they don't like the new teacher, because the new teacher is very boring. He thinks, the older teachers are trying to force the new teacher to be boring, based on what happened with him.

The reason I think this is happening is because teachers get harassed by parents and from a teacher's perspective it's not worth it to go to battle against White Wine or Tiger Moms who have nothing better to do.

Haven't come across this expression before, and Urban Dictionary is only giving me smut. I have a general sense of what it might mean, but... my general guesses usually end up embarrassing me, so...

A White Wine Mom in my mind has kid(s) and kind of regrets it. She thought it would be more like what she's seen on TV and movies. She's overwhelmed. Her husband works as a highly placed executive at a company which we all purchase products from. The family's finances are so safe that outside help can be paid for to do most of the parenting. Her friends hired Filipinas, so she does the same. Her kid accidentally called the nanny, mom. She was angry, but also felt a tinge of guilt. As they leave for the playground, she glances into her glass-door refrigerator, then at the kitchen clock. It's not too early, she tells herself.

That was beautiful. Brought a tear to my eye, it did. 

People who put their feet up on chairs really bug me.  I mean, sitting down and then resting both feet on the seat of another chair. 

I see it everywhere I go so is it acceptable in Korea?  My students do it in class, my coworkers do it in the office, and I've seen people in coffee shops doing it.

I don't know why it annoys me so much. 

People who put their feet up on chairs really bug me.  I mean, sitting down and then resting both feet on the seat of another chair. 

I see it everywhere I go so is it acceptable in Korea?  My students do it in class, my coworkers do it in the office, and I've seen people in coffee shops doing it.

I don't know why it annoys me so much.

Used to do it in NZ myself. My friends used to do it as well.
I think it is an easier way to relax. But, in NZ, we'd give up the extra seat to people who need it. :p

People who put their feet up on chairs really bug me.  I mean, sitting down and then resting both feet on the seat of another chair. 

I see it everywhere I go so is it acceptable in Korea?  My students do it in class, my coworkers do it in the office, and I've seen people in coffee shops doing it.

I don't know why it annoys me so much.

Used to do it in NZ myself. My friends used to do it as well.
I think it is an easier way to relax. But, in NZ, we'd give up the extra seat to people who need it. :p

It must be the Brit in me then.  We'd call it "uncouth" haha.

People who put their feet up on chairs really bug me.  I mean, sitting down and then resting both feet on the seat of another chair. 

I see it everywhere I go so is it acceptable in Korea?  My students do it in class, my coworkers do it in the office, and I've seen people in coffee shops doing it.

I don't know why it annoys me so much.

Used to do it in NZ myself. My friends used to do it as well.
I think it is an easier way to relax. But, in NZ, we'd give up the extra seat to people who need it. :p

It must be the Brit in me then.  We'd call it "uncouth" haha.

It's not common in NZ, and usually not done in public places. Like, you wouldn't see people in a cafe doing it.
But sometimes at home, or students in a classroom outside of class-time, might do it if there is an available chair

People who put their feet up on chairs really bug me.  I mean, sitting down and then resting both feet on the seat of another chair. 

I see it everywhere I go so is it acceptable in Korea?  My students do it in class, my coworkers do it in the office, and I've seen people in coffee shops doing it.

I don't know why it annoys me so much.

yeah, it's one of those weird double standards in korea

putting both feet on a chair -> mostly fine
but wearing shoes inside your home -> ew, dirty!

wearing indoor slippers outside and to the bathroom -> fine
wearing your normal shoes in the classroom -> ew, dirty!

People who put their feet up on chairs really bug me.  I mean, sitting down and then resting both feet on the seat of another chair. 

I see it everywhere I go so is it acceptable in Korea?  My students do it in class, my coworkers do it in the office, and I've seen people in coffee shops doing it.

I don't know why it annoys me so much.

yeah, it's one of those weird double standards in korea

putting both feet on a chair -> mostly fine
but wearing shoes inside your home -> ew, dirty!

wearing indoor slippers outside and to the bathroom -> fine
wearing your normal shoes in the classroom -> ew, dirty!

On the empty seat next to you in the cinema right next to your head  WTF

People who put their feet up on chairs really bug me.  I mean, sitting down and then resting both feet on the seat of another chair. 

I see it everywhere I go so is it acceptable in Korea?  My students do it in class, my coworkers do it in the office, and I've seen people in coffee shops doing it.

I don't know why it annoys me so much.

yeah, it's one of those weird double standards in korea

putting both feet on a chair -> mostly fine
but wearing shoes inside your home -> ew, dirty!

wearing indoor slippers outside and to the bathroom -> fine
wearing your normal shoes in the classroom -> ew, dirty!

I think that part of that is that they all know the rules, but few of them understand the reason for the rules. They see it as etiquette rather than a public health practice.

The reason I think this is happening is because teachers get harassed by parents and from a teacher's perspective it's not worth it to go to battle against White Wine or Tiger Moms who have nothing better to do.

Haven't come across this expression before, and Urban Dictionary is only giving me smut. I have a general sense of what it might mean, but... my general guesses usually end up embarrassing me, so...

A White Wine Mom in my mind has kid(s) and kind of regrets it. She thought it would be more like what she's seen on TV and movies. She's overwhelmed. Her husband works as a highly placed executive at a company which we all purchase products from. The family's finances are so safe that outside help can be paid for to do most of the parenting. Her friends hired Filipinas, so she does the same. Her kid accidentally called the nanny, mom. She was angry, but also felt a tinge of guilt. As they leave for the playground, she glances into her glass-door refrigerator, then at the kitchen clock. It's not too early, she tells herself.

Nice...

If I may add, calls other White Wine Moms her girlfriends, enjoys blowing a fortune on fancy gym memberships just so she can do yoga with her girlfriends and bitch about thinner girlfriends, to her girlfriends, at the juice bar. She gets physically aroused at the mention of Michael Buble. Thinks her little spazoid is going to be the next piano prodigy after he/she plonked together a weak ass Fur Elise, in the Key of 'H'.
Uses the word poofy to mean stinky. Couldn't park her SUV between 2 rugby posts. Speaking of posts, spends the next 6 months posting memes and other inspirational drivel on Facebook telling people to "Live dangerously", "Take the road less travelled" etc. after she took one puff from a joint at Muriel's bridal shower. 

Apparently, YouTube is broken...    I thought it was just my computer, but it won't work even on my phone.  Dang!  I needed to add some videos to my lesson plans...  Shoot!! 

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit. 

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit.

Savage 

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit.

Just make your own videos.

Doing a 5th year was a mistake. I should've left after I finished my 4th year. I don't know anymore if the kids are just especially poorly behaved and disengaged in this school or if my year long depression and lack of motivation is making my classes awful or if I'm just a bad teacher and I've been an awful teacher the whole time. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle: the kids are low level and thus difficult to engage, I'm depressed and unmotivated so producing bad lessons and so this whole year has been a colossal failure. Especially with 6th grade. The other grades are okay but 6th grade...

They hate role play. They hate writing games. They hate quiz based games. They don't talk. They hate charades. They hate pictionary. The hate broken telephone. The text book is bad. I've given up. I teach without a coteacher and the homeroom teachers are a waste of space in my classes...I don't know what to do with them anymore. I can barely bring myself to care.

My plan is to retrain to teach art when I get home but I'm starting to question if I should even be teaching at all. Maybe art, a subject I care about, will be better for me. Maybe teaching with a curriculum that isn't totally chained to a rubbish textbook will be better for me. Maybe teaching in an environment where I don't feel totally useless and invisible will be better for me. Maybe the 6 months of a 'break' and a year retraining will be good for me. I really don't know. Maybe I should seek some kind of medication for my depression. Maybe that would help. I don't know.

I have 6th grade tomorrow and I just don't want to teach them at all. I'm giving up on a game because they hate all of them and giving them a worksheet. I don't know what else to do with them.

So it's not just my computer.  I will look for the explanation and forthcoming apology on reddit.

Just make your own videos.

SHOTS FIRED