RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

If I were a Korean teacher, and was unhappy with the grades my lazy-ass NET was giving to my little angels, I would just fudge them when I enter the scores into their grade spread sheets. It's super easy, completely avoids conflict, and leaves everybody happy (because ignorance is bliss).

I suspect it's been done a few times behind my back which is frustrating but, I mean, it's not like I can demand to see the final grade breakdown of each and every student...

I know for a fact that they give students the opportunity to complete extra credit assignments to help raise their final scores.

I think that's the main reason why they keep trying to push me to grade more leniently -- so that they can avoid more work on their own parts because I think my school has safeguards in place to prevent manipulation of other teachers' submitted grades.

But I mean, that's their prerogative. I don't care if they want to change the grades or whatever (this is where my apathy kicks in), but I'm not going to make it easier for them. I do my part, and whatever they decide to do about that after the fact is on their heads. If they want to shelter the students, if they want to coddle them and enable terrible study habits, then they can do that without my help. I'm not about to enable their bad habits, too.

Also, ugh - the whole attitude towards technical schools being for the failed students really grinds my gears. Measuring intelligence or potential by such narrow criteria as academic performance in a small selection of subjects is so wrong. Some people might be awful at math, language, and science, but could be a gifted musician, woodworker, electrician, plumber, or something. And all of those are skilled labour. There's literally no shame in that.

I agree, skilled tradesman usually make more money than people with fancy degrees, lol, as long as they're coming from places that require an apprenticeship and certification process. They earn a ton of money while they're learning the trade, and it doubles, even triples, once they become certified.

There's no shame in it whatsover, but people the world over will often look down their noses at electricians or plumbers, never once realizing that those guys can easily make six figures (in dollars) once certified. It's the best thing for people who can't take their academics seriously (or who just aren't good at book learning in general) because the training (and learning process) is mostly hands on and immediately applicable.

I can relate to giving bonus points to students that have made obvious effort and marked improvement, too. I have a specific category in my grading rubric for it. Many students take advantage of that to help boost their grade, and they deserve it. Then you have other students who think they can just cry to their KTs so that their KTs can champion their causes for them. And to those kids, nope, it ain't gonna work. Or when you get students who scored very well in the first semester, then slacked off in the second semester because they'd believed that they would get the same score ragardless of how they actually performed. Like for some reason they believe this will carry over.  Then they cry "unfair" when reality slaps them in the face, and make a lot of unsubstatiated claims that most KTs (in my experience) will auto-believe. These students are the ones that cause the most trouble, tbh. They're the reasons why I started keeping detailed notes and even record some of them.

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my middle school students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.). Oh but I bet you it wouldn't be if these scoundrels actually payed attention.

She told me I should give them something on the elementary level instead.

This is all so counter-productive! And now I gotta come up with another lesson for this week.

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my middle school students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.). Oh but I bet you it wouldn't be if these scoundrels actually payed attention.

She told me I should give them something on the elementary level instead.

This is all so counter-productive! And now I gotta come up with another lesson for this week.

Keep the animal theme, but dumb it way the heck down...

Think "barnyard animals and thier sounds".

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.).

Nonsense. I taught a whole series of lessons on that same topic, and it was just fine. Sure, there were some kids for whom it was too difficult, but they were the same kids who managed to make it to middle school 3rd grade without learning how to count past ten or answer "how's the weather."

Yeah, the ones that find it too difficult are normally the ones who don't try.

Like, for example, I'll put up a display slide of both questions and responses to those questions whenever I need the students to complete a writing intensive worksheet. You have the basic structure of the sentences with blanks that students can fill in with their own personalized word choices (usually their choice of verbs and corresponding nouns or noun clauses), and I always include the Korean translation of those sentences so that low level students have something to refer to while thinking about their answers.

And I still get a bunch of students who take the entire class period to finish writing, at most, five sentences, because they can't ****** remember what the sentences mean, despite me going through it with everyone at the beginning of class AND keeping a display slide up for reference... or at least, this is the excuse that they give. What happens is they don't ****** pay attention, so they don't notice the display until I show it to them again, and even then they don't actually look at the slide because they don't ever seem to realize that the Korean translation is there for them until I physically take them by the wrists and sit them down in front of it. It's like as soon as they see English writing, their brains just shut down, and they blank out. 

So no matter how simple the assignment is, I can't leave students to work through it on their own, even with a display. I have to go through each section one at a time, and have myself and the coT visit with each student to make sure (s)he written what we're currently going over, literally one sentence at a time. As time-consuming as this is, it takes less time than trusting the students to work on their own, and it's easier to keep up with the schedule this way.

And even though I instruct more advanced students to help classmates that aren't finished with their assignments, they normally don't unless I hover nearby. Sometimes this is because of reasons that are outside of their control, but sometimes it's because they don't want to put in more work than they have to, and helping classmates is too much work.

Beginning of next year I'm going to try assigning roles to students to help with project and worksheet management.

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.).

Nonsense. I taught a whole series of lessons on that same topic, and it was just fine. Sure, there were some kids for whom it was too difficult, but they were the same kids who managed to make it to middle school 3rd grade without learning how to count past ten or answer "how's the weather."

yeah, i'm not sure how this happens.

english classes several times a week, for years upon years, and they can't even answer, "what's your name?"

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.).

Nonsense. I taught a whole series of lessons on that same topic, and it was just fine. Sure, there were some kids for whom it was too difficult, but they were the same kids who managed to make it to middle school 3rd grade without learning how to count past ten or answer "how's the weather."

yeah, i'm not sure how this happens.

english classes several times a week, for years upon years, and they can't even answer, "what's your name?"

Keep in mind that every single person attends elementary school. We have this vision sometimes of teaching, this noble profession where we burrow into the minds of naive young boys and girls and impart our wisdom on them.

Bollocks.

Think about how many absolute morons you know, or meet on a daily or weekly basis. These people went to elementary school, too, and they knew EVEN LESS than they do now.

It's not easy to say, but some kids are absolute morons. Their fate is sealed.

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.).

Nonsense. I taught a whole series of lessons on that same topic, and it was just fine. Sure, there were some kids for whom it was too difficult, but they were the same kids who managed to make it to middle school 3rd grade without learning how to count past ten or answer "how's the weather."

yeah, i'm not sure how this happens.

english classes several times a week, for years upon years, and they can't even answer, "what's your name?"

When the emphasis is on the answer and not the process, the teacher, in order to speed things along, will tell the slower students the answers.  Certain students realise they can do nothing and be spoon fed.  The teacher sees a low student score as a black mark against her name, rather than a sign that the student has a weakness.  Teachers coaches the student in order to make her class look batter than it is.  Rinse and repeat for 10 years and then when they hit a uni class where the teacher will gladly fail them, they can't understand why they fail.

Keep in mind that every single person attends elementary school. We have this vision sometimes of teaching, this noble profession where we burrow into the minds of naive young boys and girls and impart our wisdom on them.

Bollocks.

Think about how many absolute morons you know, or meet on a daily or weekly basis. These people went to elementary school, too, and they knew EVEN LESS than they do now.

It's not easy to say, but some kids are absolute morons. Their fate is sealed.

I have students who are literally learning-disabled who can answer the basics. I don't buy that any student is just too dumb to do it. Different students will learn in different ways and at different paces, of course, but it's not impossible. The issue isn't ability, it's willingness and motivation.

Not gonna lie, I had plenty of classes when I was a kid where if I knew that not putting any effort into it wouldn't have had any consequences, I would've been the same as these kids. That's the problem we're facing here.

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.).

Nonsense. I taught a whole series of lessons on that same topic, and it was just fine. Sure, there were some kids for whom it was too difficult, but they were the same kids who managed to make it to middle school 3rd grade without learning how to count past ten or answer "how's the weather."

yeah, i'm not sure how this happens.

english classes several times a week, for years upon years, and they can't even answer, "what's your name?"

When the emphasis is on the answer and not the process, the teacher, in order to speed things along, will tell the slower students the answers.  Certain students realise they can do nothing and be spoon fed.  The teacher sees a low student score as a black mark against her name, rather than a sign that the student has a weakness.  Teachers coaches the student in order to make her class look batter than it is.  Rinse and repeat for 10 years and then when they hit a uni class where the teacher will gladly fail them, they can't understand why they fail.

yep. i wonder, does this happen in other subjects too?

I'm just really angry and frustrated by this whole situation:

- Having to redo lesson plans because these kids don't bother to pay attention
- My CT saying that teaching the word "Mammal" is too difficult. I get that vertebrate/invertebrate can be challenging, but not if they, ya know, actually listened. Not to mention her deciding it was too much because she didn't know the words
- It's a serious waste of time to lesson plan and be told "That's not gonna work."
- Her wanting me to give them Elementary level material just means they won't actually learn anything. At least I was actually trying to teach them something new. That's what teachers do, right?

I can't wait for the final speaking test. I wonder how many students are gonna fail on purpose this time.

yep. i wonder, does this happen in other subjects too?

According to my KTs, it does.

The lowest level students in my school are pretty much the lowest level in every subject. Most of them are sports kids or problem students.

There are a few exceptions, but most students who excel in other subjects normally put in enough effort in English to get high marks because, regardless of their personal feelings about the subject, they know that their English scores still affect which schools they'll get accepted into.

The ones that frustrate me the most are the ones who don't try, and the ones who score high on their written exams but don't score as well during their speaking exams because they don't take the performance portion of it as seriously and believe that they can coerce or sweet-talk me into giving them the grade they want.

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.).

Nonsense. I taught a whole series of lessons on that same topic, and it was just fine. Sure, there were some kids for whom it was too difficult, but they were the same kids who managed to make it to middle school 3rd grade without learning how to count past ten or answer "how's the weather."

yeah, i'm not sure how this happens.

english classes several times a week, for years upon years, and they can't even answer, "what's your name?"

When the emphasis is on the answer and not the process, the teacher, in order to speed things along, will tell the slower students the answers.  Certain students realise they can do nothing and be spoon fed.  The teacher sees a low student score as a black mark against her name, rather than a sign that the student has a weakness.  Teachers coaches the student in order to make her class look batter than it is.  Rinse and repeat for 10 years and then when they hit a uni class where the teacher will gladly fail them, they can't understand why they fail.

I watched this great video last night. It really illustrates the point. The Korean moms in the video say lots of "no no no no" and when the child doesn't get it after multiple tries, just tells them the answer. One mom even lies about telling her child the answer. As frustrating as it is, it's ingrained in most of them from birth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccricYPB7Zk

At least I was actually trying to teach them something new. That's what teachers do, right?

Perpetual Review.

What could go wrong?

People that take way too many f*ckin' pictures in tourist locations --

My massive hypersensitivity to caffeine.  Some days (mornings) I can drink 1/4 of a cup and be bouncing off the walls till 5.  Other days, I can pound the iced pouch-o-coffee after 2 PM, and sleep like a baby later that night.  It's either I'm fidgety from it, or it has zero effect.   

I have been at all of my schools for 3 years (4 schools). The previous Foreign English teacher left me with a high standard to maintain, and for the first two years I was teaching (no KET, just home room teachers) we kept the English level very high. THEN this year, my main school got a dedicated KET.... who does NOTHING. NOTHING. He just doesn't teach at all. He has had me skip chapters to make sure "we are on the same chapters as your other schools". I only have my students once a week at this school and I am the only one teaching any English classes. Last week we had to do months and days... "When is the _________? It's December 5th. Guess what my Grade 5s struggled to count past 10, and couldn't remember ordinals at all, so I have had to go back and review the grade 4 lessons with them and then try and incorporate that into the grade 5 curriculum. Same with my Grade 6s. So I asked the students what they do during their other English classes and they promptly broke out singing a one direction song.  They have learned a song. ONE. Apparently they started it last semester and "we are almost perfect" then the rest of the time they watch movies... English ones, with Korean subtitles. Now I find using songs a great way to teach, but .... just one song... ONE. Nothing else. They have forgotten how to count in English. Thank god this is almost all over for me. 

Some of you guys on here gave me advice to challenge my middle school students as a way to keep them engaged in the class. Well I tried, and my CT told me that it was too hard for them (I'm literally teaching animal kingdom vocabulary like mammals, reptiles, etc.). Oh but I bet you it wouldn't be if these scoundrels actually payed attention.

She told me I should give them something on the elementary level instead.

This is all so counter-productive! And now I gotta come up with another lesson for this week.

I used this same lesson at my lower level school just now, and it went just fine. My CT said it was good, even with some terms being a little difficult.

Now, I'm going to use a lower level lesson when I go back, and if one student says "Teacher, easy!" I'm gonna look at my other CT like

My massive hypersensitivity to caffeine.  Some days (mornings) I can drink 1/4 of a cup and be bouncing off the walls till 5.  Other days, I can pound the iced pouch-o-coffee after 2 PM, and sleep like a baby later that night.  It's either I'm fidgety from it, or it has zero effect.   

Same. It's the main reason why I have to water my coffees down. There's no such thing as a full cup of coffee in my world unless it's a blended drink. My go-to medium for that is cocoa, so my cup of "coffee" is basically 25% coffee and 75% cocoa and milk. If I drink too much caffeine (which is really easy for me to do), I'm no use to anyone because I'm 200% energy and 0% cognitive abilities. And I'll be up all night.

If I drink more caffeine before I realize I'm in this state, I'll end up with inflammation in my chest that won't go away for a couple of days. 

I used this same lesson at my lower level school just now, and it went just fine. My CT said it was good, even with some terms being a little difficult.

Now, I'm going to use a lower level lesson when I go back, and if one student says "Teacher, easy!" I'm gonna look at my other CT like

I'm already there. Samuel L. Jackson is basically my spirit animal at this point.

It really does come down to the attitudes of both the students and teachers. The kind of environment these kids learn in makes a difference.

My massive hypersensitivity to caffeine.  Some days (mornings) I can drink 1/4 of a cup and be bouncing off the walls till 5.  Other days, I can pound the iced pouch-o-coffee after 2 PM, and sleep like a baby later that night.  It's either I'm fidgety from it, or it has zero effect.   

Same. It's the main reason why I have to water my coffees down. There's no such thing as a full cup of coffee in my world unless it's a blended drink. My go-to medium for that is cocoa, so my cup of "coffee" is basically 25% coffee and 75% cocoa and milk. If I drink too much caffeine (which is really easy for me to do), I'm no use to anyone because I'm 200% energy and 0% cognitive abilities. And I'll be up all night.

If I drink more caffeine before I realize I'm in this state, I'll end up with inflammation in my chest that won't go away for a couple of days. 

I used this same lesson at my lower level school just now, and it went just fine. My CT said it was good, even with some terms being a little difficult.

Now, I'm going to use a lower level lesson when I go back, and if one student says "Teacher, easy!" I'm gonna look at my other CT like

I'm already there. Samuel L. Jackson is basically my spirit animal at this point.

It really does come down to the attitudes of both the students and teachers. The kind of environment these kids learn in makes a difference.

JV gets a pass (I think) but remember black emojis are in fact digital blackface. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyq6fTYxztc

Good to see licence payers' money going to useful causes.

(trigger warning, youtube contains historical blackface scenes which might traumatise you)