RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

No posts here since May 13th? Wow.

Tis a Blessed Time in the Land or Mourning Clam

mourning clam. that's awesome. someone should make a flag

Land of Morning Qualms has also always resonated with me. Make 2 flags please!

we were studying about poems in one class. they had to give me some adjectives to describe korea. one student said 'small", which was good, so i wrote it on the board.

about half the class then went in uproar shouting "KOREA IS NOT SMALL! KOREA IS NOOOOOT SMALLLLL!", which was...weird. i asked them to name me a smaller country, and they couldn't, so...

it's so weird. i mean, this is a grade 5 class, and they are the upper level, so they are quite intelligent. where do they get this weird nationalistic nonsense from such a young age?

about half the class then went in uproar shouting "KOREA IS NOT SMALL! KOREA IS NOOOOOT SMALLLLL!", which was...weird. i asked them to name me a smaller country, and they couldn't, so...

107th out of 190. That said, the list doesn't descend in a pattern, the bottom half are waayyyyyyyy smaller than the top 25. Especially the bottom 20, they're dependencies, like Guernsey hahahaha

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area

it's so weird. i mean, this is a grade 5 class, and they are the upper level, so they are quite intelligent. where do they get this weird nationalistic nonsense from such a young age?

I'd say parents but then I'd be surprised that they actually taught them something... It's weird. They even get surprised when you know even a little bit of Korean or know how to use chopsticks, like it was ingrained in them at birth that Foreigners can't do those things

2 days ago I almost fell over, the CT at my wife's Wednesday school sends her a message saying she can stay home today since the students are going on a trip. The reason I was so surprised is that my wife's CTs, particularly the one at that school, are ridiculously anal with the rules... despite the fact that they leave school early and don't pitch up for class, constantly. Her Wednesday school is a 30min drive from home, so she usually drops me off and goes to work.

I took the car today, got to work and at about 09:30, she calls me saying that the school changed their mind and want her to come in... by 10:15! After a lot of back and forth and "Let me ask the VP because I'm too pathetic to make a decision myself." My wife is told she can spend the day deskwarming, till 16:30, at her main school (about 10min walk from our apartment).
My wife has to stay because this total sonnofabitch actually phones her main school, twice, to make sure she's there.

The CT at my wife's main school is just as pedantic and phones the local MOE for absolutely every question regarding my wife. The calls are so frequent that the supervisor actually asked her to stop calling all the time.

2 days ago I almost fell over, the CT at my wife's Wednesday school sends her a message saying she can stay home today since the students are going on a trip. The reason I was so surprised is that my wife's CTs, particularly the one at that school, are ridiculously anal with the rules... despite the fact that they leave school early and don't pitch up for class, constantly. Her Wednesday school is a 30min drive from home, so she usually drops me off and goes to work.

I took the car today, got to work and at about 09:30, she calls me saying that the school changed their mind and want her to come in... by 10:15! After a lot of back and forth and "Let me ask the VP because I'm too pathetic to make a decision myself." My wife is told she can spend the day deskwarming, till 16:30, at her main school (about 10min walk from our apartment).
My wife has to stay because this total sonnofabitch actually phones her main school, twice, to make sure she's there.

The CT at my wife's main school is just as pedantic and phones the local MOE for absolutely every question regarding my wife. The calls are so frequent that the supervisor actually asked her to stop calling all the time.

She should have just said no. She couldn't make it to work and it was their fault.

2 days ago I almost fell over, the CT at my wife's Wednesday school sends her a message saying she can stay home today since the students are going on a trip. The reason I was so surprised is that my wife's CTs, particularly the one at that school, are ridiculously anal with the rules... despite the fact that they leave school early and don't pitch up for class, constantly. Her Wednesday school is a 30min drive from home, so she usually drops me off and goes to work.

I took the car today, got to work and at about 09:30, she calls me saying that the school changed their mind and want her to come in... by 10:15! After a lot of back and forth and "Let me ask the VP because I'm too pathetic to make a decision myself." My wife is told she can spend the day deskwarming, till 16:30, at her main school (about 10min walk from our apartment).
My wife has to stay because this total sonnofabitch actually phones her main school, twice, to make sure she's there.

The CT at my wife's main school is just as pedantic and phones the local MOE for absolutely every question regarding my wife. The calls are so frequent that the supervisor actually asked her to stop calling all the time.

She should have just said no. She couldn't make it to work and it was their fault.

2 days ago I almost fell over, the CT at my wife's Wednesday school sends her a message saying she can stay home today since the students are going on a trip. The reason I was so surprised is that my wife's CTs, particularly the one at that school, are ridiculously anal with the rules... despite the fact that they leave school early and don't pitch up for class, constantly. Her Wednesday school is a 30min drive from home, so she usually drops me off and goes to work.

I took the car today, got to work and at about 09:30, she calls me saying that the school changed their mind and want her to come in... by 10:15! After a lot of back and forth and "Let me ask the VP because I'm too pathetic to make a decision myself." My wife is told she can spend the day deskwarming, till 16:30, at her main school (about 10min walk from our apartment).
My wife has to stay because this total sonnofabitch actually phones her main school, twice, to make sure she's there.

The CT at my wife's main school is just as pedantic and phones the local MOE for absolutely every question regarding my wife. The calls are so frequent that the supervisor actually asked her to stop calling all the time.

She should have just said no. She couldn't make it to work and it was their fault.

That's what she initially said, to which the CT proceeded to run to the VP, who instructed her to deskwarm at the main school. CT then phones the main school's CT to tell her my wife will be deskwarming there... main schools CT phones the MOE to confirm the situation.

I don't think I've heard of anyone getting a bigger boner for bureaucracy than these 2.

Haven't ranted here in a while.

It's a struggle to teach at my middle school. I've had to tell my CTs multiple times not to give the answer to the question or puzzle I'm trying to show the kids. They'll literally start hinting at the answer immediately after I finish asking the question, if they don't outright tell them. It's frustrating.

If I wanted to tell them the answer outright, it'd make a lot more sense to write it on the Powerpoint than to ask them for it.

Haven't ranted here in a while.

It's a struggle to teach at my middle school. I've had to tell my CTs multiple times not to give the answer to the question or puzzle I'm trying to show the kids. They'll literally start hinting at the answer immediately after I finish asking the question, if they don't outright tell them. It's frustrating.

If I wanted to tell them the answer outright, it'd make a lot more sense to write it on the Powerpoint than to ask them for it.

I have a coT that's like this, too. She's a lovely woman, but she really baby's the kids. In my coT's case, it's because she honestly doesn't believe the students will figure it out on their own, or that it will take them too long and therefore take away from their game time. In her defense, though, she's responsible for the lowest level students (my third grade students are split off into separate classes according to their levels), and a lot of their attitudes usually follow her belief -- not because they can't do it, but because, due to a lack of confidence among other things, they just don't want to put in the effort.

The funny thing is that most of these students are actually very sharp and can solve puzzles using logic more quickly than a lot of the more advanced students, and some of them have openly expressed irritation with my coT for "getting in their way" lmao. But habits die hard, so my coT still hovers in the back whispering the answers to select students who don't really care about it one way or the other.

Haven't ranted here in a while.

It's a struggle to teach at my middle school. I've had to tell my CTs multiple times not to give the answer to the question or puzzle I'm trying to show the kids. They'll literally start hinting at the answer immediately after I finish asking the question, if they don't outright tell them. It's frustrating.

If I wanted to tell them the answer outright, it'd make a lot more sense to write it on the Powerpoint than to ask them for it.

I have a coT that's like this, too. She's a lovely woman, but she really baby's the kids. In my coT's case, it's because she honestly doesn't believe the students will figure it out on their own, or that it will take them too long and therefore take away from their game time. In her defense, though, she's responsible for the lowest level students (my third grade students are split off into separate classes according to their levels), and a lot of their attitudes usually follow her belief -- not because they can't do it, but because, due to a lack of confidence among other things, they just don't want to put in the effort.

The funny thing is that most of these students are actually very sharp and can solve puzzles using logic more quickly than a lot of the more advanced students, and some of them have openly expressed irritation with my coT for "getting in their way" lmao. But habits die hard, so my coT still hovers in the back whispering the answers to select students who don't really care about it one way or the other.

Yeah, pretty much all of this. It's sad that even the teachers themselves don't wanna have confidence in the students to solve challenges placed before them but that's the way it is, unfortunately.

Haven't ranted here in a while.

It's a struggle to teach at my middle school. I've had to tell my CTs multiple times not to give the answer to the question or puzzle I'm trying to show the kids. They'll literally start hinting at the answer immediately after I finish asking the question, if they don't outright tell them. It's frustrating.

If I wanted to tell them the answer outright, it'd make a lot more sense to write it on the Powerpoint than to ask them for it.

I have a coT that's like this, too. She's a lovely woman, but she really baby's the kids. In my coT's case, it's because she honestly doesn't believe the students will figure it out on their own, or that it will take them too long and therefore take away from their game time. In her defense, though, she's responsible for the lowest level students (my third grade students are split off into separate classes according to their levels), and a lot of their attitudes usually follow her belief -- not because they can't do it, but because, due to a lack of confidence among other things, they just don't want to put in the effort.

The funny thing is that most of these students are actually very sharp and can solve puzzles using logic more quickly than a lot of the more advanced students, and some of them have openly expressed irritation with my coT for "getting in their way" lmao. But habits die hard, so my coT still hovers in the back whispering the answers to select students who don't really care about it one way or the other.

Yeah. This is super annoying, and I've found that in a lot of cases, it's a situation where the CoT either things a) the native teacher doesn't understand the Korean students well enough, and is giving them unfairly difficult questions, or b) that the students can't handle even a tiny shred of challenge, even when it is appropriately leveled. Both of these are wrong and condescending in their own way.

But! The best thing I learned about this kind of situation is to stop caring and just let them do whatever they want as long as it doesn't make my job any harder.

Haven't ranted here in a while.

It's a struggle to teach at my middle school. I've had to tell my CTs multiple times not to give the answer to the question or puzzle I'm trying to show the kids. They'll literally start hinting at the answer immediately after I finish asking the question, if they don't outright tell them. It's frustrating.

If I wanted to tell them the answer outright, it'd make a lot more sense to write it on the Powerpoint than to ask them for it.

I have a coT that's like this, too. She's a lovely woman, but she really baby's the kids. In my coT's case, it's because she honestly doesn't believe the students will figure it out on their own, or that it will take them too long and therefore take away from their game time. In her defense, though, she's responsible for the lowest level students (my third grade students are split off into separate classes according to their levels), and a lot of their attitudes usually follow her belief -- not because they can't do it, but because, due to a lack of confidence among other things, they just don't want to put in the effort.

The funny thing is that most of these students are actually very sharp and can solve puzzles using logic more quickly than a lot of the more advanced students, and some of them have openly expressed irritation with my coT for "getting in their way" lmao. But habits die hard, so my coT still hovers in the back whispering the answers to select students who don't really care about it one way or the other.

Yeah. This is super annoying, and I've found that in a lot of cases, it's a situation where the CoT either things a) the native teacher doesn't understand the Korean students well enough, and is giving them unfairly difficult questions, or b) that the students can't handle even a tiny shred of challenge, even when it is appropriately leveled. Both of these are wrong and condescending in their own way.

But! The best thing I learned about this kind of situation is to stop caring and just let them do whatever they want as long as it doesn't make my job any harder.

please understand them. they are only children

Some of my students who sit in the back of my last class today have gotten real chatty recently, a boy and a girl. So you know the solution my CT comes up with to get them to quiet down?

Let them go outside and get it out of their system.

Not only does this not work, but it causes even more of a distraction. I literally had to sit down and talk with both them and my CT after class. Students are the obvious struggle, but I really wish it didn't have to be my CTs as well

I had a long weekend, haven't had much sleep since Friday night, probably running on a collective 10-12 hours between three nights total. I can finally catch up in my sleep tonight, and I was looking forward to heading straight home after work and crashing immediately into bed.

And I just remembered that I have to meet someone right after school. 

Some of my students who sit in the back of my last class today have gotten real chatty recently, a boy and a girl. So you know the solution my CT comes up with to get them to quiet down?

Let them go outside and get it out of their system.

Not only does this not work, but it causes even more of a distraction. I literally had to sit down and talk with both them and my CT after class. Students are the obvious struggle, but I really wish it didn't have to be my CTs as well

Please understand them, they are only children

Please understand them, they are only children

I will hunt you down and give you a stern finger-wagging.

Out of all the kids I've taught, there's this one kid. I daresay, he's probably the worst little douchebag I've ever taught.

- 3yrs of concerted efforts and motivation from myself, my CT and the HR teacher and he's yet to bother even learning the ABCs.
- I've been told he makes no effort in any of the other classes and just sits back with a smug smile on his face.
- He constantly disturbs the other students, during class, and literally cries to his mom to phone the school and complain
  whenever he gets reprimanded.
- Has zero mental issues, according to the HR teacher. Funnily enough, there is a kid with a mental disorder in the same class
  and that kid blows this little sh*t out the water in English and, apparently, every other subject.
- He enjoys breaking things, never knocks when entering and sometimes kicks the door open, litters and just drops whatever
  he finishes using on the floor.
- He usually blames his friends whenever he gets caught and will be the first to interrupt the class and snitch on another student
  for sleeping, doodling or not paying attention.
- He's overweight, hates sports and just wants to play mobile games and eat ramen.
- Today, he was part of the cleaning crew for my classroom. 3 other kids got on with the job of sweeping, wiping down the desks
  and cleaning the board. The only time his broom touched the floor was when he laughed and knocked the dirt out of the
  dustpan of the other student. I punished him by telling him to clean the rest of the class alone. He whined, slouched,
  complained, then ran away crying. The HR teacher said he claimed I was "picking on him". Thankfully, the HR teacher is well
  aware of this little sh*t and we both forced him to clean the class... he sulked and moan throughout the ordeal and still put
  maximum effort in doing the most half-arsed job imaginable.

Little asshole reminds me of the Korean version of Dudley (Harry Potter). Luckily, I only teach his class once a week and there are enough awesome little kids in the same class that he's in the minority and doesn't have the guts to really disrupt things when he's alone.

Please understand them, they are only children

I will hunt you down and give you a stern finger-wagging.

Part of your very particular set of skills, skills you have acquired over a very long career of teaching ESL here in Korea, I take it? 

Out of all the kids I've taught, there's this one kid. I daresay, he's probably the worst little douchebag I've ever taught.

- 3yrs of concerted efforts and motivation from myself, my CT and the HR teacher and he's yet to bother even learning the ABCs.
- I've been told he makes no effort in any of the other classes and just sits back with a smug smile on his face.
- He constantly disturbs the other students, during class, and literally cries to his mom to phone the school and complain
  whenever he gets reprimanded.
- Has zero mental issues, according to the HR teacher. Funnily enough, there is a kid with a mental disorder in the same class
  and that kid blows this little sh*t out the water in English and, apparently, every other subject.
- He enjoys breaking things, never knocks when entering and sometimes kicks the door open, litters and just drops whatever
  he finishes using on the floor.
- He usually blames his friends whenever he gets caught and will be the first to interrupt the class and snitch on another student
  for sleeping, doodling or not paying attention.
- He's overweight, hates sports and just wants to play mobile games and eat ramen.
- Today, he was part of the cleaning crew for my classroom. 3 other kids got on with the job of sweeping, wiping down the desks
  and cleaning the board. The only time his broom touched the floor was when he laughed and knocked the dirt out of the
  dustpan of the other student. I punished him by telling him to clean the rest of the class alone. He whined, slouched,
  complained, then ran away crying. The HR teacher said he claimed I was "picking on him". Thankfully, the HR teacher is well
  aware of this little sh*t and we both forced him to clean the class... he sulked and moan throughout the ordeal and still put
  maximum effort in doing the most half-arsed job imaginable.

Little asshole reminds me of the Korean version of Dudley (Harry Potter). Luckily, I only teach his class once a week and there are enough awesome little kids in the same class that he's in the minority and doesn't have the guts to really disrupt things when he's alone.

I've had a few students who literally sound like clones of this kid over the years (although in my case none of them have been overweight). But yeah - they're the worst.

Please understand them, they are only children

I will hunt you down and give you a stern finger-wagging.

Part of your very particular set of skills, skills you have acquired over a very long career of teaching ESL here in Korea, I take it? 

Disciplined, a Korean Action-Thriller