Although my new supervisor was a complete moron, I had started to get into the swing of things at my job. My hours had decreased, and my boss was very supportive of me. During the summer, my mother came to visit, and my boss took us both out a couple of times and was quite generous.
Although the working conditions were getting better, some other issues started arising. The lesson content was alright, but I felt it could be improved in many ways. I was teaching two basic classes, speaking/reading and writing. The speaking/reading classes were a breeze, and the lessons went pretty well. The only issue I had with them was that many of the students would listen for key words, find the the key words in the book and then just read the sentence with the key word out loud with out thinking about or understanding the question. Personally, I wanted the students to read their stories, understand them and be able to discuss them. So, I started having students close their books after reading them when we discussed them in order to break them of the habit of just reading random sentences aloud.
In the writing classes there was a whole series of issues I had to tackle. I had many students with incredible vocabularies, great speaking skills and no understanding of basic grammar. While I'm fond of the communicative method, I also think that fundamentals of grammar are necessary when studying a second language, especially a second language with an entirely different grammatical structure from the native language. For example, I had students who knew words like onomatopoeia but couldn't conjugate to be.
So, in my writing classes, I produced some supplementary materials where the students had to practice writing basic verbs in sentences with different subjects. I thought that there wasn't much of a point in teaching students how to "show instead of tell" if they couldn't convey basic information like "He goes to the store."
The admin liked my ideas, but a few parents complained, and then they started scrutinizing all of my teaching techniques. Everything was suddenly too hard. I needed to just follow the lesson plans made by the experts at Reading Town. All of my classes were going swimmingly. My students were all very responsive. They retained most of the information I covered in class. Their test scores were all pretty decent, but the parents hated me. Or, rather one or two parents hated me and the administration was all over my ass because some parent who couldn't speak English thought she was an expert on teaching English. After a month or so of this, I decided that I was done with this bullshit and wanted to find a job where I had control over the content of my class. I gave my notice and agreed to remain until the six month mark.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Laziness and apathy strike
I'm putting the blog on hold for a while. More updates will come, but it may be a while.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
The biggest douche in the universe
My new supervisor had started working, but I didn't see him much as he was spending most of his time going over the system with the director. The weekend before the new session started, we had a meeting to go over the new syllabus, meet the new supervisor and discuss random other things. The meeting started, and the new supervisor was introduced. Then we got down to "important business." The new supervisor pretty much ran the meeting. The first important piece of business was stickers. Parents were complaining that we were too stingy with the stickers and didn't make it clear why stickers were awarded. So, we received sticker guidelines. One would think that this part of the meeting would take about 30 seconds, but some of my coworkers insisted on defending their own sticker policies and arguing with the new supervisor for about 20 minutes. Personally, I didn't give a flying fuck because they were stickers. If little Rora needed four instead of three, it has no effect on my classes.
The next order of business pissed me off. We didn't look busy enough when we were in the teacher's room. When we're not teaching, we should be doing work. If a parent saw one of us checking email, reading or eating, they would be very upset. We needed to appear to be working even if we weren't. This is when I excused myself, picked up my contract and printed out a copy of the current Korean labor laws. We ended up arguing for a bit, but it was settled that it was okay to relax while we were on break, but that we could only use school computers for actual work.
Some more random bullshit was discussed. None of it was in the least bit important, and then the director finally cut off the new supervisor so that we could go over the new syllabus. They explained the new format and that we would be using folders for each of the classes which we shared with our co-teachers so that we could see how the kids were doing in the other classes.
The following Monday, the new session started. We had no syllabi. Our books were also unsorted. So all of the teachers had to pick random books and guess how many pages to cover that day. I wasn't too worried. I just counted the books and compared their difficulty. I generally figured out which books to use and covered about as many pages as I had in previous classes.
When it was time to go upstairs to teach the middle school program, I still didn't have any syallabi, so I talked to the secretary up there. I wanted to be a bit more organized for those classes because they involved daily quizzes and specific computer assignments which would both be a lot more work to make up and adjust. So, I told the secretary that I had no idea what I was teaching that day and asked her if she knew which book I was teaching and what homework to give. She looked it up and told me.
The next day, I received all of my syllabi. While I was doing some prep, the douche approached me and told me he was very disappointed with how I acted yesterday. I should have known what I was teaching. I was a little taken aback. I asked him how I was supposed to know what to teach when no one had given me a syllabus. He then told me that he said the new syllabi were in the class folders at the meeting. I told him to wait a second. I then walked downstairs and pulled out all of my class folders. I brought them upstairs and showed them to him. None of them had a syllabus.
"Oh, so are you much proud? Is you happy to show me wrong? I understand. Yesterday was little bit crazy, so I forgive you. But don't forget what you is teaching again."
"Okay, buddy. Sure thing."
The next order of business pissed me off. We didn't look busy enough when we were in the teacher's room. When we're not teaching, we should be doing work. If a parent saw one of us checking email, reading or eating, they would be very upset. We needed to appear to be working even if we weren't. This is when I excused myself, picked up my contract and printed out a copy of the current Korean labor laws. We ended up arguing for a bit, but it was settled that it was okay to relax while we were on break, but that we could only use school computers for actual work.
Some more random bullshit was discussed. None of it was in the least bit important, and then the director finally cut off the new supervisor so that we could go over the new syllabus. They explained the new format and that we would be using folders for each of the classes which we shared with our co-teachers so that we could see how the kids were doing in the other classes.
The following Monday, the new session started. We had no syllabi. Our books were also unsorted. So all of the teachers had to pick random books and guess how many pages to cover that day. I wasn't too worried. I just counted the books and compared their difficulty. I generally figured out which books to use and covered about as many pages as I had in previous classes.
When it was time to go upstairs to teach the middle school program, I still didn't have any syallabi, so I talked to the secretary up there. I wanted to be a bit more organized for those classes because they involved daily quizzes and specific computer assignments which would both be a lot more work to make up and adjust. So, I told the secretary that I had no idea what I was teaching that day and asked her if she knew which book I was teaching and what homework to give. She looked it up and told me.
The next day, I received all of my syllabi. While I was doing some prep, the douche approached me and told me he was very disappointed with how I acted yesterday. I should have known what I was teaching. I was a little taken aback. I asked him how I was supposed to know what to teach when no one had given me a syllabus. He then told me that he said the new syllabi were in the class folders at the meeting. I told him to wait a second. I then walked downstairs and pulled out all of my class folders. I brought them upstairs and showed them to him. None of them had a syllabus.
"Oh, so are you much proud? Is you happy to show me wrong? I understand. Yesterday was little bit crazy, so I forgive you. But don't forget what you is teaching again."
"Okay, buddy. Sure thing."
Friday, May 7, 2010
A new supervisor
So, the old supervisor left, but we were on much friendlier terms. My hours became a little lower once I got into the swing of things and was able to manage my time and more efficiently grade the huge stacks of papers I had to correct. I still had to wait a little while for the new syllabus to kick in, but it became manageable. I got my time at the hagwon down to 10 hours maximum, and I was no longer doing field trips.
Then, the new supervisor came. This man was, in fact the biggest douche in the universe. He "lived in England for 15 years" but spoke English about as well as my second year students. He had a perm. He insisted on being referred to as Reverend. He also knew absolutely nothing about teaching English.
Once the new syllabus kicked in, my class and workload dropped, and I had considerably more free time. Other things started to drive me crazy though.
More to come later, but I've got some teaching to do.
Then, the new supervisor came. This man was, in fact the biggest douche in the universe. He "lived in England for 15 years" but spoke English about as well as my second year students. He had a perm. He insisted on being referred to as Reverend. He also knew absolutely nothing about teaching English.
Once the new syllabus kicked in, my class and workload dropped, and I had considerably more free time. Other things started to drive me crazy though.
More to come later, but I've got some teaching to do.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Things cool off
After my fight/argument/heated discussion with my supervisor, I went home and thought about my work situation. I had some extra money saved. I was being worked to death and had to deal with tons of bullshit, so as I mentioned before, I decided to quit.
The next day, I went in and spoke with the director. I explained that while I appreciated everything that was given to me, I needed things like sleep and a single day at work that wasn't filled with stress. I agreed to stay for another month and a half so that I could leave after the summer session and he could find a replacement.
My supervisor with whom I battled the night before pulled me aside. She told me that she checked my timecard and saw the hours I was putting in and that she was sorry. She also mentioned that she had given her notice as well and that she was son angry the day before because she was fighting with the director. She told me about an opening at a hagwon in Sillim which had pretty good conditions. A coworker from my first year was working there, so I contacted them for an interview. The school seemed alright, but the hours were similar and the place seemed a little off. I interviewed with Jung Chul at their head office the next week.
The Jung Chul position sounded pretty sweet. They offered 2.6 plus all of the standard benefits, an afternoon evening shift, and a great apartment. I spoke with a few of the at that time current employees and the position sounded good.
I was ready to go back and sign, but then my director pulled me into his office. He told me how much he liked me as a teacher and that he really wanted me to stay. He wrote up a contract addendum which stated that I didn't need to attend any field trips or any other kindergarten related events. He showed me the new syllabus which had speaking two times a week and writing once instead of the reverse, and he offered me a better apartment. He also told me that the new supervisor spent a lot of time in England and was a lot more laid back.
After a bit of thought, I decided to stay. I liked the director and knew I could trust him.
The new supervisor is another story...
The next day, I went in and spoke with the director. I explained that while I appreciated everything that was given to me, I needed things like sleep and a single day at work that wasn't filled with stress. I agreed to stay for another month and a half so that I could leave after the summer session and he could find a replacement.
My supervisor with whom I battled the night before pulled me aside. She told me that she checked my timecard and saw the hours I was putting in and that she was sorry. She also mentioned that she had given her notice as well and that she was son angry the day before because she was fighting with the director. She told me about an opening at a hagwon in Sillim which had pretty good conditions. A coworker from my first year was working there, so I contacted them for an interview. The school seemed alright, but the hours were similar and the place seemed a little off. I interviewed with Jung Chul at their head office the next week.
The Jung Chul position sounded pretty sweet. They offered 2.6 plus all of the standard benefits, an afternoon evening shift, and a great apartment. I spoke with a few of the at that time current employees and the position sounded good.
I was ready to go back and sign, but then my director pulled me into his office. He told me how much he liked me as a teacher and that he really wanted me to stay. He wrote up a contract addendum which stated that I didn't need to attend any field trips or any other kindergarten related events. He showed me the new syllabus which had speaking two times a week and writing once instead of the reverse, and he offered me a better apartment. He also told me that the new supervisor spent a lot of time in England and was a lot more laid back.
After a bit of thought, I decided to stay. I liked the director and knew I could trust him.
The new supervisor is another story...
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Fun times at Reading Town
Before I begin this post, I would like to mention that I still like my boss at wonderland/reading town. The workload was ridiculous, but he was generally honest, paid on time in full, was very helpful in getting the teachers situated, and was open to some compromises. I would recommend the school for a first year teacher who is wary of hagwons. Nevertheless, I wouldn't return there myself.
I began working in the middle of the week. I came in on a Wednesday, I believe. My first week, I was just observing classes and going over the new program. The first surprise came when I was handed my schedule. I was in fact teaching kindergarten. I started in the afternoon, but I had to teach kindergarten PE and attend field trips and Saturday events. I would be fine with this except for the fact that on field trip days, I was working from 9:30am to 10:15pm. That's a bit much.
After my training, I started teaching. Teaching was fine for the most part, but the kindergarten classes were horrible. It's one thing when you teach 10 students everyday and you can build up a relationship with the students. It's another when you teach different groups of 20 students each day and you only teach them once a week in a room filled with toys.
The elementary students were fine. The paperwork involved with the elementary students was insane, however. Each student wrote two journals, one essay and three book reports every week. I had about 80-90 elementary students, so that comes out to around 510 pages of marking every week. Then there were tests, quizzes and report cards. I was also teaching a program for a few hours a week with middle school students. This program wasn't so bad, but there was a lot of information I had to print out and enter into the computer using an incredibly buggy and horribly illogical system.
Most days, I was there for about 12 hours. I was barely able to complete all of my paperwork in that time. Sometimes, I'd make a mistake or two like forgetting to write a daily report or not correcting a set of papers for one class on time. This happened on days when I was there for more than 12 hours. The first two weeks, my supervisor was on my ass the entire time.
I am usually a laid back person. I'll be very stern with kids, but I'm usually very calm and diplomatic when I speak to adults. If I am really pissed, I usually maintain my composure. When my boss in Bucheon lied to me every day about my severance pay, I never raised my voice. After two weeks at Reading Town, however, I snapped.
It was Friday. I had come in at 9:30 to go on a field trip. The night before, I stayed until around 11:30 to get some paperwork done because I wouldn't be able to the next morning because I had a field trip. After the field trip, the elementary classes and the middle school classes, it was 10:15, and I was doing some more paperwork. My supervisor came in and started yelling at me about one of the middle school classes. I made a mistake the previous night while assigning their online homework. I had assigned them homework for level 4-AC instead of level 4-AB or something else along those lines.
I said, "Sorry, which class are you talking about? I'll fix it." She said "the Mario class." I said "Which class is that? Is that WM4C or WT4C?" She started yelling again. "You are a terrible teacher. You should know all of your students names. Why don't you know Mario?" I was still calm and explained that I have only been here for two weeks, I only teach the middle school students twice a week and I have about 200 students in total(As it turned out, Mario had been absent for the first two weeks I was teaching, so there is no way I could have known who he was). She yelled for a little while longer and dragged me into her office to watch me enter the homework into the computer. I logged in and began looking for the class after going through six steps to pull up the online homework assignment page. I was slowly scrolling through a list of around 60 classes to find the WM4C class. After I took to long, she pushed me out of the way, found the class and assigned them.
"Why didn't you memorize the instructions I gave you?"
"I need to sleep and eat. I don't have time."
"You are so lazy. I thought you were smart. Mike Teacher memorized the instructions in one day. You don't know how to use the computer after two weeks."
This is when I decided to vent my fury which had been building up over the past two weeks. I yelled at her first about how I would be able to use the computer system just fine if things were listed alphabetically, by level or any other logical system rather than completely random. There is no way to remember a list of names consisting of three letters and one number. I then ranted about how I wouldn't be making so many mistakes if anyone had bothered to debug the horrible software we were using, if I wasn't here for 12 hours a day, and I was able to eat something other than kimchi and rice during my 12 hours at the school.
After I finished yelling at her, she gave me a written warning and I gave my written notice.
I began working in the middle of the week. I came in on a Wednesday, I believe. My first week, I was just observing classes and going over the new program. The first surprise came when I was handed my schedule. I was in fact teaching kindergarten. I started in the afternoon, but I had to teach kindergarten PE and attend field trips and Saturday events. I would be fine with this except for the fact that on field trip days, I was working from 9:30am to 10:15pm. That's a bit much.
After my training, I started teaching. Teaching was fine for the most part, but the kindergarten classes were horrible. It's one thing when you teach 10 students everyday and you can build up a relationship with the students. It's another when you teach different groups of 20 students each day and you only teach them once a week in a room filled with toys.
The elementary students were fine. The paperwork involved with the elementary students was insane, however. Each student wrote two journals, one essay and three book reports every week. I had about 80-90 elementary students, so that comes out to around 510 pages of marking every week. Then there were tests, quizzes and report cards. I was also teaching a program for a few hours a week with middle school students. This program wasn't so bad, but there was a lot of information I had to print out and enter into the computer using an incredibly buggy and horribly illogical system.
Most days, I was there for about 12 hours. I was barely able to complete all of my paperwork in that time. Sometimes, I'd make a mistake or two like forgetting to write a daily report or not correcting a set of papers for one class on time. This happened on days when I was there for more than 12 hours. The first two weeks, my supervisor was on my ass the entire time.
I am usually a laid back person. I'll be very stern with kids, but I'm usually very calm and diplomatic when I speak to adults. If I am really pissed, I usually maintain my composure. When my boss in Bucheon lied to me every day about my severance pay, I never raised my voice. After two weeks at Reading Town, however, I snapped.
It was Friday. I had come in at 9:30 to go on a field trip. The night before, I stayed until around 11:30 to get some paperwork done because I wouldn't be able to the next morning because I had a field trip. After the field trip, the elementary classes and the middle school classes, it was 10:15, and I was doing some more paperwork. My supervisor came in and started yelling at me about one of the middle school classes. I made a mistake the previous night while assigning their online homework. I had assigned them homework for level 4-AC instead of level 4-AB or something else along those lines.
I said, "Sorry, which class are you talking about? I'll fix it." She said "the Mario class." I said "Which class is that? Is that WM4C or WT4C?" She started yelling again. "You are a terrible teacher. You should know all of your students names. Why don't you know Mario?" I was still calm and explained that I have only been here for two weeks, I only teach the middle school students twice a week and I have about 200 students in total(As it turned out, Mario had been absent for the first two weeks I was teaching, so there is no way I could have known who he was). She yelled for a little while longer and dragged me into her office to watch me enter the homework into the computer. I logged in and began looking for the class after going through six steps to pull up the online homework assignment page. I was slowly scrolling through a list of around 60 classes to find the WM4C class. After I took to long, she pushed me out of the way, found the class and assigned them.
"Why didn't you memorize the instructions I gave you?"
"I need to sleep and eat. I don't have time."
"You are so lazy. I thought you were smart. Mike Teacher memorized the instructions in one day. You don't know how to use the computer after two weeks."
This is when I decided to vent my fury which had been building up over the past two weeks. I yelled at her first about how I would be able to use the computer system just fine if things were listed alphabetically, by level or any other logical system rather than completely random. There is no way to remember a list of names consisting of three letters and one number. I then ranted about how I wouldn't be making so many mistakes if anyone had bothered to debug the horrible software we were using, if I wasn't here for 12 hours a day, and I was able to eat something other than kimchi and rice during my 12 hours at the school.
After I finished yelling at her, she gave me a written warning and I gave my written notice.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Back to the old stomping grounds
Sorry for the delay between updates. I tend to only catch the writing bug when I've consumed some of the Toad Juice, and it's been a while.
So, after I was dicked around for awhile by Lingua, I decided to say goodbye to my free time and hello to a guaranteed paycheck and benefits. I went back to wonderland.
I talked to my former boss and negotiated my new salary which wasn't too bad. I was also taking the afternoon/evening shift which meant not only no phone teaching but no bullshit weekend work or any other nonsense, or so I thought.
Wonderland had changed. They bought a different franchise which I thought I would like, Reading Town.
Towards the end of my first year, my boss had taken an interest in the Reading Town Franchise. He purchased some of their materials and had the teachers try them out. I enjoyed them. I liked the idea of using children's books and basing classes around the stories, grammar and vocabulary in real books rather than half-assed konglish stories about nothing. I thought that the layout was good, and that a lot of important things were emphasized in the workbooks. Granted, I would still say that Reading Town has a decent educational philosophy and system, but I would never work there again.
My boss picked me up and moved me to my new apartment in my old neighborhood. This was an ok apartment in a really great spot. The apartment was really tiny, but it had a veranda and was fully furnished. The kitchen was in the veranda, but that wasn't too important because I don't cook that often, and the immediate neighborhood was great.
This was back in the neighborhood of Siheung-dong. No, not Siheung-Si. Siheung-dong in the southwest corner of Seoul. About thirty steps away from the front of my apartment was a market street where I could buy almost anything I needed for a ridiculously low price. I also found my favorite food a stone's throw away from my new apartment.
In my new, immediate neighborhood, there were/are tons of Chinese immigrants. One Chinese(sort of) food I had not tried before was yang gochi. This is a very simple but delicious food. It's lmab meat on skewers. Not shishkebabs. This is just lamb meat. You grill it for a while and then move the skewer away from the grill/charcoal. You then roll it in whatever you call the red pepper salt/powder. GochuSogeum??? I don't know. Nevertheless, it's one of my all time favorite foods.
Anyhoo, my apartment wasn't so great, but my neighborhood was amazing. I was also much closer to my school than I was my first year.
I knew I would have to adjust to a higher workload than I had become accustomed to the previous year, but I was willing to sacrifice a little bit of free time for a stable and honest employer.
My new found appreciation for the wonders of reading town soon faded....
So, after I was dicked around for awhile by Lingua, I decided to say goodbye to my free time and hello to a guaranteed paycheck and benefits. I went back to wonderland.
I talked to my former boss and negotiated my new salary which wasn't too bad. I was also taking the afternoon/evening shift which meant not only no phone teaching but no bullshit weekend work or any other nonsense, or so I thought.
Wonderland had changed. They bought a different franchise which I thought I would like, Reading Town.
Towards the end of my first year, my boss had taken an interest in the Reading Town Franchise. He purchased some of their materials and had the teachers try them out. I enjoyed them. I liked the idea of using children's books and basing classes around the stories, grammar and vocabulary in real books rather than half-assed konglish stories about nothing. I thought that the layout was good, and that a lot of important things were emphasized in the workbooks. Granted, I would still say that Reading Town has a decent educational philosophy and system, but I would never work there again.
My boss picked me up and moved me to my new apartment in my old neighborhood. This was an ok apartment in a really great spot. The apartment was really tiny, but it had a veranda and was fully furnished. The kitchen was in the veranda, but that wasn't too important because I don't cook that often, and the immediate neighborhood was great.
This was back in the neighborhood of Siheung-dong. No, not Siheung-Si. Siheung-dong in the southwest corner of Seoul. About thirty steps away from the front of my apartment was a market street where I could buy almost anything I needed for a ridiculously low price. I also found my favorite food a stone's throw away from my new apartment.
In my new, immediate neighborhood, there were/are tons of Chinese immigrants. One Chinese(sort of) food I had not tried before was yang gochi. This is a very simple but delicious food. It's lmab meat on skewers. Not shishkebabs. This is just lamb meat. You grill it for a while and then move the skewer away from the grill/charcoal. You then roll it in whatever you call the red pepper salt/powder. GochuSogeum??? I don't know. Nevertheless, it's one of my all time favorite foods.
Anyhoo, my apartment wasn't so great, but my neighborhood was amazing. I was also much closer to my school than I was my first year.
I knew I would have to adjust to a higher workload than I had become accustomed to the previous year, but I was willing to sacrifice a little bit of free time for a stable and honest employer.
My new found appreciation for the wonders of reading town soon faded....
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