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Let me preface this post by saying teaching is one of my passions and that I take improving myself as a teacher seriously. The intent of this post is to make some very needed observations and criticisms about how workshops are designed and how presenters are chosen and presentation materials vetted . . . or, unfortunately, to illuminate the lack of vetting and the lack of supervision . . .
I arrived at Korea University at 8:40am Monday . . .
I signed in, got my name tag, and picked up a workshop booklet. After that I headed into the auditorium and found myself a seat.
Some Koreans were testing the microphones and prepping things for the opening ceremony. The usual items were being prepared . . . national anthem, big Korean flag power point slide, and an overview of the workshop schedule power point slides were readied for the 200 or so native English teachers slowly filling up the auditorium.
As I sat in the audience waiting for the usual hoopla to be finished . . . I thought about how I always find it amusing that foreigners are asked to stand and salute the Korean flag and sing their national anthem. I have no problem paying my respect to the Korean flag, and standing while their national anthem is played–I am after all at work and on their dime–but I still ponder these things from time to time.
National anthem and flag respecting done the supervisor says some opening remarks, and begins introducing the SMOE office co-ordinators . . . and unfortunately can’t remember all their names. I am terrible with names so I feel some sympathy for him because I’d probably have been lucky if I could remember 2 and I think he got through about 4.
The supervisor then goes over our schedule for the two days.
Monday December 21st
8:30 to 8:50am – Registration
9-9:20am – Opening Ceremony
9:30-10:20am – Co-teaching
10:30-10:50am – Reflection Session: Classroom Issues and Professional Development
11:00-12:20 – Reflection Session
12:30-13:20 – Lunch
13:30-14:20 – Reflection Session
14:30-16:00 – Co-teaching Demo Lesson and Q&A
Tuesday December 22nd
9:00-12:50 – Co-teaching Workshop
13:00-15:00 – Lunch Party Buffet
16:00-17:30 – Go to see “Jump” (Show)
I had already seen the schedule because my co-teacher is awesome and when she got the memo she printed out a copy for me, and then when I asked her to she translated some of the info written in Korean. There wasn’t really a lot of info to translate but what there was she did with no hesitation or complaining. My co-teacher rocks, and I’m insanely lucky to be working with her.
After the supervisor finished going over the schedule a coordinator got up and kind of did the same thing, lol, and then pointed out a map we had been given in our schedule booklets. Finishing that we had a ten minute break before the first presentation, “Practical Co-teaching,” began.
I walked around and chatted with some people I knew, and then sat down again for the first presentation.
Now this is where I have to talk about expectations. I’ve learned in Korea that expectations are deadly. I’ve learned that I have to identify my expectations, and then unpack all of the unconscious norms and values that are embedded within them, and then think about them within the Korean cultural situation I find myself in and see if what I expect is still reasonable or not. If it’s not then I have to change my expectations and not try to impose my expectations on the situation and people involved . . .
That being said I found that my expectations for the first presentation were disappointed, and definitely not unrealistic or unfair. Let me explain.
The first presenter was a MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER. He was an excellent presenter. Well spoken, well organized, and at times funny. He knew his material well, and did a great job.
The issue here is that he was presenting to an audience of HIGH SCHOOL teachers at a workshop that was taking place four months into their contracts.
I expected that SMOE would have avoided making the same mistakes as it did during the August orientation where the presenters for the high school group of orientation attendees were from middle schools. I expected that the presenters at the workshop in December would be from high schools so that they could present materials targeted to high school teachers, and use stories and examples from HIGH SCHOOL situations they had experienced.
(To be fair I need to add here that the co-teaching demo later in the day did actually have a high school teacher presenting.)
I also found it odd that the title of the presentation, “Practical Co-teaching,” was not what the presentation was really about. The content of the presentation did begin with a definition of ‘co-teaching.’ But it was a very brief one and after two minutes the focus shifted to the real theme of the presentation: “Co-teaching culture and relationships with a dash of advice for new foreign teachers adapting to Korean school culture.”
In terms of the ‘practical’ nature of the presentation and co-teaching I really didn’t feel like the presenter gave us any concrete tips on how to co-teach more effectively. And this leads to my next point–if the presentation was about ‘practical co-teaching’ the case studies used might have been about the typical situations native teachers find themselves in while co-teaching in HIGH SCHOOLS . . . but I’ll get to that in a moment.
The presenter structured his presentation around four things: 1) What is co-teaching? 2) Why Co-teach? 3) Personal Qualities of the Successful Co-teacher in Korea, and 4) 5 Case Studies: “Monster Students,” “Zombie Students, “Less-than-enthused” Korean Co-teacher,” “Unhappy, Depressed Native Co-teacher,” and “”Slave Driver Principal/Vice-Principal.” The general pattern the presenter followed was to identify his topic, describe the general idea and conditions, and then suggest what to think about the topic with general suggestions about how one might behave . . . unfortunately not much to do with actual co-teaching in a classroom was talked about . . . not, at least, in a way that native teachers could leave the presentation and think to themselves, “I’m going to use that X-idea/method the next time I co-teach.”
The case studies used, if they were to be in line with the ‘practical co-teaching’ title, might have been the following: 1) Classroom Behavior Hell: the students don’t pay attention and fall asleep . . . and my co-teacher doesn’t seem to care, 2) My co-teacher is absent even when they are in the classroom–what can I do?, 3) I make lessons and send them to my co-teachers but they don’t read them, 4) Communicate with my co-teacher/s? How? and 5) How can I communicate and negotiate with my co-teacher when they operate under the assumption that they’re ‘my senior’ and I should respect Korean culture and do whatever they say?
There is a fundamental pattern that I’ve learned about from doing my own presentations, and attending workshops through public school education offices, and attending the KOTESOL conference every year . . . talk about theory, talk about ideals, talk about anything you want to . . . but then bring the presentation into the real lived situations directly related to your presentation topic and after identifying real lived teaching issues that your audience of teachers can relate to then present coping methods, problem solving methods, and concrete things that the teachers can leave the conference with and individually develop to work for them according to their specific school and teaching situations.
Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to happen in the first presentation–and I think that perhaps the primary reason is that there was a disconnect between the title of the presentation and the actual content . . . actually, there was something even bigger that needs to be talked about . . .
The final thing I noticed about the first presentation was that at the end there were some slides for Korean English teachers–yes, I just said there were slides for Korean English teachers . . . and this is when I began to get a little pissed off. WHY would there be slides for Korean teachers in a power point presentation for native English teachers? I’d really like to know if there’s a valid reason for this . . .
My theory, and if someone knows the truth and I’m wrong please post a comment here, is that the presentation was actually designed for a Korean English teacher workshop or even more likely an orientation. My suspicions led me to revisit some of the content in the presentation. A key example being the question, “Why Co-teach?”
For most if not all new native English teachers there is no doubt, no resistance, no questioning of their need to have a co-teacher in the classroom. The group of teachers that generally have doubts about co-teaching and why it is necessary at all are KOREAN co-teachers . . . was it possible that the presenter was using a presentation that had been made for Korean English co-teachers? I’d suggest that there is a strong possibility that the material had never been designed for native teachers . . . and while some of the material overlaps, and was relevant to native teachers because of how the presenter spun the language he used it was also information that really should have been given during the August week long orientation BEFORE the native teachers went to their schools–not four months into the contract after many if not all of the issues addressed in the power point content had happened to unprepared new to Korean school culture and co-teaching native teachers . . .
I also suspect that the presenter tried to tweak his power point slides to erase references to Korean teachers (but missed the last few slides somehow) but didn’t realize that the workshop booklet was using the original power point slide content printed out for the native English teacher attendees–oops . . .
In the first presenter’s section of the workshop booklet lies the evidence for my theory. Under the question, “Why Co-teach?” the first reason is “the Law.” Now why would you need to use ‘the law’ as a selling point with native English teachers? Well, you wouldn’t because new foreign teachers walking into an alien culture, with no Korean language ability nor understanding of Korean school and language classroom culture, would NEVER even question the necessity of having a co-teacher . . .
Also, anyone who has been in Korea for at least a couple of years knows it’s ludicrous to suggest to native teachers that they cite ‘the Law’ to try to reason and/or motivate a Korean English teacher, a vice-principal, or a principal to listen to them and/or do something. Korea is a society ruled by relationships–not laws. A presenter who doesn’t understand that . . . well, I think he does understand that so I’m lost as to why he’d use that while speaking to an audience of native teachers . . .
I’ll cite two more examples and then try to let this go. Under the first “Case Study: Monsters,” in the Approach section (a kind of ‘what to do’ section) one of the recommendations is, “Be firm and take control early. Help your native teacher to establish boundaries and routines” . . . wait a second, did that just say “Help your native teacher” . . . ? And the second example is found under “Less-than-enthused” Korean Co-teacher” in the Signs section (a ‘what to watch for’ section), “You are always “too busy” to help your Native Teacher or to come to English meetings” and “You feel frustrated because you have to always speak English with your NEST,” “You feel you have to explain everything to your NEST,” and “Your NEST is constantly confused” . . .
YES, I am confused–isn’t this presentation supposed to be for native English teachers???! Why is the presenter using materials OBVIOUSLY DESIGNED FOR KOREAN teachers?!
I had intended to write about this with some degree of tolerance because I know presenters are often asked to do work for education offices at the last second, and instructions from supervisors can often be vague to non-existent . . . but there has to be some degree of professional responsibility and dare I say ETHICS?
But the next bit from the booklet materials on the first presentation pretty much destroy any ‘understanding’ I might have for whatever the background excuses might be for why a native English teacher would use a power point designed for Korean English teachers when he is actually presenting to native English teachers! The following sentence was pretty much the last nail in the coffin, “As a Korean, you possess the trait of extreme loyalty . . .” blah blah blah . . . is this for real???!
I’m sorry sir, but you owe the native English teachers who attended your presentation an apology for the use of materials that were never designed for us. Unbelievable!!!
Perhaps the most ridiculous content of the first presentation was the part where Korean English teachers are given specific signs to look for if they suspect they have an “Unhappy, Depressed Native Co-teacher.” The following signs are listed: “lots of complaining,” “every conversation includes, “In America [Canada], we . . .,” “Minimum effort; lesson quality drastically drops,” “emotional distance,” and my personal favorite, and I also think every other native teacher at the workshop felt the same, “Constantly looking at Facebook.”
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Facebook is the Anti-Christ of native English teachers in Korea. If you see your native teacher worshiping FB make sure to have a teacher office exorcism and destroy the SOCIAL NETWORKING and support lifeline the native teacher is clinging to because they are homesick, have co-teachers abandoning them to teach alone in the classroom, co-teachers who show no interest in preparing lesson plans together, co-teachers who have low level language skills and no understanding whatsoever of Western culture, and co-teachers who do not understand communicative language learning and teaching methods therefore thinking and assuming that the native teacher with a MA in TESOL doesn’t know how to teach (yes, I was sitting by a native teacher with that situation) . . .
NOTE: I am NOT saying here that all Korean English teachers fit the above descriptions. What I AM saying here is that about 50% of the native teachers, if not more, talk about these things as a part of the normal range of issues faced in the day to day realities of teaching in a Korean public school with Korean co-teachers.
Given the tendency by many Korean teachers to overly simplify ideas about native English speakers I now imagine that Facebook has become public school enemy number one. I have to wonder now what Korean teachers must be assuming about me because I have FB up on my computer every day at work. “Is Jason depressed? He’s on that foreign website called Facebook, and I was at this workshop where another native teacher said looking at Facebook means you’re lonely and depressed . . .” Great. Thank you. Fortunately for me I have a co-teacher who knows better than to take something one native teacher says and blow it all out of proportion and make it into a generalized truth about all native English teachers . . . and in case you think I’m over-exaggerating think about how often you hear Korean English teachers express shock that you can eat kimchi cause EVERYBODY knows that foreigners don’t like spicy food, right?
Moving on to other things . . . on the Friday before the workshop began I posted on Facebook the following comment, “I’d suggest dressing warmly just in case the rooms they put us in at Korea University aren’t heated properly….” Sadly, my prediction came true. The auditorium where the opening ceremony was held was unheated. And the large lecture hall my group went to for the rest of the day was also unheated.
When asked about why there was no heat, two coordinators said they had contacted the university administration about the problem–this was around 3pm . . . apparently calling again and insisting that the heat be turned wasn’t a priority. During the winter one of the first things I do each time I teach a class is to go five minutes early to the classroom to see if the heat is on because all too often if there is no class before mine the heat is not on. To me this is just a basic leadership skill: check to make sure the environment a meeting is being held in is comfortable to facilitate the actual purpose of the meeting being successful (instead of attendees focusing on the temperature). I really don’t know why the problem wasn’t solved earlier in the morning but I also have to suspect that because the coordinators are young and have little to no social rank in the Korean cultural hierarchy that they really couldn’t do anything about it in the first place. I wonder, though, why they didn’t pass on the problem to the SMOE office supervisor who had been at the opening ceremony . . . not calling him about turning on the heat could be symptomatic, however, of the common notion that you don’t bother the powers that be with complaints originating from the grunts, er, native English teachers cause . . . well, we’re just not important enough. I do believe that if the supervisor had been told about the no heat problem that he would have made some calls and I imagine that the heat would have been turned on . . . so unfortunately this puts the onus back on the coordinators . . .
The second session of the day was called, “Reflection Session.” The group I was in headed over to a different lecture hall . . .
A red flag had gone off in my head last Friday when I saw the schedule for the first time because I really wondered how the reflective session would be structured. Also, in my teacher training readings I’ve basically come to the conclusion that reflective sessions are a euphemism for thought and attitude manipulation and control. That sort of thing can be positive if a talented and experienced teacher trainer is prepared and knows what they’re doing . . . if they don’t it ends up being . . . well, you’ll see.
The “Reflection Session” began with a woman identifying herself as a ‘teacher trainer’ and that she’d be ‘facilitating’ our reflection session. No real explanation of what a reflection session is, and what it is intended to accomplish, was given. I slowly sank deeper and deeper into my seat, and became more and more frustrated with . . . oh god, where does the list begin?
I expected to hear a definition of what a ‘reflection session’ was because a good teacher trainer knows (and if they don’t know they do some research) what kind of training and experience the group of in-service teachers have that they will be working with. In the workshop reflection session the group was comprised of native teachers with only 4 months of teaching experience, probably a 100 hour TEFL or TESL certificate gotten online . . . and then the other side of the spectrum with teachers who have a Master’s degree in TESOL, or CELTA, and extensive teaching experience in Korea and Asia in general. It would have been very useful to just give a brief definition of what a ‘reflective session’ is and what it tries to accomplish so that there could have been sound kind of framework within which us native teachers could have tried to focus our efforts . . . but that wasn’t given.
Our facilitator then rattled off that we’d be talking about 1) Classroom Issues and 2) Cross-cultural Issues. Again, neither of these terms were defined, and no guidelines were given for how we might want to talk about them. I halfheartedly hoped that our ‘teacher trainer’ and ‘facilitator’ might have prepared a power point slide with a list of common classroom issues in Korean language classrooms, and common cross-cultural issues, but she popped off a couple of vague examples of each and then went on to other things.
I sat in stunned disbelief. No power point, no handout (and no materials in the workshop booklet), no small lecture with content to prepare us to engage in a reflective exercise that had a clear goal? I thought for sure that something like cross-cultural issues might warrant a 10 minute mini-lecture about things like, oh say, the 4 stages of culture shock, or talking about how native teachers perceive cultural differences and the common mistakes made and then provide some models of how to reframe misperceptions . . . or something along those lines . . . but nope, it was time to organize and divide everyone into groups.
After we’d been divided into our reflective session groups our facilitator said we should start . . . everyone kind of looked at each other wondering what we were supposed to start with and how we should do it–you know, kind of like what you might imagine a room full of teachers might look like when asked to do a task with no instructions, no preparation on what to do and how to do it, no modeling, and no new content to think about and use . . . . that sort of thing. I think this was when she added that we should choose a secretary for each group who would write down a summary of what we discussed so that we could use that later for what I tentatively call the ‘goal’ for the reflection session group discussion: we had to give group presentations after lunch for TWO HOURS . . . oh god.
For an hour and twenty minutes, in an unheated lecture hall, nine groups of high school foreign teachers talked about whatever they wanted to, however they wanted to . . .oh, loosely under the topics of classroom issues and cross-cultural issues.
Our facilitator toured around the room and stood next to each group for a couple of minutes. While standing next to the group I was in she didn’t say anything. I’m not sure if she said anything to any of the other groups either . . . maybe she did, I don’t know.
And then it was lunch time.
We all had our workshop booklets and the maps inside them telling us the building name where lunch was supposed to be held. For some reason, however, our coordinators didn’t seem to think it’d be a good idea to come along and make sure we found the cafeteria, and that everything was okay. Instead, the mass of teachers went to one set of doors to the cafeteria, and then whoever was at the front either couldn’t get in because the doors were locked or a Korean told us we weren’t allowed to go through the doors, so we all headed back outside to try and find the correct set of doors . . . and couldn’t so we headed back to the first set of doors . . . and finally got inside the cafeteria.
I took one look around the cafeteria and quickly calculated that the odds of there being enough seats were iffy at best.
I don’t know if this actually became a problem because I decided to go off campus and get some food and just avoid having to walk around looking for someone almost finished their lunch so that I could sit and eat my own–no thanks.
The menu here has an item that people from Boston will find particularly amusing: Boston Butt Steak, lol.
After lunch, the group presentations began . . . and everyone did their best considering we were given no directions whatsoever about how to present.
I continued to sink lower and lower in my seat, again, as I realized that all 9 groups were going to talk about the same issues NINE TIMES. If our facilitator had actually prepped the reflective discussion properly, and had had a list of common classroom issues and cross-cultural issues, she might have organized our groups to each focus on a different set of issues, or one classroom issue and one cross-cultural issue so that a broad range of topics would be covered . . . or whatever organizational idea that would pre-empt all NINE GROUPS DOING THE SAME DAMN THING . . .and then forcing us to sit through NINE 10-15 minute presentations about NINE GROUPS presenting about the same general issues NINE TIMES . . .
I kept hoping that the facilitator would actually do some kind of moderating and facilitating after each group presenter finished. But all she did was pick up the microphone and pass it on to the next presenter/s and occasionally make a small comment or joke about what the previous group had said.
Due to the complete and utter lack of structure to the reflective discussions when it came time to do the presentations things had pretty much become a ‘fine-I’ll-do-this-but-I-know-it’s-simply-meaningless-work-for-works-sake’ atmosphere.
People began making jokes, and by the end of the 2 hours things had gotten so out of hand that one presenter made a joke about students asking him if he watches porn, and some teachers in the room began making comments and jokes about it–and our facilitator did what she had been doing all along: sat in her seat and just watched us.
And what was the ONE THING our facilitator actually took time to comment on and explain? One of the presenters had talked about a Korean children’s game where one student stands against a wall, and other students line up and put their heads between the student in front of them’s legs, and then another team of students run and jump to land on the tops of the bent over students’ backs . . .
Instead of commenting on the classroom issues, co-teaching issues, and cross-cultural issues that came up time and again, over and over and over . . . instead of commenting on these things she chose to comment on a children’s game–nice.
The 3.5 hours of reflective group discussion and then presentations simply turned into a repetitive litany of describing the problems native teachers face in the classroom and the cross-cultural issues that native teachers face regularly in Korean school and classroom culture. Some of the presenters made efforts to suggest ways of coping, problem solving methods, and some possible solutions–but how can a teacher trainer expect new native teachers with FOUR MONTHS IN KOREA to do this competently is beyond me; how a teacher trainer could expect new teachers with only four months in Korea to have the cross-cultural awareness and to have done research and reading on this topic (when they didn’t know what the workshop topics would be) and then to do something productive after discussing topics they themselves chose–how they could come up with new ways of positively framing cultural differences and come up with cross-cultural coping methods and ways to reframe their native cultural biases . . . I really don’t know what this ‘teacher trainer’ was thinking . . .
There are some books I’d like to recommend to the ‘teacher trainer’ that might be useful for future reflection session workshops she might do. In terms of prep there is very little to do other than choose the reflective exercise type you wish to use, and then think about what what particular goal/s this exercise will be used to accomplish.
Training Foreign Language Teachers, A reflective approach.
Wallace, Michael J. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Cambridge Teacher Training and Development, Series Editors: Marion Williams and Tony Wright.
W26 000
Teach English, A training course for teachers. Trainers Handbook.
Dorff, Adrian. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Cambridge Teacher Training and Development,
W29 000
Language Teacher Education.
Roberts, John. Arnold, 1998.
W25 000
Tasks for Teacher Education, A Reflective Approach. Coursebook.
Rosie Tanner and Catherine Green. Addison-Welsley Publishing Company, Inc.1998.
W9 000
Crossing Cultures in the Language Classroom
Andrea De Capua and Ann C Wintergerst
University of Michigan Press, 2004
W49,000
Let me say again that the primary purpose of this blog post is to make some very needed observations and criticisms about how workshops are designed and how presenters are chosen and presentation materials vetted . . . or, unfortunately, to illuminate the lack of vetting and the lack of supervision . . .
I considered going back through my post and trying to use more neutral and diplomatic language because I think the argument can be made that my use of sarcasm and the scathing tone that comes out don’t necessarily help me present my case but I’m tired of trying to be diplomatic, and trying to ‘understand the unique situation’ that I seem to constantly be bombarded with when I attend workshops . . . being polite and diplomatic doesn’t seem to be accomplishing anything so in this case I’m going to leave the writing style as is.
I hope future workshops don’t repeat the same patterns that I saw in this one because native teachers, for the most part, really do want to become better teachers–the unfortunate truth, however, is that the workshops don’t facilitate this desire . . . and in the reflection session case in particular simply create a forum in which a list of problems and issues were raised over the course of three and a half hours with the end result being that native teachers walked away without any new ideas, perspectives, teaching methods, and resources . . .
At least that’s how Day 1 ended . . . in my mind.
Day 2 looks a bit more promising because I think I saw a teacher trainer I recognize from the August orientation is going to be running the co-teaching practice session in the morning . . . and at the orientation she, and her partner teacher trainer, were awesome. They were fully prepared, knew their materials and goals, and came across as highly competent professionals who are passionate about teaching and teacher training . . . if I’m right and this particular teacher trainer is running the Day 2 morning session things will take a dramatic upturn and native teachers will leave the workshop with something new that they’ve learned, and something they can actually use back in the home school classrooms while co-teaching.
Keep your fingers crossed . . .
J
p.s. Oh, one final observation . . . I’m not sure what kind of budget and or other restrictions may have been at play with the designing of the workshop booklet but I would suggest that 2 pages be added in the future to all workshop booklets. One page with suggested EFL/ESL methodology books, lesson plan and resource books. A second page with useful teaching websites.
About a week ago I sat down to plan out the lessons I would do over the course of November and December at the boys high school where I teach. I looked over all the lessons I’ve designed and chose my ‘Greatest Hits’ . . .
I also sat down with my co-teacher and went over all the dates on which I’d have no classes due to tests, field trips, and any other of the myriad reasons that classes get canceled. I thought that my semi-long term planning would not be screwed up and that I’d anticipated everything I could that might effect my lesson planning . . . boy was I wrong.
During the last week of October I began teaching my Halloween culture and craft activity lesson. I put quite a bit of time, effort, and energy into preparing this lesson. I went shopping with my girlfriend on my own personal time to get supplies for the craft activity, and also for decorating the classroom. I don’t mind putting in personal unpaid time when it’s for a great lesson, and one that I know the students will really enjoy.
But the Halloween lesson was sabotaged by the H1N1/Swine Flu situation in Korea. On the last Wednesday of October, around 11am, I found out that ALL first grade classes would be sent home Wednesday afternoon and that they wouldn’t be returning until Monday of the next week. I didn’t think that this would be a problem for my curriculum schedule as I would just bump everything back a week, and only lose one of the lessons I had scheduled.
I failed to consider that the students had all just done a round of English tests, and that my school organizes the students in each class by test score and the ability that the score supposedly illustrates (I have some issues with the accuracy of said evaluation methods).
This past Monday I came to school and was told by one of my co-teachers that today I was going to lose the first 15-20 minutes of each of my classes to the Korean English teacher telling the students their test scores, and then informing the low-scoring students that they’d be transferred into a lower level class . . . this is something that I abhor in the Korean education system, and have a really hard time trying to find anything positive about the way in which students scores are given openly and the manner in which the other students can openly make comments about the scores and students without being told to stop by the teacher. It’s a public shaming of awful proportions especially for a teenager, I think, and I wish this practice would stop.
Another consequence of this practice is that it really messes with the teaching plans and goals–it makes long term planning nearly impossible because when you combine this education cultural practice with all the other cancellations and schedule changes for the myriad reasons and non-reasons that are thrown at a native English teacher’s schedule . . . well, you either end up going nuts from banging your head against the wall of education cultural differences, or you go through a metamorphosis as a teacher and learn to adapt your expectations and ideals to the realities of the education system and environment you find yourself within . . .
So I finally got to see the extremely open practice of giving back test score info to students for the first time in person, and I stood there in disbelief (even after having taught in Korea for nearly five years) as I watched the whole process . . .
The teacher seems to start out with the high scoring students first. He then goes on to read out the low scores and student names. These students have to stand up and wait as he reads through the entire list . . .
This practice is not only detrimental to the students’ self-esteem but it also royally screws up the curriculum design and teaching of the native English teacher. How can a native teacher possibly plan a syllabus wherein developmental language learning takes place with all of the cancellations and changes and random cultural events (like how many days a school will be on vacation during Chuseok, medical checks for students, field trips, national listening tests, and so on and so forth) that destroy the application of a well planned syllabus, teaching methods, and learning goals that can reliably be taught consistently to a class on a week by week basis–the answer is you generally can’t do it, and need to stick to isolated lessons that are not dependent on students learning a series of interconnected language goals in order to progress and develop their English language ability . . .
As for my Halloween Culture lesson . . .
. . . my original adaptation to the ‘random acts of syllabu-cide’ was to just shrug and move the dates of the lesson to the next week–and teach it then. The lesson gets delayed but not lost; the teaching prep and time and energy get delayed but not lost; the students get to experience a fun cultural lesson and activity a little later but don’t lose the opportunity . . . but then the testing culture of Korea’s education system stomps into my classroom and begins annihilating the teaching and learning goals by moving students into classes on other days of the week that have already taken the Halloween class . . . alright, yes I’m being a wee bit melodramatic here and exaggerating to a degree–but in some ways this is how I feel after having put special prep, time, and energy into a lesson and then having a large number of my weekly classes miss experiencing the lesson due to seemingly anarchical education and school culture . . . but then, I’m looking at this from my own cultural bias . . . I don’t know, I can’t bend my mind around how this makes any kind of educational language learning professional teaching kind of sense . . . I’m trying, but I can’t . . .
When I initially found out that my English classes were going to lose 15-20 minutes for telling students their test scores and then re-organizing the class lists based on the new test scores I asked, “Why can’t this be done during homeroom time? Why do I have to lose lesson time when this is an ADMINISTRATIVE task?” The look I got was basically “Why are you asking why? This is the way it is and it ain’t gonna change” . . . sigh.
I then asked why this couldn’t be done in the 10 minute break between classes–again, I got the Why are you asking why? This is the way it is and it ain’t gonna change” look . . .
Taking a deep breath, I just let it go. There are some battles that are not even worth stepping onto the battlefield and entering into a conflict over . . . especially when it is one of the ‘native English teacher NEMEMIS issues’ that cannot be overcome.
The unfortunate truth for who knows how many foreign English teachers is that these ‘nemesis issues’ have a cumulative impact on teaching motivation, lesson prep motivation, and one’s general passion for teaching English in Korea. It becomes increasingly harder and harder to maintain the teaching standards each teacher has for themselves in terms of their teaching performance and lesson prep as they experience their lesson plans and teaching time being hit by little things and big things throughout the course of a semester . . .
Anyways . . . to try and put a ‘glass is half full’ spin on this I do like being able to choose what I teach and how. Not being chained to a textbook is very liberating if you enjoy making lesson plans. Not being chained to worries about covering tested content within class time is also a wonderful freedom.
It will be VERY interesting to see what kind of changes take place within the Korean public education system if and more likely WHEN English speaking skills and ability begin to be tested.
I have to wonder how this will impact native English teachers because the test design will immediately dictate to a large degree what kind of teaching method and lesson content is approved of by Korean English teachers and language learners . . .
I also suspect that this will lead to a reduction in the cancellations of native English speaker classes because the students will want that precious ONE CLASS PER WEEK time with us wherein they can have access to all the things we bring to the classroom that most Korean English teachers cannot.
Finally, I do have to say that while I’m a bit down because my Halloween culture lesson with craft activity didn’t get taught to about half of my classes my current school situation is still the best I’ve ever had in Korea. I think that what’s really happened here for me is that the problems with scheduling and my Halloween lesson reminded me of what used to happen at other schools I taught at in 2005 and 2006. The current situation is NOTHING like what I went through then, and thinking about this now is helping me stay positive and motivated.
I will say, though, that when one of my co-teachers came to me Friday morning 10 minutes before our class began to suggest that I could teach my Halloween culture lesson to the next class because none of the students in it had been in other classes that did experience it—well, let’s just say I was a little frustrated. I looked at her and said, “I don’t have any candy here for the power point and trick or treat content; I’ve prepared a substitute lesson to use instead” . . .
It’s hard for me to consider but looking back at this situation now I failed to realize that she was really taking the initiative in coming to me and pointing out that I could still salvage one of the classes that missed my Halloween culture lesson. I failed to acknowledge that she was taking a VERY active interest in my classes and the content, and that she really cares about helping me co-teach my classes and problem solving when things happen.
Next week I’m going to tell her that I really appreciated her taking the time and effort to try and reduce the damage that was done to the prep time I’d put into my lesson.
I also gave up way too quickly when I realized that many of my classes would not be able to do the Halloween lesson because of students being moved around. If I’d taken the time there might have been a few other classes that also could have done the lesson–but I just wrote the whole thing off as not doable. I think I also might have unconsciously not wanted to investigate this problem solving method, though, because it would have meant a second kind of disappointment if all of the classes had been changed.
Oh well. Writing about this has given me a few ideas about how I can deal with it better next time, and hopefully it won’t happen too many times this year.
Like I said, my school situation this year is VERY different, and I should add that the set of Korean English co-teachers I’m working with are fantastic.
Here’s hoping that November and December go well.
J
Earlier I wrote 3 posts about my Halloween culture lesson and my experiences decorating classrooms in Korea. Here are the links . . .
Halloween Classroom Decorations — Looking back at 2005 and my first Halloween lesson in Korea
Shopping For Halloween Decorations at Lotte Mart, Seoul Station
Carving jack-o-lanterns with my co-teacher — Co-teaching . . . it ain’t just in the classroom.
The high school boys have been responding pretty positively to the Halloween culture lesson and craft activity. We’ve been putting up the different vocabulary craft items they make in class. Creative, imaginative, artsy type activities are NOT a common classroom language learning experience, let alone a common learner experience in other subjects as well, in South Korea. This is an unfortunate side-effect of the exam/test-myopia that plagues the entire education system in Korea, and it severely impacts that teaching and learning styles that are practiced. Fortunately for most native English teachers one of the positive aspects of our classes not being tested is that we have a lot more freedom to do things that are not in direct support of the extreme tests-are-the-only-thing-that-matters-therefore-we-only-do-test-related-things-in-class . . .
In this picture you can see the yarn spider web that the boys helped me put up and attach to the four ceiling fans. At the front are the results of the craft activity with scissors and color paper.
Here’s a closer look . . . You can see the two jack o lanterns that my co-teacher and I carved this past Monday.
I strongly encourage the boys to be creative and let their imaginations loose while making the Halloween crafts.
As you can see in this picture, one of the boys added his own special details to a ghost . . . lol.
When I asked the boy who made this ghost to explain some of the details his response was, “Nike ghost.” I have to wonder, however, about one particular aspect of this ghost in its lower regions . . . and I decided not to pursue the matter further . . . ignorance is bliss, ignorance is bliss . . . lol.
Overall I’ve been very happy with the success of my Halloween culture and craft activity lesson with the high school boys. I’ve heard from a few other foreign teachers that work with boys that they had some resistance and lack of interest in the craft stage of their lessons . . . I’m happy to say that that hasn’t been the case so far over the course of Monday and Tuesday’s classes.
I can’t wait to see what else the boys come up with over the course of the week. I’ll post pics of the more interesting and unique items that they produce.
J
My primary co-teacher and I finally got around to carving our pumpkins. It was her first time carving so she was very excited, and I have to admit I was too. We set up in a room adjacent to the teachers office . . .
Earlier we had gone to the school cafeteria to borrow two knives, two massive spoons, and a cutting board. The spoons came in very handy later when we had to scoop out all the pumpkin insides. Before carving we drew our jack o lantern face designs. This one is mine.
Is it just me or do I look just a weeeee bit too happy to be stabbing something with a big knife, lol.
This is my I’m-gutting-a-pumpkin-don’t-mess-with-me-I’m-an-English-teacher-face . . . lol.
I believe Dexter might call this ‘wall art’ . . . hehehe.
Awwww, co-teaching at its finest. Two knives, two pumpkins, and two English teachers . . .
Oh yeah, here’s my co-teacher’s jack o lantern design.
The exit hole for all the pumpkin guts. Normally this hole is on top of the pumpkin where the stem is but these pumpkins were so small that my co-teacher suggested we use the top as the face–excellent suggestion.
My jack o lantern in process . . . cutting the teeth is extremely difficult because if you slip you can slice into the tooth you’re trying to carve into the face. I think I did a pretty good job.
My co-teacher did very well. Her design was creative, and she handled the large knife like a pro. I need to remember not to piss her off, lol.
I will say I was disappointed that she didn’t scoop out the pumpkin guts with her hands–THAT would have been funny to watch as I imagine the facial contortions and “OTIKE! OTIKE!” (“OH MY GOD!”) would have been highly entertaining.
My jack o lantern . . . ohhhh, scary!
My co-teacher’s jack o lantern–ohhh, cute!
Co-teaching . . . it ain’t just in the classroom. Think about it.
Coming soon . . . pictures of the English classroom with today’s Halloween lesson craft activity results up on the walls.
J
Kimchi Icecream 