Observation again

Another observation today, this time from my branch Manager. She is new to my school but not the company. I can't say if she's good or bad at her job, just that things have been less organised since she started. However, she started as we were moving buildings so she's had to deal with a lot of new situations.

At the same time as the building move and manager change we stated teaching some different classes. We've now moved back to teaching Middle school students reading classes. So far, so bad. It's got nothing to do with the students but the articles we're covering are either too hard, not relevant to the kids or both.

So of course, the manager is watching only reading classes this week - watching my worst/funniest student. The lessons are fairly easy to teach but you do need to plan a bit more in order to give the students as much guidance as possible. It will take a few months to get into a grove but I think the classes are OK. I am not concerned about how my class goes as I am doing what we've been told to do so far but I'm hoping for feedback this time.

Never trust your students

After a few cancellations I had my final observation from my manager two weeks ago. She arrived before classes and would be watching my first. I was happy with this as it was a lesson I had taught the previous day twice so I knew what I was doing. And because they are one of my youngest but brightest, enthusiastic, creative and are enjoyable to teach. Yes they were my favourite class.

I rolled into class expecting everything to go well. I did everything the manager wanted which was basically repeat, correct, give everyone their chance to speak and try and make the class fun. And then I was thrown under the bus by the students.

Betrayed by five boys who should know better and who I've always tried my best to help whist making every class as enjoyable as I can! Perhaps I exaggerate but they really let me down and embarrassed me with their bad timing. So what did they do? Mocking me, parroting me, making ridiculous sentences and shouting out answers when it was someone else's turn, making fun of my questions and the repeating we did. I am relieved that there was no contract riding on this.

Doesn't sound like much but it was obvious at the time that they were doing this deliberately for a joke. All of those things they had never done before and won't do again. There was also little I could do because the previous branch manager had watered down the teachers capacity to deal with things like this. I let them know several times that this was out of order as I tried to manage the situation. If the manager was not watching me, then I would have dealt with this easily but I didn't do it so well because quite frankly I was shocked at their behaviour.

With about fifteen minutes left the manager left and the atmosphere changed. They stopped being silly as they knew I was not happy with them. Oh students! After the class I let them know they had done something wrong. I didn't punish them or shout at them but I was really disappointed. Now the class has changed. Three of the five have moved to another group and someone else now has the 'pleasure' of their company and I am left with a great bunch of kids again.

Otherwise the class went OK. Despite one horrible grammar explanation of mine I did what was wanted from the particular class. I didn't expect a good write up but I could live with that as I'm going in a few months. got the evaluation last week and it was not as good as my previous one but was probably better than average. I got some decent comments and the evaluation was positive and fair. But never trust your students. Et tu brute?

Observation day

Today I am being observed again. Every year we have two observations from our real boss, a Westerner who evaluates teaching staff, handles curriculum, deals with teaching questions and also has a significant say on contract extensions.

This is my third manager and I have to say the previous one was great at her job. I think I am biased because she gave me some good marks on the evaluations especially my last one which I do not think is possible for me to beat. I don't know the new manager well so it's a bit of a step into the unknown. The mantra that she is looking for though is repeat, repeat repeat. I can do that.

Half of me feels that I shouldn't be observed because I've been here a long time and am leaving in five months so there is no carrot of a contract being dangled before me. But being observed from time to time is a good thing. All teachers are prone to fall into habits whilst teaching and some of these can be bad. I know that I do some things that head office doesn't necessarily want me to so it's healthy to get back to basics and spend more time preparing.

I didn't sleep too well last night. I'm a little nervous and I know that doesn't make sense. Perhaps nervous is not quite the right word. There's a little bit of apprehension and excitement which I hope will give me the energy to do well. I've built up enough credit to last me for my remaining time here but I do want to show what I can do. Who wants to look bad in front of their boss? Also, as I've got the most experience at my academy shouldn't I be the one who can do this easily?

I don't like being watched though. I'm not the same person when someone from 'outside' is in the classroom. Neither are the students. I like to joke around in class, have fun with students, tease some and in general like to make the kids feel so relaxed that they can express themselves without being nervous. I don't think that will be possible today.

My previous manager would ask what class I would like to have observed but that's not the case today. I know it's one of the first four but more likely not my first class. Over those four periods I teach two lessons twice so preparation is not an issue. Classes one, two and four - no problem, great kids, enthusiastic and fun. Class three, oh dear. There is one boy who is considered to be the worst student at my academy and though I like him, he causes trouble, distracts others and worst of all speaks Korean a lot.

At least there is no pressure on me so this should make me feel relaxed when the time comes. As long as I try my best, prepare and don't make any big mistakes things should be fine and whatever will be will be. I'll be glad when it's out of the way and can move on with my remaining five months. However, we have a new manager at my branch and it's a certainty that she'll be watching everyone's classes over the next few weeks too.

On a side note I won't be going to the big Christmas party that my academy is holding. A few months ago It was suggested that it would be mandatory but in the end that didn't turn out to be true. After some thinking on the matter I decided that going would be OK and maybe fun so I asked if my wife could go with me, as did a lot of other teachers at other branches. On Saturday we got an email telling us that nobody is able to bring a partner.

I understand that and accept it after all my wife doesn't work at the same company as I do so why should she get a free lunch etc, etc but letting everyone know just one week before Christmas is poor. It would have been nice to have gone with my wife because she knows a few of my co-workers and some staff at other branches but it's not to be. Now we're going to have a nice Christmas at home with me cooking and I think we're going to have a great day of eating and drinking.

Long day at work

Yesterday, full of ups and downs and some in between. Starting with taekwondo where we continue to practice for the test on the 26th. After our session I went home to finish my bi-monthly student reports. These are easy to do as they are filled out on-line and don't usually involve any typing. I've managed to finish mine four days before their due date so I can now have a work free weekend.

Unfortunately I didn't have much time to myself in the afternoon because there was a work meeting for the foreign teachers. This was pretty straight forward but I think it was a good idea for this to take place as we have a new teacher at our branch and it's always good to brush up things. It lasted an hour and it highlighted a few things I was doing wrong but also reminded me that mainly, I am doing what they are asking me to.

After that there was hardly any preparation for my days classes but my first class was being observed my foreign manager (basically my boss - my branch manager is not really my boss). I got to choose the class being evaluated and chose my first and they didn't let me down. I think things went well, I did what she wanted to hear and am expecting a decent write-up. I'll be shocked if it's ultra critical.

And then onto the rest of the day. Elementary school kid numbers were down on the day as many were preparing for Fridays big school test. This meant that things were more relaxed and I actually got to play a few games with some kids. I had only two Middle school classes and numbers were down greatly due to two reasons, firstly because they are studying for exams again and some have class exemption and secondly because of the World Cup game against Argentina. On occasions like this with four and three students in class I play a straight bat and go through all the material in class as normal. The kids don't want to be there and I don't want to be either and from experience, doing the work ends up being 'less painful' as a lesson than playing a game that they are 'too good for'.

Classes were punctured with screams of joy and encouragement as people in the neighbourhood watched the game and cheered on Korea. Those kids who missed class and got to watch the game might well have wished they didn't as Argentina won 4-1. As they bell to end the last class sounded many of us gathered round a PC to watch a stream of the game. We managed to watch the last twenty minutes which was all Argentina. At work yesterday most of my Korean co-workers were decked out in red to support their nation. The atmosphere was really good in the teachers room.

Prior to the World Cup starting I had mixed feelings about how well I wanted Korea to do. Now I really want them to go as far as they can because of my wife. She has really enjoyed watching the games. It would be great for her to see her team to win some more games.

However, I can't help think that some Koreans (I don't mean my co-workers here) set themselves up for a fall. I feel that at times expectations are a little too high. People can become overly optimistic based not on reality but on misguided hope and in the face of evident facts. Hope is an essential quality to have as a human being but realism is important too. They still regularly show the games on TV from the 2002 World Cup where Korea made the semi-finals. I think this raises expectations a little too much.

Highs here can sometimes be too high and lows too low but perhaps this can be said of most nations. They do support their country fervently and that's something very positive I find. I hope people here are not too deflated, pick themselves up and get ready for their next game as they still have a great chance to qualify for the next round.

Regardless of Korea's feelings on the outcome the result means the World Cup is now alive after a lacklustre start. I am hopeing for more goals and good attacking play from here on in - though not from England. Korea play Nigeria next week in a 3:30am kick off. I will probably stay up and watch it, as it is now and will be for weeks to come. sleeping at night is a little tricky in this humidity.

Student cloning idea

Today I was being observed by my branch manager in my last class so decided to do a little extra preparation for things to go smoothly. I wasn't nervous as this happens often but didn't know how it would go, being one of my worst classes previous to the jerk leaving. I think things went well or at least that's how it seemed for me but we shall see.

One of my very basic questions was, "When you go to University what do you want to study?" and this was met with a decent answer. I thought the class was going too quickly so I asked the question to another student and he said "I want to learn how to study how to make a girlfriend." Perhaps he'd just watched Weird Science or something but everyone thought it was pretty funny.

Seeing is believing

This is pretty hard for me to believe, but whilst out on a recent bike ride I found evidence that Koreans actually learn how to drive. Based on four years worth of first hand experience I can tell you that Korean drivers rank amongst the worst in the world. They seem to have nothing but contempt and disdain for the rules of the road - I presumed they just didn't know them or that they didn't exist here. Korean drivers come in mainly three categories. Bad, terrible and slow. There are exceptions but every single day I see appalling driving and feel like I'm likely to see an accident when I'm out and about. Koreans can be very respectful and courteous people. IF they know you. If they don't, then they are prone to ignore your rights, step over you or fly past you - this is if you are a Korean or not. Nationality doesn't seem to come into it. Perhaps this is an older generation problem but younger drivers aren't so great either.



Asking my wife, she tells me that for many years people before getting a license people didn't actual have any practice on roads and they learned to drive on 'courses' such as in the picture above. This is frankly ludicrous. I passed my test about thirteen years ago and all of my (expensive) driving lessons and the test were done on the road, barring one theory test. That's really the only way you should learn. Now this has changed here (I don't know when though). Nowadays Koreans actually have to practice on roads where there is traffic. I ask myself if Koreans will improve their skills over time or will things stay the same? And how hard are these tests? Whatever driving lessons they have, surely they don't teach them to drive whilst using phones.

Observation result

I figured my observation went well. You usually know when you've made mistakes. I've just got my feedback and the write-up was better than I was hoping for. For feedback you get important comments and a marking system. There are eighteen categories of assessment and they are graded as Needs much improvement, Needs improvement, Good and Excellent. I got four good and fourteen excellent grades. Leaving me feeling pretty pleased with how I did. Hopefully I won't be bothered by any Korean teachers watching me for the foreseeable but I know that won't happen. My managers never seem pleased enough to mention with how my classes may be going. Five or six months from now I'll go through it all again but next time I won't be re-signing. Unless they offer me seriously big bucks.

Being watched

Yesterday I was observed by one of my Western managers. Though I have a Korean manager at the branch I work at, the Western manager is in effect my real boss. She decides whether or not my contract will be renewed or if I'm not doing my job well enough. Observations come every six months, give or take a few weeks even if you don't want to renew your contract.

So far I've had five meaningful observations from my managers and got good, helpful feedback on what I'm doing right and wrong. In fact my current manager is pretty good all round and always emphasises your good points. Recently the curriculum at my academy has changed. I think most teachers if not all are making some mistakes. I know I am, in particular I am not getting enough of the work finished that they want done. I felt that this was not the best time to be observed, but on the other hand if I was doing something wrong it would be better to know now than in several months from now.

Usually the manager gives you a time or a choice of what class you want her to watch. This time was different, leaving me having to prepare even more than I would normally for all of my classes. I wasn't nervous but I do wanted to do well - you never know, I could extend given the circumstances of the time. The concern for me on the day was the later classes where the students are taking longer to adjust to the new changes. However I think it went well. The class she picked was my best class of the day with only four students who are all doing well. We'll see what she really thinks when I get my feedback