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 like this part, too, about the reflection session:
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.
LiteraryHero gave his thoughts on his blog; an excerpt:
Every high school teacher working for SMOE had the delightful chance to go to Korea University today for a coteaching seminar. Well, I say we had the chance, but in actuality, it was mandatory. The beautiful thing about this seminar is that it is not only exactly the same as every other seminar we have attended, we are also learning about coteaching without our coteachers. Effective, that. So we hear all the same stuff that we have always heard about how to be effective, how to bridge the coteacher gap, and how to survive in Korea. This last is funny, because I would guess that half of the people in attendance were part of the first batch of high school teachers who joined with me back a year and a half ago. If they haven't figured out how to survive in Korea by now, well...they need more help than a simple seminar can offer.
He goes on to say:
[E]ven if I wanted to express my issues with my situation, when we got together to do our mini presentations, there was no one there to listen to us! The entire thing was pointless, and I would have had a better time urinating on an electrical socket.
The blogger Teaching English in South Korea shared her thoughts on a district-wide seminar this month as well, though Tongue-Tied in Youngtong had a better experience at the GEPIK workshop.
I blogged about the prospect of these mandatory workshops, and wrote a piece in the Korea Herald about it on December 2nd. The main ideas being---and they're not only my ideas but shared by many teachers we've heard from---that teachers want practical advice, hate sitting through mandatory workshops on things they've already learned, and hate seminars that were clearly thrown together with little to no preparation or thought. Well, looking at Jason's reaction to the first day of the SMOE workshop, it sounds like the planners have gone and given teachers an introduction to Korean culture, as if they needed it: lots of stuff at school is last-minute and half-assed.
Regarding co-teaching, if that is indeed a topic they want discussed, I'll share what I wrote for the Herald on the 2nd:
Training sessions need to focus on the classroom and how English is taught, and thus need to include Korean English teachers. It's been several years since NSETs have been introduced, yet schools are still unclear about how they're to be used. With some co-teachers, NSETs work as pronunciation guides, with others they split time, and in some cases the co-teacher doesn't show up for class or workshops at all.
If co-teachers aren't at these sessions, and if there isn't an honest look at how co-teaching is done in schools---if it's done at all---then there's really no point. Native speaker English teachers are the assistants, after all, with the Korean teachers calling the shots, and a roomful of foreigners and administrative assistants aren't going to get anything done.
14 comments:
Brain said
"If co-teachers aren't at these sessions, and if there isn't an honest look at how co-teaching is done in schools---if it's done at all---then there's really no point. Native speaker English teachers are the assistants, after all, with the Korean teachers calling the shots, and a roomful of foreigners and administrative assistants aren't going to get anything done."
I agree with you that Korean teachers need to be more involved in the planning of our implementation... but having them at these seminars would only mess them up even more.
In my district we used to have monthly meetings with all the NSET's and KET's and the meeting always ended up as a way for the KET's to practice speaking English while the NSET's wondered what the hell was happening on stage.
We all have to have a college degree to get here, right? Why not treat us like we're intelligent and educated people capable of STUDYING and LEARNING?
Brain? Ouch, I'll never escape.
But you're right, there's the potential for that. When we had meetings for winter camps, half was in English, half was in Korean. Surely a collection of English teachers could have an entire session in English?
Of course having Korean English teachers there would be all part of the "putting thought into this" thing . . . thing, and taking an honest look at what coteaching is and means. But, on second thought, there's not much point in that. Even if a workshop comes to a good agreement on what coteaching should be, there's no directive from above to make it so. It's still a free-for-all for each school.
Mike,
All too often the KETs are NOT the ones calling the shots--they're standing in the back of the classroom looking lost and confused.
One fundamental problem is in the teacher training systems and how Korean English teachers are trained vs. how native English teachers are trained. I think it's pretty safe to generalize (and this is based on my own experience in the 6 month TEE programs as an instructor, and while at a national uni of ed too) the KETs are not trained in the same manner as NETs in EFL/ESL/CELTA/TESOL programs because the the TESTING SYSTEM and textbooks are from two different galaxies!
The testing system locks KETs into teaching with a translation grammar-based style and when a NET walks in with a communicative language EFL/ESL method there's a clash of pedagogies...this is probably why workshops and training sessions don't try to put us all in the same room and why no one has really designed a comprehensive co-teaching methodology for Korea--until this issue is resolved I don't know if it's even possible to design a co-teaching methodology.
Add to the mix the gross lack of cross-cultural awareness on both NETs and KETs sides with the strictly authoritarian hierarchies in the schools....is it possible for 'co-teaching' to even take place in Korea when 'co' or 'team' implies a united pairing of two teachers working together? I imagine many Korean teachers can't conceptualize negotiating power between a NET--who is inferior--and teaching choices and lesson planning choices because the socio-cultural reality of a Korean school and classroom is one in which the life long career KET has to maintain their social status with the other Korean teachers, and more importantly with their students....native teachers and co-teaching, in many ways, are a direct threat to KETs and how they have to exist in Korean school culture...
Anyways, definitely food for thought on this issue....
In my district, last year, they tried to have KETs come to one of the meetings, but many didn't show up.
This year, the KET were more told to go, and had to sign in.
But the workshop was poorly done, so KETs complained.
I think part of the reason KETs aren't there is because the organizers know that the presentation is an embarrassment. With no KETs there, that problem is more invisible.
I don't think it's just workshops for NSETs that are done so poorely, I'm pretty sure the abysmal level of preparation and usefulness also extends to workshops for Korean teachers.
Against my better judgment, I volunteered to go to a Korean teacher workshop on the preparation of English teaching materials. I've gone to a few of these in the past, and always left wondering why the presenters didn't hang themselves in shame.
I was the only non-Korean at the most recent one, and had to sit for two hours while an older teacher who obviously didn't know her way around a computer, labored to show us how to make animated PowerPoint slides. This was interspersed with horribly broken English - I assume for my benefit - and forced participation from the audience (a microphone thrust into your hands followed by a demanding "TALK!").
To make matters worse, that very lady demanded to drive me home so she could quiz me on how wonderful and useful her presentation was.
It's a really daunting outlook on education here when I - someone without a degree in education - feel more capable than a fair number of teachers here.
I'm glad this point was brought up. I actually meant to blog about this point but was just lazy.
Last week I attended a massive EPIK training course in Gyeongju. The training was alright. I picked up a lot of good ideas, but I think that there are a lot of things that could have done to be made better.
First is a point made by my roommate, a retired teacher from America. All of the lectures were done by people who were teachers from other schools. While most of them did an excellent job, my roommate pointed out that a little more money could have been spent to bring over actuall TEFL professors and put the hours spent at the training course towards an actuall credential that could be used in another country.
EPIK, SMOE, and GEPIK, could actually try to accredit themselves as teacher training courses and hours spent at these nausiating training courses could eventually result in a TESOL, or TEFL certificate. That way there would be a lot less grumbling against attending these things.
Somehow I suspect the point isn't to actually make better teachers. It sounds good to say that your native English-speaking teachers are being required to attend a conference, where improvement is relative, attendance by the NEST's is mandatory, and the powers-that-be can say or do anything they want.
I'm waiting for a 'You Lie!' moment at one of these mandatory meetings. An earnest question forcing the powers-that-be off their scripted response or their talking points. Not at your fellow teachers, of course, but those in charge who think these are actually useful.
From my own experience, being in GEPIK for 4 months, my orientation was not helpful at all, and my co-teacher, even though he is a nice guy, has no idea what's going on.
I survived a countryside, middle of nowhere hagwon for 3 years, but after 4 months in a GEPIK school, I have given my 60 days notice to resign.
The workshops that I have been forced to attend were a major embarrassment.
The first one was at a hotel around the Suwon area. It was a 2 day affair back in 2006 I think by the evening it had devolved into a big frat party with the younger crow, resulting in one of the hotel rooms getting totaled with a fire extinguisher.
The next day the hotel was rather ****ssed off about their room. They called the police and the hosts said that whoever damaged the room should admit it in private after the presentation. I don't know if anyone came forward.
The next year I had to go to another workshop, this time not in the hotel because of what happened last year. It was at Everland this time and just for one day.
The same guest speakers were there again that year, giving exactly the same presentations, right down to the same jokes.
I've been working for these guys for 5 years and I've just about had enough now as well. I'm looking for a better job this summer.
Was just at a seminar like that in a hotel and a room got trashed with a fire extinguisher.
Maybe the fire extinguisher room trashing party has become an annual tradition.
Maybe they should have a workshop about it.
The best workshop I ever attended featured a model lesson given by a NET who happened to have a kick-ass lesson plan. She hadn't met the students before doing the model lesson, and it took place in a normal classroom - except that there were 30 extra people (the audience), sitting at the back. She did the whole lesson without a KET's assistance. It was more realistic than one of the rehearsed-for-weeks, KET-leads-the-whole-thing presentations.
The worst was done by a girl who had been in Korea for all of 6 weeks, had never taught before and who hadn't ever used the textbook - had just made the lesson up for the presentation, which was mostly ruled by the KET anyway. Poor thng: She was presenting to a group of people who had all been in the country for 2+ years.
While in Korea, I gave a few workshops to incoming teachers. For the most part, they went well, although there was always one group who couldn't care less, were too hungover to pay attention, or were over-confident on how much they knew (Ya, good presentation, but you know, I just graduated with a teaching degree, so I, like, already knew it all, you know). Inevitably, these were the people who flooded my inbox a month later with requests for lesson plans, ideas and advice.
Most teachers continue to upgrade their skills no matter which country they are teaching in, so workshops and training sessions are something you can expect to up to retirement. The point is to make it useful, relevant, and for it to respond to the actual needs of the situation.
I'm filled with both vindication and dread. The 5 days I have to surrender to this malarkey next month are going to be sorely felt, I'm sure. The "workshop" will likely be much less useful than the not-at-all-useful meeting in Gwangju last year. I can see doing this sort of thing for incoming teachers, I guess, but people that have been here a year have either figured out what to do or they weren't/won't be rehired. In either case what's the use?
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