EPIK Co-Teachers

I'm working at one school and have two co-teachers. They are both very different and have different teaching styles. One is a male and one is a female. I get on better with the male, but the female is my main co-teacher. They are both helpful, but the male is just more friendly and relaxed. They are also both young and good at English. The female seems to feel a little more threatened by me and really really insists on teaching the classes with BOTH of us.. which is completely fine, but sometimes it seems a bit like trying to over-top me, or i feel weird correcting her on something. The male teacher is much more relaxed and translates for me and wants to be involved, but not in a way that makes me feel like he's trying to out-authority me in the classroom! The male teacher though doesn't seem to punish the kids as strictly as the female. I think this is frustrating at times and wish he would do a little more!

On matters outside of school though, I'm Korean and speak/etc, so don't really need/use the co-teachers for anything outside of school, so i can't really comment on that!

I have three co-teachers, all of them female and in their late twenties. They've all been a great help and always offer me assistance, even when they themselves have extremely busy schedules. Admittedly, I've become a bit too over-dependent on them for managing classroom discipline. Their classroom management styles are radically different.

My main co-teacher usually expects me to take control of the class and she simply gives herself a supporting role. I do most of the talking in class and she'll only translate when absolutely necessary. She's remarkably popular with the students, so when she does actually reprimand the students, they will listen to her.

The second co-teacher often does not hesitate using corporal punishment, which sometimes can be a bit disruptive of the class flow. Earlier, she would always translate everything I say and often change around the rules of class activities suddenly in the middle of them, but now for some reason she mostly seems to act simply as a supporting role.

The third co-teacher can instill a bit of an authoritarian presence. With a few menacing taps of the stick on the desk and a very annoyed expression, she can get students to shut up though she doesn't actually use corporal punishment. She always translates everything I say.

When it comes to co-teachers, I got the short stick. It’s taken me two and a half months to admit this, even to myself, but after much consideration, I have to say that I’d be better off without him a lot of the time.

I work in only one middle school, my co-teacher (the one “in charge” of me) is in his late thirties/early forties, and thinks that he’s gods gift to English education. I think he’s an asshole – excuse my language, hope it doesn’t offend anyone, but he is. He likes to put on these airs of being so great because he spent a month or two in the US on some exchange program, but really he’s the worst teacher at the school. His students have the worst grades of any of my six other team-teachers.

That however, is not my main issue with him. Since the day I have arrived he’s tried to pretend to be nice and to “take care” of me, until I really need something then he has no idea what is going on and tries to just tell me to accept things. “This is the way it is in Korea,” or “you must do this,” or “you must listen to me,” more recently I have been having trouble with him regarding my pay and clarifications on the deductions that are being taken.

In September I got paid one amount and in October I got paid less. When I tried to find out why, he told me “this is just how much you will get paid now.” Sorry, but that is an unacceptable answer in my books. When I pushed him to get me a pay slip he tried to convince me that I don’t need one. Then he told me all of the amounts deducted were normal, which they are not. I don’t know a single other ESL teacher in Korea who has to pay unemployment insurance, do you? He tried to tell me that when the year is over I can claim it, which is a load of crap, I am not allowed to claim Korean unemployment, I’m here on a contract, and when that contract is up, my visa expires and I have to leave the country.

It has been over a week since I asked for a pay slip and I still don’t have one. I finally had to get the supervisor of my province’s English teachers program on the phone. He has assured me that I would have a pay slip in a few days and if not to call him back.

This is only one of the reasons I call him an asshole.

This morning I woke up feeling terrible. I didn’t sleep all night because my throat was so sore that I kept waking up, I also had a fever and the sickest headache I’ve ever had. So, I went to school this morning because I didn't know how to call in sick, and I knew I needed to go to the doctor - thus I was in need of a Korean. Too bad for me that the one I have to go to is my co-teacher.

When he finally got in (he's always late) he told me to go rest in the ladies room (we have a room for female teachers to sleep in when needed) and after something - pictures? I’m not sure what he was talking about, I was pretty out of it – he would take me to the doctor. Well, he forgot about me and left me there for two hours. At least I was able to get a little sleep, though it's hard with screaming kids running around outside.

So, I finally went and told him I needed to go to the doctor. He said he would take me, though he acted as though he were my savior and as if he were going out of his way. The doctor told me that I have tonsillitis, and that I should rest for a few days. He gave me a prescription to fill, and the mandatory “shot” that you get at the doctors. We were on our way; he would take me to the pharmacy and drive me home.

Of course, being Korean, he illegally parked while we were at the doctor's - it's not my place to tell him not to, last time I did that he told me that it was ok...and to never mind. Well, this time he got a ticket.

He couldn't wrap his head around it, a ticket? A ticket? “What do you think about this ticket?” he actually asked me that. I said, "Are you kidding? I can barely speak and you're asking me what I think of this ticket? It’s a ticket." Then he said, "Well I think you should pay for half of it." To which I replied, "this isn't the time, are you serious?" The doctor just told him that I needed to get home and get to bed and stay there, no stress, no work... and he's asking me about a parking ticket? WTF? Then he says, “Well, if you don't want to pay for it, then I’m just going to go back to school now and you can walk home.” At which point he pointed at the door as if to say ‘get out of my car.’ So I called him an asshole and walked home.

Am I over-reacting here? This is not the first time that he has done something like this to me, but I would have to write a short novella if I wanted to tell you everything… the first time he brought me to sauna and napped in the same cubby hole as me (within 15 hours of arriving), the time he asked me how many men I’ve slept with, the two times he sent me to immigration by myself, the times that he’s tried to make me feel like I was indebted to him for him doing his job… I can keep going here...

I am friends’ with several other Korean co-teachers in my city and friends of mine have told their co-teachers about mine, and they all seem appalled by his complete indifference and lack of ability. I don’t want to make it seem like all co-teachers are like this, I don’t think that they are, like I said, I just got the short stick.

Questions? Comments?

I teach at two schools and have a co-teacher at each one who serves as my liason.

One school is Jungang Elementary School (중앙초등학교 - 中央初等學校) in Jeju-shi, Jeju-do. One of my co-teachers is great and invites me out things outside of school, such as dinner and or tea. She also helps me out at school from showing me where and how to make faxes to helping me understand the Korean directions in the teacher's manual to my class textbooks.

I team-teach my English classes with 6 Korean teachers, including my co-teacher. Two of my team-teachers are great and have very good control of the class, using a combination of rewards, clap-responses, and punishment. Teaching these students is always great fun.

Two of my team-teachers are OK at class control and don't seem to care as much about teaching as the ones who have better control. One of them apparently doesn't like kids too much. Teaching with them is fun and their students are, in general, well-behaved.

Two of my teacher's are 24 and have not been teaching long. Subsequently, they do not have as much control over their classes and there are more disturbances. Their classes are generally the most difficult at Jungang.

The teachers at Jungang all speak English well enough for us to communicate, though one of them is not as good as the others.

My other school is Samsung Elementary School (삼성초등학교 - 三星初等學校), also in Jeju-shi.

My co-teacher at this school is also the head teacher, and the only English teacher for the 5th and 6th grades. He is very kind to me and I feel like he would help me out whenever I needed it. He took me out to dinner once in the 2.5 months I have been here and that is the only time I saw him outside of school functions.

He does no preparation for class and jumps around in each lesson, even though the 4 parts of each lesson are supposed to build upon one another. For the first two months, he would teach and have me sit in a chair next to his desk, in front of the class. Sometimes he would tell me to have the students listen and repeat after me.

He has been having me teach by myself for the past 2 weeks, but not telling me I will be teaching alone until we are on the way to class. Consequently, I have not been able to prepare anything. I once sent him a text message saying that I would like to prepare a lesson plan so would he please tell me what page he is on but I received no response. Class has been difficult and the students have been short-changed with their English education.

I will have a conversation tomorrow with him about creating a schedule so I know what section of the book I will be teaching beforehand and prepare lesson plans and supplementary materials.

I teach with one other Korean teacher at Samseong. We teach 4th grade together and she is good about making class fun and preparing resources outside of the book, such as flashcards and alphabet practice sheets. Her kids are well-behaved for 4th graders, though some of them crawl on the floor during class.

The head teacher has an MA in English or American literature and communication is not a problem. The other teacher speak enough English for us to communicate fine, as long as I keep the vocab simple.

Over all, I think I am very luck with how things turned out, even though one school has been difficult. 

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  I have a "co-teacher," but I don't teach any classes with him.  He teaches 2nd grade, and I teach 1st grade in high school.  He is very helpful, except he doesn't always answer my questions. 

  My school had another EPIK teacher whom I replaced and she wanted to have the classroom to herself.  So, I was thrust into a situation not of my own making.  Luckily, my so-called 'co-teachers' did come to my classes at the beginning, but gradually have stopped.  Some just escort the girls (yep, all girl high school) to class, stay for 10 min. and then disappear.

  Most frustrating was discovering I had to create my own lesson plans.  I asked for meetings with my class co-teachers to discuss how to supplement their lessons, but was told not to bother.  I haven't even had any sort of conversation with all of them!  So, this semester has been rather stressful at times.

  I'm looking forward to the winter break when I can really go hunting for a text book to use in class.  I've been told by my head co-teacher that I find a book I want to use, they will let the students know to buy it!  A direct quote from him, "It is better for you this first semester to create your own lesson plans.  For the next semester, you can look for a text book to use."  Thankfully, only a month left - and I can do some really fun things!