Class Stupidity

As many of you know, I work at an all boys, public, middle school. I work 9-5 and generally do the same work as my Korean co-teachers, although I am able to do many more fun things with my classes than they are. Anyway, this semester the Office of Education (I’m not sure if it’s the one in Seoul, or in Jeollanamdo) has decided that all the English teachers must “open their classes.” This basically means a lot of extra paperwork, and on specific days parents, teachers, and the supervisors can come into your classroom and observe while you are teaching. So normally, if I wasn’t in Korea, I would say this sounds like a good idea. I would actually like feedback on my teaching methods since I’m such a new teacher and all. But in Korea this idea takes on an entirely different meaning. Basically it’s all for show, just one big charade that totally fucks up my day/week and causes my students a lot of stress. People just wander in and out of the classroom, talking amongst themselves and distracting the students. Usually the students are “prepped” for these classes, they are given the material before hand and we have to run through what we’re going to do the week before just so they are prepared. After my first open class I have refused to do this though. Why? Because it totally fucks up the rhythm of the lesson. Not to mention only five parents came to my first open class, anyway.

What really pisses me off about this situation is that they changed my schedule so that I can have three open classes back to back on Monday morning next week. All low level classes. In general, I’m not sure why I teach these classes anyway, the students don’t know English. They basically refuse to learn it. So we play games, I teach them basic vocabulary words and just generally try to entertain them for 45 minutes a week. So WTF do the parents and supervisors want from me? Who knows. But I’ll bet they’ll be expecting their students to speak English in my “conversation” class. Well, they don’t. Sorry. I get it; my co-workers don’t want to open their classes so they changed my schedule so that my classes will be open and they can just stand in the back, translating when necessary. This is how it works in Korea.

Today I asked one of my co-teachers why we have to do the open classes. He said, because the office of education said so. I said, I know, but WHY? What is the purpose? He said he didn’t know. Hey, I went to college, I can think critically about things, I just can’t figure out what the point of these open classes is.

Next month I have an open class where all the native speakers and Korean English teachers in my area will come observe my class. They will probably miss classes to do that. Afterward I will not be assessed in anyway, instead the Korean teachers and supervisor will have a meeting, all in Korean about who knows what, while the native speakers just chat. It's a complete waste of everyone’s time.

This semester, in all, I will have four open classes. These classes are a total waste. They just can't allow things to go on without stressing out as many people as they can. If they haven't stressed enough people out that week or month they feel like they're not doing their jobs. If anyone knows why the fuck we’re doing them, let me know!