Teach English in South Korea, World English Service Ltd.


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Employment Contracts : Work Hours & Shifts :
	The Split-Shift Factor The Kindergarten Factor Class Preparation & Planning	Assessment & Homework Reporting to Parents Extra or Special Classes	Phone Teaching

Reporting to Parents

Personal interviews may happen during an open day and be considered paid time. The writing of reports and written evaluations are not usually included in your paid class time. It is a good idea to learn how to make observation comments during class time when you are actually working with a child and then transfer these easily to the official report card. If you have over 100 students it can become a difficult time consuming task if you are suddenly asked to write comments on children you may only see one hour a week.

REMEMBER: Protocol is important! You do not know more than the Director at any time, and if you actually feel you know a lot better, it has to be delivered in a very careful way that makes it sound as if it was the Directors thoughts to start with. One thing that really annoys Director is to have the foreign teacher telling them how to run the school or place the students.

Many times you find you are ?banging your head against the wall? and getting nowhere when you find a ?low ability? child in your class who does not match the other students.

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Remember the director has authorised this child?s placement according to the parent?s requests and Korean Hierarchy protocol. For example, it is very embarrassing for a male student of 12 yrs to be placed in a class of 10 yr old students no matter what his ability is. Also rumour and gossip does go around the school community about the teachers in the school and many times a parent may specifically request their child is put in your care, even if you don?t really want them in your class!

The following will be the most likely ways of ?official reporting?:

At certain times of the year you will be requested to write a simple report card for each student. You will not have to write more than one or two ?easy to read? English sentences and possibly enter a grade of attainment and effort.
You will be asked to talk to a parent during a personal interview time arranged by the school. This is usually for only a few minutes and you are not required to go into attainment details. The parent will be mainly looking to see if you have respect and understanding for their child and also know the attainment of their child. It is important you correctly identify the child to the parent as the worst ?glitch? possible is to not know the child?s connection to the parent. Remember the child will be working in your class with an English name. Be prepared and know the Korean name of your student as well.
You will be asked to speak on the phone for a short time to a parent and make the obligatory ?nice comments? to the parent.
You might be asked to meet with the director and the parent in the office. In situations like this, the parent may have serious concerns regarding either the learning level or the behavior or attitude of their child. You could be sitting in on meeting with a parent about to withdraw the student from the school. Be advised this is a good time to be humble and caring with positive affirmations and listen to what is being said. Most likely it will not make sense ,or you will feel the information is wrong, BUT do not make a public stand, especially in front of the director. Remember each student is "money" for their business and your job needs to be secure and without stress.

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