Just a small rant about how mommies run the schools here!

Okay so I’m still in Korea for another 4 days, it’s a good thing I’m leaving otherwise I would of quit my job on the spot. I got yelled at on Friday for playing games in class, games that are in the textbook to be meant as learning experiences.

Let me take you back to the moment, it is Friday afternoon and I am in class waiting for a few stragglers to show up, so the kids and I who are there starting playing a card game that they love while we wait for the kids who are late ( I know that they will arrive within the next 10 minutes or so as they are always late ) anyway so after about 10 minutes they start to wander in and so I tell the 3 kids who are playing cards that after this hand they will have to stop so we can start the class, well 2 seconds after that the last student arrives with his mom right behind him and she sees that we are playing cards and goes off to find my supervisor. Man was I mad, anyway so at the break I get this call that Scarlett wants to talk to me so off I go to find her.

Let it be said now that this parent has been a thorn in my side since I started teaching her son, she claims that I don’t give enough homework, a change from home that’s for sure, I have never heard a parent in Canada express concern at the lack of homework, anyway back to my story.

So I go to find Scarlett and she informs that this parent is unhappy, so I tell her what was happening and that I think that it is unfair that she just walks into my class and makes a judgment about my teaching from a 2 second window of watching. She tells me that another parent (she won’t tell me who) has complained too about us playing games. Yes I said I play scrabble with my kids, all my kids whose English level is high enough and they love it, they usually beat me, (can you imagine a parent complaining about scrabble). We also play hangman, Simon says and a version of concentration along with all the games that are in the text book ( in my level 1 book the word game appears 30 times, I counted after). So if you don’t want kids going home and saying that we played games than you’ll have to change out textbook!

I told here that game is a broad term, the kids here think that anything that does not involve a worksheet is a game, even puzzles. If she had a problem with way that I taught then I would stop but that she would have to provide me with enough materials to keep the kids busy that did not involve games ( a joke because the materials at our school are horrible). She quickly back tracked and told me that she would talk to the parent again and I should just try to avoid the word game.

Then at the break she told me that I had to juggle the kids around in some of my classes because some parents wanted friends to be together, no concern for their abilities or level, the moms want them in the same class and so we will accommodate. It was a bad day.

It is a good thing I’m leaving cause otherwise I would of quit on the spot! So that’s my rant for today, I am off to meet Lexi, I think we should go shopping!