Growing Pains of Co-teaching: Why doesn't my co-teacher listen to my ideas? (Part 3)

Continued from (1:Co-teaching: A Ticking Time Bomb & Top 4 rants of NETs...).

Why doesn't my co-teacher listen to my ideas?

In my experience, this was a common rant amongst NET's in my group.

 So you're the new NET in a school which doesn't yet know how to implement you into their structure.... While Korean teachers may initially, ask you to lead certain activities or offer ideas on lesson plans,  they still want the "controlling hand". Wouldn't you if you'd been teaching your own class for years?

You may come out with very good ideas, brilliant even and wonder why they're continually getting

Top 4 rants of Native English Teachers in the Classroom (Part 2)

You just moved to Korea and you already feel like you're on shaky ground. A new work environment, new life, foreign language, culture and foods... your entire world is turned upside down and being a foreigner will feel like your largest wound! When Korean Teachers dole out punishment, your being an outsider and not knowing the Korean language will surface your vulnerability-- you feel helpless, as if you have no control. What are some Korean war tactics used against the NET's in the classroom?...

Top 4 Popular rants of New Native English Teachers:

The cold shoulder (aka Ice out)
Icing out is a manipulative tactic many of us learned to use in high school, when we

Growing Pains of Co-teaching Relationships: A Ticking Time Bomb? (Part 1)

I've been going back to some of my old posts in an effort clean up and revise information I posted earlier. Reading old posts, got me thinking-- things look a lot different after you've safely crossed the initial growing pains of working out your co-teaching role in the classroom. My relationship with my co-teachers, the school system,...; things begin to make sense and become more manageable. But initially, when my  Korean co-teachers and I were both, new to the co-teaching relationship the growing pains weren't simple.

One of my very first Crazy Kimchi blogrants back in April:

I felt like my co-teacher was doing a last-minute lesson plan ditch today; she had grand and creative schemes for lesson plans, but is now just concerned with following the

Ice Breaker Games for Adult Introductions (and my first Adult English class!)

First day of my Parent's English class. I was nervous and upset--

a. My co-teacher had given me the class textbook (I ordered) that very morning, which meant...

b. I only had a small window of time after lunch to prepare a 1st Day of Class lesson plan for a 100 minute class! Yup. Unfortunately, my recycled About Me Introduction ppt presentation was not going to take a full 100 minutes.

c. I discovered during lunch that the textbooks hadn't arrived and that the parents would be without them, so...

d. I had to make handout copies of the pages I would teach and ...

c. It was at 2PM when I came to that realization (that, not having textbooks stuff) after it

Decoding my Korean workplace: an NET’s Class Schedules

When I first signed up to be a English Teacher abroad (NET aka Native English Teacher), I had no idea what was expected of me. And when I got here for my EPIK orientation, I still didn't know.... Worse even still, two weeks into teaching classes, I still didn't really have a clue. They call this Dynamic Korea. There's no head's up, no real advice as to how to work with your co-teacher, etc.. but people just figure things out as they go, as change is a common factor which keeps you on your toes. This article (click on the link to my main blog) will open the door for you and give you an insider's peek on how it works. It's my personal experience. It's not full-proof and at best, always a work-in-progress.

5 Tips for New NETs in Korea

This article is on survival tips for NEW NETs teaching in Korea

Ranting Frustrations and Teaching Seasons & Weather (Gr 6: Ln 3.1:)

I felt like my co-teacher was doing a last-minute lesson plan "ditch" today; she had grand and creative schemes for lesson plans, but is now just concerned with following the textbook simply, so that she can get to her other more pressing work outside of class. Sometimes this annoys- I only have my 9 day EPIK orientation and when I contribute, I come up w/ Powerpoint presentations, innovative teaching methods and last-minute, on-the-spot modifications to sculpting lessons in a way I feel students can relate to. She, on the other hand, has more experience, government funded workshops abroad and a book full of "innovative" exercises she's learned, etc... that she's not implementing.  Still, when we get together to plan a lesson and she wants to hear my ideas, there are moments when my ideas get shot

GRRRL Goes Whimpery in Her New Korean Location

How do you take a bath in Korea?  Let me tell you how I just did it.  I washed over my sink and shaved my legs by propping them up on my toilet lid.  Yes, a toilet lid can have more uses than just one when you’re in an efficient country like Korea…

My Korean bathroom (sink/toilet/shower compressed in the same room) is smaller than my NYC apt bathroom

But all smart-assing aside…  You haven’t heard peep from me in a while as I’ve been in an intense transition, which just hit rocky; and the “rocky” is something I’m working through. I’ll fast-forward over my escape from the draft of flu, my partial hearing loss due to airplane travel with a cold and my