Winter Camp rant

[fwilsie]

I was notified an hour before my start of winter class for the incoming 1st year students that instead of the 5 or 6 students I had been told about back when the class was organized about a month ago that I would be having 31 students.

At least it's not a full winter camp, just a period a day, and I was given enough warning so that I didn't walk in to class with my small group activity and no plan for a large class.

[w4z]

I was told I'd have 8 - 10 kids in most my classes, so I planned for such.  I had 2 - 3.

[w4z]

Just tell them to get someone to move all the computers to the new classroom.  I mean, you need them to do your job, which is to do this one specific camp, which the VP and head teacher personally approved, so clearly the VP and head teacher must also want those computers moved too, right?

I'm not actually joking...you really should ask that they move the computers.  They sprung this on you with no warning, because that's how Korea works.  Fair enough.  However, you, as a teacher, are absolutely allowed to spring "all of these computers need to be moved to the new class by Monday" on someone else at your school.  Because that's how Korea works.

^This

The 'Dynamic' in 'Dynamic Korea' needs to be changed to 'Half@ssed'

[Keuka]

South Korea is heading towards the Smart Phone saturation point.  Why don't you find out if you can do a wireless CALL camp?  I bet many of your students probably have Smart Phones, or access to wireless Internet vis their parent's notebook computers, or those pad computers, etc.  I think it's worth a look.  That could be a really cool camp.  Anyways, good luck.

[weirdgirlinkorea]

Actually Keuka might be onto something. If your camp isn't very long (more than a week or two) it might not cost too much to rent a few laptops and have the IT person set up wifi in the room. A lot easier than moving a bunch of desktops. It's not ideal but I they could share in groups or partners a laptop.

[orangeman]

My beef isn't always the amount of kids, it's the rolling attendance.  For example, on Monday we started a new camp for 1&2 graders. We're supposed to have 16 students.

9am: 4 students.

1st period: 9 more students make their way in one at a time.

2nd period: 5 students leave for other classes.  2 more new ones come.

3rd period: 4/5 students return, another 3 leave.

4th period: 4 students return, 6 leave early. 

And it's been the same the last 2 days, too.  This camp was in high demand, but when I talk to my CT about how it's ridiculous that kids lucky enough to be chosen for a FREE camp while others were rejected, I'm just met by blank stares.  It was the same at my last school, too. 

Add to this how I prepared the first two weeks of camp on my own (40 lessons) and taught them virtually alone while my two co-teachers sat and chatted in their office.  Now my CT is supposed to lead this week and have everything prepared and I discover she has ONE PAGE for each day.  No, not one page out of a book or another resource.  Like, one page with a picture of a ruler and pencil on it and now we 'teach' that for 4 periods.  Which of course becomes "Oh, orangeman teacher, don't you know any games or songs we can do?" at 9:15. 

[weirdgirlinkorea]

My beef isn't always the amount of kids, it's the rolling attendance.  For example, on Monday we started a new camp for 1&2 graders. We're supposed to have 16 students.

9am: 4 students.

1st period: 9 more students make their way in one at a time.

2nd period: 5 students leave for other classes.  2 more new ones come.

3rd period: 4/5 students return, another 3 leave.

4th period: 4 students return, 6 leave early. 

And it's been the same the last 2 days, too.  This camp was in high demand, but when I talk to my CT about how it's ridiculous that kids lucky enough to be chosen for a FREE camp while others were rejected, I'm just met by blank stares.  It was the same at my last school, too. 

And I thought this only happened at my school. And now that they have a new HUGE camp operating at my school at the same time, the leaving and coming is even worse. The worst part is, when they leave and come back they are lost and then lose interest or get frustrated. Some of the students even expect that we will go over the material again, just for them.
Having been through this now, three times, I now just teach the same lesson 4 times (we have 2 sessions per day), so everyone will at least get it twice. I was going to have a camp book that had 10 topics but decided to only teach 5 topics interspersed with several movies. It worked out better, because they were less frustrated, but honestly, like you Orangeman, I don't understand it. It's mostly why for my camps, I now take the approach that I'm a free babysitter. I teach but I don't try too hard, not if they are going to come and go so frequently and miss so much content.

[SpaceRook]

My beef isn't always the amount of kids, it's the rolling attendance.  For example, on Monday we started a new camp for 1&2 graders. We're supposed to have 16 students.

9am: 4 students.

1st period: 9 more students make their way in one at a time.

2nd period: 5 students leave for other classes.  2 more new ones come.

3rd period: 4/5 students return, another 3 leave.

4th period: 4 students return, 6 leave early. 

And it's been the same the last 2 days, too.  This camp was in high demand, but when I talk to my CT about how it's ridiculous that kids lucky enough to be chosen for a FREE camp while others were rejected, I'm just met by blank stares.  It was the same at my last school, too. 

And I thought this only happened at my school. And now that they have a new HUGE camp operating at my school at the same time, the leaving and coming is even worse. The worst part is, when they leave and come back they are lost and then lose interest or get frustrated. Some of the students even expect that we will go over the material again, just for them.

Same here.  I had 2 students who were really good about showing up on time (mostly because I let them play games on the computer before class).  But everyone else wanders in at random over the next 10-45 minutes.  Part of me wanted to lock the door at 9:05am and not let anyone in after that just to teach them a lesson.  Nothing more annoying that starting an activity with 4 kids working together at a table, and then have it grow to 5, then 6, then 7, then 8, then 9.....

[weirdgirlinkorea]

My beef isn't always the amount of kids, it's the rolling attendance.  For example, on Monday we started a new camp for 1&2 graders. We're supposed to have 16 students.

9am: 4 students.

1st period: 9 more students make their way in one at a time.

2nd period: 5 students leave for other classes.  2 more new ones come.

3rd period: 4/5 students return, another 3 leave.

4th period: 4 students return, 6 leave early. 

And it's been the same the last 2 days, too.  This camp was in high demand, but when I talk to my CT about how it's ridiculous that kids lucky enough to be chosen for a FREE camp while others were rejected, I'm just met by blank stares.  It was the same at my last school, too. 

And I thought this only happened at my school. And now that they have a new HUGE camp operating at my school at the same time, the leaving and coming is even worse. The worst part is, when they leave and come back they are lost and then lose interest or get frustrated. Some of the students even expect that we will go over the material again, just for them.

Same here.  I had 2 students who were really good about showing up on time (mostly because I let them play games on the computer before class).  But everyone else wanders in at random over the next 10-45 minutes.  Part of me wanted to lock the door at 9:05am and not let anyone in after that just to teach them a lesson.  Nothing more annoying that starting an activity with 4 kids working together at a table, and then have it grow to 5, then 6, then 7, then 8, then 9.....

Seriously. I had superhero camp elem 1&2 grades and I had them in groups of threes (supposed to be 15 but one NEVER came and she wasn't reliable in summer, so I don't why she was allowed to sign up), and I had to keep merging them with other groups as kids didn't show or went to other classes. I could leave one student at each group table simply because their partners are somewhere else. The I had to reward TWO groups if the merged team won a game because one student is from another group...really messes with my mojo.   

[jmdv]

Ok I will tell you about my summer camp.

Its very 'interesting.' In fact its so 'interesting' that I don't get angry, I just laugh.

There is no co-teacher. I don't really care because that has its own pros and cons.

In my first 80 MINUTE period of the day, I have 2 grade 1s, 3, grade 2s and 2 grade 3s.

In my second 80 MINUTE period of the day, I have 3 grade 4s, 1 grade 5 and 3 grade 6s.

I have two books, one for the first group and one for the second. Both were printed from the internet with Korean instructions and mp3 files for both. However, it is the wrong mp3s and even though I complained on the first day. Nothing changed (The camp ends this Friday so it was a 2 week camp)

The books has many coloring and cutting parts but the class has no glue, crayons or scissors. I also asked for these things but I heard some story about a budget allocation etc so the person in charge told the students to bring their own. I had 1 student who brought his things....

I then bought my own scissors and glue so that we could at least do some of the work. After 3 days they broke one of the scissor and pulled out the glue from the tube thing. So we are back to square one!

Its crazy and the kids are also very loud and disorderly! However, I wish I had a video camera to film this class because at certain times its like a zoo and for the bystander it might be funny to see!

[jmdv]

My beef isn't always the amount of kids, it's the rolling attendance.  For example, on Monday we started a new camp for 1&2 graders. We're supposed to have 16 students.

9am: 4 students.

1st period: 9 more students make their way in one at a time.

2nd period: 5 students leave for other classes.  2 more new ones come.

3rd period: 4/5 students return, another 3 leave.

4th period: 4 students return, 6 leave early. 

And it's been the same the last 2 days, too.  This camp was in high demand, but when I talk to my CT about how it's ridiculous that kids lucky enough to be chosen for a FREE camp while others were rejected, I'm just met by blank stares.  It was the same at my last school, too. 

Add to this how I prepared the first two weeks of camp on my own (40 lessons) and taught them virtually alone while my two co-teachers sat and chatted in their office.  Now my CT is supposed to lead this week and have everything prepared and I discover she has ONE PAGE for each day.  No, not one page out of a book or another resource.  Like, one page with a picture of a ruler and pencil on it and now we 'teach' that for 4 periods.  Which of course becomes "Oh, orangeman teacher, don't you know any games or songs we can do?" at 9:15.

LOL, Your last paragraph explains my normal school situation perfectly. My co-teacher would tell me that she wanted to be the main teacher because she had some material for a specific day. So I don't prepare any material. 10 minutes in, I have to save the day with some random made of task/game thing.

[Damien]

That sucks! What's mine? I planned my entire camp around the things they bought for my classroom, such as the touch screen, computers, blue screen, audio mixer, etc.. I had games, make a video, and various other things planned. What happens? They never tell me they had remodeling planned for eight months before English camp. I came in on Monday to find my room missing doors, windows, and parts of the ceiling. I had to scrap 80% of my camp and remake things for the first day a few minutes before camp. I now have to change camp rooms every day to keep ahead of the remodeling.

Why is this funny? They gave me a huge budget because they love English camp and had me create all these fun things. BUT they never told me I couldn't use my class and everything was going to be taken apart. They knew for over 8 months!

Let's not forget how they took my class one day for a purse making course. Why? They paid for this lady to come in and show them how to make these purses and they realized NO STUDENTS are in school. What did they do? Used mine lol.

[Squire]

I often think Korean public schools are ideal for people who don't plan ahead much, like me, at the expense of those who put in loads of prep work. I make camp plans knowing I'll only do half of what I've put down in the schedule, then when camp comes I plan the next day's classes the night before. Actually I plan them on the day. I get up around 3.30am and make plans before I leave the house