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new coteachers

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nwr513:
Probably like many of you all, my coteacher will be leaving in a week or so and I'll be working with someone new starting next school year. I was really lucky to have had a great coteacher, and she stayed at my school as the english teacher for two years, so this will be the first time i've had a big change in my teaching life. we work well together, she's super helpful with everything, and we have a pretty good rhthym down for teaching.. so my question is: when you started working with a new coteacher, how much did things change? did they come in and totally set up their own, new thing or adapt to the way things had been done? any extraordinarily good or bad stories? i'm sure this varies in each situation, but i guess i'm kind of terrified my blissful korean life is about to be undone by the new guy. please share...

Janitor:
Mine came as a bit of a shock but that was because my first coteacher was kind of an absent-minded moron and failed to tell me that not only was the teacher changing but the rest of the administration staff including the Principle and Vice Principle. The new teacher, was decent and sort of adapted to my style as much as I adapted to hers. She doesn't really do too much in my classes beyond mild translation and then spends the rest of the time on her computer marking papers.

I think communication is the best way. talk to her and tell her your expectations and how you have been doing things. Let them know that you have an idea of what works for the students and where things need to improve. If you have sort of a "guide you through it" approach then she might feel comfortable and help out in ways that you might need it

SpaceRook:
This year, I've worked with 5 co-teachers (6 in total, since one left due to pregnancy).

The generic answer is: everyone is different.

Some teachers are completely involved in class.  Others stand at the back of the room the whole time and just watch, occasionally giving some clarification.  Others sit down at a desk and do their own work. 

I find English ability to be a poor predictor of how well I get along with the teacher.  Some of the teachers that have the lowest English level have been the ones that I've enjoyed working with the most.   

You just don't know how things will change until you meet the new person.

kawaiikitty:
I had two teachers, and then I lost them both! From there, I taught essentially by myself. I honestly have no idea of the new situation :< because the person who represents me is in the hospital ;-;.

MagicCoconut:
I had a new one last year and it's been great, but she is leaving the school this year. When it changed, for me, like has been said already, it's all just about communicating how you have done things, but be willing to the new ideas of the new co-teacher. In my limited experience every new co-teacher has some pre-conceived idea of what they should be doing as a Korean co-teacher. Best bet is to find out what that is pretty early on by just having casual chats about everything that goes with the English teaching malarkey. They are often nervous at teaching English, and some will try to do everything by the book. Last year, I tried to get the co-teacher involved as much as possible which I think ultimately leads to a happier classroom. I also made sure we had frank discussions about what we wanted to do and what we didn't in each lesson. We both often had different ideas, but we balanced it out in the end by talking through it and planning together.

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