Holidays

[mcclean30]

Hi,

I work in an elementary school in Asan.

Does anyone out there have an idea when this semester finishes and when the next semester starts.

Thanks.

[cruisemonkey]

The exact dates for every school are different, but summer vacation will (probably) start in the middle of July and the fall term will start in the fourth week of August.

[sonz]

So does this mean we get very little vacation in summer?
I just presumed we would have about 3 weeks or more in summer :(

[cruisemonkey]

You should get at least what your contract specifies.

[abneyrangers]

yeah, my bloody mentor teacher wont tell me for some reason!

[tfuller]

More than likely, they won't tell you because they don't know themselves.

It's because summer English camp isn't arranged ahead of time, usually it's about 2-3 weeks before the start date.

If you're really lucky, you may get a month or two notice to start planning for vacation, but don't get your hopes up!

I'm on my third contract, and my summer/winter vacation dates have been set already. Try to talk emphasise it's important that you know these dates well ahead of time.

Good luck!

[Alida]

You should ask your school for their year calender, every school has one. The MOE in Ulsan has also already told us the dates for the summer schools, so start asking around, maybe someone knows in your area too.

[aemann]

You should ask your school for their year calender, every school has one. The MOE in Ulsan has also already told us the dates for the summer schools, so start asking around, maybe someone knows in your area too.

And ask your co-teacher to translate it into English for you. ^^

[helenique]

Do any of you know whether we are aloud to use a paid leave day during the year? (not summer/winter vacation times)

[ame]

Do any of you know whether we are aloud to use a paid leave day during the year? (not summer/winter vacation times)

No, we must be very quiet about it.

[EPSK]

Every school has an official school calendar with all the necessary dates. They put this out at the beginning of the school year. I'm not sure why your teachers are being so clandestine about it all. Try going to your school's website and looking up the calendar. If you can't understand the Korea, phone dictionary to the rescue!

[pod21]

In general you only get your vacation and holidays off as paid vacation.  But it never hurts to ask.  On days when I don't have any classes my school doesn't mind me using a vacation day and not coming in. 

[wendarzhang]

I've been told that I can only take my vacations when the students have break so that way it doesn't interfere with the teaching schedule...

[helloana]

And you only get 8 paid days off...you must deskwarm if you don't have summer camp or if you aren't on vacation.

[naomi1]

This is my third year of teaching and for the first time ever I was given a school calendar. My teacher was nice enough to explain that the days with either a circle or a square indicate a school holiday. (Chidren's Day, Buddha's Birthday, etc.)
The reason she gave me the calendar was because I was trying to make sure that I had enough time to cover every lesson and possibly have time for a review after two or three lessons. It's nice to know what's going on in the school and I wish I'd been given this every year.

[zissou55]

I've heard some schools gave teachers a few days off when familiy visited them, so if you have a really good reason they might be nice about it, but otherwise my co-teachers have also told me that if it interferes with the teaching schedule it's a no.