There's a new girl in my middle school that takes notes in my class. I realized how rare this is for a Korean student and how silly that fact is. My class is so easy for her because of how much effort I have to put into helping the other kids recall simple things. She easily retains everything because she wrote it down the first time.

It's sad that the educational model here is input->memorization (which isn't a good model anyway) but the students don't even take notes so it's just input->nothing.

After 9 months here at a low-level high school I can say I've identified the problem, devised a solution and completely understand that it will never happen because of the admin.  I've yet to hear an argument against this.  We are completely wasted as a resource.  Rather than wasting time banging our heads against a wall with kids who don't care or can't understand or retain anything for less than an hour a week we should be with the higher-level or more interested students everyday of the week.  Instead of producing formal lessons and going through the motions with the same fucked-out, straight-forward presentation the students already receive all day long, we should be a supplement to their education, focusing on a grammar point or a few phrases or idioms or what have you for a particular session and allowing them to practice speaking in a natural setting with a native speaker. 

When I learn Korean, I learn intellectually from a book but then conversationally from using it and being corrected or improved, by exercising it in context.  How nuts would it be if you took high school Spanish in the U.S. from a Spanish or Bolivian or whatever teacher who couldn't speak much English and you had little interest or ability in the language?  The more interested, motivated, higher-level students would benefit a lot more from that.  It breaks my heart when I see the lone engaged student sitting meekly at his chair while I waste time explaining something very simple or disciplining others, especially when that students was conversing with me before class. 

The TEPS, TOEFL, and even just high school listening tests are hard, and a lot of students want to study abroad, work abroad, or go to a good Uni and need a lot more help.  My students come in at lunch to practice just talking, I meet some on the weekends, we will stay after school to correct papers and speeches for scholarships or working holiday interviews.  All of these instances feature me actually being useful and helping a student with something they actually need and would not have if I was not here.  They also all feature instances where I am not getting paid and when I have already exhausted myself doing nothing of real value.  It would be the best resource to have when learning a language, to have a native speaker to practice with, someone employed at your school, someone you could see everyday.  Our jobs, at least for mid and high school, ought to involve spending time talking (about a movie, current events, a specific pre-programed topic, or even chatting over a game of cards), much more like a Uni gig.  It is just better for everyone.  Sadly this will not happen, indeed they are taking the approach of laying off NETs to remedy the issue of the lack of impact we are having. 

Sorry for the long screed, but this has pained me for some time now, and it all just seems so obvious to me.   Thoughts?

For Korean girl students, I find them to be better students as well. More focus. That being said, they love creative activities and puzzles, such as word scrambles.

For Korean boys, few of em are very good, but most are the craziest, ADD, little crap heads I've ever seen. I find competitive activities with actions that do not require any prior English knowledge prerequisites keep them engaged and on task.

I normally go through the new material and make sure the higher levels obtain the information while content is low enough to be understandable to the lower levels. Then I play an activity that uses the new material and requires them to do some kind of action before or after the language usage. Oh, and I toss in a puzzle here and there to keep the girls on task.

It seems to be working... and I think the crap heads are learning a little bit, too.

I've been teaching at a middle school (my 4th semester) so I can only comment on that:

Generally you are just a face - a clown as someone put it.  Students in general really don't care about English, have far less respect toward foreign teachers and in fact Korean co-teachers do little to discourage this line of thinking.

I would agree that 1st graders are better - probably because their years of rebelion have not been fully materialized yet. . . but by the time they get to 3rd grade and finish middle school they will lose a big chunk of the English they learned in earlier years.  I used to think that such loss of English has to do with poor teaching, but alot of it has to do with their own attitudes which is fully encouraged by other Korean teachers (because they think there is nothing wrong with it and it is all of your fault) - the recent trend of getting away from disciplining students doesn't help either.

This is sad but true and unfortunately there is very little you can do either when you're dealing with an amazingly huge bureaucracy - you being a foreigner and standing up to it is like someone fighting a raging flood with a paddle.  Lets also not forget that they judge you purely on whether they like your face and attitude. . .but not your performance.  IT is a complete joke, but I guess if you want to make money then you have to play along with the gag.

My school now is cutting me, so I will be moving on to other opportunities - maybe teaching adults in a private school - though I'm not sure yet if this will happen. . .have to wait.  This is something I feel I will enjoy and will probably produce better results than this bureaucratic nightmare that I'm in.

My advice to new teachers comming into this world: smile, don't get too frustrated, collect your paycheck and when time comes move on.

I find it odd that you guys think the girls are better than the boys.

In general, I think I can agree with this statement, but in terms of fluency, I have many many boys who are better than the best of the girls.