Why is it that I often see students dressing nicer than the teachers in English schools in Korea…? This is not true for all teachers and I don’t want to give that impression.

I understand that many of the teachers that come to foreign country to teach are here right out of college/university and you are still young and still want to have fun. Yet, this business may not be your life work but nothing says that you can’t at least dress the part.

In every profession that you have to deal with people.. you must met a certain dress code. This is not to say you should be wearing a suit and tie.. but a collared shirt and slacks or well maintained Jeans for both men and women is appropriate.

It really don’t matter if you feel your school is GOOD or NOT you must as a teacher have a certain air of professionalism because this is a profession is more than you and you represent all teachers.. and you… if you like it or not are a professional.

Remember:There are thousands of schools that will treat them better… or at least as not as bad as you…

This is an actual picture of a Foreign English Teacher.

I am sure it is also not the picture he showed on his resume before getting hired….^^

It is important before issuing a time out that you must warn the student that their actions or their bad behaviour will lead them into trouble… This warning can be rules that has been administered before hand either written or verbally.

One method I have found effective is make a Wise Worker Wheel with pictures of Animals on it; since young child seem to respond more quickly with visuals aids.

For the wheel you will need to circles one being at least 18 inches in diameter and colorful and the other at least 16 inches in diameter and plain white. After making both circles you will have to fasten the two circles together with the colorful circle behind the smaller white circle. Draw a line down the middle of the white circle.

The animals that you can use are: an owl, a turtle, a rabbit, a bird, a donkey and a lion.

You will also need clothing pins that you can paint and write your student’s name on them.

You will Glue the Owl picture to the first half of the circle the “Smart Worker Side” All the students will begin each class on that side.

You will mark the other site of the circle into 5 different sections… Beginning with the turtle, glue each animal onto each of the five sections.

*For the turtle, you will write the word, Reminder ~ which means you will talk to them and remind them they must be good.

* For the rabbit, 2 Minute Time Out,
* For the bird, 4 Minute Time-Out,
* For the donkey, No PlayTime.
* Finally, if the child still misbehaves his or her clothes pin is moved to the lion, which denotes a visit to the principal or a call home.

Always Remember what ever you do you must be consistent and you must be fair…

I bring this up since I myself am facing a holiday that was scheduled so that I get only 2 days of actual holiday and the school wants me to understand them and their need to keep the parents happy but I never see them try to understand my desire to relax or my need for breaks.

When I was researching this topic “teacher burnout” I located a study done by Travers & Cooper that suggested that a number of stressors are intrinsic to teaching. In the 1997 study it indicated that long working hours, high workload, poor status and poor pay emerged as four of the seven major sources of stress particular for English teachers. Another study stated that burnout is often caused by isolation which is a major problem for ESL teachers also since they are separated from family, friends and often can’t speak the language of the country they are located in.

Some of the ways in which professionals say help relieve stress are the same to help prevent burnout and they are:

1. Exercise and proper diet.

2. Rest and Relax… forget about the classroom.

3. Do something non-school related, or do something, just for YOUR enjoyment.

4. Get Moving! Take action.

One important factor to remember when it comes to relaxing…. and that you must not rely on drinking and partying to relieve stress… a study of teachers indicated that 20% of them believed that they drank too much and 15% believed they were alcoholics. But surveys of this type are not always adequate. Often people, including teacher, that have problems with alcohol don’t admit to it. So this problem could be much greater then one would like to believe.