For the past two days, we've gathered a number of information on how the school works. Obviously, some of them aren't the same as how we run things back in Malaysia and yet it is good to learn from the differences.
1. There are two types of teachers here. The first one is called as HOMEROOM TEACHER while the other one is the SUBJECT TEACHER. The first one teaches subjects like KOREAN, MATHEMATICS, SOCIAL STUDIES, and ARTS (music/art), whilst the later are in charge of ENGLISH, SCIENCE and PHYSICAL EDUCATION. However, we were told that this differs to schools as some schools might have homeroom teachers who can teach ENGLISH, SCIENCE or PHYSICAL EDUCATION by themselves.
2. The school starts with a reading program called MORNING ACTIVITY (similar to our NILAM). As the school begins at 08:40, there are no recess time in the morning. However, they have 10 minutes break between subjects. Cool, right! At this time, the pupils are allowed to leave the classroom for a short toilet break or even have a sip of their daily milk (Yes, the pupils are provided with a box of milk everyday).
3. There are about 6 - 7 classes per grades. Since there are no streaming, there are a couple of special needs pupils in the mainstream classes. Even so, there are special classes for the special needs pupils, separated from the rest (only for the extreme cases).
4. Number of pupils per class is no more than 26. Heaven, right! The arrangement as well as the decorations of the class is very much up to the homeroom teacher. Based on my observations, the classes are arranged based on groups and pupils are supplied with tons of stationeries and materials which can be used for any class activities. Not only that, each of the classes are equipped with computer, TV, interchangeable magnetic blackboard, softboards and in-class lockers. The pupils' shoes are kept safely in their designated shoe racks outside of the classes, together with cleaning supplies such as brooms and dustpans for their class use. As for the class decorations, it is filled with nothing but the pupils' artwork. In fact, it is not an understatement to say that their pupils do have a touch of arts. Some of them could draw and paint excellently!
5. The pupils are very behaved as well. We can't tell if it was specially orchestrated for us but we could hardly hear noises during the lessons. They seemed to be listening and reacting positively to their teachers. We noticed that every time the pupils started to be noisy, the teachers would ask them to chant something. Perhaps it is the chant on 'respecting your teachers' and etc. We will try to get the explanation to that later 😅😅😅
6. This point which I am about to share here might be the greatest halo for all Malaysian teachers. In Korea, the teachers are not required to hand in their lesson plans to their admins. In fact, there is no specific format to the lesson plan writing. Some of them simply recorded their lesson plans in their own notebook. In addition, there is no particular curriculum standard that they have to follow. SO you can expect none of that 3.1.2, 5.1.4 and etc etc.
7. No exams. Yups! That's right. There is no mid or year end exam, however there are quizzes over time as part of the pupils' assessment. Even though, there is no visible exams, the school experience still continues for the pupils even after 02:30 p.m. Some parents would push their children to private after schools programs such as Mathematics, English or even Music lessons. While some parents opt for after school program at school. Surprisingly, the after school program is not run by the morning teachers. There are outside teachers or instructors handling programs such as jumping ropes, Tae Kwon Do, arts, dancing, English, Mathematics and Computer. This program also runs differently as some would meet twice to three times weekly.
8. The textbooks are given to ALL pupils for FREE. And at the end of the year, there'll be a truck collecting the books to recycling centers. In other words, the pupils receive new books every year! It may sound very lavish of them to do so, however, their textbooks are not plain old Jane. They are very interactive with pop ups, flips, stickers and even tear-able pages. In fact, the textbooks used are totally up to the Grade teachers' choice. Therefore, don't be surprised if you found out that different schools in Korea are suing different types of textbooks than its neighboring schools.
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