One more form to fill...

Things have been going well at work, all things considered. For the month of May, though, JEL made a new innovation: for students who didn't complete their homework, didn't bring all their materials, or misbehaved in class, we send their parents text messages. And on Fridays, we send their spelling test scores.

This, of course, makes for a whole lot more paperwork for the coordinators. On Friday, each teacher has to turn in three more pieces of paper: students' spelling test scores, a class report for 2:00 to 5:00 classes, and a class report for 6:00 and 7:00 classes (to be sent the next day).

Most hagwons in Korea contract their teachers to 120 hours per month. At JEL, it's 33 classes per week, with classes lasting either 40 or 50 minutes. It comes out less in terms of teaching hours, but time spent on mandatory lesson planning (45 minutes per day), making homework sheets, copying worksheets, filling out forms, and grading other classes' homework probably puts it about about that the same.

Though they don't really take up too much time, these new forms stink because they erode the time we have between classes to prep for the next. Thumbs down.