The truth is you can coast through most of the English teaching jobs in Korea. You’ll make a decent living, have ample time for partying and you will return home after a year basically the same as you arrived. Your students will remain basically the same too.
This is not one of those jobs.
At Da Vinci, you will be a member of a small team of educators fully engaged in finding a path to fluency and excellence for every student who walks through the door of our school.
This job will challenge you in every possible way. You will push yourself to become a better teacher. You’ll bring everything you’ve ever learned about teaching into every class. After class you’ll spend time scouring every resource you can get your hands on to become even better.
This job can be heartbreaking. Some of your lessons will fail. You will try and try again and there will always be something to improve upon. Even with the combined effort of every member of our team some of the challenges of EFL teaching take months to figure out, others prove intractable.
But, no matter what happens, at the end of every week both you and your students will be objectively better and know more than you did when you walked into class at the beginning.
On top of giving 100% to your kids you’ll be learning Korean too. After a day of teaching, you’ll give up the role of teacher and dedicate yourself to learning your students’ language.
In a year, you’ll be a better teacher than you thought you could be, you’ll be able to speak, read and write Korean and you will have made an undeniable difference to the lives of the kids who have taken your classes. But, this may be the most difficult and demanding year of your life.
And if you’ve been successful we’ll do everything in our power (short of shackling you to a desk) to get you to stay on for another year.
In short if you’re a teacher who is passionate about your craft. If you can’t be satisfied unless you are making a real difference then, there’s a good chance you’ve got a home here.
About Us:
The Da Vinci Language Academy has been in operation for 3 years. We currently have three foreign teachers and four Korean staff members. We have a small crew here so everyone gets to do a little of everything from curriculum development to cleaning the desks.
Despite the fact that our school sits on the second floor above a hardware shop, we have some of the best classrooms in Korea. Lessons are taught using carefully designed PowerPoint presentations to guide the learning process. Each classroom has floor to ceiling white boards and surround sound.
Most of our kids come to us with nothing but a 10-15 word vocabulary and a shaky hold on the alphabet. They leave our academy as the top students in their school both in terms of communicative ability and in their scores on standardized testing.
Our classes are limited to ten kids and average eight per class. You’ll never have an eleven kid class and, yes, we do turn kids away when we are full. We have close to one hundred students and are growing steadily. We only teach late kindergarten and elementary aged students.
We are located in a working class neighborhood, about an hour from Seoul. Most of our kids come from blue collar backgrounds. These kids don’t have the money or the connections that would guarantee them a place in the top schools in Korea. There is only one way for most of our kids to get a shot at a solid university education and a path to success: academic excellence.
We take full responsibility for each kid’s success. That means if a kid is struggling we bring them in for one-on-one classes for as long as it takes for them to succeed. Sometimes you’ll request these classes for a Friday and teach the student yourself. Other times, the Academic Director will teach a student one-on-one lessons before or after the student’s usual class time. We don’t charge our parents extra for these special tutoring sessions. We do it because our responsibility doesn’t end when the school bell rings. We are only satisfied when our kids are achieving their potential.
We have also developed a discipline system so we don’t have to spend much energy on disciplining our students. All students know the rules and the reasonable consequences for breaking the rules. Every student gets a fair chance. But, if a student’s special needs begin to infringe on their classmates’ right to an efficient and effective learning environment, we let them go.
Your Duties:
Implement curriculum: You’ll find the best ways to use the curriculum to help your students learn. Each class is a testing process. You’ll be on the lookout to find a way to improve our methods and materials.
Track progress and attendance: There is quite a bit of record keeping and it all needs to be done with care and in a timely manner.
Develop new curriculum: Our curriculum is always evolving. We are always looking for ways to improve what we do. You’ll be a part of the creation of every new term’s classes. You may completely take over the development for a class or be a part of a development team.
And of course: You’ll be on time. Professionally dressed and ready to give each class your best every day.
If that hasn’t sent you running for the hills, here are some more things you’ll need to know. Please carefully read through the materials we’ll need in your application packet.
Teaching at Da Vinci the Basics:
* Salary: 2.3 million Korean won per month.
* 300,000 Korean won housing allowance.
* The position will begin in late February or early March of 2012
* Work Schedule: 24 hours of teaching per week (Monday to Thursday) Fridays are reserved for preparation, a meeting to review student progress and coaching.
* Korean classes: 4 hours a week of Korean language instruction.
* Housing: Comfortable studio apartment within walking distance of school.
* Bonus: One month’s pay at the completion of a one year contract.
* Airfare: Roundtrip airfare from point of hire within 1 million won.
* Vacation: All Korean national holidays, Christmas and New Years
* Medical insurance: 50/50 split
* Classes: 50 minutes, maximum 10 students, late kindergarten and all elementary grades.
* Foreign owned and managed. Absolutely guaranteed: Paid in full, on time every time. Work for a company that understands, first hand, the challenges of living and teaching in Korea.
Minimum requirements for teaching at Da Vinci Language Academy:
* You must be a native English speaker with a valid passport from the USA or Canada. Due to the amount of phonics work we do with young learners we can only hire teachers with standard North American pronunciation.
* Korean Law requires all teachers to have a minimum of a four year degree from an accredited university and sealed academic transcripts. Your diploma must also be copied and accompanied with an Apostille or notarization and certification from a Korean Consulate (depending on country). Some embassies do enforce immigration rules on their own terms so you will have to contact the embassy you plan to use to make sure they do not have any additional requirements.
* You must be able to complete and pass a background check for criminal history in your home country in accordance with Korean Law.
* You must pass health screening mandated by Korean immigration. Be advised this screening includes drug testing. Korea has a zero tolerance policy for any kind of drug use.
* For U.S. citizens, a federal background check from the FBI is required. It’s important that candidates start collecting these documents as soon as possible in order to secure a position for the desired start date. The FBI estimates as much as 12 weeks to complete a Federal background check.
* You must be able to complete the application/interview process. This includes both an interview and essays.
Additional qualifications:
* Have a demonstrable commitment to teaching.
* Candidates with a Master’s degree in an education related field are strongly encouraged to apply.
* Be able to demonstrate a history of creative problem solving both individually and in teams.
* To have developed a significant level of skill in some area of personal interest.
* Familiarity with Microsoft Office. Especially PowerPoint a plus.
* Background in music, art, design, writing or drama a plus.
* Multi-lingual also a plus
Applications:
To apply for positions at the Da Vinci Language Academy, please forward the following to davincirecruiting@gmail.com:
* Full CV
* Copy of passport with photograph
* Copy of TEFL, TESOL, CELTA… certificate
* A letter of application (cover letter) that includes the following information:
* An overview of relevant qualifications and experience
* Reasons for wanting to teach in Korea and at Da Vinci Language Academy in particular
* Preferred times for telephone interview and phone number with necessary extensions
* Email addresses for references
Seth Taylor, Academic Director
davincirecruiting@gmail.com
Job Information
