TAG Members (Songpa)

I'd like to add Tag Members to the blacklist, mainly because of the xxx and xxxxx. I'll try to be short.

Pros:

- BEAUTIFUL facilities. The photos on the website don't do it justice. It's really a beautiful campus. They have a full sized indoor gymnasium, and full sized auditorium. Unheard of for a kindergarten.

- Paid on time. Didn't have to ask for payslip/breakdown.

- Decent apartment in a niceish building.

- Nice area

- Not sure if this is a pro or not. On paper, they have short hours. But you have to use every bit of your free time checking homework, doing lesson plans, writing reports, or making a stupid sign for their events and be ON TOP of everything in order to leave on time. Not feasible for your average person, as many teachers stayed late every day.

CONS:

- You have to make your own lesson plans. Every week. These include page numbers for every class and every book. There is a rough year-plan to guide you, but you have to come up with a consensus among teachers in your grade level of which pages to do when. Someone SHOULD make a uniform master lesson plan for the year, but no one wants to bite the bullet and do extra work. And no previous teacher wants to share their lesson plans with the new staff. Should tell you something. If you have education background, this will be a nuisance. If you don't, you will feel annoyed.

- The kinders and elementary kids have a lot of homework. And I mean a LOT. Picture diaries, plus actual homework books that you're expected to check daily. You don't always have prep to do it before the kids go home, which means yep you guessed it: do it during your lunch or get yelled at.

- Have to eat lunch with the kids. The Korean teacher is "supposed" to take the lead here, but they don't always. [redacted] You have to watch them when they play after lunch, too. Don't expect any time to yourself to check homework either, with kids coming up to you constantly.

- Event preparation. Tag for some reason thinks you're all Leonardo Da Vinci level talented. And I mean that literally. You're expected to decorate everything from your classroom door (there is a very rigged "contest" for best door), to the entire school including large elaborate posters everywhere for different photo zones and events. You are given access to a hot glue gun, large rolls of colored paper and felt, and glitter. That's it. If they dont like what you've made, you're yelled at and belittled for not being an Art major in college and made to do it again until they're satisfied. This was the most annoying part of the job for me, since this is all on top of the mountain of lesson planning and homework you're expected to check.

- Korean staff. Korean staff were filled with xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Don't ever expect to have a real partnership with a co teacher. You can, and will be thrown under the bus in every opportunity.

- Parent-Teacher conferences. 4 times a year. Yes you heard me correctly. 4 times a year, you're expected to not only write report card every month, but eat up the little prep time you have to meet with parents and talk about their kids. Most parents do not speak English, so you're at the mercy of your Korean co teacher to translate. [redacted] It is every bit as a waste of time as it sounds, since no Korean parent actually takes to heart anything we say anyway. Dumbest thing I've heard of, for a regular non-International & non-accredited hagwon.

- Salary. They offer pitifully low salary for what they expect, and push you out the door if you ask for too much. Which is what happened to me and many others.

- When I moved out, the place was spotless. Yet they xxxxxx.

This place changes staff A LOT. There are a FEW teachers that have stayed, and out of desperation they ended up offering xxxxxxxxxx but every year I see the other staff quitting. If you ask those few for an unbiased opinion about TAG, keep in mind they're making at least 30% more than you for not much more responsibility so they're likely to be much more accepting of the bullshit and you should take it with a few grains of salt.