The JoongAng Daily published an article on Tuesday (...yes, I'm behind on blogging, what else is new?) about the recent actions of the teacher's union, "Union wages war on teacher evaluations, tests." Unfortunately, I think that the union is fighting a losing battle when it comes to protesting the nation wide tests.  It's difficult to get students and parents to protest the tests with them when the scores will still be a central part of their applications to the next level of schooling (applying to middle school, high school and of course, college). Simply protesting the tests isn't efficacious. As terrible as 'teaching to the test' can be for schools it does allow a standard guideline for education across the nation.

I read an interesting teaching book lately that pointed out that for good teachers, students perform well on the tests, not because they were just teaching to the test but because they were teaching mastery of the subject material.

As for the teacher evaluation system, I don't really know enough to comment though the teachers I have spoken with seem unhappy with it.

Spaz update on life:
I had been getting constant upset stomachs this month. I finally figured out why: my vitamin C tablets are made with milk. Only in Korea people, only in Korea.