THE JOYS AND WOES

OF TEACHING

 

Oh my word, have I already been here a month?! Crazy!!!

 

Anyway. Teaching. What can be said about it? So much, that's what. I'm not sure what being a "normal" teacher is like, but being an ESL teacher is one crazy ride (at least it has been for me so far). Let's just say I came into this like many probably do: dreaming of epicness. Now, I wasn't foolish enough to believe everything was going to be hunkey dorey right from the start. I knew there would be challenges (many, many, many challenges), but I wasn't entirely sure what all of those challenges would be. I knew I'd have some trouble adjusting to teaching children seeing as all my experience has been with adults, and I knew it would take time to adjust to a new schedule and learn the ropes of the school. So I decided to come in with as open a mind as I could possibly muster. Let me tell you how much that has helped. Being able to let go of preconceived ideas has kept me sane these past couple weeks. It is sooooo different than what I thought it was going to be like (okay, not everything, but still...). I guess that means my first words of advice to anyone planning on getting into ESL teaching is to be flexible in your thinking. Rigidity will only break you in the end (or maybe in the beginning because that's when everything's at its worst).

 

So let's give an example. One thing I wasn't expecting was to have the entire school be based upon learning English. I was anticipating a school that had Korean curriculum with a few English courses offered (obviously to help attract more students to the school). But the hagwon I work at (I have no clue if this is the norm or not) is entirely based upon English curriculum. There's not just an "English class," there are many classes including Science, Math, Social Studies, and Music taught in English. Upon arrival, I was informed I would be in charge of teaching the basic English Time course to my main class (Universe) as well as teaching the Global subject (kind of like social studies) to two other classes (Infinity and Ocean) in addition to my Universe class. In a typical day, I teach three different courses: Reading Skill Builder, English Time, and Global. I also help out with Arts & Crafts and teach two afterschool courses for older children (9-10 year olds). So I'm not just teaching English, I'm teaching social studies, art, reading, speech, writing, and English.

I'm not complaining about this. I actually love teaching different classes. For the Global class, we're learning about China. I've had the kids do some coloring worksheets and in the next week or so I'm planning on introducing our first craft project! This is the planned project, so we'll see how it turns out.

Projects do take a bit of extra planning, mostly because if the students need to bring supplies from home or they need to do something at home for the project, I have to have a Korean teacher make a note for the parents (few if any of the parents speak English). For this project, the students will need egg cartons from home which means a note needs to be sent, etc, etc, etc. It should be fun though. The kids love projects like this and so do I!

 

Alright, so I'm going to post a few pictures of my classroom and whatnot (just because I like to brag). Because Global is considered the main subject I teach, my classroom theme is supposed to be geared toward that. But obviously because the classroom is mainly for the use of my Universe class, it is also decorated to help them learn English (class rules, calendar, birthday chart). It's still a work in progress (I've only been here a couple weeks after all).

This is where I hang projects they do in class.

I put up pictures and flags of a few different countries for my Global class.

Here's the birthday chart!!!

And here we have the classroom rules and a clock (the students are learning
to tell time).

And here we have one of my favorite parts of the class. Each student has a
miniature library. Each time he/she reads a book, they get to add a little wooden
book to their library shelf. At the end of the month we tally up how many books
they've each read.

This is a stereotypical school lunch. There's always rice,
kimchi, some kind of soup, and two side dishes (called
banchan) which often consists of some kind of meat
and/or vegatables.

And not to stray from the subject, but I wanted to add in just a couple other experiences I've had apart from teaching. I go to church (I think I've mentioned briefly before that I'm LDS). I ride the subway a grueling one and a half hours to church each week (okay, it's not actually gruelling). I do this so I can go to the only English speaking branch in the area. I have a roommate from college who also teaches here and she goes to the same branch!!! Here we are, reunited once more :)

As with the LDS church, the meetings are all the same, so not much is different. Because there aren't too many people, there aren't enough to have an English YSA ward, but there are a few singles. A few others are English teachers like me, and most of the rest are here because of military service. I made a few friends and was added to the different groups on Facebook so I could keep up to date on activities and such (linger longer next week!!!). It's been nice to go to the English branch though. It feels like a break each week from the foreignness of Korea.

On a similar, but separate note, my director took me to immigration today to finish up everything for my visa. We ran into a bunch of sister missionaries (because they have to have visas too). My director was caught a bit off guard when I said hello and I started chatting with the sisters like we were old friends. He asked if I knew them, and I said I didn't. I took a little time to explain about our church, but pretty soon he had to leave to fill out some paperwork, so I spent another half hour or so talking to one of the sisters who was from Australia. We had to leave soon after that though, so I said goodbye. But on the way back to the school, my director started asking questions about the church (some of the stereotypical ones about missionaries, polygamy, and about the whole no drinking and smoking thing). By the time we got back to the school he asked if I could find him a Korean copy of The Book of Mormon! I was super excited :) I don't like to feel like I'm forcing my religion or my views on anyone, so I rarely bring the subject of religion myself, but if someone asks me questions, I'm more than willing to share!

And last, but not least, I'm starting up Insanity (again). I've always struggled with keeping up with my workouts, and each time I swear I'm going to do better. Well, it's time to try once again. I did the first workout today (I'm going to be soooooo sore tomorrow), and I feel great! I don't know why I stop exercising because I love the way I feel after a good workout, and I love seeing my progress. Something I need to work on I guess.

Okay, I think that's it for this post (much happier than some previous posts). I've been smiling so much. It's been one awesome day! Today I love my life :)

Love yourself and

be proud of everything,

even your mistakes.

Because mistakes

mean you're trying.