By Karl
Last week on Tuesday I started my new job as an English teacher (using the term loosely here). I'll skip my own initial confusion and set some things straight right now.
I have three co-teachers. At Dong Elementary School my co-teacher is Miss A. At Gyeong Po Elementary School my co-teachers are Miss B and Miss C. I teach - rephrase that - I work at Dong Elementary Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and on Thursdays and Fridays I go to Gyeong Po. At Gyeong Po, I work one week with Miss C and the next with Miss B and alternate accordingly each week. All three teachers teach different grades. Miss A teaches 4th, 5th, and 6th. Miss B teaches 3rd and 5th. Miss C teaches 4th and 6th. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I have five classes. On Wednesdays I only have three. All the classes are 40 minutes long. So the day generally runs four classes, lunch/recess, then one more class. Everyday, though, I'm expected to be at school by 8:30am and I'm expected to stay until 4:30pm (although I'll skip out early to catch my bus). So between 8:30am and 4:30pm, anything that isn't class or lunch is desk time.
Still with me? Great.
So what is it that I'm actually doing? I'm still working that out for myself.
So far my experiences at Dong elementary and Gyeong Po have been pretty much the same in general, but the specifics are really different (don't try to make sense of that just follow along). At Dong, Yeon-woo introduced me to the staff. This consisted of me stepping into a teacher's meeting in the morning, introducing myself, shaking hands with the principal, smiling politely while everyone chattered on in Korean, and then left. Took all of three minutes. At this point, I was introduced to my office. I kid you not. In the back corner of the room I've got a full sized desk, computer, desk lamp, drawers that lock, and a little cubicle wall behind me to shield me from the small terrors scampering around the school grounds. No door though, so really there's no protection at all. But it is my space and it's cool. I could do yoga in here, there's that much room. I don't do yoga, of course. I sit and read and go on-line. Like right now. How'd you think I was posting this?
When class started I began the routine of sitting off to the side of the class waiting for Yeon-woo to get started. I'd then introduce myself, help them get my name right, and then answer the handful of questions they might have. They usually only asked "How old are you," "Where are you from," and maybe throw in a "Do you speak Korean" or "Do you like Kimchi?" In most cases I only stood up there for maybe three minutes. This is in stark contrast to my Q&A sessions at Gyeong Po. Once class got going, Yeon-woo would ask me to assist her in correcting students pronunciation by reading aloud a particular word or sentence. That was the extent of my participation and it was much the same today as I met the 6th graders for the first time. Although, I did help a little more during class activities today when they had to write sentences stating their parents' occupations.
At Dong Elementary School everyone has been really nice and the work has been easy, if not a bit boring. Gyeong Po, however, has not been what one might consider boring.
I was first shown around on a Wednesday by a Mrs. Shin, a teacher at Gyeong Po. We first met when Jenn and I arrived here in Gunsan and I was sort of led to believe she was my other co-teacher. Nope. She introduced me first to the Principal and then the Vice Principal. She then showed me to the third floor English classrooms where I met Miss B and Miss C. No teacher's meeting introduction necessary. The next day, last Thursday, I started with Miss C and met her first class.
The class sizes at both schools are about the same, roughly 30 kids a class. At Dong, this means each class has 30 normal, everyday 4th, 5th, or 6th graders. At Gyeong Po, in that first class that I met on Thursday, it seemed like I was in a school where every class was filled with 30 or so kids coked up on pixie sticks. These were not classes where I would sit idly to the side while the real teacher taught after I did a three minute introduction. These were marathon Q&A sessions with the kids excitedly asking questions until the final bell (mostly in order to avoid any real school work). And if they did indeed happen to run out of questions I was still involved with class. All the while their blood coursed with sugar and excitement.
This is not to say that they were misbehaving. On the contrary. They were all very attentive and well behaved. They were just all well behaved and attentive in a loud and excited sort of way. Everyone wanted to ask more questions or participate in the lessons. They got especially noisy in the 4th grade classes when we got to the part where I had to draw the face of someone in the class on the board and they then guessed who it was. Whoever guessed correctly would then come up to the board, draw a face, and the game continued until the class bell. The 6th graders were not quite as loud but they were no less excitable and again, I was bombarded with questions. If any student wanted to ask me something but didn't know how in English, they would ask Miss C who would translate for them. I did this for five classes on Thursday and five more on Friday. It was fun, to be sure, but I did leave school with quite a headache.
Luckily it wasn't so overwhelming that I was ready to bolt. There were periods of down time when I could talk to Miss C and Miss B (when she popped over from her class next door). They've been helpful in figuring things out such as bus schedules, how to get to (insert place here), and pretty much any other question I had. They didn't always have the answer but they tried earnestly to do their best to find it. Even if it meant sending an IM to all the other teachers to try and find good cheap furniture.
All in all last week was good. Completely exhausting, but good. The differences between the two schools will take some time getting used to. I feel much more a part of the class at Gyeong Po. Whereas here at Dong, I'm either observing the class or at my desk (I have no desk at Gyeong Po, just an office chair). I know that coming in during the last six weeks doesn't really make it easy for me to just slide into place. I'm sure things will only get better. At Dong, I've now met all the classes. No more intros. I hope this well mean I start becoming a part of the class, rather than just sitting apart from it. At Gyeong Po, this week I work with Miss B. This means two more days of intros. And she teaches 3rd graders. All of them will be coked up on pixie sticks, I'm sure.
Oh, and on Saturday Jenn and I brought home a kitten.
No comments:
Post a Comment