1 post tagged “teaching”
I know I haven't written very much about my teaching experience so far. There are probably a lot of reasons, but the main one is laziness. I've had so many thoughts and emotions surrounding the topic that it seemed too overwhelming to write down when I found the time. After today I finally have the energy to explore it, because today was one of few that I felt like a real teacher. More often, it's a balance of entertaining my students and trying to convey something to them threw a mish-mash of hand movements, korean and english words and animal noises.
Most days are one of the following: a great morning followed by a challenging afternoon, a stressful morning followed by a surprisingly calm afternoon, or an all out bad day. There are days when everything goes according to plan, or at least turns out positively, and I think, ' maybe I'm getting the hang of this.' The problem is that everyday, every lesson, and every class is different. I suppose this is equally an advantage for someone who gets bored, but day after day it can become wearing.
Let me clarify something. I'm not really teaching for most of my 43 working hours every week. I spent a lot of time at the library preparing for classes, reading story books to tiny humans in my most animated voices (I even sing sometimes! Those poor children), playing games with tiny humans that like to get pushy about who can clean up all the pieces the quickest (It kills me every time) and generally being the token foreigner for all the children and parents to gawk at. I only count the four hours a week that I spent teaching art as actual teaching there. I love that art class because it's 'my' thing. I make everything decision related to it, so everything that goes well I feel proud of.
At my other office I teach four hours a day, split between advanced and beginner adults and children. My adult classes are generally very good. I really enjoy teaching the advanced students because we get to discuss current events and issues and it's always fun to hear their opinions. I feel increasingly capable of teaching adults who are beginners, but who want to be there. I can see them learning and that feels great. The children have been the cause of most of the challenges I've had.
These kids are terrible as a group. In no particular order they have done all of the following since I've been teaching them: roller-blade around the classroom, scream as loud as they can for as long as they can, stick their tongues out at me, arrive up to 45 minutes late for a class that lasts 50 minutes, leave my classroom for no particular reason without acknowledging me, repeat everything I say, disrupt my class by going outside and yelling into the window over and over again, erase things or write new things on my board, stand on the desks, hit each other. I know I'm missing some things, but I think that will suffice for my point. My point is: these have been tough kids to teach.
Not all of them participate in the mayhem, but enough to pretty much derail me from my lesson. The attendance fluctuates every class and some days things are fine simply because the 'bad' kids aren't there. I hate that its necessary to have absent students in order to have a productive class, but that's how it is. Today I had all the bad kids I can remember, and it was certainly a bumpy class, but there were entire stretches of 30 seconds when they all just worked on the sheets I had given them. This felt like such an accomplishment. If they started talking I said "Ssshhh, no talking" and it actually worked! I was in control of this class and it was the first time that has happened with all the kids present.
I know the reason the they act the way they do. They come from a poor neighborhood. Korea has developed and essentially become rich overnight and the ones who were left behind are especially poor compared to all the sparkle wearing, fancy car driving people who populate a city like this. I get the impression their futures have been decided in this country because they can't afford to go to private academies and take expensive tests. Why would they care about studying or learning English? I'm sorry to sound all 'dangerous minds', but from what I can tell, that is the situation. I finally feel like I'm getting through to them a bit. They still test their boundaries, but they know I'm their teacher and I won't take their crap.
After class a few of them stayed behind and asked me questions like, "Canada president?" "Paris Beautiful?" I stayed late to talk to them because I finally realized why I was there. To teach English, sure, but more importantly to expose them to things they wouldn't be otherwise. I can tell them that Paris IS beautiful and that Canada has a Prime Minister, not a President. I'm here to offer education, in whatever form that might take.
I don't consider myself a 'real teacher'. After all, I have no qualification aside from having a university degree and being a native speaker. However, there are days, like today, when I go home very proud to be called 'samsanim'.
