My kids and the school life

July, 2008

Like any other jobs, there are good days and bad days in teaching as well. Depending on the mood of the kids, how well they behave, my conditions, and the materials covered; it differs. Generally speaking, although I’m not super passionate about teaching, but I love and enjoy working with kids. Despite of all the drama, I love having them around most of the time. I even miss them sometimes at night after school. Some of my friends know that one of my dreams is to have my own orphanage/children’s home someday for kids who need a home and stability.

Due to different age groups and levels of the students, I have to come up with different ideas for each class. My teaching style is more interactive than just lecture. I believe kids need to have some fun when learning to I always try to come up with some kind of activities and games (except when they’re behaving badly, I would then give them tests or worksheets instead). Most all the kids love to play games especially the younger ones (1st to 2nd grades) get really excited very easily. The older ones (5th, 6th grades), it sometimes works well just to talk to them about something they’re interested in. It’s a great learning opportunity for them as well because they have to use the stuff they’ve learned and try to communicate it back to me. Sometimes they would draw or ask each other for help if they do not know how to express something in English.

Since my Korean co-teacher and I are in the English zone, separated from other classrooms, we rarely see other teachers except during lunchtime. Even then, I only talk to people who speak English (the 2 other native teachers and the English program supervisor). The school principal is a middle-aged man probably in his 50s. He looks like the dads in Korean dramas, short, bald, and authoritative. When he first met me, he thought I was Korean so he spoke Korean to me. Even after he learned that I’m not Korean, he still tried speaking Korean to me several times. Maybe he thinks I should at least understand some because I am Asian. The principal was very serious with us at the beginning, he would yell at my Korean co-teacher if he needed something done or giving a command. There’s another interesting “adjushi” (older Korean man) in school who is always very loud and always clearing his throat. He seems to be living in the school; he would come around our classrooms after our classes to check on/close the windows in the hallway. At first, he would “yell” at us to close our classroom windows, but I think that’s just how he talks. He is also short, bald, and we can hear him constantly clearing his throat even in the hallways. It’s funny, for the first about a month, we didn’t think the “clearing throat” adjushi know who we are although he sees us everybody. After our last class, we usually walk the kids down and see them off by the door, and adjushi would come and lock the door in front of us even when we were still outside. For awhile, we thought maybe the principal and the adjushi didn’t like us much but had no idea what’s going on in their minds. Both of them seem to treat us a lot nicer then, no more yelling, and the principal even greeted me in English couple times.