Wednesday, September 2, 2009
First and second day of teaching are now (thankfully!) under my belt, and I have now moved into my new home, so I am going to take time to catch up. I will summarize as best as I can my job as a teacher so far.
My teaching orientation on Saturday, and my prep day on Monday were...well...overwhelming. YBM/ECC uses a plethora of teacher guides, student books, workbooks, exams, CDs and teaching aids for their classes. One thing that was made very clear to me was the necessity to always be aware of the parents. From the sounds of it, the parents are omnipresent at this school. They will drop by and view their child in class via camera. If their child gets a boo-boo, or doesn't complete a workbook exercise, they will want to know why the teacher didn't prevent these things. Since this is a private school (otherwise known as a hagwon), the worries and concerns of the parents have a magnified importance, so it is important to always be on your toes, and control as many things in the classroom as possible.
I will give as simple of a breakdown of my week as possible:
I teach 8-7 40 minute classes per day, Monday through Friday. No class has more than 12 students, and my smallest class has 3. In the morning we teach kindergartners who come to the school every morning, Monday through Friday. In the afternoon, we teach kids who come 2-5 times a week after public school for a few hours of extra English lessons. In terms of my teacher schedule, Monday Wednesday Friday I teach one set of classes, and Tuesday, Thursday I teach a different set. In terms of subjects, for my kindergarten class I teach various subjects, including: Math, Science, Phonics, Storybook, Arts & Crafts, Conversation, and Reading. The older classes however are just plain English, focusing on Reading Writing, Listening and Speaking. Each class has its own syllabus, created by your Korean co-teacher for that class that I need to follow. It outlines me what I pages I need to cover in class, what to give/correct for homework, and what quizzes to administer.
This week I have been most preoccupied with trying to understand what material to use with what class and how to find it. The 20 odd teachers that flutter around our narrow teachers' room are very helpful. My boss especially, Anne, has been very patient with me, as I ask time after time where I can find X book, or which syllabus goes with which class and so on. Now that I am starting to get the hang of their system, I am more confident, thus able to focus more on my teaching style.
Most of the kids I am teaching are in between 5 and 10 years old. They are very cute, and will often surprise me with the phrases they know. I do struggle with their attention span, which is very short, especially for the kindergarten class. I try to change activities, and make them fun, but have found it is very easy to get them too excited and lose the class to chaos. With time I should be able to find better techniques and balance. Luckily as the day goes on, the ages of kids I teach increase, so generally, the day gets easier.
A few small differences I have noticed with the kindergartners: Kids bring shoes that they only where at school. They change into them in the morning, and out of them in the afternoon. On Fridays they bring these shoes home for their parents to wash. Lunch is served in the classrooms. After, we go as a class to the washroom area, where they get their cups and toothbrushes and brush their teeth. The teacher (such as myself) administers the toothpaste. The biggest difference though? There is no recess, and there is no outside time. On Thursdays, gym teachers from an outside company come and give PE lessons, which the kids LOVE. The gym is a room about twice the size of the classroom, but the classrooms are small here. Every day after lunch they do have about 15 minutes to play on a mat with a box of toy, but there are a lot of rules (staying on the mat, sitting, no roughhousing etc.) Even when they are being difficult to teach, its hard to get frustrated when you remember their age and how little movement they have had all day!
I am amazed that you have already begun to grasp what- for me- sounds totally confusing, and mildly terrifying!
i can only say,"Brava!"
It is incredibly too bad that there is so little kinetic time there, as that is what children that age are all about... they explore and learn about the world through their bodies and senses. They are never still- as I can still VIVIDLY recall from when you were that age.
At Happy Valley,they used a lot of motion-related games that also taught. Now I see how useful these "games were. Perhaps you can remember them and might utilize the appropriate ones. (Although, assuredly you have things well-in-hand", and most likely have already thought of such things!)
Am glad you are making sense of things...
ps- have you completed your move to your new digs yet?