I thought I'd write a little about our job so that you can have some insight into what we do on a daily basis. Obviously, we love to travel to new places and meet up with friends, but we have to work sometime, right?
We begin our day waiting for the school shuttle. It picks us up every morning a few blocks from our apartment. The bright yellow shuttle is full of students when it arrives and the driver and adults on the shuttle all tell us "Good Morning!" when we step on. They are very excited to see us every day and when I get the front seat the driver looks over at me constantly, smiling and repeating, "Good Morning!" He tries to tell me stories of the things happening on the streets of Jinyeong, but I don't understand much of it. He did an excellent job of pantomiming a motorcycle crash that I guess happened earlier this morning.
We have about 30 minutes to get our classrooms and materials ready for the day. We sometimes get on the computer to make a quick homework assignment or class activity. Sipping coffee, makin' copies, you know the usual morning drill. At 10am our classes begin.
I teach two straight class periods with Sun class, the 3rd year 7 and 8 year olds. They have been at the school for a while and their English is pretty good. They know the routines and classes and teachers all pretty well by now. I start class by doing a run-down of what we'll be doing and reviewing the class rules. I spend some time teaching them some conversational phrases and having them practice with me and each other. We do some flashcards for a while as well. The "flashcard game" requires them to be quiet and raise their hands when I show each new card. I call on the first hand up and they put their answer into a sentence: "He is a police officer." Each day is a different book or workbook or journaling activity. I go through a little lesson on what they'll be doing and then go through some workbook pages with them. If all goes well with their behavior and they still have all 3 of their stars, I'll play a game with them, or they can do coloring pages, or use the colored folding paper that they really like.
After those two classes it is "Specials" time. It isn't called that necessarily but that is just what I've learned to call it from school back home. Each day is either Science, Art, Theme day, Cooking or Gardening, or Assembly. During this time all of the classes come together and Nikki and I lead some sort of activity for all of the kids. This usually involves some prep time beforehand, as all of the students are together and we have to hold their attention for 40 minutes. We usually start off with a song or some little lesson and then have them do an activity at their tables. The Korean teachers are there to help out, and they really are a huge help for us.
After this Nikki and I head to lunch. We usually eat whatever is offered for school lunch, which is hit and miss. Some days the lunch is really good and filling, other days it is sketchy and we leave still hungry. Not much different from school lunches across the globe I suppose.
After Lunch we are pretty busy. We both teach a few classes in a row of kids from the pre-school beside us. These kids have very little English skills and we only see them once or twice a week. At 430pm we are finished! We usually spend about 30 minutes getting things ready for the next day and cleaning up a little, then we walk home. We are usually pretty tired from the busy day.
Our class sizes are pretty small. My Sun class has 6 students and that is pretty normal for class sizes. When classes from the school beside us come over there are about 11 or 12 students. Our Specials class has about 30 students, which is all of the students who attend English Friends. We give homework a few times per week in a homework folder or workbook that the students take home with them. Some of the afternoon students have already attended elementary school, then our classes, and then go on to another activity or practice, such as tae kwon do. These are very busy little kids.
They are really kind hearted kids, though. They love to participate in activities like reading, singing and coloring. We make all kinds of pictures and crafts everyday. I feel a little silly sometimes but I really like making crafts and coloring right along with them. Of course, there are times when they can be excited and loud and squirly. This is to be expected. Often they will work hard for things like stickers and colored paper and playground time, so things are never too bad in the behavior sense. It is hard to stay mad at someone who, when they see you in the morning, yells your name and runs to hug you.
As far as curriculum goes, it is all very basic English. Sight words, basic conversation sentences, vocabulary, and grammar are what Sun class usually covers. Nikki teaches the younger classes and they do more songs and games and poems and phonics activities. There are 3 Korean teachers here who also teach classes and they are always helpful when we need to translate something or need anything else. They have been very accommodating and tolerant of our rookie mistakes. It has taken me most of this week to grasp a few of the daily routines like homework folders and other little responsibilities, but the staff here are good to only give me gentle reminders.
I hope to bring my camera in next week to take some pictures and videos of our classes and students and then post them up here. Cheers! - Steve Teacher
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