In the latest school news, it's been very tiring adjusting to the new things this semester. I got used to my former head co-teacher's style of doing things. She would give me my class schedule and teaching scope a week in advance. She also strove to tell me school news ahead of time. This year I get my schedule during the middle of the same week I'm teaching and my co-teachers give me my teaching scope only a day before class, so I am not able to fully prepare a lot of new material. There are new textbooks too, so I basically I have to prepare new lessons. The schedule is not consistent and I get told about school news the day of, for example, how to judge the English essay contest. I had to start teaching an additional after school class for Korean teachers and I quickly learned how little they value my time and energy. No wonder the students do the same thing. In addition to that, I've had to adjust to the different attitudes of my new co-teachers. By April, there was a change of 5th grade English teachers and I had to get adjusted to a new person again. By June, there was another change of 4th grade English teachers because the previous one was pregnant. I was happy about the 4th grade English teacher leaving even though it increased my workload because she was one of the fakest people I have met in Korea. She would smile, telling you things you want to hear and then act in a rude and indifferent manner. She never remembered anything I told her so it was like talking to myself. Sometimes I think she would already know the things I said before but pretend not to know. It was especially hard sharing a class with her because her idea of co-teaching was to split the class in half and I do exactly 20 minutes on my own, with no help whatsoever. She was just a ghost presence when it was my turn to teach. Her classes were always extra noisy and not trained to listen well. I would be struggling while she would sit back and smile. I couldn't understand it because it's usually the co-teachers responsibility to set a good learning environment and discipline students. At the end of class she would say, "Did you need help? If they're too noisy you should give me a sign." WHAT?! I felt like I was going insane.
Eventually it got to the point where I sent an e-mail to my head co-teacher to complain about how we weren't seeing eye to eye in class. The build up came because I had finished my lesson two minutes early and looked over to her to ask what we should review for a couple minutes. She was angry that I involved her in my part of the class time. Then, I figured, if she wanted it to be so separate there was no point in me even being in class during her 20 minutes since she didn't want me to help out at all. I simply asked her if she would rather me sit in the office while she taught. I didn't think it would be such a big deal since I did it last semester when my co-teacher had class parties and didn't need me. She was so offended and started talking about following teaching regulations and the rules of split co-teaching, all with a smile. I asked my head co-teacher if I could see these rules she spoke of and if it outlined this specific "co-teaching style." Secretly it was just to complain. After that you could cut the tension with a knife. Thank God it ended!
Open Class
I miss having my head co-teacher in the same office for issues I have with anything or for planning classes together. It so weird being on my own. I even planned and did open class alone. I don't even belong to a grade so when it comes to school dinners and outings I don't have a group to join. As you can imagine I am left out often. As far as the students, no grade seems to really take English class seriously. The one relief I have is my English Playground/Arts because I get to watch the students design and not have to focus on games. It's something I actually like to do. I am thankful for the few loyal students I do have who really enjoy English. I was so touched when my student gave me a present for Teacher's Day and attached a lovely message with it thanking me. At the end of this experience I hope to look back and remember those students who really did try hard and did well in class. One instance I will definitely remember is how well some students did after I taught them idioms, which is something new I started doing this year and only Ido it. The ones who remember well make me so proud that they were listening and knew it was something important enough to remember, despite it not being part of official exams and the teaching scope. I am even proud of the new things I get to teach the older Korean teachers. While I am here I hope to continue challenging students for moments just like that.
Anyways, here are some fun times at the School Science Fair in May and my after school class. In Korea, people come to show the students science experiments instead of the way it is American where the students have to present their own research and experiments.
Make a Family Tree for Children's Day Activity and Party
Make a Game
Make a Commercial
Make an English Playground CD Cover
Design a Cardboard Store
They also made their own short song but were too shy to record it.
P.S. - One of my co-teachers had a wedding and since I couldn't go because of paragliding (you'll see more about that later), I gave her a gift. She gave everyone a thank you gift of delicious individually wrapped shortbread cookies in this cute little box.
I miss having my head co-teacher in the same office for issues I have with anything or for planning classes together. It so weird being on my own. I even planned and did open class alone. I don't even belong to a grade so when it comes to school dinners and outings I don't have a group to join. As you can imagine I am left out often. As far as the students, no grade seems to really take English class seriously. The one relief I have is my English Playground/Arts because I get to watch the students design and not have to focus on games. It's something I actually like to do. I am thankful for the few loyal students I do have who really enjoy English. I was so touched when my student gave me a present for Teacher's Day and attached a lovely message with it thanking me. At the end of this experience I hope to look back and remember those students who really did try hard and did well in class. One instance I will definitely remember is how well some students did after I taught them idioms, which is something new I started doing this year and only I do it. The ones who remember well make me so proud that they were listening and knew it was something important enough to remember, despite it not being part of official exams and the teaching scope. I am even proud of the new things I get to teach the older Korean teachers. While I am here I hope to continue challenging students for moments just like that.
