So, I learned something yesterday. I'm still trying to condense it down into a single sentence or two, but I did learn something. Pain like this usually follows a hangover, or a bad accident, or some incident where you kinda stop yourself and go "OK, how do we make sure that NEVER EVER EVER HAPPENS AGAIN!!" Then proceed to loop in your mind the events leading up to and including the time in question.
My first day:
It started pretty normal. I get there, and am introduced to my first class, a group of Kindergarteners. I get SWARMED with "Hello" and "What's your name?" which was expected. But then these kids get IN YOUR FACE. Well, not all of them, just one or two of the more rambunctious ones. One kid got nose to nose with me, and that's when I almost started stiff-arming them. But after a bit I got the hang of it. There's this one little girl who immediately comes in and practically does a flying-leap-hug everytime she sees me. I like her. The in your face kid has moxy for days, that's for sure. He called me fat-ttuh. In spite of his seeming lack of self awareness and decor I kinda like the kid. Classes went well, and overall I get a good feeling about the little ones. They seem to be less serious, and I feel like I can have more fun with them.
Then, I went upstairs to teach the older (non kinder) kids. They range from six to ten or twelve, and are varying levels of...well... So I get up there, we have a meeting, and they tell me I have time to prepare for five classes. Later, I look at the clock and realize I've only been given an hour, that hour included our meeting time, and there's only fifteen minutes left.
Twelve
Ten
Five
Its go time...
So the director joins me in my first class. Perfect way to start my day. Perfect class to start with too. Remedial at best. This is going to be my toughest class, mostly because communicating is going to be difficult. We get through it, and I have five minutes to get to my next class.
Next class is my favorite upstairs: small class, four kids, awesome times. They have a high level of understanding, and I'm actually quite happy to have them. They're going to be my guinea pigs for future class activities (if they're not thrilled and begging to stay after class, its not likely to work anywhere else)
Then the stress begins. Next class simultaneously dips in understanding and rises in age, which is a baaaaaaad bad combination. In fact, in most of my classes, nobody seems to care to be there. Yea, maybe if your parents forced you to sit through foreign language classes you'd stop caring too. I get it, but that doesn't mean I like it. The next few classes started out ok, but the kids eventually got tired of the material and started chatting amongst themselves in Korean. Some of the kids are really struggling, but there isn't enough time to really help them catch up. The whole curriculum seems to be a checklist of things for them to fill out.
My job, the way I see it...is hard to define all of a sudden. What I came here thinking was I'd get a group of kids that listened for the most part. I guess that's Japan, not Korea (or so the internet says). I'll admit it. I got owned. Hard. By the end, nobody was listening in any of my classes. I felt like that one teacher character in this Mexican skit show who's catchphrase is him yelling "Silence!!" in Spanish. One girl even started working on homework from another class (that's when I started taking stuff away)
I know what I want to do. I want to be a good teacher, have the respect of my students, and be a rockstar in the eyes of my superiors so that I can last long enough to at least finish out my contract. The how of that is now a striking question.
The way I see it, my obstacles are: the kids that really don't want to be there and are going to be little shites, the kids who generally don't care and can go bad quick, a general air of apathy that leads to cheating - and worse - systematic regurgitation of the material just to get by, limited comprehension, and canned material that doesn't have much built in (at least on my end) to further conceptual understanding.
I guess what I have to do is breathe life into the class and make it interesting. I had to use the curriculum as a crutch because I wasn't prepared, but I didn't stray from it, and the smarter kids blew through it with ten or fifteen agonizing minutes to spare. Now I know I need to prepare a LOT more in order to have contingencies and make the class enjoyable. Also, I need to be WAY more energetic. The language barrier (especially the feigned one) is going to be a challenge. Also, I need to learn to keep up appearances when things go south. Because they will. So, I'm packing my straw come Monday.
And today, I need to get to work!
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