First week of teaching...

I just got through my first week of teaching in Korea. I was a little nervous going into it, not because I was worried about my teaching skills, but because I hadn't learned all of the routines and procedures yet. Monday was a little rocky. Kindergartners are great at pointing out every time the teacher does something out of the ordinary. On Monday, this occurred frequently! Luckily they were nice about it, and my Korean co-teacher helped me fix my mistakes. On Tuesday, I made less mistakes, and each day was smoother and smoother. One of my supervisors came in to my class to observe one of my lessons on Wednesday. I was expecting her to give me a laundry list of things to improve on. Instead, she complimented my loving and gentle demeanor with my kids and said I am doing a great job!

In the afternoons I teach elementary and middle school students a variety of subjects, like reading, writing, phonics, social studies, debate, and speaking. I find these classes to be more like tutoring sessions than teaching. Most of the class sizes are extremely small (around 3 or 4 students each, and just 1 student in a few classes). We just work out of the book, so it's pretty mellow. I decided to try spicing things up the other day, providing fun examples and whole-class participation. It was going great, we were laughing, the energy was up, and I felt like I was really taking control and channeling my creative spirit! Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could finish everything, so the students had a lot of homework to do! And now I see why the other teachers just stick to the bookwork.

Last Thursday and Friday we had to administer "level tests". Students take these tests every 3 months to assess their progress in the program. A lot of pressure is put on these students to do well, and their parents expect little short of perfection. The way my students were stressing out, it was as if they were taking the SATs. One of my third-graders hyperventilated throughout the whole test! Another third-grader was making weird wretching sounds. It broke my heart to see 8 and 9 years olds put through so much pressure! By the end of testing, I felt stressed out just watching them.

I must say, my kindergartners are pretty adorable. I'll be sure to record some videos of them to share with you all. Your heart might just melt.

To my friends and family, I love and miss you all.

Be well.