So after my fun weekend, I decided it was best to stay inside my apartment on Sunday and get caught up on lesson planning & blogging. I ended up Skyping for half of the day, but oh well! I cooked some dinner so I could have leftovers for work on Monday. This time I made spaghetti...pretty good!
FIRST CLASS:
Monday morning, first class, I am scheduled to teach grade 1 high school students. I go into my classroom, open my powerpoint on the computer, then go to turn on the touch screen. Of course, IT DOESN'T TURN ON! Just my luck! I'm not panicking at this moment because I figured my co-teacher for this class (Mr. Lee) could fix it for me. I wait awhile then eventually he comes in with students trailing behind him. I ask him to turn on the screen, he looks at it, tries...fails. Then he disappears! Which leaves me starting at a group of all male students (freshman age), who are in return staring at me. A few of them yell, and I mean literally YELL, "HELLO TEACHER!!" I politely and quietly tell them hello in return. As I sit there, I start thinking...what the hell am I going to do if they can't fix it? Obviously I did not have a back up plan. I checked it on Friday and assumed it would work Monday. After a few more guy come in with wires and plugs, they discover they cannot fix it. So, I have the students make nametags for me to kill time. This turned into a whole debacle as I realize that most of them do not know how to translate their name from Korean symbols into English letters.
Let me back up a bit. As the co-teacher and I were waiting for more assistance in fixing the screen, I witnessed my first "culture schock" regarding school punishment. One minute it looked like the Mr. Lee was joking with the boys, the next he grabs one by his hair and slaps him across the face two times. Not even slaps, it was full blown hits! I have no clue as to what the boy said or did, but I'm assuming it was something inapproprite about me. I don't know! After witnessing that I decided to do the nametag activity. Which I said, didn't turn out so well. I highly doubt they will remember to bring them to class every week, that is if they were even able to write anything on them.
After sweating, literally, through that class I try to think of a back-up plan for the rest of the day. They inform me that they are going to bring in a professional to fix the screen and it will MAYBE (notice the word), MAYBE be ready in the morning...or sometime this week. In my mind that meant NEVER, lol. I go back to my teacher's lounge to tell my next teacher, Ms. Kim, that the screen is not working. She suggest we go to their homeroom class for the lesson where I can use a computer and screen. THANK GOODNESS!!
Another difference in Korea is that the students get to the class before the teacher does. The teacher does not leave the office until after the bell sounds off. Then they slowly walk, as to waste time, to the classroom & begin their lesson. I, on the other hand, like to be prepared when the students enter the room. I'm sure it will be different once I get settled into the English Zone room.
SECOND CLASS:
We enter a room full of middle schoolers, grade 2. Ms. Kim has them stand up, bow to me, then introduces me. I am immediately more at ease by this process. It also helps that the class size was much smaller, about 10 students. I begin my lesson & the students are very respectful. A few of them chatted in their own language, but for the most part they participated in my activities. It was funny to see that the girls sat on one side of the room and the boys on the other, lol. The end result of this class was 100% better than the first obviously! However, I did finish before class was over, but Ms. Kim backed me up and had them do a small activity until the bell rang. Another lesson learned, no matter how many extra activities you have planned, you should have even more!! In Texas I alway allowed my students to have the last five minutes as "free time," but that was different because I could hang out with them, or just sit at my desk & keep an eye on them. That would appear wasteful here.
THIRD CLASS:
We break for lunch then I return for my last class of they day. Middle schoolers, grade 3 with Mr. Bahn. During my break I quickly thought of some extra activities to add to my lesson, so the third class ran pretty smoothly. Same class size and level of respect. You could tell they really respected Mr. Bahn as well. I've heard he is one of the most "feared" teachers at the school, but that's how you have to be I've learned! As I leave class feeling pretty confident in myself, I ask Mr. Bahn if my lesson was ok. He replies, "Yes, it was good for middle school..but MAYBE not for high schoolers...they won't like it as much." In other words I needed to adjust my lesson plan in attempt to keep their attention/interest. So much for only making one lesson plan a week! I won't have to make an entirely different one, just adjust it according to the class levels. Could be worse!
BUS RIDE HOME:
The final task of my day was finally using the city bus system. For this I had to walk to a station about 5 minutes from the school, purchase a ticket for 3,100 WON and it was supposed to take me to Gumi-yuk (the train station by my apartment). Sounds easy. Well I get on without a problem, we stop in another small town, Seonsan, more people get on the bus, and we head towards Gumi. When we get to Gumi I notice it stops at Gumi bus terminal. I assumed this was close enough to the train station. I get out and start walking and looking for the station...which is nowhere to be found. I eventually stop a person and say, "Gumi-yuk odiyey?" which means, "Where is the train station?" He points down the road and says, 20 minute walk. Just my luck! lol. So I then have to grab a taxi & pay 2,800 WON to get to the station. I could have taken a taxi all the way to my apartment by saying "Gaksan eh DC Marte" but I wasn't in a good mood and figured I could use a walk to cool off lol.
DINNER WITH FRIENDS:
I make it home and decide to put off lesson planning for awhile. I had an idea in mind already that I could finish in the morning at school since I didn't have class until 10:20am the next day. I get on facebook...my form of communication with all English speakers in Gumi haha, and Paul and Ali ask if I'd like to come to their apartment for dinner to save money. So, I catch a cab to their place, about 3,800 WON, and enjoy a nice relaxing evening with dinner and drinks. Ali made rice with curry sauce, chicken, garlic, and some veggies. Normally the sound of this meal would not make me excited but seeing how I'm eating stuff that I don't even know the origins of in Korea, any vegetables or foods I can identify taste great to me! Turned out to be a very delicious meal! And we ended with strawberry ice cream which in my opinion was better than any strawberry ice cream I've had in America. Around 11pm I head home for sleep.
XOXO,
Amanda
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