Back to School

I started my first day of school not really knowing what to expect. I hadn't talked with any of the teachers except during my brief interview in September. I was told during that interview what age students I would be teaching but by November I had forgotten. I was really just jumping in without any expectations, trying to keep as open a mind as possible.

The school was only a short walk from my apartment (I was met by one of the other foreign teachers who showed me the way.) I arrived at the school at 11am and met all the other teachers. There are 5 Korean teachers and 3 foreign teachers including myself. Everyone was very kind and welcoming.

During my first few days, I spent a lot of time observing other teachers teach and talking to them about the different course levels and effective teaching techniques. I was trying to pay very close attention because I knew that I would start teaching my first classes on my third day. From Wednesday to Friday of my first week I would teach two classes a day and observe for the rest of the day.

My first classes were a little rough; I was very nervous and didn't know how students would respond to me. For the most part, I was standing in front of the class trying to get students to participate and they were just staring at me. I didn't know if they were staring at me because they didn't understand what I was saying, uncomfortable with a new person, or uninterested in doing their school work. No matter the reason, it was fairly nerve-wracking.

When I started my second week, I started teaching my full course load. I taught the preschool kids library class and P.E. Both of which are self-explanatory. No real problems with these classes except convincing the students that P.E. is not just playtime. I also started teaching about five elementary classes a day. These were a little more challenging. I had a curriculum that I had to get though and had to make sure all students were learning what I was attempting to teach.

It is now the end of my third week (second week of teaching). I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of this teaching thing. I'm no longer nervous about getting in front of class, but I'm still trying to figure out the best ways to teach the curriculum and make it fun and interesting too. I'm also having such a hard time remembering student names. It's really a problem. But, I'm happy to report that I'm enjoying teaching so far and like most of my students. That one class I teach full of preteens is not as much fun, but I guess you can't like them all.