Guilty as charged!
It appears I have caved in to the internal peer pressure and created that 8th blog I said I wouldn't create, the fashion blog now dubbed Dawn J'Heureuse. I have posted in that blog three times in the one day it's been up, and I'm already foaming at the mouth to post more.
Anyway, now that I don't have to pollute this blog with fashion-related stuff that would most likely bore some of the people who originally bookmarked this blog in order to learn about Korea, I can now post about the originally intended topic of this blog; namely, Korea!
Today was a rather crazy day at school. I only had preschool + four classes. But.. first, my preschool class was observed by a girl from a different franchise, who is training to become a preschool teacher there. I didn't catch her name. With someone watching, it always provides that extra motivation to 'make it the best class ever' and I was quite pleased with the shining example the girl was provided. I praised the kids a lot, gave lots of high-fives, made the material varied, staggered active activities with non-active ones, had them repeat material after me before drilling them with games, made my face animated, pet them lots (or a bit more than usual since I'm not really the touchy-feely cheek-pinching type of teacher), and all the things we've been taught to do. Now that I think about it, we've learned quite a lot about teaching!
Later in the afternoon, I had my first parent-observation class. I was quite worried, since K6 is my second-largest class (11 students) and also the quietest. The kids are always lethargic and half of them never want to participate. Right before the class began, I was surprised to find I would be teaching a K7 a half-lesson. K7 is the new class that Ryan opened, and it has grown to be what is now our largest class.. 13 students. They are all about aged 8-9 but brand new to English, so that makes it more challenging to teach them. They also have a tendency to all vie for attention at the same time. John will be head-butting my back while Dora is chirping about how she finished her work, Tim will be rolling on the ground, while Wilson is popping up and down wanting to share with me that Alan was out of his seat, tugging at my shirt to tell me that Kevin was speaking Korean.
That was a worst-case scenerio, though, as challenging as they can be, they can also be one of the best-behaved classes at times. They are really a joy to teach. Anyway, thinking I was about to teach K6, I received notice I'd be teaching K7 for 25 minutes.. and the same observer from my morning preschool was also there watching. I kept adding a few more activities.. and a few more.. trying to time it right so I'd be done at half past. Half past came and went then 35 past, and Ryan didn't come to replace me.. and Jenny didn't come to get me, so I freaked out a bit and went to get Ryan. I'm sure I was early or something; I just like to do an extra special freak-out dance at prime times like such. When I came back, our director was ahead of me, and walked into the class to see 13 students sitting perfectly at their desk with their textbooks open, an observer in the corner, and no teacher in sight to enforce their good behaviour! Even Tim, the rambunctious one, who had somehow bloodied his finger 10 minutes earlier, was sitting in his desk. Her surprise made me giggle.
My K6 class went much better than expected. Although I was expecting horrible results, so that's not saying much. We managed to get through the whole lesson plan rather smoothly, and I was shocked at how well the kids participated when their parents were watching. I am still shocked. For the last half hour, the Korean co-teacher and our director talk to the parents, and they occasionally asked me to comment on the kids, which they translated for the parents. While they talked, I tried to infer what Korean parents are like based on their tone of voice and non-verbal cues. A couple of them were lighthearted, but most were quite serious and dressed for a board meeting. At the end, our director told me her normal spiel about 'caring' more for the kids.. "It's a sort of care and control." I'm sure Brent and Ryan have heard that line a million times. Since she didn't go to any lengths to prepare a personalized lecture of how to improve, I take it the class went pretty well.
Anyway, now that I don't have to pollute this blog with fashion-related stuff that would most likely bore some of the people who originally bookmarked this blog in order to learn about Korea, I can now post about the originally intended topic of this blog; namely, Korea!
Today was a rather crazy day at school. I only had preschool + four classes. But.. first, my preschool class was observed by a girl from a different franchise, who is training to become a preschool teacher there. I didn't catch her name. With someone watching, it always provides that extra motivation to 'make it the best class ever' and I was quite pleased with the shining example the girl was provided. I praised the kids a lot, gave lots of high-fives, made the material varied, staggered active activities with non-active ones, had them repeat material after me before drilling them with games, made my face animated, pet them lots (or a bit more than usual since I'm not really the touchy-feely cheek-pinching type of teacher), and all the things we've been taught to do. Now that I think about it, we've learned quite a lot about teaching!
Later in the afternoon, I had my first parent-observation class. I was quite worried, since K6 is my second-largest class (11 students) and also the quietest. The kids are always lethargic and half of them never want to participate. Right before the class began, I was surprised to find I would be teaching a K7 a half-lesson. K7 is the new class that Ryan opened, and it has grown to be what is now our largest class.. 13 students. They are all about aged 8-9 but brand new to English, so that makes it more challenging to teach them. They also have a tendency to all vie for attention at the same time. John will be head-butting my back while Dora is chirping about how she finished her work, Tim will be rolling on the ground, while Wilson is popping up and down wanting to share with me that Alan was out of his seat, tugging at my shirt to tell me that Kevin was speaking Korean.
That was a worst-case scenerio, though, as challenging as they can be, they can also be one of the best-behaved classes at times. They are really a joy to teach. Anyway, thinking I was about to teach K6, I received notice I'd be teaching K7 for 25 minutes.. and the same observer from my morning preschool was also there watching. I kept adding a few more activities.. and a few more.. trying to time it right so I'd be done at half past. Half past came and went then 35 past, and Ryan didn't come to replace me.. and Jenny didn't come to get me, so I freaked out a bit and went to get Ryan. I'm sure I was early or something; I just like to do an extra special freak-out dance at prime times like such. When I came back, our director was ahead of me, and walked into the class to see 13 students sitting perfectly at their desk with their textbooks open, an observer in the corner, and no teacher in sight to enforce their good behaviour! Even Tim, the rambunctious one, who had somehow bloodied his finger 10 minutes earlier, was sitting in his desk. Her surprise made me giggle.
My K6 class went much better than expected. Although I was expecting horrible results, so that's not saying much. We managed to get through the whole lesson plan rather smoothly, and I was shocked at how well the kids participated when their parents were watching. I am still shocked. For the last half hour, the Korean co-teacher and our director talk to the parents, and they occasionally asked me to comment on the kids, which they translated for the parents. While they talked, I tried to infer what Korean parents are like based on their tone of voice and non-verbal cues. A couple of them were lighthearted, but most were quite serious and dressed for a board meeting. At the end, our director told me her normal spiel about 'caring' more for the kids.. "It's a sort of care and control." I'm sure Brent and Ryan have heard that line a million times. Since she didn't go to any lengths to prepare a personalized lecture of how to improve, I take it the class went pretty well.
posted by s at 6:37 AM
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