A Day In The Life

Hey, everyone. Still no Internet so I apologize for lagging behind on posts. More opinions on Korea to come!

I was a little too burned out the other night to go into much detail about my classes. Also, I actually didn’t remember all of them. I was so tired by the end of the day they had all kind of blended together. I figured a post about the specific classes I’m teaching might be of interest.

Period 1, Blue Class: Blue Class are almost-babies, with not much English under their belt. On Mondays I teach them Arts & Crafts; Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is Play Class; and Friday is Sing & Chant. The first three classes of the day follow this schedule for the month of March, which means I’m doing three different plays with three different groups. Check back for updates on the production of Scary Dino later this month.

Period 4, Green Class: I have one class, then two periods off, and then lunch. Yeah. It’s a silly schedule but it does allow me to get prepared for the rest of the day, in which I have no break until 6:00. With Green Class, I’m putting on Let’s Play Together (I think that’s the name). I better learn the name because I need to know all the lines and songs.

Period 5, Purple Class: My absolute favorite class. There are only two kids in this one, David and Kelly. They’re only 6 or 7, but their English is excellent. I’m doing Cinderella with them. Yes, this would be the eleven-part play for two kids. I rewrote it so that there were no more than three characters in each scene, which means I also get to star in it! I’ve already handed out their parts, and they’ve been making up dances for the songs. Essentially, they direct themselves and are adorable (at least, when Kelly is not being a complete drama queen). David even offered his book to me the other day when he noticed mine was falling apart.

The rest of my day is different depending on whether or not it’s Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday. For the most part, I teach six or seven straight classes through to the end of the day after lunch. My least favorite are probably my phonics classes, of which I have two or three per day. Going over A is for Apple and B is for Ball for forty minutes is a little mind numbing.

I also teach a couple of reading classes, one speaking class and one writing class. They’re all pretty similar in that they involve listening or reading a passage, then answering questions about it. The speaking class is one of my favorites because I can actually have a conversation with the kids. I prepare them to give short speeches on different subjects, which involves going over vocabulary and helping them understand difficult words. It’s a small class, and my last of the day on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I’m happy that it’s a good one.

I’m happy that it’s a good one because two classes before that one, in Phonics 3, I have the spawn of Satan. I understand kids are hyper and loud and talk a lot; those are all things I can tolerate to a certain extent. What I cannot stand is someone making fun of someone else while they are learning another language. The way you get better at speaking a foreign language is to speak it, which of course means making mistakes. There are a couple students in that class who struggle significantly more than the others, and the spawn felt the need to point this out to the entire class. I informed him that if he spoke such perfect English, maybe he didn’t need to be there. Then I kicked him out. It didn’t solve the problem, exactly, because he seems hell-bent on being a problem each and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I think I got my point across.

That is my school week so far. While I’m getting more comfortable with teaching, I still have a lot to learn. And I have never been so happy to see the weekend in my life!