Teaching and Travelling

Co-Teachers. Part II

So, I spoke to my main CT today. She told she thought I was doing fine, to take it on the chin, she reminded me that there is always something to improve on and pointed out that the CT in question will be leaving in July. (And she made the point that with new CTs, it’s easier to tell them your expectations.) And she told me some interesting things about my pregnant co-teacher.

The classes just switched and she was going to have one less class with me. But she complained because that apparently meant she wasn’t ‘resting’ enough. So, because she’s In The Family Way, she thinks my classes are an excuse to slack off and do nothing. This makes me feel a bit better because it’s confirmation that the problem is more me than her. My Main CT also said that the concept of co-teaching seems to have bypassed her, haha

I definitely feel that Classroom Management is something I can work on, but I am going to carry on as before. Implementing different things as and when I see fit and finding methods which work for me. Should I be tougher? Probably? Am I fully responsible for managing my classes? No I am not. And that is something my CTs have to understand too.

My Main Co thinks a lot of my issues are coming from juggling so many expectations from different people. She encouraged me to carry on doing my best and to keep doing things that seem to work well. Her attitude was positive and supportive and she seemed to understand where I am coming from.

I really do think more stringent guidelines for the Korean co-teachers so that they understand they role in the classroom would be best. This has definitely made me think that next semester I want to sit down my co-teachers and work out what we will study. I genuinely think that will be helpful.

Feeling more positive. Just going to try and keep on progressing and learning and developing as a teacher and ultimately trying to achieve two things 1) Improving the students English 2) Trying to encourage them to use the language as much as possible and to enjoy it.

Frustrated

So, I have finally hit a bit of a bump in the road with my school and its making me feel a bit low at the moment.

Things at my school have never been perfect. I’ve dealt with whispers about my appalling chopstick usage, people blanking me in the hallway, however much I’ve said ‘Annunghasayo’, incompetent co-teachers and a wide variety of disorganisation. But, the one thing that has always worked is that they have always approved of my teaching.

Until these past couple of weeks, at least.

I teach only Second Grade from the Textbook (aside from one First Grade class and the ridiculousness of that still makes me seethe) and I teach only one lesson from that. All other lessons I develop by myself. As anyone can tell, the chances of technical glitches, things going wrong and it just being a plain bad lesson are significantly higher when you plan this stuff yourself. You take a risk. Sometimes a class with work with one group of kids and not with another. That’s Life as a Teacher.

And one of my lessons was not the most brilliant last week. I’ll put my hands up. It wasn’t my best effort. But I thought it would be okay. Anyway, que Friday morning one of my co-teachers coming to talk to me and tellng me that I am teaching the Second Graders too much writing. I must confess to being taken-aback by this because one of my other co-teachers (I have 7) told me she wanted me to focus more on writing, to help students prepare for their tests. She also said that I did not speak enough to all the students (Um?!) and that she was so busy in my class helping them with vocabulary it washer class, not my class. I was a bit thrown off and upset about this because I really do try my best and I do answer any question the students ask me. Its not my fault that they also ask her stuff. The only way to solve that is to… I don’t know- put some dictionaries in the classroom?! 

Also, I have never taught a full speaking class. There are three types of learning and I feel that Kinesthetic and Visual learners learn best from writing as well as speaking. It also gives the student a resource to keep and to check and it gives me a chance to monitor their language usage. The sad fact is, is that I don’t have time to have an individual conversation with all of my 400 students. But I do generally have time, to at least look at their work in a lesson.

So, that was issue one.

Anyway, roll on today. One of my co-teachers is pregnant and I honestly feel that she’s become kind of lazy since then. She used to help me last semester monitor the students, discipline them and translate. Now, she sits at the back of the class on her phone, occasionally contributing, generally when prompted or very seldom helping me discipline students. I understand that she’s tired and stuff but I don’t generally find it an excuse for doing nothing.

After class today- a particularly talkative class- she tells me that she feels that teachers should lead their own classes, including managing classes. She tells me I should STUDY how to control my class. Um, the hell? I point out to her that a) I don’t speak Korean and b) I am foreigner. Both of these facts make it difficult to be taken seriously be Korean students, particularly middle school boys. That and I can’t discipline students the way the Koreans do i.e. hitting the, and nor do I want to. I can’t communicate effectively with the Home Room Teachers (I am studying Korean but I haven’t yet learned ‘Your student decided to say ‘F**k you’ today). I told her this and asked me what she wanted to and her basic response was ‘shouting’ and physical punishment. I tried to bring in a reward chart for each class at the start of the semester but my CT told me not to bother because classes change so often and then they made it so that I change classroom every lesson so I couldn’t even display the charts as I wanted. And really- I kind of feel the main point of the CT is classroom management. If it wasn’t, why would we have them? What would be the point? I pointed out that I hadn’t been a teacher before coming to Korea, to make the point that I am STILL learning and she just said ‘If you want to be a teacher, you should be able to teach well and to control your classes’.

I actually have better responses from students when I teach alone and I am somewhat tempted to tell her not to come to class next week. She told me that the class we had today is smart enough to not need translation. So if she isn’t going to translate and if she isn’t going to help with classroom managment, why the hell is she bothering to come? She said she is still prepared to translate for lower level students but this semester, she has skipped a low level class twice, which has led to some pretty frustrating classes.

I just feel a bit despondent. I genuinely do try my best with lessons- they don’t always work out right but I do try and I feel that I’m so much better with classroom management since I got here. Not perfect, but better and she’s just totally knocked my confidence from, what seems to me, a desire to not do very much. And I am always striving to do better, but I genuinely feel like my school doesn’t help me. No one has told me ‘This is how you should discipline the students’ when I arrived. I just get annoyed. Both these situations just demonstrate that I have too many co-teachers, all with different expectations of me and my job.

I am taking *some* of it as constructive criticism. Maybe I did get too focused on writing for the second graders. Maybe I should look at different classroom management methods since my current approach doesn’t seem to be working consitently. But mainly, I just wish my Co-Teachers would sit down and agree upon exactly what it is they want me to do and how they will help me do it.

Any and all advice welcomed.

Happy Birthday Buddha!

I spent yesterday at Gwangali Beach! I have sunburn, poorly fingers and some great memories!

Kikinitinkorea

So my totally brilliant and awesome friend Krystle has set up a new blog.

KikinitinKorea

She is using GIFs to express all sorts of funny and brilliant things we go through as English Teachers! Its genuinely hilarious.

So- go follow! And yes, that is totally my attitude to being shushed on the bus now ;)

23

So, I am now officially 23! My birthday was on Saturday and I had a lovely, lovely day. A totally chilled morning followed by The Avengers, Italian Food and an awesome night out. Thanks again to everyone who sent me presents and cards, wished me Happy Birthday and particularly those who came out with me. It was hugely appreciated and I genuinely did have one of the nicest birthdays!

Last Thursday also marked 9 months in Korea. I can’t believe I’ve been here so long. Its nuts. I just feel like such a different person than the person who turned 22. I’ve learned so much this year and changed and grown and I have a totally different outlook on life and I have goals and aspirations I never even thought I would fulfil. I’m learning so much everyday about myself. I’m far more relaxed and less of a control freak than I was because I’m learning to roll with the unexpected. Before anyone gets excited, I still love writing lists and being organised, I just am a lot easier now with that not always being the case.

I’m sure being 23 will bring me lots of other cool things (and not so cool things too) to experience and learn from. I have things I want to achieve this year- I’m going to apply for my Masters, and go to Japan and maybe China and DEFINITELY go home at some point and try to study my Korean and exercise more and yeah… I feel very positive about the place I am in right now.

For anybody thinking about coming to Korea, or applying for EPIK at the moment, I am just letting you know that I have no regrets about moving here. Its been one of the best decisions I have ever made for myself and has taken my life in so many positive directions. I have met some incredible people and done some amazing things and its afforded me so many opportunities I otherwise wouldn’t have had. Don’t hesitate. I know it’s going to be something I’ll remember forever.

Oh yes, it’s Ladies’ Night…

Ladies’ Night in Busan this weekend. (I’m in the red) I finally went out in the KSU area; very cool. There was lots of dancing, a little more drinking than there should have been and many funny moments! I lost an arm wrestling match and drank a lot of beer…

A guy bought me a drink and then asked me to introduce him to my friend (Thanks mate…) and a Korean guy called ‘Bruce’ got my number. Bruce and I are not destined for great things. He talks about his muscles too much and I feel I’m being groomed for a spousal visa. And his English name is just terrible!

All in all, a funny weekend! Roll on next week!

Yippee!

So, I think I mentioned previously that I don’t plan on going abroad for my summer vacation/ holiday. Why? Its expensive (Flying home is NOT an option when I’m trying to save. I’m going to go back in the winter when it is cheaper), it’s a ridiculously short vacation, I’ll probably be sent to camp and it will be hot and busy everywhere. Not really my thing. I’m going to head to Seoul for a few days instead and catch up on some sight-seeing there that I haven’t yet got around to.

So, unlike, everyone else, I have been far more interested in Chuseok because I decided that this year, I would use it to go to Japan. Today, I finally got my dates confirmed and an hour later, my flight from Busan to Osaka-Kansai was booked.

I am not sure on the specifics. I will definitely be visiting Kyoto. I have three full days and two half days. Going to start reading my Japan guidebook and planning my travels. Beyond exciting. I’ll be travelling by myself too, which I am apprehensive but excited about! I want to do a big trip when I leave Korea so I definitely need to get into practice!

In other wonderful news, my good friend Vicky and her boyfriend Tom got engaged last weeked and she’s asked me to be Bridesmaid. I’m going to do my best to juggle my schedule next year to work the dates out because I’ll have to head home for the wedding but I am very excited and I am now involved in all sorts of discussions regarding colour schemes and hen parties etc.

And today, I have no class. Awesome.