So the joys and excitement of adventuring into a whole new world have quickly become thwarted by the realization that I am actually here for work. This post is all about my first week of teaching.

DAY ONE - What Am I Doing?
Going into my first day, I thought I was going to have an observation day or two. That would seem appropriate for a a person who has never taught before, right? No. Upon arrival at the school, and after a quick tour, I was thrust right into the classroom, with not a clue what to do. The way this school works is that every English teacher has a Korean Supervisor. This person is basically there to help you get your class in order, provide you with a schedule, help you a little with the kids. As time goes on and the teacher becomes more proficient at actually teaching, the supervisor takes a background roll, she's not in the class as much, and just helps run things from behind the scenes. So my supervisor's name is Naiad, and she is super nice and very helpful, thank god, because I had no idea what I was doing.

My first class of the day is the 6-7 year-olds (in Korea, the day you are born you are 1 year old, so basically these kids are 5-6 years old) and I have 11 of them: Dora, Dana, Jerry, Nick, Tommy, Eric S., Sharon, David, Eric H., Melody, and Rea. My class is called the Tigger Class (the other classes are named after other Disney characters: Pooh, Nemo, etc.). So the first day was basically getting to know everyone and remember their names, and we spent a lot of the day playing in the playroom or the Wonder Lounge (which is just a room of toys and games). The kids can speak English already, in sentences, and they know a lot of words, so I think they can understand a lot of what I'm saying. They just choose not to listen. This class runs from 10:00am until 2:30pm.

After the morning class, I have basically a one-on-one session with two older students, Rachel and Matthew, who I think are 8 or 9 years old. So this class is pretty easy, they have three books to work on, phonics and spelling basically, and it's pretty beginner stuff. They also don't speak English very well. They can repeat the things I say, but I have to talk slowly and use simply terms because they can't really make sentences. or maybe they can and they're just messing with me. I have those two from 3:00pm-4:30pm. It's a pretty easy class, and we just worked through some of the pages in their workbooks until time was up.

After Rachel and Matthew I have James from 6:00pm-7:30pm (which leaves me a nice break to get dinner or to work on some stuff for class). James is 10 years old, and he's pretty smart. He has three books that he works on, Grammar, Social Studies, and Vocabulary. So I basically spend an hour and a half going over his books with him, trying to engage him in conversation, and doing some writing assignments.

All in all, the day was hectic. I had no idea what was going on, or what I was supposed to be doing. Luckily some of the other teachers were giving me pointers, so I survived. They swear that it will get better. Let's hope so.

DAY TWO - No Seriously, What Am I Doing?
So the second day was pretty hectic as well, if not even more. Now I was given a schedule for my morning class, and we were already behind by a whole day. I guess I was supposed to teach them more the day before, but no one told me. I quickly learned that this is a place of "find out you've done something wrong only after you get in trouble" such as having the kids line up properly, to wait at the doors, to put their shoes outside of the playroom, you know, little procedural things that you wouldn't really think of. So I tried to get them caught up in their Theme Book, which is basically their book they work on, and each one has a theme (who would have guessed?!), this month's theme is Food, and this week I was working on Fruit. The kids have to get through about 5 pages in 50 minutes, which is pretty hard because you have to make sure everyone does it. So while you're trying to get the slower kids to do it, the faster kids are moving past where they should be, and are running around because they have nothing to do.

After the theme book we have to do their Spelling & Writing book, and their Math book, along with their reading book, all in 50 minutes. Plus there is an Etiquette lesson. And after lunch we have to do phonics. PLUS we have to practice for the end of the month performance where every class has to sing a song and do moves. I was told that as a new teacher that I will be given a little slack on all this stuff the first month, thank god.

As of now, I don't have a class after the Tigger Class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I'm sure that will change.

DAY THREE - Sweet Jesus, Birthday Party
Well lucky me! Once a month we have birthday parties on a Wednesday to celebrate all the birthdays for the month, so if your class has a birthday, their parents bring in a ton of food and snack for the kids to have after lunch. Guess who had a birthday? Guess who had three birthdays? I bet you guessed right!

Earlier in the day, I tried a new technique of seat assignments, since I notices that some kids just sit around a fuck with each other all day instead of paying attention to me. I tried to put a stop to that, but there were still some kids that were messing around, so I'll have to keep trying a new seating arrangement until I find one that works. I also implemented that famous Sticker Program. These kids go CRAZY for stickers. So as a way to keep them disciplined and on track, you offer to give or threaten to take away stickers. Each kid has a sticker chart, and it's up to the teacher to decide how stickers are to be given. My system goes like this: first I give out stars when the students do good stuff, like sitting quietly, first person to get out their books, raising your hand, volunteering in class, etc. whatever I choose. When they get 6 stars I give them a sticker for their chart. I'll also do things like, if the class can finish their workbook on time, everyone gets a sticker. So then after they get so many stickers, they get a prize, which is basically stuff I picked up at a stationary store: pencils, erasers, rings, necklaces, Yug-i-oh cards (another thing these kids go ape-shit for). So I'm still working on perfecting the system, and getting them to actually follow it.

Back to the birthday party. Birthdays are a pretty big thing here. Basically the supervisor and the Korean Moms (which is basically what we call the Korean woman whoa re around to help with things like lunch time, setting up class, keeping the kids entertained after lunch, taking them to the bus, etc.) will help set up the class, and the parents of the birthday kids bring in food. They higher a photographer to take pictures of the kids in front of their tabel of food and stuff. And of course, all the other kids bring them presents. Unfortunately for my class, the photographer didn't get done until 2pm, which meant the kids couldn't eat until 2pm, and they had to get ready to go at 2:20pm. So it was a little hectic. But Naiad was there to help.

Again I had Matthew and Rachel after that. I was given a schedule for them, which we already went past the lesson before, so we basically had to go over the things again. This was good though. I forgot that kids forget a lot easier then I do, so they needed to work on the stuff some more. We basically practiced words that sound alike, like:fan, can, man, fat, pan. I spend most of the time getting them to pronounce the words correctly, to remember how to read them, and how to spell them. their workbooks definitely don't cover that enough, so I'm going to have to make supplemental activities for them to do so they'll remember the stuff.

DAY FOUR - I Got Swine Flu
Ha ha, just kidding! I didn't get swine flu! I did get a cold though. I was told that would happen and it's usually caused by two things: one is being in a new country with a different climate and a different air quality, and two being that I'm surrounded by -literally- snotty kids all day. So I could feel myself coming down with a sore throat, which did not make me a happy camper. That and the fact that it was my fourth day of these kids not really listening to what i was saying. Some of them are really good, Melody especially. But some of them either don't pay attention in class, or are super slow and literally need to me tell them what to spell or write for every line. Then there are the kids that are constantly getting up, moving around, bugging the other kids, hitting, pushing, kissing, crap like that. One of the boys, Tommy, goes around kissing all the other boys, and nuzzling the girls. It's pretty fucking weird.

But they did do a little better then the day before. I had to take away some stars to the kids that were talking, and I had to start being strict about screaming in class, and being quiet in the hallways. Naiad had to come in a few times and tell them to straighten out. Miguel (another teacher) says they listen a lot more in Korea, and that we should learn how to say "shut the fuck up" in Korean and maybe they would listen to us.

DAY FIVE - TFGIF
So by now I had a full fledged head cold, with a massive headache and a sore throat, great for working with kids. So understandably I was a little short tempered with them, but I guess I wasn't the only one, since lot of the other teachers were having bad days too. Another new seating assignment proved not to work, and in fact was worse than Thursday. I tried to implement a new workbook plan were no one was allowed to work ahead, and they could only work on the line I was on, so that everyone finished together. Some listened, some didn't, for which I sadly had to take away some stars. I tried to seat the three slowest kids in front, so I could point out what they needed to do, and it kinda worked. but unfortunately, two of the three slowest kids are the two biggest problem causers, so it was hard to keep them in line while they were sitting next to each other.

So we got a little behind in the Theme Book, especially because we were scheduled for the Wonder Lounge. Usually during the week, each class is given time in the playroom and the Wonder Lounge, which means that you get 10 minutes less to work on your work. But luckily we got through the other stuff pretty quickly. Some of the pages in the work books the kids were already ahead on, from that one day were everyone just did whatever they wanted. But I think I got the whole class up to the same page now.

I had Matthew and Rachel again, this time I made flash cards and a matching game for them to play. But I'm pretty sure they were cheating and could see the words through the cards. And Rachel kept talking to me in Korean, like I know what she's talking about. I tried to tell her to talk only in English (which really is what every student is supposed to do) but she just doesn't know enough. But we got through the day, they even did some drawings when we finished the lesson.

I'm going to ask if James can have a few more pages to work with when we're together, because he just blows through everything. And he's smart, so I know he's retaining the information, not just memorizing what the words look like like what Rachel and Matthew do. So we got done with all his stuff in like 40 minutes. So I tried to just get him to talk, because Frank and Gabby said that he needs to work on his conversational English. And then towards the end we just went down to the play room and played soccer for the last 15 minutes. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do when he finished so early. James told me that the other teachers just let him play, but I don't know if I should really just give him more work. I hope not though, jesus the kid goes to elementary school in the morning, he has class with Frank from 4:30-6:00, class with me until 7:30, and Science Academy after our class on some nights. I guess most kids here literally go to school all day and night, they come home, eat, do their hours of homework, and repeat the whole thing again. Really the only break they get is the weekend. Seems a little harsh, but then again, maybe that's why there's the stereotype about Asians all being so smart and multi-talented.

So by the end of the night, I was more than happy to go home and be sick. Which I did. All weekend. I was going to go out and adventure, but the most I did was walk to the super market and get slightly lost going through the back streets.

I think next week will be easier though. At least I certainly hope so!

*Side note*
Things I Learned This Week:
1. I tried to buy butter this week, instead of getting I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, I think I would up getting something like I'm Not Sure If It's Butter. It was by the margarine, but was a lot cheaper. But when I got home and looked up the word butter, that word was no where to be found on my giant brick of yellowy/white mass. I think I might have bought lard, but the Korean word for lard wasn't on the package either. So note, don't buy butter unless it says butter.
2. It is perfectly acceptable for moms to let little boys pee on the street.
3. Tteokbokki is good, spicy as all hell, but good.
4. There is a cute little market that goes on outside my apartment on Thursdays, full of food vendors, grocery vendors, home commodities, snacks, and a plant guy. I bought a plant, I named him Travis. I'm thinking about getting him a friend next week so he's not so lonely.