I can say that I have two days of teaching
under my belt, but that’s about all I can say. My days technically begin at 2:30 and end between 6:10-7:40.
depending on the day. If you’re reading this thinking I’m working 4-5 breezy
hours a day, STOPPPPPP. They feel MUCH longer, and in fact they are. I can imagine any teacher would attest to this. Teaching may
just be the way to slow down the accelerating speed I feel my life has taken
the last couple of years.
I am now the teacher of two advanced
kindergarten classes, two phonics level classes, one beginning grammar class,
one more advanced grammar class, and a middle school class at WILS Language
School. Most classes consist of two 40-minute blocks. As a teacher it is nice to
have a mix so we don’t tire of teaching the same thing. BUT, on the other hand, it creates A
LOT more prep work, and right about now I wish I were teaching a little more
overlap. In fact, the majority of
the time I have spent at the school has been prep work. At this rate, I’m putting in at least
an hour of preparation to every hour I am in the classroom. And I thought getting a real job meant no homework...
You would think that the prep work might not be
that time consuming because the same classes are taught every quarter…but this
isn’t really the case, for two reasons.
First, WILS doesn’t seem to have a great organization system for
carrying over worksheets and the like from an old to a new teacher. Second, WILS is a private
‘after-school’ school that caters to the parents. The parents have a lot of say in the workbooks and
storybooks they want us to teach, so the materials are always changing between
terms and hence require new syllabi, new worksheets, new quizzes, new tests,
new inspiration. I imagine this
weekend will include even longer syllabus-writing hours for my seven
classes. Have I mentioned that all
the prep work is unpaid? We are
compensated per hour in the classroom, five minute breaks between blocks not included.
I truly hope that this is the most hectic week
of the entire year for me. I can’t
imagine what it would be like if it were any more chaotic. Exploring Seoul and learning Korean are
temporarily on hold. Eat, sleep,
breath teaching. This is partly
because I am going through everything for the first time and essentially
learning how to be a teacher on the job: learning names and personalities, establishing
classroom rules (are they good for anything?), figuring out who still needs
which textbook, which activities are effective and which bore them. Right now I think my biggest problem is
maintaining classroom order in a few particular classes. How do I stay in control of the
classroom and still be a fun teacher?
I soon hope to learn how to teach without constantly saying “sit down,”
“be quiet,” and “pay attention.”
WILS is a private language academy, or hogwan. It is located in the
Mok-Dong neighborhood of the Yangcheon-gu district of Seoul. The area is well-known for good
education and also for having the second tallest building in Seoul. Very near the school are many great
lunch and coffee shops sprawling in every which direction, keeping the teachers
happy. In fact, the school is
located on the 3rd-6th floors of its building, the ground
floor of which is Baskin Robbins.
Convenient, I know. I
happen to know WILS pays a good deal less than the going rate of other
hogwans. This gets frustrating
when you consider the amount of extra time the teachers put in. However, with the exception of Bethany
and me, all the other teachers have worked at WILS over a year. WILS has some very positive things
going for it, including the camaraderie amongst teachers. We may be working hard in the teacher’s
room planning lesson after lesson, but at least we are together!
Hi, Allie! I should have suggested you read Bill Ayer's (yes, the President's terrorist friend) excellent book, To Teach. It provides both theory and practice, and it's a great introduction to teaching. Maybe your mom can bring you a copy when she visits, but probably by then you will be a pro!
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