College Wasn't So Bad...

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 3^rd-6^th 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!

Welcome to the working world, Allie.  I look forward to getting the hang of teaching.  I know I can and will enjoy it, as I have been practicing on my Dad since a young age.  Until then, red wine and ice cream will carry me through.

Where the magic happens