Observing

August 31, 2011
Today I observed Emma all day, taking feverish notes and hoping dearly that I can remember which kids learn from what book, etc. I will have a total of nine classes, all different ages, skill levels, and using different curriculum. I have Kindergarten in the morning, which I was told is the most “high-stakes” of my classes as the parents pay a lot to enroll their students in a private English class, and can easily move them to a competing school if they do not feel their child is being taught properly. This means I tred a fine line between educating the children and making sure that no one goes home and complains that "Shannon Teacher" was mean to them. This goes from 9:00 am until 1:30, with an hour break. I have another hour off and then four 50 minute classes that are really more of an afterschool English camp for children elementary school age. These four classes alternate every other day, hence the 9 classes total.

After school the teachers threw a party that was half for Emma’s going away, and half to welcome me. It was very sweet of them; they pulled out all the stops with a mix of Korean dishes as well as fried chicken (they seriously LOVE it here) and seafood pizza. There was even a delicious Korean cake with caramelized fruit and tomatoes on top! They are all very sad to see Emma go as she is a very talented teacher, so I have big shoes to fill (a phrase I used today to my director that in retrospect I think was completely lost on her). Part way through the dinner one of the directors thrust a microphone at me and told me to stand up. With no prep time I had to give an impromptu speech of how happy I was to be at the Geoje School, and what great students they had, blah blah blah. As I went to hand the microphone off one of the teachers loudly asked if I had a boyfriend. When I replied that no I did not, she asked me how I felt about Korean men... I struggled to find a non-offensive way to say "not in a million years" and quickly sat down. Emma told me later that I better get used to this whole last minute/no notice aspect as it is very common in Korea. She said it is not uncommon to be told that you will have a long weekend or days off the night before it happens, or even that you have a speech to give at an assembly minutes before it begins… this gives a little more insight to my sudden plane flight fiasco. In fact I was just told at dinner today that I must be out of my apartment by Friday, something I don’t think that would have been mentioned to me until the morning of had I not thought to ask All in all I really enjoy this school. I even learned a good student control technique today; apparently it is common and very acceptable (in fact it was suggested to me in the teacher’s guide) to punish a child by having them
stand against the wall with their arms raised above their head for as long as you tell them to. So if all else fails at least I have a good crowd control technique.