This year is incredibly busy. On average I teach 4 classes a day. This week I started the after-school classes (advanced speaking on Monday and advanced essay writing on Thursday) and starting next week, I will be teaching a conversation class every morning before classes start. Unlike last year, my 6th grade classes are divided by level. Hallelujah! This makes planning my lessons much more efficient and teaching them even more so. My higher-level students are wonderful and so attentive in class. They willingly participate and they laugh at my jokes. Finally! Just what I imagined teaching would be like. So, those classes are a treat. As for the lower-level classes, they are more like my classes last year- very talkative, un-attentive and frankly, rude. I am often frustrated after those classes, however since I know they are lower level I can adjust my lesson plans to their level. I think I am partially to blame for their un-attentiveness. Perhaps I need some more work on making more interactive, interesting lesson plans. I do what I can. After every class I evaluate how it went and try to modify my lesson plan. Already this week I’ve changed my lesson plan a lot! My 8th graders in class are somewhere in-between the two. They are more eager to interact with me as they come into class but as soon as class begins they are very shy to participate. Also, the 8th graders are not divided by level, so teaching those classes are difficult for me. With the regular teaching hours and the extra classes, my days fly by and I’m very tired by the end of it. Overall, I am enjoying this year more than last year. I like that I could establish my own classroom setting instead of stepping into someone else’s and trying to do my own thing. I think this has helped the students feel more comfortable with me. Most days, two 6th grade girls, Annie and Leah, come see me during lunch. Sometimes they want help with their homework, sometimes they want me to teach them French, other times they just want to chat. Sometimes they bring their friends to come hang in the English room with me. It feels nice to have fans hahaha. They are very sweet girls and I enjoy their visits! Now that I can read Korean, I’m also starting to actually remember students’ names when they tell me hahaha.
Next week I am teaching an April Fool’s Day lesson. I’m giving my students a fake test and telling them it’s super important for their grades. The test is totally bogus—multiple questions with no right answers, ridiculously hard questions, etc. At the bottom of the page it says “this test is a joke!” I’m telling them they must read the whole test before they start taking it, that way they’ll see that it’s a joke before they get too freaked out! The week I’m teaching them text message slang, then the next week I have to teach my open class. An open class is when other native teachers come watch me teach and evaluate me. I’m really nervous and need to start planning for it soon. I think it will be really nerve-wracking, but I chose my best class to be the one I teach for the open class. I’ll be glad when it’s over.
A few weeks ago, I started taking salsa lessons at this salsa studio in Suwon called Turn. After meeting the owner of the studio, Rex, at The Big Chill (foreigner bar in Suwon I frequent) and spontaneously salsa dancing with him, I found out that they offer lessons on Wednesdays for only 7,000 won (7 bucks) a week. Glad to finally find a dance class opportunity in Suwon, I started going to the next week. Tonight will be my 4th week. The first two weeks I was in the beginner class, but by the 3rd week Rex told me that I should join his intermediate class, that happens simultaneously. Everyone at Turn is very friendly and most of the people who go there speak English (including Rex and the other teacher Anu Pmark who is from Thailand). I already feel like part of the Turn family even after just a couple of weeks! They also have free dance/practice nights every day. I usually try to go on Sundays.
Weekends have been fun. My birthday was very special- it made me realize how many friends I have here. I had dinner with Val, Blythe, and Michelle, then met some friends at The Big Chill. The next day was the Saint Patrick’s Day Festival (organized by the Irish Association of Korea? Yup, that exists) in Seoul. I went with friends there and just hung out and listened to a U2 cover band and watched my friends day drink. The festival was OK, but I did get to meet some new people and then have a DELICIOUS Mediterranean dinner at Petra, the middle-eastern restaurant in Noksapyeong. Noksapyeong is one subway stop from Itaewon, the foreigner district in Seoul. I ordered the lamb couscous. YUMMY IN MA TUMMY. We went back to Noksaypeong the next weekend for Vietnamese food, which was delicious also. I ordered pho, a noodle, meat, and veggie soup in a deliciously spiced broth.
Yesterday I went to Madeline, a hair salon chain with locations all over the place, to get a major haircut. Even though my Korean is pretty much non-existent, I figured I would be able to communicate to them that I just wanted it cut—no style change or anything. I was wrong. When I got there the woman gave me a book with pictures of women’s hairstyles (all modeled on Korean women, of course) and wanted me to choose one. I tried to tell her charades-style that none of these would work on my hair since it’s naturally curly, but to no avail. So I eventually put my faith in her and let her choose one for me. She cut it uber short and I sort of look like Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. Ha. Oh well.
Well, that’s all there is to report, really. Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Melissa Teach-a
you would have adoring little tween fans at school :)
ReplyDeletelove you, Javier.