For the teachers who came to Korea in August 2010 we have now been here just over 6 months. Our second and final semester of teaching has just begun and most teachers are experiencing work related changes. Many native teachers will be working with one or multiple new coTs and have a completely different schedule than last semester. The English curriculum has changed a bit for elementary school students and there are new English books some of us must utilize. Some native teachers working in larger schools will even be getting another native teacher at their school. This was almost unheard of before this semester, at least in Daegu. As Winter Vacation and Spring Break come to an end EPIK teachers here in Korea are preparing as best as they can for these changes.
I'm sitting at my desk right now, feeling strange in a world I felt so comfortable in before(see *1). I had it pretty easy over the past few months compared to other teachers. Instead of having to deskwarm for the past two weeks during Spring Break, I spent my time waking up at 11:00 a.m. and lounging around all day, watching reality T.V. and trying to think of things I could/should be doing. These past 2 months have been a little bit strange. We ended the semester just before Christmas, had a few days off and then started winter camps. I had a light schedule for two weeks during camp, only teaching two or three classes a day. I then headed to the Philippines for about two and a half weeks. When I returned we resumed school for one and a half weeks of which I only taught about 6 classes all together. Two weeks ago, on a Wednesday, we had our end-of-semester teachers' dinner where the principal got drunk and told me I didn't need to come in during Spring Break. I was instructed not to tell any of the other native teachers as they would probably be jealous since the majority of them had to go in to work and sit there for 8 hours a day. I was pretty stoked on this and went home and told my entire facebook network with a status update. I guess the point is that since I had to work even less than most people did during the vacations, it must be way harder for me to be back at school now than for everyone else.
The changes that I'm experiencing this semester make it a bit harder to be back here at work. I think the biggest challenge for me is going to be the fact that I have two new coTs. It was a bit frustrating to me because I didn't even know who one of my new coTs was going to be until the teachers' dinner and the other I met last Friday. For native teachers here your coteacher can make or break your experience in Korea. If you have a coT that doesn't speak English or if your personalities clash it can make your life hell. My coTs last semester were pretty awesome and I felt that I would for sure not have as good of luck this semester. It turns out that my main coT is one of the fourth grade homeroom teachers from last semester. She's about 24 or 25 and in her second(?) year of teaching. One of the first things she said to me about this new semester is that she is very nervous about teaching English because she doesn't speak much English and because she can not discipline the students. The latter is what I'm worried about most. Some of the students can be quite a handful and when you don't speak their language it can be really hard to keep them under control. She is quiet, a bit shy and petite and definitely does not look threatening at all (maybe even less than I do). Hopefully the students will not walk all over us. My second coT is only here two days a week: on Tuesdays and Fridays. She speaks almost perfect English as she studied in Canada and has been a teacher at a private academy for about ten years. Although she has had this experience, it is her first year teaching in a public school. Public and private schools are very different in many ways. When I talked to both of my coTs for the first time about teaching they both expressed to me that they pretty much had no idea what they were doing. For the first time in Korea I felt like the experienced one, instructing the Koreans on what they needed to do. We'll see how this semester goes...
The class schedules have also changed. Instead of having each grade (3rd-6th) twice a week, I have 3rd and 4th twice a week and 5th and 6th three times a week. Last semester this would have been fine because I liked my 5th and 6th graders and it was my 4th graders that were devil spawns. This semester, since it's actually the beginning of a new school year (guess I coulda mentioned this earlier), my 4th graders have now moved up to the 5th grade. I will have to teach each of two classes three times a week. That means instead of four, I now have six classes a week of students that pretend they are shooting me with AK47s. The only positive about this situation is that I will not have any "special classes" which I had to plan and teach by myself last semester. These classes caused me a lot of stress because I didn't have a coT to help translate. Often times the students had no idea what I was saying or what they were supposed to do and they would act like crazy midget monsters on crack. I almost cried in my 4th grade special class because I didn't know what to do and my coT was nowhere to be found. I ended up screaming at the students and the next day my 3rd graders came in saying "Kailey teacher angry! Ahhhhh!!" and trying to mimic what they thought I would look like mad. Seeing Kailey Teacher angry is a rare occurrence. I guess the whole school heard about it.
Another change this semester is the elementary school curriculum. I guess some teachers are using the old curriculum but I have a new text book for each grade. I was a bit excited when I heard that we were getting new books, as the old ones are pretty horrendous. I guess I shouldn't have expected the books to be that much better. I mean it's hard to go from horrible to good or even mediocre. Well, it's the first day back at school and I have in my possession only the 4th grade text book. I have been asking my coT to get me the new books since last week and she always says, "OK, I get you the new books," but has yet to do so. It's kinda hard to plan lessons without the book and CDROM. Actually, not really. I usually just take other people's plans off waygook.org, a site where teachers in Korea can post lesson plans and a shit ton of other stuff. Judging by this site it doesn't look like the new books are much different than the old ones. I think they just changed some of the chapter titles and tweaked them a bit.
Some larger schools have hired a second native teacher. Since my school is really small and I teach every English class there is, there is no need for another native teacher. But larger schools have 40+ English classes per week. Since each native teacher only teaches 22 classes per week a second native teacher is necessary. I can't give my input on this since I am not in this situation but it's definitely got to be a bit weird to go from being the only foreigner in the school to having another there too. It could be nice to have another English-speaker to talk to but weird for the native teacher that has been there for the past semester. And to top the weird-meter, some people have gotten English teaching robots in their schools. How can you compete with a robot? I guess it could be easier to make friends with a robot than some of the weirdos that come to Korea to teach English.
I think a lot of native teachers have made plans to change their habits during second semester. A lot of us slack a bit while at work, sit on facebook or twitter, write blog posts, watch reality T.V. and feel a bit bad about it (maybe I'm speaking for myself on this one). Instead of doing this for so much time each day I would like to try and be a bit more productive while at work. It might take me a few days to figure out how to do this but at least it will keep me busy for awhile. I also would like be more conscious about saving money each month. The first month I was here I made a budget on my computer at work but never printed it out. It might be a good idea to try and follow this so I have something to show for my year here.
Despite these changes and the prospective challenges I face, hopefully this semester will be as good or better than the last. First semester went by super fast and I hope in 6 months the same can be said for this one. The first six months have been great but i've definitely hit that point where i'm not as easily excitable. I guess we'll see how it goes...
Peace out
*1 One of the reasons I feel a bit out of place at my desk is that it looks like my new coT went through all the stuff that my old coT had by her desk and decided what she wants and doesn't want near her. She decided against having a table and two filing cabinets. I guess she thought that the best place to put them would be around my desk. On top of these surfaces is a bunch of odds and ends; paper clips, CDs, paper. The first thing that she says to me when she walks in the classroom is "You clean around desk." Well thanks for throwing all this shit around my desk just because you didn't want it and then asking me to clean it. That's sweet of you. (I really love footnotes and miss them dearly)
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