I visited my first Korean school on Thursday. We were asked to "micro teach" a lesson to middle school students whom we knew nothing about. Each lesson was to be ten minutes. I prepared a lesson on emotions or feelings, but when I arrived at Eonyang Middle School, my teacher instincts took over and I decided to wing it.
Those who know me know that I cannot STAND textbook lessons. I like to get acquainted with my students and feed off of their energy to make my lessons as engaging and effective as possible. We arrived at Eonyang Middle at around 9:30AM. It was pouring rain, and muggy outside. As all twenty-something of us walked towards the entrance, young boys were dangling their heads and arms out of the upper floor windows. They were yelling a combination of obscenities and salutations, all stemming from the excitement of new faces on campus.
We were ushered to the front entrance where we exchanged our fancy shoes for the most comfortable of slippers and headed towards a classroom to meet the principals and English Teachers. In Korea, students have Korean Literature Teachers and English teachers. We are Guest English Teachers. The principal walked into the room and greeted us with a huge smile and showed us some videos of the students that highlighted the academic and extracurricular activities in the school. She also made sure to ask us to write down our opinions of her school after our tour. We toured the VERY CLEAN 5-story building. Outside each classroom was a cubby for the students' Nikes, Vans, Adidas, and other brand name shoes. They too wore croc-like slippers inside the classroom. After our tour, we were grouped, and sent to separate classrooms to begin our micro teaching.
The first classroom was an all boys classroom. My fellow GETs taught their lessons. I panicked for a second because I knew INSTANTLY that these boys were not interested in a lesson on emotions..at least not the way I had planned it. So i quickly switched my plan to a sports lesson I had done 3 years ago.
I was ready. To my surprise, our tour guide sent us to a different room filled with girls. All of the girls had mirrors in their desks and were shamelessly putting on makeup, painting their nails, brushing their hair, and manicuring themselves as the GET led the class. I was appalled, amazed, shocked, in disbelief that this was acceptable! But I had other things to worry about..I wanted to switch my lesson again. So I decided to teach forms of like (I like, She Likes, We Like)...my fingers hurt from typing so I'll spare you the details...But it was AWESOME..not because I did a great job with the lesson, but because the girls were just so excited and participatory. I remembered in those 10 minutes why I love what I do. I had felt so disenchanted with the idea of teaching in Korea due to the tedious and laborious orientation process. I had forgotten what it felt like to be in front of a classroom, and to watch someone "get it."
Anyway, that was such an awesome day. And, even though I will not be teaching middle school students, I'm excited to meet the little boogers( yes they are boogers they are 8!), grades 3-6. I can't wait to teach again.
I met my co-teacher and will be moving into my apartment on Monday. I will do a video update that day because I do not want to type that much info...anywho, I hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers!
~jo
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