Plans never survive contact with the enemy...

I've realized that the further away from the events I write, the worse my memory becomes at recalling them. As a result I will try my hardest to catch-up to the month I'm behind so the new stories are more accurate. It shames me to realize just how far behind I've gotten at writing.....

My first real day of work was nerve-racking. I had no clue about my students, how they would behave, how I would handle them, how I would fill each 50 minute block. As I discussed Catherine's plans for her students I realized that she had a full-fledged plan for the day and so I shamelessly stole it. Maybe stole is too strong a word, I told her it was a great idea and that I was going to do the same.

The plan was simple and I was getting ready to dive in when our director, Mr. Kim, came in and told me I wouldn't have my first class. Instead, they would have some computer training to allow me more time to prepare. It didn't help. The plan was simple but my implementation was horrible. I think part of it may have had to do with my lack of compensation for the low level of my early students. The first class I ever had was, to this day, my worst. I have found over time that they are always a rambunctious group and speak relatively little English. They are in the lowest level of books we use and only halfway thru.

My plan was to introduce myself, have the students guess where I was from, my age, and ask any questions they could think of. Then I would pass around blank pieces of paper for them to write their names, ages, and favorite sport/activity. They guessed where I was from far quicker than I anticipated....turns out America is always the first guess for new teachers. Age didn't take long either and they didn't have enough English vocabulary to ask any questions more complicated than that. Something I thought would take 20 minutes or more was over in 5......I was in some serious trouble.

I kept to the plan hoping that I could use more time with the names and sports than I originally expected. It did but not in the way I wanted. First, they had never turned a blank sheet of paper into a triangle. Something I thought would be simple became a chore as I had to walk around and help them all as the rest of the class yelled TEACHER, TEACHER, TEACHER! Then came the name issue, most couldn't spell it in English. Again I had to walk around and show each student their name long enough to copy it. As you may have already guessed, the other students were all yelling TEACHER and coming up to me to find their name quickly.

Catherine introduced a term, which is very important in this job, to me during her summer at Sea Base. To 'establish dominance' is exceedingly important in this profession. I will readily admit to lacking it over the first class from the start and doing it afterwards has been a chore but I think I'm finally making progress. To regain control over this wayward class I copped out: I went to the book. It was never part of the plan, in fact it was anti-plan. My first day with each class was supposed to be an easy day for them. No work and all play, something they don't usually get and therefore a treat of sorts. But I had  no ideas on how to fill the half hour I had left and I needed to get control of the class. I don't regret the decision but I think the class got screwed out of a free day because I was unprepared.

After this first class we have our 1p minute break and I met Catherine by the water cooler (never thought I'd ever participate in a water cooler conversation) to trade our war stories before heading back to the front. My next class was a more advanced beginner class. They are better behaved but still have a few bad apples. Once again my plan didn't last long enough and I still couldn't think of a better way to use up my time. For the second class in a row I copped out and used the book. At this point I knew I needed to completely rethink my plan of attack.

My third class of the day is at a pretty advanced level....especially compared to my earlier experiences! This helped in two important ways. First, they actually had substantive questions (meaning more complicated than how old are you) to ask. Second, I changed up my introduction to the class. Once again I hijacked a great idea from Catherine by drawing a map of the US on the board. First I had them guess the country (easy) but I drew it out by having them come up to the board one by one and mark where they thought I was from in the US. This not only killed time but also seemed entertaining to the students. I also made it a slight geography lesson as I narrated what region/city they were marking. After they figured out where I was from I allowed questions which ate up a little time before moving on to the nametag phase. With the older kids this involved less yelling as they all knew how to write their names in English. Then I went back to the board, with my already drawn map of the US and started describing the size and scope of the country. Explaining that Seoul to Jeonju is roughly the distance between my home and  Disney, that there is a lake the size of Jeonju in Florida (still not sure if that's an exaggeration but I think it's close), and drawing my recent road trip while asking them how long it took by car. This was my masterpiece.

I followed this basic outline for every new class I met. It was a resounding success and I never even had to think about the book again. Sure it required slight tweaks depending on how the class was reacting or how much the class engaged (some classes never engage...I have one that never, and I mean never, talks to me) but the outline was sound. Of course some of the classes have troublemakers but I was firm from the start and have kept them reasonably under control since.

Now a quick note about our schedule. I have a block schedule in which every other day I meet with my first three classes. On my first teaching day my early classes were the youngest and lowest level of all my students. It is also my shit day, I use this language because we have picked up an affectionate term for our students from our fellow teachers: little shits. My alternate early classes are slightly better behaved.....well two out of three anyway. My fourth class alternates on Mon/Wed and Tue/Thurs with a different class on Friday. My fifth and seventh classes are once a week classes of older students who have no real book, we're just supposed to discuss a topic....easier than it sounds! My sixth class I have everyday and we have a love/hate relationship but they're ok.

I used my established plan with my new classes on my second day. It was a reasonable success once again. One thing I can recall vividly though is one of my "Let's talk about it" classes (the discussion class) that just hates talking. After trying to pry things out of them for twenty minutes I gave up and I became a history professor. I literally gave them a lesson on US revolutionary history for a half hour....I've done this twice with two separate classes.

I have since settled into a routine and am no longer apprehensive about going to work and teaching in general. It's not a bad job. It has its good days and bad but the kids are alright even if they are little shits. At least I can remember and pronounce half their names now! We even get a little reprieve ever three Fridays. That's our "movie day" where for the first class all the students (and teachers) go upstairs to watch a "movie". What actually happens is you play clips ranging from 1 to 5 minutes from a selected movie with English subtitles at the bottom. At the end of every clip you pull up a selected passage from the clip and have the students repeat the words (in small chunks) after you. In some ways it's worse than actual class!

Now that I’ve given you an idea of how things work I'm going to try and catch up on some of the strange and exciting things that have happened. The next few posts will have to do with our recent adventures. Our first trips to Gaeksa (downtown)and Bukdae (the university area), our health evaluation, trip to the Boryeong Mud Festival, and vacation to Seoul. I hope to get another post up by the weekend!