Two weeks in and I find myself busy, busy, busy! Thanks to the stunning recommendations my over-zealous co-teacher gives of me, I've taken a few extra weekend teaching jobs with some advanced classes, I picked up an extra class for this Saturday at a friend's elementary school, I'm back to teaching yoga 2 days a week (soon to be 3 perhaps), and I'm teaching some of the soccer players at my school one evening a week. I'm still aiming to do a Korean language exchange once a week, go to my yoga master at least twice a week, and continue with acupuncture. So with all that, I decided to have a quiet evening in tonight for all those wonderful chores that get neglected when you don't come home before 9pm every night. A riveting Friday night of laundry and dishes.
Let's start with those goals for the year:
- Blog weekly & stay in touch with friends and family
- Be present and aware
- Continue learning Korean
- Make time for relaxation and self-reflection (sauna, hiking, reading and a home yoga practice)
- Work down the student loan debt and save $$
- Continue to improve my skills as an English teacher
The wonderful thing about posting these online is that I know I'll hold myself accountable for them since who knows how many people will read this post. At least one I hope.
I may have mentioned in the past semester the difficulty I've been having with our 4th grade students. My co-teacher and I persevered all Spring through shouting, fighting, little to no respect or quiet in the classroom, and very little English learning taking place. So for the past 2 months I've been quietly putting together a plan to change this. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who supplied me with ideas or supported my moaning and crying. I'm happy to report that my co-teacher and I put together a system which, thus far, has totally worked!
With the help of the 4th grade home room teachers, we have a new system of accountability for the students' behavior in English class, and they have laid down the law about the importance of their English education. In our classroom, we set up both a reward system (based on daily points and class rewards) and a discipline system (based on "yellow card", "red card", note to the teacher) that are clearly laid out and non-negotiable. The biggest problem last semester, in my opinion, was the expectations and discipline methods were not enough to hold the students accountable for their actions. We had classroom rules, just no set way to enforce them. This week was the first time I've taught 4th grade all year that I haven't been upset after every class, wondering why were wasting out time babysitting these kids. There is now a positive environment for learning in our classroom. I felt, again for the first time this year, that most of the kids learned a least a little something this week.
I don't always write about it, but teaching is the reason I'm here and it's extremely important to me. As a foreign teacher sometimes our job is a joke, classes are often canceled, teachers aren't always respected, and, frankly, sometimes you know you're just filling space as the Westerner in the classroom. In the past year I've learned to let things go when they aren't going well, how to modify a lesson mid-stream to go with the mood of the class, and not to take the other stuff personally. But I know that because I always come into the classroom 100% prepared and wholly committed to what I'm teaching, my students have a chance to learn something. In the past few months I've seen improvement in so many students' attitude about learning, their behavior, and their confidence in themselves, and it recommits me to teaching every time.
Of course, catch me after my next bad lesson and I might have a completely different story.
Check out some recent adventurous pictures on my facebook; I'll get them up here soon.
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