First Real Day of Teaching

07.21.10

I woke up later than usual, now 6am to my cell phone alarm. I have 20 minutes prepaid on my phone, but if a person calls me or texts me it doesn’t affect my prepaid minutes. I felt nervous about teaching by myself, but thankfully it is just one class. Baby steps, I’m just going very slowly. I intended to just teach the basics in conversation, “Hello”, “My name is”, “Good Afternoon”, and “Thank you”. The English class for the ‘All Day Class’ was in the afternoon at 2pm. I spent most of my morning getting prepared and talking with other teachers and the women from the front office. Since last night, many of the staff became more comfortable and relaxed speaking to me in English. Before, many of them were nervous to speak to me. I am happy to have gained more friends and acquaintances. I mostly asked how they were and if they were tired like me. ☺ Before lunchtime I snacked on a Clementine while refining my ppt for the next day. I felt prepared for the day and I went downstairs to the Teacher’s Lounge to chat with some of my co-workers. I discovered they were having lunch and I felt bad for interrupting, they invited me to join them, so we had lunch together. Some of the teachers were at school today to wrap up their paperwork for first semester. I tried not to disturb them too much, but they were all kind and helpful when I asked questions. I waited in anticipation as my English class was postponed for a half hour. The all day class consists of first and second graders, there are about 18 students in total and they are all very excited. They know most of the basics, but I want to make sure that they all understand it, rather than just regurgitating it. The all girls were shy but delighted to meet me and the boys were loud and full of energy. They enjoyed the matching game from the textbook’s CD-ROM after my lecture. The students enjoyed my worksheets as well; as soon as they finished the worksheet they would bring it to me to correct it with enthusiasm. That class was very tiring, but I enjoyed it. I think I’ll make a great English teacher. After school I went home for a quiet evening. I watched some movies on television, “Tristan & Isolde” and “Crank 3”. I prepared a vegetable induced dinner of boiled squash, zucchini, and red bell peppers with curry rice noodles. Yummy curry!

Tomorrow will be another great day at school and in the evening a planned outing with Brian in Suwon.