Teaching

Another week of teaching has come and gone... I thought I'd give you a little description of teaching is like here for me- At Mirae there are three foreign teachers, and 4+ Korean teachers (the principal does some teaching, and there are some teachers that just teach a class or two). We take turns with the classes. I have my classes two or three times a week, depending on their English level. The other days they are with a Korean teacher who takes care of teaching grammar. My main objective is to get the kids to practice pronouncing English correctly. The classes get older throughout the day. I have my youngest ones at 2:30, and middle school at 7:30. Two days a week I also have an adult class after that. Each class has a book that we're supposed to complete within the quarter. The books are determined by the English level of each class. Each age group of kids is classified into A, B, C, D and E categories, A being the most advanced in English. We will be finishing a quarter at the end of this month. At that point some of my classes may change, and we'll be switching books. The teachers get a lot of input into what book to use--making judgements based on how difficult or easy the last one was for the students. As a teacher I'm also given a lot of leeway in what I do with the kids. As long as we're making adequate progress in the book, I can use extra class time to play games with them or make projects or whatever. I try to come up with activities to reinforce what they're learning in the class. Some curriculums give more ideas than others. And, I don't have a teacher's guide for any of the books except adult class, so sometimes I have to make up what you're supposed to do on a page of the book. Anyway, it's a good job. I love the kids. I just wish sometimes that I could just be their camp counselor or something instead of their teacher. It's easier to have fun with them than to teach them :). Discipline is challenging, especially because I don't speak Korean. Well, it's time to head to English Language Bible Study. Have a good weekend!