3-8

Anyong!

Hana do, juseyo?

It's time that I stop slacking and send out another update to everyone.

Things have been busy here the past few weeks. The last week of term one was now three weeks ago. Each day I had to go in early for training sessions on the new format of all classes. The classes I had been trained in changed so I had to be completely re-trained on how to administer them. Then I also picked up two classes that I wasn't previously trained in, so I had to learn them.

We're getting new teachers for this term. One went home at the end of last term, which I mentioned in the last e-mail. One of the new teachers, Jonathan, is here now and just finished his first week. The next one, Alice, got here this weekend and starts on Monday. Their classes had to be on the schedule, though, which meant we had to fill in for them until they got here. The first two weeks, I had to teach Alice's classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 'morning' (4:30-7:30). While I did that, our sub-teachers taught my classes. If that sounds weird, it was done because they wanted the sub teachers to only teach one level, in this case EC4 while the CDI teachers covered the random classes. I didn't like doing this at first, but it turned out pretty well.

One of the classes I was teaching for her was EC2, the lowest level we offer at CDI. Now, the EC2 kids are not just beginners to the language...so it's not like I have to play charades when teaching...they know enough that we have a lesson and the skill lecture is on some of the easier English rules. I was really nervous before that, though, because my biggest area for improvement was to slow down my delivery. Considering the lowest level I had taught was Memory Mega (a reminder, EC2, EC3, EC4, Memory Mega, Giga, Tera, Reading/Listening-Bridge, Par, Birdie, Albatross are the levels in order...albatross being near fluent), it was going to be a challenge to drop down to the level where speaking slowly is imperative for their comprehension. Also, those kids can be the toughest to control because they are young and have so much energy. We teachers jokingly call them 'the little ankle-biters.' That said, the class has gone great. I was able to speak perfectly to their level and I had a lot of fun teaching them. It's so much easier when they really want to learn and it makes me feel good when I know they understand the skills I'm teaching them. They knew that I was only going to be their teacher for 2 weeks and many of them were sad to see me go. On their words-to-chunks review test on the week's second class, a few of them told me to pick their test up last because they wrote notes to me on the back. I wish I had taken a picture because I'll never forget the feeling when I read them. Their English of course isn't all that great yet, but the basic things they said were:

"Joe Teacher,
I don't want you to go.
I really like you as my teacher.
You have taught as a lot and you are very fun.
Please don't go"

Not going to lie, I was trying pretty hard not to tear up right there in front of the class. One of the greatest compliments I've ever had. The class that I was so nervous/challenged for turned out to go so well that the kids didn't want me to leave. Even the girls, who were at first excited that they'd be getting a female teacher, didn't want me to go. I also was going to miss them a lot. They had easily been one of my top 2 classes so far and I didn't want to lose them.

So...I went to talk to our principal (basically), Jeon. I told him about the notes that the kids wrote for me and how much I liked that class. (I also found out last night from one of the staff girls that some parents had called in saying their kid liked me and didn't want to get a new teacher) I asked if there was any way that I could keep the class and let Alice take the classes that would have been mine. I think Jeon probably doubted me more than I did about speaking slowly...he's always reminding me about it but I think he knew things were going well. He agreed to let me keep the class! That was great news that I received on Friday. Since the class is Monday-Wednesday, the kids do not even know that I'm going to continue being their teacher yet...so I'm really looking forward to seeing them on Monday and telling them that they get to keep me after all.

Unfortunately, the second class on Friday brought me back down to earth a little bit. This term, I have a class on Monday-Friday night (middle-school kids) that is Memory Mega. Mega is a low level course, so when middle-school kids are at this level, it becomes very difficult to teach. They don't want to talk/participate because it's not cool and their ability isn't very advanced. I end up talking even slower than I do to the EC2 kids, though I shouldn't have to because they are smarter than they act...they just don't want to do anything. They will even know the answer...and just sit there and not say anything...often times just playing dumb. This makes it very hard to get through all the material that we're supposed to do. Hell, on the first day, when trying to give them English names, they didn't even respond as I listed every English name I could think of. It's actually harder to give an English name than I thought...I run down a list of friend's names and them family names and then just anyone I can think of. I give them all the common names like Ryan, Andrew, Tim, David, etc. but none of those sound good to them. I end up with a class with Chelsea (a boy, despite me telling him that's a girl's name), Irene, Brown, etc. They have been by far my worst class at CDI. I used to look forward to the last class of the week because that was my favorite class last term...now the last class of the week just puts me in a bad mood.

So, there's the background on this class. Friday night was the typical class. Silence, playing dumb, we get behind on material. They don't want to work, no matter what kind of threats I give. I talk to my co-workers about how they handle these classes during our dinner break and usually the protocol is I send the worst students to the office to be lectured by Jeon about their expectations in the class room, etc. I come back from dinner break realizing that something has to be done. I have yet to send any kids to the office, even though some have deserved it. I have only had a few stern lectures to classes on how to behave, but after a few minutes of the usual playing dumb, I lecture them about how their attitudes are going to have to change. I move on to the next skill activity...listening/taking notes. Here, they listen to a short passage from the chapter that we read...no new material at all, it's the same thing they've been reading for the past hour and a half. After talking about notes, I have to call on a few of them to give me an oral summary using their notes. I call on one girl who usually is a bit of a problem, but she had some notes and did fairly well. I then call on the worst offender of playing dumb/not trying in class, Morgan. I ask him to give me his summary and he just sits there in silence for about 10-15 seconds. I move closer and ask him again to tell me anything about the passage he just heard. I see that he has no notes at all written down and he remains silent for another 10-15 seconds. I tell him he has 10 seconds to say ANYTHING...anything at all. He just continues to ignore me and look at his book. An example needs to be made in this class, so Morgan just became the example. I tell him if he's not even going to try, then quit wasting my time and his and get out of my class and talk to Jeon in the office. He looks up at me like I'm not serious, but I assure him that I want him to go to the office. He just continues to sit there despite me continuing to say he has to go to the office and talk to Jeon about why he doesn't even try in class. I open the door and tell him that I'm not starting class again until he leaves. This will usually get the student's attention and they'll leave...but he still wouldn't get up from his seat...and he still hasn't said a word. I keep talking to him for about a minute before Jeon walks into the classroom, likely hearing me talking to him since my door was open. I tell him what happens and then John tells him to go wait in his office and lectures the whole class for about 10 minutes. He leaves and we finish class with no further problems...the kids got the message.

Morgan doesn't return to class the last hour. The bell rings for everyone to go home. After all the kids left, Morgan walks back into the room. His eyes are bright red and he's still sniffling. He had been crying for probably the better part of 20 minutes with Jeon talking to him. Kids cry a lot, especially at the lower levels when they don't understand something. I hadn't had any criers yet, though, until this one. Education is taken very seriously over here and these kids know that they will be in big trouble at home if they don't do their work or get in trouble at school. Jeon puts a big scare into them, too. Morgan just comes up to me and says "Sorry teacher." I of course feel bad that he's been crying, but he really needed some kind of wake up call for this class to get any better. Someone had to be the example, he was the best option to be the example. I just patted him on the back and told him. "It's not that I don't like you..and I'm not trying to pick on you, but you have to try in class. It's really hard to teach when kids aren't even trying and there's no way that I can evaluate them and their progress if they are not putting any effort into it. I told him that all I want from him is to start trying in class and everything will be okay." I didn't have his respect before, but I think he now understands that I'm the boss in the classroom and if I say he has to do something, then he has to do it.

So, after all of that, I was in a bad mood. I was upset from that class going horribly for the 4th time in a row and the actions that had to happen for any hope of it getting better. Jeon talked to me and told me everything was alright, sometimes classes are just really hard. I was again feeling like I needed to fight back my own tears because I try so hard to be the teacher that the kids like and joke around with and it hurts me to discipline them. I'm better at acting out to get the kids involved and that has made most of my classes better, but this one has been really hard and I think Jeon understands that I'm trying my best and was just dealt a bad class. Most of those students are new and they're even worse than veteran middle-school classes because they don't know what's going on. Usually, the low-level middle-school classes are saved for teachers in their first term because even the staff knows they are horrible and difficult. Hopefully I won't have any more in my third term...maybe even get one of the advanced classes.

So, those are the good/bad of my term schedule. Last term, I had mostly memory level classes. This term, I have fewer of those. I have the aforementioned Mega class on Monday/Friday night. I have a tera class on Thursday night and another Mega on Friday morning, both of which I split with another teacher. Then I have one listening class, Bridge, on Thursday morning after having two last term. I now teach two Bridge reading classes on Tuesday. The Tuesday/Thursday reading/listening class is a pretty good one. Half the class is from a tera class that I had last term that leveled up. I'm not sure how a couple of the girls leveled up, but whatever. I'll try as hard as I can to bring them up to speed in that level. My other class is the EC2 class that I now get to keep. I again have Wednesday evening off, thankfully. I love having that time off...perfect way to get a rest in the middle of the week. So, like I said...the EC2 class is pretty good and the reading/listening combo is pretty good and the M/F mega is pretty bad...but the rest are right in line with what I've had so far. The reading class on Tuesday night can be pretty frustrating, though. There are a couple of good kids, but the room is packed with 16 kids and I have some troublemakers...two of them which got caught cheating on their review test this week. I can deal with them by sitting them on opposite corners of the room.

I am definitely spending more time preparing for classes now. I was not satisfied with my overall ratings by the students and know I can do better, so I'm trying harder to master the material before class starts. I need to remember that my job is to teach these kids, not show up and have fun with them for three hours a day, which maybe I was guilty of too often in the first term. I like it, though, I feel much smarter when I spend more time preparing and I think the confidence I have with the material allows me to act out a bit more which helps to engage the students more. So, I believe my teaching is getting better and I'll see those results at the end of the term. Hard work pays off and I need to remember that more often. Now that I have a term of experience under my belt and have seen the level up tests, I have a better idea of just how I need to advance the kids' skills and what things are more important than others during the lesson.

One of the kids in my reading/listening combo class brought me a cake this week. Well, I guess his mom technically brought it for me, but that was really nice. He's a kid that has a hard time paying attention in class. He's a good kid and really pretty smart, but I think he's a little ADD. He likes to raise his hand and comment though it gets frustrating because he'll go off on a tangent about something not too closely related to the material. I see the other kids roll their eyes when he starts talking (I usually give them an evil glare if I catch it) so I'm sure he doesn't have many friends, so I just try really hard to listen to what he says and offer a short comment while transitioning back to the required class material. The new structure has really added a lot of material to the class, so we have to hustle to get through everything (which makes the silent classes that much more frustrating because we lose so much time while they are sitting there and playing dumb...or if we have a kid like Mike that goes off on tangents). I think Mike likes me, though, and must have said something at home for his mother to bring in a cake for me. Or...she could just be trying to bribe me. I don't care, whatever gets me more cake. :) I had a similar kid last term, Edward, whose mom had him bring me a couple packages of a Korean snack.

In non-school news, you might remember me saying that the week where I sent the last update had been my best in Korea. Just a great week, lots of fun, lots of good things happening. It was definitely making me lean towards staying longer if those kinds of weeks continued. Then, the following week went to hell more or less. My best week was followed by my worst week here to bring me back down to earth a little bit. I'm not sure I can really pinpoint one or two reasons that made it so bad, but it was just not a good week. It was the first week of the new term, so I was going into work very early to prepare to teach the new classes and then I had some drama in my social life that I had to correct. For the most part, I've met a lot of good people but as my dad reminded me after that update, there will always be those with ulterior motives that you don't see immediately. Turns out he was right, again. Don't get me wrong, nothing serious or really bad happened, just some unfortunate events which will make me focus a bit more in the future. Things are starting to go well again now.

I just want to say it again, in case I haven't said it enough already, that no matter how well things are going here, I miss everyone from back home a lot. I have friends here, but none of them can replace those of you that I've shared many good and bad memories with over the past 5-10 years of my life. I also think I have maybe under appreciated just how much my family has done for me to get me where I am today and I hope to make that up to all of them when I return.

I forgot to mention in the last e-mail that if I do stay for a second year, that I will be asking for two weeks of vacation in my contract with a guarantee that I get to use one of them on the week surrounding Christmas '09. I do not want to miss two straight Christmas days and that would be the best time for me to see as many people as possible since most people will have time off work. I'll probably be there about 5 days, starting with the Monday of Christmas week. Someone had better be sure to get me tickets to the Braggin' Rights game because I'm also strategically planning my time in the US around that too! This waking up early in the morning or staying up really late at night to watch games is too frustrating...especially when the end result shows that I should have just stayed in bed like the Illini's game against Penn State (either of them). The bright side to my work schedule is that I should be able to watch just about the entire NCAA tournament without missing any time at work, though I will probably be sleep deprived those first two weekends. So, as I continue to update everyone from over here, I look forward to seeing everyone this Christmas!

...and if anyone can afford a plane ticket to Korea for a week/weekend, all of your food/drinks are on me while you're here ;)

Until then, take care and keep me updated on your lives!