establishing authority

So, I made good friends with a guy out here, unfortunately he leaves in 5 weeks.  But at least until then I have someone to watch football with, play basketball, and hang out with.  The girls I hang out with a lot (Caroline, Shannon, Vanessa) are great, but it's good to get some time hanging out with just guys in too.  He's a really good teacher, and giving me some pointers for my '6' year old class.

Today I started implementing a new punishment system, since the way I was doing it before obviously wasn't effective enough for the 6 year olds.  Now, instead of giving stars for being good or answering a question (1 star = 1 sticker at the end of class) and X's for being bad (3 X's is a severe punishment like take them to the hall and lecture them, and 1 X is minus 1 star).  Now I am giving out stickers immediately when they do something to deserve them, I take a sticker away if they are misbehaving, and if they are blatantly misbehaving or ignore my instruction I take off a sticker and send them to the corner to stare at the wall for about 2 minutes.  If that happens twice and they are still misbehaving I send them to another teacher's class (the kids absolutely hate that).  Today was my first day implementing this strategy, it worked beautifully in my 7 year old classes, though they weren't too bad to begin with, but my more hyper 7 year old class was just peachy today, and I only sent two kids to the corner.  We finished all our scheduled book work 20 minutes early and played games the rest of the time, which was a lot of fun, and made me feel really good.

My 6 year old class I had a lot of kids going to the corner, a couple of repeat offenders, and I sent (carried is more like) one kid to another teacher's classroom when he wouldn't stop hitting another student, and I had already had him in the corner twice... (Evan is really smart, but he's such a trouble maker!)  They weren't perfect, but my countdown (from 10, 5, or 3, depending on what I want) is a lot more inspiring now, and by the end of the class I hadn't wanted to rip my hair out once, which is an improvement from the average day with the 6 year olds.  I definitely need to stick with this routine, I think I need to make a few changes to my teaching style still, get little games / songs going in between book work, but I am trying to stay on schedule with the work they are scheduled to do, and I don't have time to do much of that... Anyway, I think the kids will be better at listening to me after a few days of this punishment strategy, and I might be able to keep them organized enough to have time to do more fun things between work.

The head foreign teacher is observing me next wednesday, which is a bit unfortunate because I would like a little more time than 2 and a half weeks with my classes before my teaching is analyzed by a superior..  But it isn't that big of a deal, it's more to help me improve than anything.  You have to be really bad to get fired I hear, I'm not worried about that at all.  They just don't offer you a contract renewal at the end of the year if they don't like your teaching style by then.

Below are a few of my photos from the field trip to Hwa Soon 

 

Field Trip

We had a field trip today, it was a lot of fun.  I was in charge of my 1st period class, which is my best behaved class, so that was pretty lucky.  We took a bus to the train station where we boarded a train to Hwa Soon, a town not too far away.  When we arrived there we took buses (the same buses we originally took in fact, the train was pretty much just for the kids entertainment) to a nearby park.  We ate lunch and played games in the park.  Most of the time we played *chase Chaz Teacher*... you can imagine what that consists of, hah.  Then I got tired and we played duck duck goose.  We just took the bus home, no train, but the bus ride was nice.  I got to relax and listen to my ipod for a lil while, then when I was rested enough to get back to the kids I played games with them, sang Yellow Submarine, and made faces at them.  You know, general kid car entertainment.  When we got back to school there was about an hour left before most students go home, so we put a movie on for that class and then I had to go take care of my '6' year old class.  Which at the end of a field trip day we aren't going to get any work done, so I just helped them eat (every single kid wants to share their snack / lunch with you) and clean up their snack and played simon says pretty much until it was time to leave.  I took pictures, I will try and post them this weekend.  Hopefully I will have my internet working then...  But, it's time for me to go home, so until next post!

Quick update

Today was a good day in school, I had arts and crafts in all my classes today rather than workbooks.  I managed to keep the 7 year olds occupied with that most of the 80 minute class, they both finished early, one of the classes I had read books, the other I had work on workbooks because we got a little behind the day before.  The 6 year olds of course were a bit more of a problem, they of course wanted to run around more than they wanted to draw and color.  But it went well more or less.  Yesterday was a good day too with the 6 year olds, though the most tiring I've had.  I spent more effort controlling them yesterday than I have any other, but we got a lot of work done, and it wasn't too chaotic.  There are three trouble makers in that class, so I never have an easy day, and they are 6 years old so they are all full of energy, and all want my attention.  But I know all their names now, and am picking up on who needs special attention in what areas, so I can better focus my attention and keep the class working optimally.

We have a field trip tomorrow, I'm curious to see how that goes, but excited to get out of Gwangju and see somewhere else.  Here are a few of the photos I took on my day off, I will put all of them on facebook if you want to see the rest.

Sunset viewed from outside my apartment building



Cool outdoor shrine thing, no shoes allowed on it, even outside!



I like how the giant apartment buildings are across the street from the forest

during my first whole week of teaching

On Thursday I had the day off.  So I slept in til about 8:45, considering I've been waking up before 7 every day before that, that felt pretty good.  I hung around the apartment, made breakfast, and read a book untill around noon.  At noon I went to the nearby mountain / hill and hiked all the way up and around it, taking pictures.  It took about 4 hours in total, and was really pretty, and a good hike.  They had workout equipment along the trail in several spots.  The hike definitely taught me something about the area where I'm living.  It gave me a good view of the area around, and though I may be living in a city with 1.5 million people, the part i live in, and every part, is pretty much surrounded by hills.  So the city is split up into lots os small sections, so I can't really get lost in my section of the city, which is nice.  Also, the way the city is built, there are hills and undeveloped areas all around and in it.  It looks a lot better than just a vast expanse of developed land, and it’s nice having nature nearby.  The big apartment buildings just stop in places, and on the other side of the street is a small forest next to a 12 story apartment building, you can see what I mean in my pictures, I took an interest in one example of that in particular, and took pictures of it from many different angles as I walked around the hill.  There are a few pictures below, I will more on facebook if you are interested in viewing them all.

I had my first day of teaching Friday, as well as my first night on the town.   My day started out well, my first class was peachy, my second class a little harder to control, but I still managed.  It was my third and last class that gave me problems.  They are my youngest class, Korean 6 year olds, which is 4 and 5 year olds for us.  In Korea a kid is 1 when they are born, and turn 2 at new years.  The agenda for that class started out with some of the same course work I was doing with the seven year olds, so I figured I would teach it in the same way.  But their understanding of english was not good enough to comprehend it.  So I was caught a little off guard by that, and tried to accomodate, but found it difficult.  One of the kids decided to go to sleep, I tried to wake her and get her involved in the class, but I couldn't.  When I had them working on a workbook, one kid just couldn't do it, which it was a tracing letters exercise, so I don't understand why she couldn't... Whenever I sat next to her she could do it just fine, but the moment I turned away she would stop!  All the other students were done, so I had to check their work, and give them their stickers to put on their pages.  So I was dealing with 11 kids calling out "teacher teacher", trying to figure out their names so I could give them THEIR stickers, and get a student to do her work.  Then, the ones who I did give their stickers were yelling “teacher done, teacher done!”  so I had them read a book.  They finished their books pretty quick and started running around, grabbing markers and writing on the white board, or doing pretty much whatever they wanted.  I tried to get them settled, but I was still trying to check students' work and get the one girl to work on her workbook.  It was all I could do to keep myself from ripping my hair out.  But the 7 year old classes went much better.

Bad news for you mom, apparently bars in Korea don't close at night.  I went out to a good bye dinner for the teacher whose schedule I am taking over.  We went to a soju bar after (soju is like vodka but only 20% alcohol, and tastes better) and a noribong (karaoke bar with private rooms)  then I went downtown with a few of the teachers and went to a couple bars.  I had a good time, met some locals that spoke good english, and some foreigners living in the area, and made it home around 6 am, woke up around 2 pm. 

I moved into my new place on Sunday, it’s nice, though small.  The biggest difference between Korean and American apartments is the bathroom.  When I first went in my bathroom I was thinking “Where’s the shower!!??”  Their bathrooms just consist of a removable shower head for a shower, a toilet, a sink, and a small cupboard on the wall; so I didn’t see the shower head at first.  My Korean is developing very slowly, because I only speak English at work and usually only hang out with English speaking people outside of work.  But I can get around the town and get anything I need, directions to a cab driver, ask for something, whatever.  I’m going to take Korean classes when the new classes start at this local place that offers it, but that doesn’t start until the beginning of November.

I’m also eating a lot of different food.  We get free lunch in the cafeteria every day, and I haven’t had a main dish twice yet, though the veggies or gim chi is usually the same (I don’t like gim chi unless it’s cooked or in something, and the way they prepare the veggies isn’t usually very good either), but some of the main dishes have been really good, not that I know what most of them are!  I had pig skull the other day, which wasn’t bad at all.  I need to get going, so bye!

I'll post pictures of my hike soon

First real post

My first week in Korea:

When I got into Gwangju one of my Korean bosses met me at the bus stop (it was a 3, maybe 3 and a half hour bus ride after the 12 and a half hour flight.  I didn't sleep at all on the plane, though I slept some on the bus.  He dropped me off at my apartment, gave me the key, told me how the AC and water heater worked, and told me the head teacher was going to come by my place around 1 pm the next day, and left.

After one of the most fulfilling sleeps of my life I woke up, watched tv for a bit, got bored and started exploring the neighborhood around my apartment.  I got breakfast at a family mart and ate in the children’s park near my apartment.  After I ate I explored some more around town, got a little lost, but made it back to my apartment well before 1.  Nigel, the head teacher, came by my place with two other teachers, and we went out to lunch together.  After lunch I went downtown with a few more teachers, and checked out the market. 

The first few days of work I spent observing other teachers.  I picked the brain of the teacher whose shift I'm taking over.  There are a bunch of English speaking people working at Jeongsangd, more than I thought there were going to be.  I had a 'Mexican Monday' dinner night at Shannon's apartment with her, Caroline and Vanessa (all native english speaking teachers).  I had a lot of fun, those three seem like people I can really get along with.

The next night I checked out the shop and restaurant area in my neighborhood with a few other teachers, five of us total.  We got dinner and ate it in the park, then we went to a bakery for desert and a bar for soju cocktails.  Then we went to a noribong, where you buy an hour of time in what is most easily described as a bar full of private karaoke rooms.  We had a blast.

Now I have a day off before I start teaching on Friday.  I am excited to get to start teaching, I was a bit nervous when I first started coming into work, but after observing and participating varying amounts in classrooms for three days, I feel ready to get started.  My biggest worries about starting work are knowing where things are when I need to get them, and knowing the students names.  I know my job would be a lot easier if I knew all the students' names', so I'm going to work hard on learning them fast. 

The language barrier with the kids is a problem, but it is not too difficult to overcome, you can usually understand what they are saying or trying to say, and when you can't it usually isn't important enough to dwell on.  People find a way of conveying what is actually necessary to convey.  I am able to communicate with the locals enough to get what I need, for example.  I know how to ask for something "chu se yo" (please give me), I know how to say hi, bye, and thanks.  Those are by far the most common things I say in Korean, though I know a little more than that.

I have been thinking about teaching strategies a lot over these three days, and I feel like I have a good idea of how I want to be with my kids, I just need to implement a solid plan.  Once you get them to respect your authority, it is much easier and even more fun to teach them.