So the kids themselves are kind of fun - at least the older ones. The younger crowd are less well versed in English, so it's a bit more difficult to teach them. I personally need to slllloooow doooowwwn when I'm teaching. I tend to rush things when I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable. I've only had one cry so far (something about him losing a pencil). The Korean co-teachers are really wonderful in these kinds of situations - they know I'm out of my depth. To be fair, I'd be out of my depth around anyone who is crying, regardless of the language they are crying in!!
It's been kind of tough learning what is required administratively. There's a lot of things that have to be done each day. The thing is, I think that they do the best they can in training - they want you to be able to teach the material. The hard part comes in when you get to your school and find out that you're going to be teaching material that you were never trained on! We didn't learn how to teach the younger crowd - with the exception of a quick lesson which basically told us that we're going to have to go over the sounds and words a lot! So while the training is good on the one hand, it's impossible for it to be extensive enough to cover everything that you're going to be doing. I was even able to shadow my fellow teachers for a week and I'm still lost half the time! So many little things to keep track of!!
Not much really has phased me regarding the kid's behavior. I've had some be disruptive and had to get stern with them. I was told not to yell, but I have tried a variation of the 'Dad voice' that seemed to work. I did carry through with my threats, so that's apparently good juju. It's just going to be an interesting experience, that's for sure. Oh, for those who want to know #'s - I teach 6 classes on MWF and 5 classes on T-TH. One class runs about 40 mins, with 5-min breaks in between. In total, I have about 90 students. Each class has no more than 13 students. The day starts out pretty slow - I come in, review the lessons that I'm going to teach, check the students did their online homework, etc. Then once classes start, it's back to back from 2:25-7:05 MWF and 3:15-7:00 T-Th. So far, I haven't even tried stopping for a bathroom break during the class times. When we come in and after classes are over, we're able to eat, go to the bank, go shopping for supplies, really whatever we need to do. It's not a case of "be in the office from 12:30 - 8:30, no matter what." I appreciate that.
We are going sometime in the next couple of days to get bank accounts (the 3 new teachers, that is: Me, J, and M). (Update - we have bank accounts!) In the meantime, I know that I'll get paid before my next credit card payment is due, so YAY for being obsessive about finances! (Also, I guess credit cards can be helpful at times... I'm also looking forward to getting my Alien Residence Card so that I can purchase one of those stupid smart phones people keep going on about. May not need one in the states, but here they seem to be indispensable.)
I'll post more this weekend about my explorations of Dongtan, and that one will have more pictures (I know you all love pictures).
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