First Day at School

Last Thursday I spent my first day at the school I will be teaching at, Jeon-dong Elementary. I like the school a lot. The staff is incredibly friendly to me. My supervising teacher is a soft and diminutive Korean woman who greeted me by clasping my hands in both of hers, and bowing her head to me, even though I should be showing respect to her. The other teachers I am working with were also very kind. They approached me quietly and nervously at first, hesitant because their English was not as proficient.

After we talked about curriculm for several minutes, one of them said to me, "Thank you for speaking so carefully. When Timothy [the native English teacher] talks we only catch half the words."

I tossed my head in Timothy's direction, "Where are you from Timothy?"

"I'm from Jersey," he said.

"Oh my! That's unfortunate."

Next week I start teaching. I will only be in the classroom for one day, Monday, because next week is Korean Thanksgiving, Chusok, and schools will be closed for a week. The following Monday, I will begin a begin a week of observation, so I can see how the classrooms operate, begin to know my students, and evaluate their ability level in English.

After my initial week of observation, I will be responsible for writing three lesson plans a week, for three different classes: the second grade class, the fourth grade class, and the fifth and sixth grade English classes. Most of my lessons will be English lessons, and I will be creating activities to do and supplementing my lessons with the material from the curriculum. I will have other responsibilities in the second grade classroom, where I will be doing the most of my work. In that class I will help my teacher with classroom responsibilities such as grading papers, cleaning up after classes, creating display boards, and putting student artwork on the wall. In addition to my work in the classroom, I am responsible for writing daily and weekly observations about the teaching methods and lessons I observe in the classroom. I will also be writing essays and blogs for my professor in the U.S. about my experiences.

I am very excited about teaching. When I first left the classroom, my mind was buzzing with preparation, my heart was full of expectant love for my students. Now, getting ready to observe for the first time tomorrow, some of that excitement is tempered with feelings of nervousness and performance anxiety, but mostly I am excited. I hope that I will learn a lot from my teachers, and I hope that I will give a lot to my students.

That's all.