A few months ago, I substituted taught for Ms. Yoon--one class, one student. No biggy. But she thought the deed was worthy of a box full of muffins, which she presented to me the following week. I substituted for Patrick when he got the swine flu, and he brought me cookies. (I think food is a popular way of showing appreciation in Korea. My boss said once in a meeting that he encouraged the moms to bring food by when they wanted to say thanks.) Having witnessed the cultural rule, I knew it was my turn to offer my gratitude through baked goods. After perusing several overpriced items at a local bakery, I decided to purchase rice cakes at an outdoor stand instead--that way I wouldn't be tempted to sample the gift. (Not a fan.) The stationary store nearby sells cards for about 50 cents, so I also bought a card to go along with each plate of rice cakes. I even wrote a short note to Mrs. Joe in Korean.
Feeling refreshed from my time off, I decided to try some new things this week. I persuaded myself toward a new attitude about teaching. I'm still an amateur teacher, thus still a work in progress. Be open to suggestion and new ideas! I thought.
In a class with two young active boys, I found a way to incorporated more exercise into learning. We were reviewing the short "i" sound. Usually, we point to pictures with in the book, identify the objects, spell them, and circle the objects with the short i sound. After each row, I had the boys stand up and do jumping jacks as they chanted, "Ih! Ih! Ih-ih-ih!" I don't know if they memorized the short i, but it certainly channeled their energy.
My other experiment failed miserably. I read something online about teaching ESL to 3-5 year olds. Ms. Shelley Ann Vernon suggested singing songs as a way to make learning entertaining for preschool children. Others gave me similar advice, so I thought I'd give it a shot. A silly video on YouTube would assist me in teaching "Head and shoulders, knees and toes" to little Sung-Ah. Little Sung-Ah liked the video, but she wasn't at all interested in learning the song. Not even in the least bit.
Ms. Vernon also said to change the activity every 5-10 minutes as their attention span is short. So we tried alphabet bingo, which worked for about 10 minutes, then reading a book, which worked for about two. Then she just pouted and spoke in Korean as if I could understand her. Tried tickling and candy but to no avail. Eventually, she just sat on my lap, and we watched Sesame Street ABC songs. I felt guilty about not being able to teach her anything.
Part of the issue is she doesn't respond to my authority like she does to her mom, Mrs. Yoon or Mrs. Joe. Last week, She grabbed a toy flashlight from her bag and played with it and wouldn't let me take it from her. I feel stupid tugging something away from a 3-year-old. I feel stupid struggling with a 3-year-old. Do I enforce my authority even through whining and tears like I might with a child twice or three times her age? Also, I think she gets genuinely frustrated when I can't understand her and so must ignore what she's saying.
Sometimes I want to say, "Look, I'm neither trained nor able to teach English to a 3-year-old. Find someone else." Yet other times, I see it as a challenge, another age group that I must learn to teach. I don't want to give up. I want to work at it until I find a solution, but I can't think of anything! I figured out the seven-year-old class. I'm learning how to amuse the adolescent girls. I've started to conquer the little unruly boys. Now this!
On top of my toddler concerns, we've had several students drop this week for various reasons. Several of the reasons were out of our hands, but one of them had to do with not enough vocabulary review. I know I could be doing more to hammer in vocabulary. It worries me, but Justin seems rather confident that they'll come back after they shop around. (Note to self: Do not try to be a business owner. You couldn't handle the ups and downs.) Korean parents are really involved in their children's education, which is great, to a point. Korean parents are the clientele of an English academy.
I remember praising Chris teacher for his outlook when he trained me my first week. Thirty minutes of work then 10-15 minutes of play time. It made sense to me, but when students begin to expect play time and demand play time, then I started to doubt his philosophy. Maybe I just don't get as much done in 30 minutes as he does. He is way more experienced. The default mode of a classroom should be learning, I think. The learning curve for me as a teacher is still way steep.
These days I've started to consider my next plan of action (other than get married, of course) after I return to the states. I wonder if my own education should continue. Should I pursue an ESL degree or certification? I'm still uncertain. If I did, I think I would put an age restriction on my employment possibilities.
The stationary store has some Christmas cards with funny cartoon Santas and reindeer on display. The pictures and broken English gave me a good laugh! For the last 15 years of my life, Christmas card displays meant I was approaching a significant 2-4 week break from the hustle and bustle of life. For the last four years, that meant going home to my family. I looked forward to stepping in the front door to the smell of a cinnamon, pine tree, or other Yankee candle scent, eating licorice from a glass jar on the counter, and commenting on the Christmas tree ornaments (if they were up yet.)
Guess how many days I get off this year? One. Christmas day. Korean kids get a few weeks off of school, but they spend their break time going to hogwans to study. It's too early to complain as I'm fresh off a week-long break, and my work weeks haven't been anything like the sort of schedule I managed during college. However, I'm really going to miss being home for the holidays.
Apparently, Obama wants to adopt a Korean-style of education in the U.S. There could definitely be advantages to longer school hours, but I can't support that much studying on holiday break. No way! Hopefully, that's not what Barack has in mind.
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