My first week of teaching
I wasn’t sure what to expect in this career change of become a teacher. It still trips me out when the kids scream at me ‘TEACHER!’ all day, as I don’t feel like one. But after this first week, I am starting to adjust to my new title.
The students came to the English Village here on Monday. We had two different schools attend the camp. One was a five day program of students that were placed in different groups of English speaking levels, such as: novice, basic, inter-low, and inter-high. The other was a three day program generalized as low level English. I was placed into a three day program this past week, as to ease me into the my new position.
In the beginning, both programs arrived at the same time by bus. All of the English teachers with met them at our airport building. We have a setup there that is similar to the immigration area of any airport. There the kids are greeted by us where they are given a passport and asked a series of five questions, as to gauge their English speaking. Passports have a place where the kids can receive g stamps throughout the for good behavior and success within their various activities. W stamps are also given for bad behavior and erase 3 g stamps. The students can get things certain items back in their dorms in the evening, if they have enough g stamps. Once every kid had gone through this process, the administration gathered the three day program kids and separated them into already determined homeroom class. The school within this three day program were placed four groups of 17, led by two foreign English teachers and paired with two Korean English teachers. Once I was given my kids, I took them to my assigned classroom.
In the classroom, the first thing I did was pass out name tags and they wrote down English names of their choosing. It did become apparent here that these kids were low level because most of them needed help spelling their English names. Some of their names were pretty common: Jack, Amy, Billy and Katie. I found it hilarious that there was a kid named Tom and sitting to his right was a kid named Jerry. Some of the other kids had unique names, such as, Ball, Food, Ghost, and Monster. The best English name I heard was a kid I met at the airport from the five day program: Lucifer. When I asked, ‘What’s your name [again]?’ He replied, ‘Lucifer’ putting both of his index fingers on top of the back of his head as repeated it.
After we put are name tags together and introducing ourselves, it was time for lunch. When we returned, I taught my homeroom their first active English lesson, egg drop.
When we, the English teachers, recieve our schedule for the programs that are attending, we also are assigned to a theme class. If you are in a five day program, you are only assigned one theme class. These are spread out amongst 10 foreign teachers paired with 10 Korean teachers, who teach their own class next door. That is also divided in half. Our theme classes include: planets, egg drop, board game, catapults, dodge ball, safari, hand bell, cooking, money and hair salon. If you are assigned to a three day program, you are assigned two theme classes (two are not done, such as hand bell and hair salon like this past week). The other difference is that five day programs have 80 minutes active English lessons and teach 2 a day, while the three day only have 50 minutes to teach these lessons and teach 3 a day.
50 minutes theme classes proved to be very challenging with the low levels especially when their activity is depended upon instructions and concepts they couldn’t grasp. I seriously doubt that they can remember what gravity, air resistance, and velocity are, let alone say them in English.
The activity of egg drop is also a difficult one to start out with. I separated the kids in 4 teams of 4 (one had 5, as there are 17 students). The only materials they can use are: string, scotch tape, plastic bags, balloons, chopsticks, paper cups, paper clips, rubber bands, and straws. They can only choose ten of these items. They don’t have to use them all and can use multiple of each. Only ten was a hard concept to grasp for them, but I remained firm. If they wanted more scotch tape, I made them give something back.
But my home class did really well with the activity. Three out of the four teams eggs didn’t crack. The kids from those teams received g stamps. I thought I started off strongly.
My next class was not as successful. The teachers switch classroom as the students remain in the same one. Aside, from having technical difficulties with setting up my computer, these kids were harder to control and teach. They also were not given name tags, so I could not identify them in any way. This class was younger in age from my homeroom, so they really didn’t understand the concepts or the activity. All four teams eggs broke, and also I had to administer three w stamps for bad behavior.
My last class of the day was on the same level as the class before, but they were better behaved. All four teams eggs broke, as well.
My day one started out rough. The training here is definitely lacking. I had no observation time last week as the teachers were sent away on their jobs. Also, being thrown in a class with 17 kids that you are responsible for can be pretty intimidating when you have never really been around children. But like any job, once you become accustomed to what you are doing, you grow more in confidence and through experience you learn more .
Day two was my busiest day of the week. I was nervous about the beginning part, as I had to teach my homeroom class phonics for 3 hours straight. But the time went by really quickly. I spent over two hours in instructing in the beginning, using a website that helped me keep them engaged and in asking questions, I rewarded those that participated with g stamps. The last 45 minutes, I gave them a worksheet that kept them busy until it was time for lunch. This, also helped me prepare for the remainder of the day.
After lunch, I taught the fourth remaining class egg drop. These students were better behaved and were on par with the students from my homeroom. Two out of the four groups egg didn’t crack. This restored my faith in trying to help these children understand what I was teaching them and hoping it stuck with them.
The next theme class I taught was my homeroom on the subject of planets. I could tell in the beginning this was going to be a hard subject, as their was not a fun activity like dropping an egg from the second floor with something they built. But on the other hand, I didn’t have an activity that was as extensive as passing out materials they chose and it didn’t involve them making a huge mess. After giving them a power point presentation, we played a trivia game. One of our foreign English teachers, Amy, made an interactive game that quizzed them on what they just learned. Like the egg drop activity, I divided the class into the same groups and asked them the questions they chose. If their team got the right answer, a g stamp was awarded to the whole team. Not a lot of g stamps were given to my first planets class. I knew I had to change up the way I presented the power point in my next class.
The last class of the day was the same class I taught egg drop to that day, before my first planets class. These kids did much better with the interactive game, as I had learned through the struggles from my first class. Only a couple of tough questions were missed. I walked out of that class feeling confident that these things would actually remain with them.
My last day with the kids on Wednesday was a short one. I only had to teach my homeroom an hour more of phonics before we took them back to the English Village airport area. There they loaded up onto the buses and went back home.
The rest of the week I spent observing my co-worker’s classes in the five day program. I learn best when I observe others, taking bits of their techniques I feel work best, and then applying them in ways that best suit me.
Going into next week, I feel very confident. I am scheduled to teach a five day program with my theme class being catapults. My homeroom students will be at an inter-low level, which is a step up for this past week.
Best lesson I learned this week: You can be very prepared with what you are teaching, but once you step inside that classroom, there will always obstacles and circumstances no amount of preparation can help you with. If you can’t learn to quickly adapt to these situations, your level of success won’t be very high.
