Up to the First Teaching Day...

The weekend after training at the head office was pretty relaxed; Matt and I hung out and got to know some of the area around the school, plus we hopped on the subway and explored downtown on Saturday. We didn’t do too much in the evenings, but it was nice to get a break. In addition to going downtown, on Sunday evening we check out an area of the city called Hongdae, which is known for its nightlife and shopping. The streets were packed, and it was a lot like what I was expecting to see in Seoul.

downtown Seoul with Mt. Namsan in the background
Hongdae at night

Our first day of teaching started on Thursday, so for three more days we had time to observe classes and prepare for our lessons. On Monday morning we filled out forms and talked with Anne, the outgoing academic director. In the afternoon Matt and I observed classes; we were assigned to observe the teacher that we would be replacing.

 I shadowed a teacher who went by Nilu (I’m not sure if that was her given name). She was from Alabama but had actually lived in Germany for much of her childhood. She was dating the other teacher who was leaving – they met at the school – and the two of them were planning on going to Thailand after their contract was finished. They would stay there for about 2 months, and then move to Istanbul, where they had both gotten English teaching jobs.

Nilu was super nice and helped me start to figure out just what the hell I was supposed to be doing! It seemed daunting at first, when Anne handed us our schedules on Monday. They changed every day of the week, and even if we had the same group of kids each day, the subject was often different. For example I started off every weekday at 9:40 with the same class, but had to teach them Grammar on Monday, Math on Tuesday, Speech on Wednesday, Reading on Thursday, and Grammar again on Friday! The other 40 minute class blocks were just as variable, and some classes were only held M/W/F or T/R.

The hardest parts were first to get comfortable with the schedule – knowing what subject teach each day, which classroom to be in, and getting familiar with the kids – and then to figure out what exactly I was supposed to be teaching for each individual class. Some had syllabi, but others didn’t seem to have much of a set schedule. Luckily most were structured based on the book the class was using at that time. So if they were scheduled to finish the book by the end of January (Anne had that info), we could figure out both how many class period and book pages were left to come up with a page per class target.

Most course materials are provided

On Wednesday night, after Nilu and Jeff’s last day of teaching, Matt and I met up with them at a restaurant for a going away celebration. A few of their friends, mostly teachers, came to dinner too. Even though it was going to be a hectic day on Thursday – Matt and I were starting our first day of teaching, and Nilu and Jeff were leaving for Thailand – we ended up hitting a few bars, doing karaoke (called Norae-bang in Korea), and staying out until after 2. That sure would make for a fun day of teaching in the morning!

Singing Norae-bang; a few drinks helps ease the nerves!

Comments

Jim said…
Is Naribong very popular in Korea? How is the food? Quite the leap into a full teaching load but you are up to it. Susan
December 14, 2011 at 10:47 PM
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