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
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Training in DC and Prep for Georgia

Image
As mentioned a few posts ago, I took a new job back in the US starting in mid-January. I flew back from Japan to my hometown in Ohio at the end of December, arriving just in time for New Year's. My initial contract in Japan ended along with 2020, so it didn't make sense to start a new one for a week or two in January. This way I was also able to spend time with my parents and my sister and her husband (who live nearby) before moving to Washington, DC. In addition to family time, I had a lot of administrative tasks to take care of before the move; my new job is with the government, which involves a long, at times frustrating onboarding process. I had to fill out several HR packets, arrange temporary housing for my training in DC, decide on consequential things such as life insurance and thrift savings plan contributions, and choose my healthcare plan. By the way, why is healthcare so complicated here?! The electronic form listed over 200 healthcare options to chose from! After e...
Read more

Finishing Osaka, on to Tokyo

Image
I've covered some of the great food Andrew and I had in Japan, so now let me move on to whatever else it was that we were doing between meals.  Two posts ago I touched on Osaka, the second largest city in Japan and our fist stop in the country. Osaka is in the Kansai region of Japan, which also includes Kobe and Kyoto Osaka city proper has about 2.7 million people, but that is only a fraction of the true number.  Citing population based on city limits can be quite misleading.  Take my hometown of Columbus, and Cleveland, another city in Ohio, as examples.  The population of the city of Columbus is over 800,000, while Cleveland's is less than half that.  Take a look at the metro area, or the urban core plus surrounding suburbs and commuter towns, and the comparison is flipped: Cleveland is substantially larger than Columbus. Back to Osaka - while the city itself only has a couple million inhabitants, add in the urban sprawl and surrounding ...
Read more

My Dad and Uncle Visit Korea, Part 1

Image
Even before I left for Korea last November, my dad had mentioned that he might try and visit me.  In the past he has suggested trips only to say that it was just a hypothetical later on.  So when he finally booked a flight for a visit in the summer I was quite surprised.  Both he and my uncle flew in to Seoul on the 31 st of July and then also went to Japan together for four nights.  Here is a recap of their visit: My uncle (far right) and dad (second from right) were headed to Seoul! Korean public schools get over a month off for summer break in late June and August.  On the other hand, the private institutes (like the one I work for) often have much shorter breaks.  During the summer break from public school parents sign their kids up for extra classes at our school, so we actually are busier!  What a great vacation for the students – a full day of English classes!  My break was four days long (well six if you coun...
Read more