The children at the school range in age from 5 to about 12. I should point out that ages work differently in the US and Korea – when a child is born here in South Korea, he or she is already one year old. Ages also change after New Year, but it gets a little complicated. Basically you just need to subtract one to get a kid’s Western age. So really the youngest students here at the ECC are actually only 4 years old!
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| A kindy class - the kids are about 6 |
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| Some afternoon students |
The younger kids come in the morning, and their classes here could be considered equivalent to preschool back home (in structure, not necessarily content). They can come to ECC in the mornings until they are ready for a Korean primary school. At this point they are typically 7 or 8 in Korean ages (really 6 or 7), similar to the age that kids back home start kindergarten.
If their parents want them to continue with English studies here they can come after their primary school too. Those classes take place between 3 and 7 pm. The students in the afternoon/evening sessions vary quite a bit in their English level; some are close to fluent, with a similar vocabulary range that you would expect a child in the US to have. Others are much less advanced, but they have still had some exposure to English (I think they all take English classes at Korean primary school too).
The young kids that take classes in the mornings can be really cute, at least until you start to teach them! All kidding aside, most of them are fun to work with and probably a lot easier than kids back home in the US. Although as anyone who deals with kids on a day to day basis can tell you, even the cutest kid can be frustrating to deal with at times! The afternoon kids are more of a mix. Most have grown considerably and are past the cute phase. Some are very well behaved, and others are at that rebellious age when they think it is cool to disobey the teacher. Again though, I bet most students are easy to deal with compared to kids back home.
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| The kindy students are so cute - usually |
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If they finish their work early sometimes we will
send them to the playroom to blow off some energy! |
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Posing with the kids on a class field trip...can you
spot me? (hint, I'm wearing pink earmuffs) |
My morning classes range in size from 3 kids to 12. Each morning at
9:40 I only have 3 students, while the next class at
10:20 has 11. The one following at
11:10 has 5 kids, and the
11:50 class MWF has 12. In the afternoon the range is similar, with my smallest being 3 and the largest under 10. One-to-one sessions are also offered, and the biggest my classes can get will probably be around 15 students. It is nice to be able to spend more individual time on kids in the smaller classes, but even 12 seems like a handful. I don
’t know how teachers manage 20-30 students!
The class work also varies based on the English level. Morning classes have various titles, such as writing, speech, phonics, grammar, reading, math, science, art, drama, etc. For example, in my first class at 9:40 I teach Grammar on Monday and Friday, Math on Tuesday, Speech on Wednesday, and Reading on Thursday. A lot to cover! The work load also varies depending on the book and the number of assigned pages, so sometimes we also have time for games, while in other classes we need to stay on task most of the 40 minutes to finish. That can be difficult if we have to take time out of the lesson to address behavioral problems.
The school tries to place students of similar levels together, but sometimes certain kids always tend to be the first one done or the last to finish. Unlike in the morning, most afternoon classes follow only one book, so lessons are a bit more standardized. Most of the afternoon kids only come in two or three days a week as well.
Also a note on my new January schedule – most of it is the same as my schedule in December. My first and second classes in the morning are flipped (the one I used to have at 9:40 I now have at 10:20). I don’t have any more phone teaching, but for three weeks I have four extra classes in the early afternoon.
During January students are off from their primary school, and so for the “vacation” parents stick their kids in English school for extra lessons. Talk about a fun break! Or as the Koreans would look at it, just another opportunity for studying. But my new classes are fairly light – science (there are pre-made activities for the kids), a movie class, and going to the library for reading time. So overall pretty similar to December, and I actually get out earlier because I don’t have phone teaching!
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