Initial Teaching Obervations

I understand now, after my first couple hours with the 5 year olds (well, in Korea you're 1 when you're born, so these children are actually 4) that imitation is one of most innate instincts. When one child said she was angry, every other followed suit. When one kid starts singing, the rest join in or start their own songs. A couple kids have made their own songs to help with english; I just heard "Ithankyou,ithankyou,ithankyou," on repeat for the last forty minutes. Really though, besides the complete lack of verbal communication, teaching the kindergarten kids is going to be tons of fun and extremely exhausting. When everything else fails you can always just pick the little boys up, sing the Superman song and fly them around the room. And both the boys and girls are thrilled at a little game of "Horsee." I feel like Bill Cosby bouncing these 50 lb adorable children on my knee. This is what I've learned in observation. At the end of the day, my boss asks me politely if I will cover a class for him. I've watched uncontrollable children run the classroom all day and finally, I get my turn. My first class!!! No adorable children, no wild bunch, I step into a class of six extremely shy, pimple faced teenagers. This class is completely optional and intended for junior high kids who want extra English lessons. I try to talk video games with them but it's not working. I plead for them to say anything, but not a peep. What a disaster. Despite growing up in a family of teachers, I didn't realize how difficult this job is. After my first day I am beginning to understand why teachers complain about lack of financial compensation. The class dragged on and, eventually the bell rang and the kids went home. The next day I taught the exact same group, but this time it was planned and I had plan. I figured out that they are too shy to speak English but they can read and write it fluently. So I gave them some handouts (essays and some blank outline forms) and told them what to do. Beautiful. This was a teacher's fantasy. The kids worked dilligently and when the bell rang (I was almost disapointed it ended so early this time) they handed in their work. I couldn't believe it, it was remarkable, they did everything right- some even wrote better outlines than I had. I think it's true, everything I've read about how much better behaved and motivated these students are than America is, and I was. And, most importantly, I left school confident that if I could fix my teaching in a day, I'm sure it will expand exponentially in a year.