This is my second year in Korea and what a year it has been! I have done and seen a good many things this year and I’m kind of in a reflecting mood before I leave this place and go onto wherever I will be working next March. I have met some good folks this year, including a fellow blogger Edward and a few others through my MA in TEFL/TESL. My first post here will focus on my overall school experience.
This year, I taught at three high schools. It was certainly an adjustment from the middle school life in Buyeo and at times the difference was hard to deal with. During my first year in Korea, I had a good relationship with my co-teachers and they were mostly in the classroom. This year I was mostly on my own. At first, it was daunting doing it on my own but I began to enjoy the freedom more and more as the students got to know me. Teaching-wise I feel like I have developed in classroom management and my MA program has certainly provided me with a fresh new perspective and an approach to how I teach the students.
Breaking down my schools, my Monday school is mixed in level with some really great girl students who will probably go to the better universities in Korea and some other students who are absolute beginners. Fortunately, unlike my Tuesday school they aren’t in the same class and I teach one of those classes every week there. I have gotten to know some of the better students fairly well as I taught an interview preparation course but it has been difficult spreading myself to all the students with so little time. My co-teacher had a baby and was out for most of the beginning of the first semester, so I had a substitute co-teacher. She was interesting…and probably had a difficult time communicating with me. We had one misunderstanding and everybody at the whole school made her feel terrible. Luckily, we smoothed that out and things went better from there. Once the main co-teacher came back, everything has been uneventful and routine.
My Tuesday school has been the difficult day for me. Unlike the other schools, I have to wake up very early for my ride to school. The other two schools are within walking distance of my apartment and I am able to sleep in fairly late for those days. That’s not bad in itself, but it takes some adjustment. The students at this school are a mixed bag. I had some issues with some of the students at the beginning and I felt like I was being ignored. I quickly thought of ways to get the students motivated in the class but when that failed, I found myself getting frustrated. I remember back when my mother came over, I was constantly complaining about this very school and how the students were disrespectful and hated to learn. Thankfully, I found my niche as time went along and was able to cope more with their behavior. It hasn’t been all roses but over time, they got to know my style and have accepted me. A really great thing about this school is that I have two really outgoing male co-teachers. In my time in Korea, male co-teachers have been a mixed bag. I had a wonderful co-teacher at one of my middle schools in Buyeo, a terrible one for my first two months in Korea and another mediocre one who couldn’t manage a class to save his life. They were one of the good ones and I’m glad I got to meet them.
My main school for the remainder of three days has been great. There were initially a few growing pains with getting to know my co-workers there and I also had a different co-teacher for my first semester. Once I got to know them though, everything just fell into place. The students have been much more motivated overall than the other two schools. Some of my best students are at this school and I will miss them, especially the second grade students the most. Including, one student who gave me a cake for my birthday! He actually came up to our apartment while I was teaching and gave my wife a cake. I have complained about high school students in the past, as they are harder to get to know. I feel like that has changed in my last few months here in Haman. They are really just a bunch of overworked bunch of kids who are scrambling to prepare for their examinations. They want to have fun but they are constantly being pushed to their limits and even punished physically (caning students in the hallways!) if they fail to tow the line. I feel happy that I have given some of the students an opportunity to use their English in a more relaxed setting as opposed to learning word lists and studying how to crack the code of English or pass a test that hardly reflects genuine communication.
It has been a good year mostly but I am definitely ready to explore a different area in Korea and teach university students.
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- Entrance to Myeongdeok High School
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- Chirwon High School “Shakespeare Room”
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- The playground outside Myeongdeok High School
