First Week of School

Hi everyone!

Well, after a few days of "deskwarming," I started teaching today! I had 4 classes of 5th graders in the morning. Already I can tell that there is a range of English comprehension levels in the class. When some students were repeating me, asking questions, and responding to my powerpoint about myself, other students were sitting and looking with somewhat blank faces. I think they all enjoyed the pictures (Kika was a hit!), but a lot of what I said went over their heads. My co-teacher told me to slow down. I tried so hard to speak slowly!! Even so, I need to speak much slower and use more simple sentences. That is my goal for the next set of classes tomorrow. I'm really pleased with student behavior so far! I only had to give my "teacher stare" a couple times. Thank goodness it worked--I don't think these particular boys were expecting me to notice their inappropriate behavior! Having my Co-Teacher start the class helped as well.

The picture is of my English classroom (no-I did not decorate it this way).

Some more info on the school...

It's a relatively large elementary school with grades 1-6. There are 6 5th grade classes so to estimate...about 1080 students in the school. There is an "English Zone" with 3 classrooms designated as the English classrooms. I am lucky because I get to stay in my English classroom and the students come to me. English teachers in other grades have to go to each homeroom to teach. With only 5-10mins between classes, they do a lot of moving!

Every day, we eat the cafeteria lunch. Some days the meal is really good (bibimbop today!!!) and other days, I mostly eat rice, kimchi, and fruit. Overall, the best part about lunch is eating with the other English teachers and talking/learning from each other. Sam, the other Native English teacher at the school, is from England, so we learn about each other's culture as the Korean teachers learn about it too. Yesterday, we had an entire conversation about different words, pronounciations, and spellings of words depending if it is American English or British English. It's fascinating, but also frustrating when you are trying to learn it!

One more thing...I LOVE INDOOR SHOES!!!!!!! The shoes you wear to school, you leave outside the classroom in a cubby and then you wear "indoor shoes." These are basically just nice black slip-on wedge shoes. Anyway, they are super comfortable. My toes get cold, but at least my feet don't hurt all day! These shoes you wear all around the school. When you go home, the indoor shoes go in the cubby and you put your outdoor shoes back on!

That's all for now...

Love and miss you all!

Jenn