First Day of Teaching

Today was my first day of teaching all by myself! I didn’t do much in the morning – mostly watched my downloaded TV shows from yesterday. Oh, but I did go to the store and get a bunch of ramen! I tried one kind in the morning, which was very spicy, and one kind after work, which was... strange. Kind of tasted like seaweed, which is not quite what I expected from ramen, to be honest.

I walked to school on my own today – Sean and Sasha went in early because Sean, as head teacher, had to interview a candidate for another Avalon school. Remember Jade and Lynn, from the air base day? Lynn doesn’t like Korea, so she’s heading home at the end of the semester – therefore, they need someone to replace her. I guess Sean did so well interviewing me that he gets to do all the interviews now! Ha ha.

My first class was LOUD. They bounced balls off the walls and wouldn’t stop shouting. Sasha poked her head in at one point and told them to shut up. I tried my best to keep them quiet, but shouting didn’t really do the trick. I tried turning the lights off, threatening gamgee (lines), and they completely ignored me. Well, at least they got the lesson done. I’ll have to actually follow through on my gamgee threats next time, I guess. Or maybe I should try moving them in their seats. That’s what Sasha did, and it worked wonders.

The next class was a writing class – as was the third, actually – and there were only 3 kids in the class. We were learning about how to edit essays – add details, take out unnecessary sentences, punctuation and capital letters – and they had no idea what I was talking about. I think they understood by the end, but this class is a couple of lessons behind the other writing class I’m now teaching, so I’ll have to try and catch them up. Which is difficult, since they don’t even know what a capital letter is. They do now, though!

Third class, also writing, was back with the loud group again. We did get through the essay-writing portion, but when we had games time at the end, loud loud loud. They also tried to trick me into thinking that they were allowed their cell phones in the last ten minutes of class, which they aren’t, so Sean stuck his head in and glared at them until they stopped. Sigh. One day I shall be feared. Until then, I must simply muddle through the best that I can.

Wolfed down a jam sandwich – yes, jam, because the only place I’ve found that sells peanut butter so far is the Paris Baguette shop near school, and I haven’t bought any yet – and then it was back to class 20 minutes later! I’m starting to see what the teachers were talking about when they said that they needed more breaks. 4:20-7 and 7:20-10 doesn’t sound like that much work – maybe 5.5 hours altogether, but when you’re trying to either stop loud kids from screaming, or make quiet kids talk, plus teach the lesson and be entertaining, it’s exhausting!

The after-dinner classes were better. Well, they are necessarily older, since they’re in middle school, so they were for the most part more respectful of my authority. I’m trying to remember what classes there were... first was a really quiet class, who I made talk to me by pointing at them and saying, “What do you think?” and then they had to talk. Muahahahaha. Second class was writing – I was trying to explain adverb clauses, but I wasn’t quite sure how, so I just gave them a bunch of examples. They did the exercise alright, so I guess that they got it. The last class was way ahead, so we just talked and played games. That went well enough until they started getting loud, but I don’t think we disturbed the other classes overly much.

Then time to trudge back home and recuperate! Teaching wasn’t as bad as I’d first suspected. As long as I prep the lessons, they’re fairly easy to teach. It seems that the hardest part is going to be to either a) get kids to shut up, and b) get kids to speak up. One of the kids in my middle morning class told me about a video from the UK where a person puts a hamster in a blender, and then mixes it up and drinks it. Crafty little kid. When he saw my face, he started laughing, and explained that the second part, the mixing and drinking, wasn’t true. I really like that class. Hopefully I get to keep them!

Tomorrow I’m team teaching with Sean, because the classes are longer for some reason. I don’t know why. It’s all still pretty confusing. I heard talk of possible bowling after work – not sure if I’ll go, considering how miserable I am at bowling. If I’m still coherent after a day of work, I’ll probably go with them! If not, rest and recuperate for the Saturday “booze cruise” and ice bar extravaganza!