So here it goes. I've finally completed one
full school year in Korea. Unlike America, in South Korea the school year runs
from the end of August until the middle of February with lots of breaks in
between. March is the start of the school year and the first semester goes
until mid-July. Then, the students have summer vacation until the end of the
August. The fall semester lasts until the very end of December. Winter vacation
follows and lasts until the beginning of February. For some strange reason unbeknownst
to me, this vacation is interrupted by 1 1/2 pointless weeks of school.
Students don’t want to be here. Teachers don’t want to be here. Yet, here we
are staring at each other during classes that are pretty much “free time”.
Usually these classes consists of movie watching, game playing and random “official
school stuff” that could have been done sometime during the fall semester. At
the end of these 2 weeks, the “seniors” of the school graduate- In this case,
my 3rd grade middle schoolers. In elementary school, it would be the
6th graders and in high school, 3rd graders who are
usually about 19 years old.
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| Some of my students |
This school year has been a rollercoaster
of emotions. I’ve gone between loving teaching, hating it, dreading it to
tolerating it and then to simply liking it. I teach at three different schools.
Each school is very different and your school has a profound effect on your
experience living in South Korea. I teach at my main school three times a week,
but it seems longer. The school is bigger and the class size is about 35
students a class. Having a large class size makes it difficult to control the
class especially when only a few of the students understand most of what you
are saying. What’s more difficult is having a Korean co-teacher who doesn't contribute
to teaching or discipline. These factors combined with a lack of curriculum
make time at this school my least favorite.
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| Hiking with Gunam and Gusan teachers |
My rural schools, however, are
excellent. They are small schools and the teachers are very close-knit. We go
to dinner, hiking and there is even a school volleyball team. At these school
the classes sizes don’t go over 15 students. This makes a world of difference.
In addition, my co-teachers at my rural school contribute during class time,
making the lack of curriculum bearable.
Overall, I have to say, my first year of
teacher had definitely been a huge learning experience. I enjoyed it and
disliked it almost equally. The good moments outweighed the bad and when you
see your students enjoying themselves while learning English because of a
lesson you created, it makes it worthwhile. I look forward to next years’
teaching adventures. I’m equipped with a little more knowledge and fresh boost
of “you can do it” so bring it on 2014!
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Some students on sports day |
