First & Second Day

Okay, so there were a couple of times during the day I almost got a chance to finish my first post, but children kept dashing in, or a teacher would come by to talk and unfortunately it takes quite a while for us to have a discussion, because I have no Korean skills and they have low English skills.

Anyway.  Yesterday I taught along side a teacher that comes into the school, we taught 3rd and 4th grade students, or rather she taught and I helped out.  In weeks to come the role will likely reverse, but for now I am totally out of my depth, so I am glad of her help.  She has quite a good level of English, since she has studied it at length.  Things went quite well, but I think the real test, will of course be when I have to take the lead...well we'll see what happens.

Now, my timetable says I will take classes in the morning with a co-Korean teacher, which is good.  But in the afternon I am expected to take classes on my own, which is pretty terrible because many of these students have little to no English.  I know I am supposed to be able to teach students without their native language, but it is very difficult, especially when they are young, because they are still learning their own language.

However yesterday I got away without doing the afternoon lessons because I had to go for a very invasive health check...I will not go into detail, I'm sure your sordid minds will make up plenty enough rather than have me tell you.

So today I taught grades 5 & 6 along side a different co-Korean teacher and the lessons again went fairly well and here's a shocker for anyone that knows me, I was signing and dancing with the kids!

After school, however was a different story, I was expected to teach 1st and 2nd grade students for 40mins, which I have to tell you is very difficult with no Korean and no idea of their levels.  I was unable to keep more than a table in line at one time.  The main problem being that there are 24 students in that class.  I get the feeling that I will have to extensively plan those lessons otherwise I will greatly struggle.  I also taught 5th grade students and that went much easier, there were only 5 students and they had a better command of English.  I didn't actually run a lesson, instead we played uno.  Not even remotely English, but at least the kids and I had fun together.

So today was not a bad day.  I think the lesson with the 1st and 2nd grade students would have gone much better, but three out four isn't bad for a first go...I think, ah well.

I am so happy, I got internet access today! Which is awsome, because I won't be fucking bored in my flat any more.  The last two days I simply spent sleeping, I don't think I could have coped without the internet this weekend, even sleeping wouldn't have taken up enough of my time.

Right, well I'm off to meet some other westerners that live around here.  We're going out to get something to eat and a bit to drink...I have no idea what foods this will entail, but I hope that since we're all whiteys I'll actually be able to eat it.  Okay, maybe another post tomorrow if I experience anything new.  Night all.