School Days, Rule Days...

I was blessed with the experience of working at a low income, inner city, Chicago School before I had embarked on this adventure. It taught me how to stand my ground, think on my feet, manage my own classroom, create a curriculum and much, much more. I can not imagine what it would be like for people coming straight out of college to teach in a school here.

My job is like any other teaching job, and very similar to any school in the states. I work at an all boys middle school with 700 students and about 40 staff members. Since I joined the public school system here, I had no idea as to what type of school, environment, student body, or location my school would be. Therefore, I feel very lucky to have been placed at a great school with a friendly atmosphere.

When I met one of my 4 co-teachers the day she picked me up from the airport, she said the first day I should introduce myself. Then, the morning of the first day of school she picked me up and wondered where my lesson plan was. I said it was in my head, because I was just planning on saying the basics... "Hi my name is Jennifer, I'm from the USA and I'm an art teacher and artist... yadda yadda yadda..." When I got to school I found out that I had 4 classes each 50 minutes long and it was up to me to teach them.

I quickly made a lesson plan, including a map of the USA, and some questions for the kids to fill in.... and my first 2-3 classes were just me talking about and introducing myself. I was to teach this lesson 22 times that week and to 700 students. Needless to say, by the 5th lesson I had added some other visuals and perfected my introduction. I also added a speaking and oral introduction part for the students to introduce themselves to the class.

This was all okay because I understand what a lesson plan is, time management, and all those other things that teachers should know after going to school and teaching for a year. But, teaching experience and a teaching degree is in no way needed to be a teacher here. So, I'm just blessed that I got this tough position and understand how to deal with it.

I have heard that most teachers here get a small grace period where their co-teachers at least tell them what to do. I was just thrown to the trenches... into the pit... dance monkey dance!

Another good thing about teaching in Chicago, was I learned to be tough from the start. So, it was obvious to me, that to teach classes of 35 teenage boys at a time, I needed to have some gruffness to me. So, I was quick to lay down the law, and I was quicker to call out the trouble makers. One class said their prior teacher, whom I am now friends with, was nicer and "Why don't you smile like Maggie teacher?". The co-teacher of that class even suggested that I smile more so the students like me. I'd rather have the students behave in class, and do their work, versus walk all over me and therefore, have to struggle to get them to do their work. So, I said I had a plan.

During the second week of class I had a great lesson. It involved American breakfast foods with 2 You Tube Videos of how to make pancakes and another of how to make hash-browns. Then they had a worksheet and a game to play. Most classes LOVED the lesson and the game, and were entertained, so they did not have a problem with behavior. One of the last classes of the week, which was a special-ed class to begin with, decided to continue their bad behavior. At the end of the game the boys just started hitting each other. They were doing so, playfully, but they were still hitting each other. So, I called the first 5 boys that I saw to the front of the room and had them stare at the class. (They had no idea what I was doing) I then told them that if anyone ever hit another person in my class we wouldn't play games anymore. Then, I told the boys at the front they could sit down and the whole class was silent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnCVZozHTG8

All in all, the classes are great! The boys are very nice and the teachers are very supportive to whatever I feel like teaching. That lends itself to be fun, but also a lot of work. Teaching teenagers is not much different than teaching preschoolers. The more visual stimulation and activity they get, the easier it is for them to pay attention. Therefore, I have a lot of work a head of me to keep these kids entertained!

I have so much more to tell you! Keep coming back for more!

Culture Shock

Dear Friends and Family,

I am excited to say that I have now been initiated into the wide world of blogging.  I feel as though I should all of a sudden be surprisingly witty or have something very profound to say, but I am positive that is not the case.  I just want everyone at home to be able to, in a small way, experience the wonderful adventure that I have embarked upon 2 weeks ago.  

It all started after a grueling and exhausting 27+ hour flight from LA, to Dallas, then to Tokyo, and finally to Busan, South Korea.  After we landed, we snatched up our luggage and were whisked away by 3 teachers from our schools.  We arrived at our apartment, which is a glorified studio, but bigger than we had expected,  and were asked to go out to dinner with our new co-teachers.  We decided that sleeping was a much better idea, and instead, they ordered us fried chicken.  We were able to force down a couple pieces of chicken and then collapse onto the smallest and hardest bed you can even imagine.  The bed was so hard that it prompted a swift trip to the store to get a new bed the next Monday.  

On our first trip out of the apartment, we found and explored what is basically a much nicer version of Walmart called "Home Plus".  They have everything, but by having "everything" nothing has any English on it.  So, trying to buy groceries for dinner is a time consuming task.  Even the vegetables are packaged differently and look slightly smaller or bigger than I am used to.  So, our first shopping trips consisted of me staring at bottles and bags, trying to decipher what the heck i was looking at.  Over these weeks though, I have become very creative and sought out certain staples that makes it slightly less of a scavenger hunt to cook dinner.  

This strangeness of language is far from the only thing different about my daily routine here.  I am unable to go out of the house without people staring and trying to talk to me.  You would think that TV would have prepared the Korean population for seeing people of fair skin and hair, like myself, but this is not the case.   They are such a nationalistic country that they rarely experience anything that is not Korean.  That being said,  the small amount of foreign English teachers that are here are all they know about meeting people from other nations.  Therefore, people stare and stare and stare some more.  I have found that it stops them and makes them smile if you stare back smiling and say "anyan-ah-say-oh" (hello).  But that gets tiring after the first 4 people you see on the street.  

The train is a different story.  I can't smile and say hello to everyone on the subway, so the constant staring is just something that has to be ignored.  You would think that after a 30-40 minute subway ride a person might want to look at something else... but that is not the case.  I heard of a guy who got so sick of someone stairing at him on the train, he just took out his camera and took a picture of the person staring.  Lets just say, I've considered it.  

Children are a different story here.  They are ALL learning English and are very eager to speak to foreigners.  Therefore, if a child is between the age of 3 and 9 they will do anything to come and say "Hello".  I have seen children almost jump out of car windows to look and greet me... and that is not an over exaggeration.  Children may be eager to say "Hello", but  when you respond with anything, they usually have NO IDEA what you are saying.  Even a simple "Hi, how are you?" usually gets blank stares.  So, the best thing to do is usually respond with "Hello" back and try to walk away.  If the child is persistent, as most children are, they will follow you and keep saying "hello"  over and over and over again... and this has turned into something that is super cute, or super annoying depending on the situation.  Still though, when a tiny child musters up the skills to say Hello on the street, it is one of the cutest things ever!

Now, it took me a while to size up why people were exactly staring.  But, coming from a culture where diversity is considered the daily norm, and especially because I just moved out of a city, my mind was not on par with where the Koreans are coming from.  Yes they have seen many people with blond hair and blue or green eyes on TV, but few have seen one in person.  So, my attributes actually make me a very rare and never seen before reality walking down the street.  Jared described it as, if you always watch the discovery channel, and see tigers all the time on TV you are used to seeing Tigers on TV.  But, if you see a real life tiger walking down the street, it's a different story and you might stare at it as long as you could.   So, I guess I'm the equivalent of a rare and glorified species that most have never seen in person before.  HA! - never thought that would happen.  

Just to finish up this concept of being stared at, I'll explain what happened when we tried to go to the gym for the first time.  Now, I'm expecting going to the gym to be an experience, like everything else here... so I was prepared for something out of the norm.  But, as soon as I walked in, I took off my street shoes, and saw that Jared, who was a head of me, was trying to give money to the desk person.  All of a sudden there was a phone shoved in my face by a man and on the actual phone there was a video of a live person saying Hello to me.  Like a deer in headlights, I said Hello back, and waved... and the man stepped away to continue talking, about who knows what.  I stood there... dazed and confused.   Jared turned around and asked what just happened, and it took me a couple minutes to collect myself and really understand that I was just saying hello to a video on some strangers cell phone...  We continued to the work out area, which was another experience, but that's for another time.  

All in all, people are super friendly and eager to help you get around here, I just think I might take up wearing big hats and sunglasses all the time to fulfill my new movie star persona.

All is well, thanks for reading!