Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

I have survived the first week of school! On the night of September 2nd (the night before my first day of school) I had so much excitement, anxiety, and first day jitters that I could not sleep. I prepared everything I could the night before so that I would be ready to leave the house the next morning at 7:50am. Thankfully I had help, the first day from Stephanie (the previous English teacher). She met me at the bus station and showed me which bus I needed to take and where I needed to get off. I didn’t actually have to teach the first day since it was the first day for the students also so I just had a prep day. The first half of the day was spent on going over classroom materials and any advice Stephanie had for me. After lunch it was my prep time for my class the next day which was the kindergarteners. Being a brand new teacher and teaching students who do not know English I was unsure about how to start. That whole afternoon I tried to come up with introductory lessons for my classes but it was extremely hard. I am kind of a perfectionist and like to know every little detail about everything, so not knowing the levels of the students English ability was stressing me out a bit. I eventually got something together and thought that I was prepared enough to teach the next day.

On Tuesday the first and only class that I had was a disaster (in my mind). As the kindergarteners came into my class and as I began to teach, I realized that I did not know how to teach them. It is one thing being able to teach to kids who know English but teaching to kids who do not know English or having a teacher's aid who does not know much English either, was a bit difficult. The students were dropping like flies falling asleep one after the other. As I was teaching and watching the teacher's aid picking up the sleeping students on her back and carrying them out of class I was thinking to myself... what did I get myself into? After class I just felt like I was a terrible teacher. I have already been commented by other teachers that I did not know how to speak any Korean and now not knowing how to teach I felt like they were going to look down on me and want a new teacher.

The next day I had fifth and sixth grade. It went a little better but still had some hiccups and I still felt like a terrible teacher at the end of the day. The only good part of that day was playing volleyball with the school. In Korea, volleyball is a really big deal. Most school sends all their students home early on Wednesdays at 3pm so that the teachers can play volleyball. We played four games total and my team only won once but it was still fun. I am not that great at serving the ball but I did manage to get the ball over the net a few times and every time I did my team would cheer for me and give me high fives. Even the Vice Principal (whom is my favorite) gave me a double high five a few times and gave me the ok sign! After volleyball we all ate together and I also witnessed my Principal playing a drinking game with some other teachers. It was pretty hilarious to see and it just shows you how different Korean customs and American customs are. Feeling so much anxiety and just being too overwhelmed, I went to talk to Stephanie and asked her for some more advice. I have been really blessed to have such a great community of friends around me in Boseong and it has been nice being able to spend time with them and to be able to vent when I need to.

On Thursday, my whole week turned around! Having gone through two difficult days of teaching, I now knew what to kind of expect. I am now so much more confident in my teaching abilities and am starting to get quicker on my feet. The students are warming up to me and are starting to bring their talkative, fun, and creative selves into the classroom and it has been such a joy to teach them all. I love being able to walk through the school and hearing all the kids saying “Hello Justine/teacher!” as I pass them through the halls. I even get some kids who stop by my classroom during their recess to say hi and to see what I am doing. Everyone at my school is so sweet to me and everyone just wants to help in anyway they can. This is going to be a good and exciting year. I know that I will have a few bad days teaching cause sadly in reality I am not quite as perfect as Mary Poppins and even me can have a few hiccups in life. So I guess the next time I don't know what to say or teach I just better say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! ^o^