I survived my first week of teaching!

It was certainly a challenge, but I survived my first week of actual teaching at work! As expected, it was certainly not perfect, it was a week full of mishaps - from no books at the beginning, to a special class I seem thus far unable to tame, to many a technological failure - but overall I think it could have been much worse!

I enjoyed a nice mid-morning bit of silence during a short class-free moment.

I know I don't have any experience teaching kids this little (or really much with kids in general), and so I'm trying not to be to hard on myself when I try something that doesn't work. On Friday the other English teacher at my school (who is Korean) had no classes and so came into mine to watch - she ended up teaching a few to show me some tricks. Normally this obvious commentary on the fact that my teaching skills left something to be desired would bother me, but honestly I was just happy for the help. I had been floundering all week - I knew what had to be taught, but I just don't know how to keep 5 year-olds engaged in what I'm talking about; now I have a better idea.
Friday afternoon I made next week's plan. I think having books from the beginning and having some idea what needs to get done each day is an obvious plus in eliminating the 'OMGIHAVENOIDEAWHATTODO' from my day.

This is Toto. He and his friends are used to teach the littlest ones.

On Thursdays I teach the babies, they're a Korean age 4 and 5, which means they were born in either 2008 or 2009. So Western age the youngest ones could be only a bit over 2. Toto, who is a different animal for each grade, is used to teach them English. It's a lot of fun, and I found I really enjoyed teaching them (the 5s were a bit easier than the 4s, as the 4s don't talk much), despite being very worried going into the day that it might be a disaster.

This is my "THE WEEK IS OVER!!' face.

Despite being a pretty great week, all the challenges made me very happy when Friday afternoon rolled around and I could officially say 'It's the weekend!' I know next week will bring a whole new set of challenges (especially because I seem to be getting sick... that's what I get for working with 5-year-olds?), but I know it will be even better, and hopefully within a few weeks I will be into a nice rhythm and planning will be a breeze. Until then, I'm keeping my chin up and struggling through it.