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.

Oh look, Korea!

Alright, I know you've been waiting for an update on Korea, so here it is. I've been here about 10 days now, and it's getting better every day.

This is the majority of my apartment. There are a couple more things on the wall now (like the velcro dart board I scored for about $2), but this is pretty much it. 

I knew coming in that the  apartments here are tiny. And they are. In the picture below you can see even better just how small my apartment is. It's fine, though, because I don't really need much space, it would just get messy.

This was taken from the back room-thing of my apartment, on the right is my bed, the white door in the back goes outside.

I have a two-burner stove and a microwave. The fridge is in the room I'm standing in to take this picture, along with the washing machine.

The view out my window. I live on a pretty quiet street, but the other side of my building is on a huge street, so it's pretty convenient still.

Despite being located conveniently for grocery shopping, etc., I'm way in the southeast corner of the city, so it's farther than I can bike (my preferred mode of transportation) to get to the foreigner bar area, and closer but still farther than I really want to bike the city center.

The view from the other side of my building. About three blocks down on the left is the giant everything-store, Lotte Mart.

My adventures in small-kitchen cooking have turned out rather well. I've recently acquired some delicious sauces/marinades, so it's gotten even better recently.

 As I said, I have a two-burner stove, and my counter space is about 1.5 sq FEET, so cooking (especially with lots of veggies to cut), is interesting.

We had a holiday on March 1st, Korean Independence Day. I didn't know anyone yet, so I went for a bike ride. I ended up here:

This weird-looking tower and adjacent lake (with swan boats!) are not too far from me (though the bike ride is very steep uphill at the end).

I went for a nice walk, getting stared at by Koreans enjoying the beautiful weather on their mid-week holiday. It's a nice little area, but it was kinda strange to be enjoying by myself.


On another note, I've been trying to learn some Korean. I have found a benefit of having glass doors in my house:

Yes, those are paper towels taped to my door to make a whiteboard. Hey! I'm taking advantage of the space I've been given.

Now for the work part. My first week I just kinda got acquainted with the book/software, and then on Friday I had my first adventures with a laminating machine! Here are some of the results:

I also finally got my teaching schedule on Friday, It looks pretty good. Here it is:

I average about 6, 25-minute classes per day. The earliest starts at 9:20 and the latest ends at 3:05.

It's actually a pretty sweet schedule, although I have to be in the building from 9-5, but that gives me time to review the lessons and do the afore-mentioned laminating.

From Study to Teach

Up 'til now, almost all of my travel has been for study. I went to Egypt to study Arabic and Middle Eastern Politics and culture, and then I went to Chile to improve my Spanish. now, however, I'll be teaching.
While teaching and learning are certainly not opposites in my mind, it does definitely bring a new perspective to my travels, and that brings me to what I hope to learn this year: how to travel without being dependent on someone/ a program. Yes, I will be part of a school, where my boss will hopefully not throw me to the non-English speaking wolves, but In the past, all of my major travels have either been to places where I either speak the language or have a program or a good friend to help me along.
Going in to this, all I have is myself and a few people I've exchanged emails with. While I have certainly had some wild and unexpected travel experiences in the past, I have, in general, had either the language skills (for example, when I was robbed in Spain) or the personal support network (say, during the revolution in Cairo) to deal with it. 
I certainly hope that I will soon be making new friends in Korea, and that I will not be able to say for long that I have no support system there, but for now, the self-reliance I am forcing myself into is my giant learning hurdle at present. I think it will be a great learning experience.




This has been week three of Bootsnall's challenge, prompt:
Have you ever studied or taken classes on a trip? What did you study, and perhaps more importantly, what did you learn while on that trip? What would you like to learn on your travels this year?