On the Merits of Flexibility

Today was one of those rather strange teaching days that happen every so often and that lead me to believe that the foremost skill/characteristic of a teacher is the ability/necessity to be flexible.

I have a new first class on Wednesdays and Fridays that consists of three high school seniors. They are currently the oldest students I teach. However, only one of them showed up today, so I chose to not cover the text lesson and rather to talk about food and his future. I had him try dried cranberries, cinnamon Altoids, spearmint Altoids, and then gave him a bite-sized package of kimchi chocolate (from a Seoul tourist shop) to take with him. He was game for it all, and liked the first three. He told me he has a p-t job at a small pizza place and likes pizza, while the rest of his family doesn't. So he's a bit of an oddball I think.

He, like every Korean male, must serve two years with the military, so he will do a year at uni in a nearby city, take a break to complete his service, and then resume his studies in statistics.

Then, next class. My young elementary beginners (though I've had them for eight months now). One boy came in crying, apparently claiming the girl had hit him on the school van. Two other students showed up late. One girl was noticeably sick, as in she had a cold that had stolen away her usual peppiness and changed her facial appearance. And some of the five had not done their homework. So I had to sort all of that out, dealing with emotions, lethargy, class rules, etc., all at a low level of English. And to top it all of on Wednesdays I have them for a double class, or an hour and a half, which is, of course, a long time for little kids (1st/2nd graders) to study a foreign language (and this is after they have gone to their public school . . . maybe I should note here that I teach at an after-school academy, or hagwon, and my teaching hours run from 2-9pm).

Ok. Got through that and they were much cherrier by the end, thankfully. It helps that on Wednesdays I give them a snack to break up the long period and to work on manners. Plus they get to play "the card game".

Then a 40 mintue break during which I ate my usual kimbap (cheap take-out consisting of cold cooked rice rolled around veggies, ham, egg, etc., all wrapped in seaweed) and edited two short essays for my boss' students.

Then another elementary class, 3rd/4th graders, five more boys and girls who, after months of behavior modification (I sound like a scientist but that is it in a nutshell) have finally settled down and I can relax a bit and focus on teaching.

Then, the new thing, an hour and 4o minute break. I don't really like it, but tonight I used the time wisely and took a bus to E-mart (supermarket/dept. store) to buy contacts, eco-detergent, etc. and then some street-market tomatoes. I bought a bag of tomatoes from the same stall last night but forgot them at school and the manager, thinking they were a gift from a parent/student, took them home. Sigh. They are not cheap but it was my fault and no big deal.

Last class--sixth graders. At this stage of school life in Korea their childhood is over and they study a lot and play no games. They have to prepare for middle school next year (begins in March).

This class is strange, though, for about three months ago it consisted of five boys. But now it has seven girls and two boys, and the metamorphasis has been interesting. The girls were nice, silly, chatty when I took over the class tonight (they had already been studying at the academy for a few hours). They wanted to know if I like some Korean pop stars, if I knew who Mariah Carey was, etc. Had to really exercise patience to calm them down and try to focus on some grammar, which of course they find boring (tell me about it). Different levels of English in that class make it rough to achieve a balance.

They wanted to play "the card game" (more about it later) but I had to say "No, sorry, but you have to study" . . . then I remembered that next week is Christmas week, and what an excuse that is to let them have one free class. They deserve it. Probably 9-10 hours a day of studying at this point, and then homework and bed. And people think Asian kids are inherently smart.