Teaching Beginnings

The Student Becomes The Teacher.

It seems like forever that I've been moving from one school to the next. I like to look at my journey as one of being on a board balancing on a stump. It has two ends: student and teacher. I began on the far student side. Take your cues, do your homework, listen and learn. Over time I've moved further and further over, inch by inch. Now I've finally landed on the opposite side with the board hitting the ground and all weight transfered.

I've now been teaching on my own for 4 days. Every day has been an adventure for sure. I'm still getting into my groove. But I feel the kids are learning and having fun. I'm a little worried at this point that I will slip into trying to just take an easy route instead of being creative with how and what I teach them. I can tell it will be easy to do.

Some kids are absolutely perfect students. They are attentive, smart, do their work, and always seem to have a smile on their faces. But like everything in life, with the best come the worst. Oh how I love their evil counterparts. I hate disciplining, but sometimes it has to be done if a kid is going to learn. How else is a kid supposed to understand not to run into a table and hit a corner than doing just that. It's a Pavlov's dog approach. And I've found it works over time. Brutal but I'll be damned if I don't love it.

My fellow teachers, foreign and Korean, are all fantastic. I can say that I believe it will be a pleasure to work with them all for however long that is. I can't even begin how much I owe them in just the first two weeks. They've all been very adamant about going out of their ways to include me in everything. They take me around and show me places I need to know (and others I should avoid). Of course, they've helped me with my teaching. I'm afraid I'm starting to annoy them with all the questions. If I am, they certainly aren't showing it. They simply tell me they were there for their first couple weeks to and completely understand. Understanding is very much underrated.