Hwashin Middle School

Now for a post all about my job!  After all, this is what brought me to Korea right?  I’m working at Hwashin Middle School—grades 7, 8, and 9.   My school is about a 12 minute walk from my apartment—all depending on if I hit the crosswalks at the right time!  I work 8:30-4:30 Monday-Friday.  I’m only teaching grades 8 and 9 this semester, but I have every single student!  600 students.  Let me explain.

                               Hwashin Middle School

My school has six English teachers aside from me.  I’m considered the Guest English Teacher (GET).  They bring in native English speakers to co-teach with the English staff.  I only meet with each class once a week, which explains why I have time to have so many students.  The kids have English class outside of my class too, though, where they just meet with their Korean English teachers.  We are brought in mainly to help with their conversational skills, but of course every GET’s experience is going to be a little different.

Here’s my situation:  As I already mentioned, we have six other English teachers at my school, which means I have six co-teachers.  On average based on what I've heard, other GET’s have 2-3 co-teachers.  Yes, I’m a bit jealous.  It’s going to take time to get used to working so closely with each of them because they are all expecting different things from me.  They also are all very different from each other, so I’m still learning the best way to just approach each of them.  There have already been situations where that lack of communication I talked about has thrown the whole class off.

We’re supposed to be co-teaching right?  Yes, but not in my case.  This is part of the reason the first couple days were so rough.  They still hadn’t informed me that’s not how it works there.  I teach the whole class and my “co-teacher” is in the room to translate if it’s needed.  On one hand, I was like “what?!?!” Then on the other hand, I’m thinking this may be better, causing less miscommunication to worry about when it comes to planning.  We’ll see how that goes, though.

There is a listening, speaking, reading, and writing section in each chapter of the textbook.  My job is to teach listening one week and then speaking the next with Grade 8 and speaking one week and writing the next with Grade 9.  Simple enough to follow right?  It sure is for me.  For my co-teachers?  You’ll see below what happened in one of the classes.  Each grade is divided into different levels as well; there are high, middle, and low level classes.  I like this because then I can adjust the lessons to best fit their abilities.

How are the students?  They really make my day.  Everywhere I go, I hear “Hi teacher! Hi teacher!" Then a lot of them even bow.  Don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.  They are all pretty good in class as well—nothing too major to worry about at the moment.  A couple of my classes are actually too quiet!  I need more energy from those ones.  It can be quite lonely in the staff office without many people there that speak English or enough English to really talk to me, so I love all of the little visits from my students.

Speaking of the staff office, we have one room where every teacher has a desk.  Not my ideal situation.  I didn’t expect to have my own classroom, but I also didn’t expect this.  The teachers don’t have their own classrooms; they all travel to different rooms throughout the day.  Just like I do.  I’m getting used to the office, but I miss having a quiet space at some point during the day.  Basically the only time I’m ever alone is when I stop by the restroom.  I do have my own desk and computer, though, so I am thankful for my own space there.

                               My space.

I may not sound as excited explaining my job as I had hoped for, but I do believe there’s a reason I’m at this school.  I may not know what it is, but I trust that this is where I'm supposed to be.  Even though there are a lot of factors that are not my ideal situations, I am certainly learning from them and starting to get used to them.  If the kids continue to make me smile and they continue to learn more English, then that’s all that matters.  Week one was rough.  Week two was better.  Week three starts tomorrow!

Cubbies for the staff right inside the doors of the school.  This is where we change our shoes.  We need to wear slippers or shoes that we haven't worn outside before.

The English Cafe.  This is where I have a few of my classes.  Definitely the best classroom.

                                The front of the room.

                                The back of the room.

Miscellaneous!

1.  Number one question from all of my classes:  How tall are you?

2.  Student:  What is your favorite food in America?

     Me:  Hamburgers!  (I just want a hamburger!  I’ve been craving one ever
     since I got here.)

     The whole class:  Gasps all around! With their mouths wide open.

     Co-teacher #4:  Ohhhhh.  They are shocked because their parents don’t let them eat  

     hamburgers.  They are too fatty.  But you are so slim???

3.  The school buildings here are freezing cold!  When I walk through the hallways, my hands start to turn blue.  Some of my co-workers have the cutest coats and they have so many.  They never take them off!  We could re-wear the same clothes and no one would know because we wear our coats so often.

4.  Student:  Your eyes are bery big.  I lobe it!

5.  Co-Teacher #5:  You know we have our class today.  I’m so nervous to be teaching with   
     you.  I’m afraid you will talk too fast for them.

--> Ummm thank you?!  Can you give me a chance first?

6.  All of the staff members eat the school lunch, so I eat the school lunch too.  I really try not to think about the fact that I don’t know what I’m eating half the time…

More about lunch, though.  I don’t like kimchi.  And they eat kimchi with everything here.  Even breakfast.  Kimchi is basically spicy fermented cabbage and other vegetables.  What was the menu last Wednesday you wonder?  One side of kimchi, another side of kimchi, kimchi fried rice, mystery soup, and another side dish (I did enjoy that one at least, even thought I'm not quite sure what to call it!).  Kimchi fried rice?  That came as a surprise to me.  We have white rice every day.  I know I can always count on my white rice!  Wondering if Thursday’s menu was better?  One side of kimchi, kimchi pancakes, and mystery soup.  Not as bad.  I actually didn’t mind the kimchi pancakes.  AND the white rice was back!  I do eat pretty well at lunch.  It was just a kimchi overload two days in a row.  I actually pass on eating the sides of kimchi, though.  I hope they don’t judge me for that.

7.  This past week I taught the listening lesson to the eighth graders.  I had two grade 8 high level classes with this co-teacher on Friday.  The first class was great.  Here’s what happen in the second class once I was started the same lesson:

Co-teacher #5:  They already did the listening part with me.

Me: Oh they did??

Co-teacher #5:  Yes.  Speaking part!  (That was her telling me to just move on to the  

speaking lesson.)

Me:  I just have the listening lesson.

Co-teacher #5:  Oh, you’re not prepared?!

Me:  I am prepared.  This week is listening for all of Grade 8.  Next week is speaking.    

(Remember my easy to follow schedule I mentioned earlier?!)

Then my co-teacher didn’t respond but continued to stare.  So I managed to save the class with some last-minute-thought-of-on-the-spot activities.  Thank goodness it was Friday!