Two Weeks In

Two weeks into teaching, and I like it. It is different from what I knew before, though. A summary:

--Classes are now a brisk 45 minutes--that's normal for you, but remember I was teaching 3 hour long classes at my old academy. Also, there's a ten-minute break between classes.

--Class size: Classes range from 20-something students to 32-33. At my academy, no class was larger than 15 students.

--Different ability levels. My academy was one of the higher end institutions, so it attracted higher ability students as well as those who were more motivated (or their parents shelled out a ton of money). In a public school, obviously, that's not the case, and the ability level is generally lower than what I'm used to. Sometimes students have trouble remembering the months of the year. Other students are quite good at English. Each grade is split up into 3 ability levels, so that helps when it comes to planning and instruction. The textbooks focus on basic sentences and words, whereas at my academy students were reading stories and answering comprehension questions.

Differences between US and Korean schools:

--Saturday school. Students in Korea come to school every other Saturday for a half day. Fortunately for me, I don't have to teach on Saturdays.

--Uniforms. Every public school has uniforms here, as opposed to a handful of private schools in the US. The uniform usually consists of a shirt, tie, vest, and jacket, with dress pants. Also, each student's name is sewn onto their jacket. In summer, they wear short sleeve shirts.

--Vacation. The school year starts on March 1 (approximately), which is why I left America in February. Students get about a month off in summer (July/August) and about a month in winter (December-early January). Otherwise they are in school.

--Lunchtime: Everyone gets one hour for lunch, but there's a catch--lunchtime is the same for everyone, and there is no seperate teacher's cafeteria at my school, so we eat with the students. Also, the cafeteria cannot hold every student simultaneously, so everybody eats in shifts, as it were, with staff members regulating the flow of students. Usually the 3rd graders (US 9th grade equivalent) eat first, followed by 2nd and 1st grade, respectively. When not eating, students are free to roam the school, go outside, etc. More chaos than would be permitted at a US school. Also, students take turns at the serving line. There are cafeteria staff that prepare the food and supervise, but most of the serving is done by students.

--Cleaning Time: 20 minutes of every day is set aside for students (that's right, students) to clean the school. Each student works in a team and has a designated part of the school they have to clean. It's not the most thorough cleaning job, but they sweep and mop the floors and wipe down desks and so forth. I can't imagine US schools being able to pull that off--I can already see the child-labor lawsuits.

--Schedules: I see each class only once a week. That means I see a given student only 45 minutes per week, whereas before at my academy I could see them 6 hours a week. Coupled with the large class sizes, there isn't the same opportunity to build the same kind of rapport with students that I had before. Also, students have a homeroom and pretty much stay there for the day--the teachers do the traveling. In addition, at my school at least, teachers oftentimes get to class a minute or so after the bell--it's pretty relaxed as far as that goes.

There are probably more details I'm forgetting--when I remember I'll add them in, of course. It may sound like I'm being negative, but I'm not. I wanted something different from what I was doing before, and I got my wish. As I said before, I like it here and I see no reason why that should change.