My first day as "Teacha"

Wow 8 forty-minute classes in one day is ALOT. Especially since I only get one 1/2 hour break and the rest of the day its back to back classroom time with no time to catch my breath. So basically I go to school one hour before my first class and spend that hour writing out all the lesson plans for the day. It gets confusing because each class is actually 80 minutes, divided evenly between a korean teacher and a foreign teacher. Sometimes I teach the first 40 minutes of a class and sometimes the second 40 min, which is how I end up with all those back to back classes. I teach all different age groups and levels. I'm sorry if you dont want a detailed review of all my classes but some people do so here it is:

Class 1 - VERY beginner level, VERY rambunctious, 10 students, 1st and 2nd grade, did NOT want to stay in their seats. At this point I had no clue where to start. We were supposed to review parts of the body but they had so much energy so I did what any common sense native English speaker would do: I taught them "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and it worked, they loved it and 40 minutes was gone in a flash. I didnt even realize it was time to stop until 3 girls started shouting at me and pointing at the clock, "Teacha! Teacha! Look! You finish!"

Class 2 & 3 - Grades 2-3 Still fairly beginner, but able to talk in complete sentences ("I have two cars at my house"). Learned about animals, numbers, and basic prepositions (there are two lions in the cage, etc.) They all hate talking in complete sentences so I had to make them but they know how. Some real trouble makers in these classes and the kids wont sit still or listen. I never raised my voice but by the end of Class 3 it was clear I would not have a voice by the end of the day.

Class 4 - A bit higher level, grades 3-4, able to sit still in class, they were better behaved so I could do more in class. For example we learned about school subjects and they had to say what subjects they had that day so I wrote all the subjects on the board and had them take turns coming up to the board and circling which subjects they had that day. I remember how much I wanted to write on the board when I was at school and it was the same with these kids, they could not wait to come up. At the end of that class I played hangman on the board with the new vocab and they loved that.

Class 5 - Grades 4-5, much higher level, they are much better at reading and writing English. wrote a paragraph about myself on the board and they read it outloud and laughed. I got laughed at a lot by the kids but it was fun. We listened to a story on tape and then they answered questions about it, we did vocab from the story and I had them write a 3-4 sentence summary about it. Only 3 kids in that class, compared to 9 or 10 in the first 4 classes.

Class 6 - Grade 3-4 again, but more advanced level than Class 4. They are at the end of their book so this month we review the entire book and prepare for a test to see if they can move up to the next class level. We reviewed tenses (What did you you do yesterday? Is August before or after September) - this class was wonderful and well-behaved. 9 kids. The girls especially are so eager to please and eager to help me. They argued over who would erase the board for me when class was over.

Class 7 - Grade 5-6, VERY advanced, stuff I was doing in Mrs. Fletchers Grammer class at Bellmawr. Only 2 kids in this class and one was absent so it was just me and one boy (11). His English was excellent and his grammer/sentence structure/vocab knowledge was amazing. I was impressed. We played a game called Yut-Nori (a traditional Korean game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutnori) but we played a version where instead of tossing sticks he had to answer questions on cards. It was fun and good review.

Class 8 - Grade 5-6 not advanced as Class 7. There were 5 kids in this class, this class is focused on reading comprehension and vocab so we read a story about how coffee was discovered and and take a quiz (kind of like on standardized tests when you have to read a passage and then answer questions aboutit). They got a kick out of reading the paragraph about myself I wrote on the board.

In summary....

The kids call me "Teacha!" Its kindof endearing, I could definitely get used to it...

When I took roll and called their names they laughed so hard each time I called one out. I really truly tried to read them exactly as they looked. Jyung Soon, Min Jyin, Jae Tyang.... But apparently I botched them all and that made them giggle so much.

It was so cute how they would repeat things I said that sounded funny to then. Like in one class when a boy answered correctly I said "Way to go!" and he repeated it and they all started laughing. Then in another class when I didnt know what to do I said "Oh my, oh my!" and they all repeated that and thought it was the funniest thing.

My first day of teaching was EXHAUSTING and the first few classes especially were rough. If anyone has tips on classroom management for young children PLEASE pass them on. My school recommends that I have misbehaving children stand in the corner or hold their books above their heads for 5-10 minutes but I would love other suggestions as those sound so....Little House on the Prairie. I guess if it comes down to it I will have to use them though....

Overall, with my first day behind me I feel a lot better. Its a LOT of work and its very exhausting. My voice is hoarse and my feet hurt from standing all day but I really enjoy the teaching and the kids are so much fun overall. Its so neat to be the teacher! Its fun to reward them when they are good and fun to find techniques that "work". Hopefully tomorrow will be even better!