A couple of weeks ago all the English teachers on the island were supposed to go to a meeting on a Friday at 3:00pm. My co-teacher called me at 2:15 and said it was cancelled so I called Derek to tell him the good news. He had no idea what I was talking about and said the meeting was still on so he and his co-teacher came to get me at my school on the other side of the island.
The entire meeting was about these demo lessons each teacher on the island would have to do and how we should be prepared as possible. The meeting wasn’t too bad and we had delicious dinner of Kimchi jjiga then had some drinks with the teachers on the island. So overall it turned out to be a great night, but I was still annoyed that my co-teacher skipped out and told me it was cancelled.
I didn’t think much about the meeting until Monday and my co-teacher tried to explain that I had to do a demo lesson but he didn’t know any details yet. If I hadn’t gone to the meeting I would have been pretty peeved because he was so unorganized. He said I had to set a date for the open lesson and pick what class to teach. He picked the day after we come back from vacation (gee thanks) and a day in October. I picked my 5th grade class because they are the best and have the best English. I asked what the lesson should be on and he said anything from the book and they had to be turned in on Wednesday.
So the long story short, I did my lessons, turned them in and of course he changed his mind on Wednesday and said I had to do specific lessons he picked, so I had 3 hours to redo both lessons. I was pretty mad. Then the next week, the day before vacation he said I had to do another plan that was everything in detail from what I would say to what the kids would say (yeah, I’m psychic in Korea, didn’t you know?). I was pretty annoyed that I had to do more plans, and wasn’t told until the last day before vacation. I told him that is not what they said at the meeting and he asked how I know. I responded, “Because I actually went to the meeting.” Luckily his English is bad because he completely missed the sarcasm but it made me feel slightly better. He had been stressing over these lessons and was so unorganized over the past two weeks and he finally picked up on my bad vibes and apologized profusely. I did the detailed plans and though I wasn’t happy, it gave me a chance to review the lesson again before vacation. But then he got the “English Specialist” involved whom I can’t stand and by this point I was begging for 4:30 to get here. Finally, I left for vacation and promised myself not to think about the demo lesson on Monday.
On Monday, I woke up early to make sure I had enough time to prepare, but wasn’t feeling nervous at all. By this point I just wanted the whole thing to be over. On my walk to school I pictured my co-teacher already in the class pacing the floor, biting his nails and pulling out his hair in regards to the demo lesson. Instead, the class was empty and I didn’t hear from him until 30 minutes before the lesson.
I got ready for the lesson and my co-teacher eventually came in asked if I was nervous and I said, “No. Should I be?” I meant it more as a joke, but he didn’t laugh. He cleaned the classroom (which I haven’t seen him do in 3 months) set out chairs and set up the camcorder. He also made me write a detailed lesson on the board (again, which we never do).
When the kids finally came in there was only one other teacher to observe the class, but my co-teacher said to start anyways. As I started the principal and several other teachers came in to the class. They had clip boards and pens, but I just focused on the kids and ignored them, even as the principal got up walked around the class and picked up everything in sight like he had never been in the class. My co-teacher manned the camcorder and it was the first time ever I had been completely on my own teaching (other than after school classes). The kids were actually better than normal too since the principal was there and I wanted to ask him to come to all my classes from now on.
After the class, two teachers thanked me and told me, “You did good. You a good teacha.” I didn’t get any critiques from the teachers, but my co-teacher told me the others teachers said he is lucky because I am a good teacher. So I guess that is a good sign. I’m just glad the whole thing is over and I don’t have to worry about this again. Till October at least.
From the pictures it looks like I was either really interesting or boring them to death. Somehow I think it was the latter.
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