It has almost been one full school year since starting as a full time, licensed teacher here in South Korea. I can not say enough how incredibly lucky I was to land my position as a teacher at an international school as a new teacher, but some time everything just lines up just right.
This year has been one of continued learning and growth as a professional and a parent. Balancing both roles has caused more stress than any shenanigans in my classroom, and trust me, there have been many. The most difficult time of the day in the hour before and after school where I am still effectively mom while trying to start or complete any work. My evenings and weekends belong to my family (rightfully so), which makes completing the tasks of a teacher very difficult.
Surprisingly, the best time of the day has been my math hour. I am sure all my past teachers would explode knowing that I, of all people, teach and enjoy teaching math. Numbers and I never really got along, but at the year 3/4, it’s a breeze. Perhaps my well understood fear of math helps; I always find various strategies to teach the same concepts in hopes that everyone feels like they can do it too!
Organization and time management have become my strongest points as a teacher. Over the year I have become very skilled at planning and prepping a week at a time in just a few hours. Grading student work is another story, keeping up on my making needs improvement. However, this last term I have streamlined my units and the narrowed down the success criteria of each unit to a final project or the unit test, so that has helped eliminate grading endless classwork.
My favorite aspect of teaching is planning units and and week; I enjoy mapping everything out and choosing what to focus on, what activities to do, and how to assess learning for each skill. I think if I could have a role just doing this I would be very content. My least favorite is the student behavior issues. Unfortunately, I have had 5 students, all English Language Learners who have cause about 95% of all classroom issues. My school has no guidance counselor, Special Education teacher, or full-time EAL teacher; it has been all on me to handle a plethora of issues with students who can’t communicate well. It’s created a lot of strife and perhaps unfair opinions about this type of student, but daily struggles with the same issues with the same students really wears upon me.
My goals for next school year, which I am very thankful I was asked to stay on and renew, will be to continue to streamline my planning and try to integrate more technology into my lessons. I am personally rather old school in my approach to learning; I believe there is great benefit in reading and writing on paper. However, I see first hand just how inundated with tech even the youngest students have become. Rather than resist, it believe it is best to help equip students with the skills and tools needed to use technology in their favor rather than just entertainment.
I also hope to better help and teach English language learners as they are a prominent part of the international school setting. Aside from the behavior issues, there were moments that were so rewarding with students finally starting to open up and share about themselves in broken English. Using a phonics based reading and writing curriculum really helped launch their progress and build their confidence. Having a student go from zero to holding a basic conversation in a few months is magical.