Amanda Teacher

I am officially 3 days in now teaching and although it is a career choice I probably never would have considered for myself, I enjoy it… mainly because the kids are seriously so damn cute! Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I work from 9-6. Tuesdays and Thursdays I work from 9-4:20. Surprisingly, the day goes by fast and from what everyone says, so will the weeks. I have a class of 12 students consisted of 5 boys and 7 girls. The beginning of the morning starts off with all the kids coming and handing in homework. In the morning they have a snack provided by the school while I grade the homework and have them read to me all their sentences they wrote. There are different workbooks done till lunch time.

The nice thing that I won’t have to worry about is bringing my own lunch. Unlike most of the teachers at the school, I actually like what they serve! The past few days they have had rice, kimchi, tofu, spiced vegetables, fruit slices, soup, and noodles as just some of the different foods they have been serving for lunch. There are three homeroom classes for English and I know my class and I were meant to be because my class eats the most. Haha! The past few days I have been here we have had to go to the other classes to mooch off their leftovers. My co-teacher, Sonny, says that my class does eat the most and they eat very well. So I can’t help it to give them a big heaping mound of kimchi when they come up to me in their cute Korean accents saying “Amanda Teacher, more please!” while holding their tin tray towards me. After lunch we continue with different teachings. The whole morning till 2:30 consists of workbook lessons, singing and dancing class, cooking class, and drama class. The kindies favorite things to do are drama class and singing and dancing class. The first day I was able to help teach, we acted out The Three Little Pigs. They can’t technically act but you walk them through it and it is just as good. I wish I could have videotaped some of them saying “not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!”.

Next week, they are starting to put me in charge of going to the homeroom classes to teach art and cooking! What could be better than food and crafts?

After 2:30, the elementary kids come and I usually have 2 or 4 classes depending on the day teaching the elementary kids. These classes are much smaller usually consisting anywhere from 2-6 kids. Tomorrow will be Friday and then Monday I will officially be the homeroom teacher for my class. I am still learning things about the school system and the people that work there. The Korean and the American teachers have just been unbelievably nice. They are all so sweet and constantly are asking me how I am doing and how I like Korea. Did I mention how cute the kids are? I know I have… but I just want to say it again! Haha, there is seriously NOT ONE that isn’t cute. Must be the Asian eyes but they all seriously melt your heart. By the second day they were already jumping on me and giving me hugs and presents. I am still getting used to being called “Amanda Teacher” all the time, but I know it will grow on me. They are extremely curious because they know there is a new teacher in the building so throughout the day I will have random kids from the school peeking in the windows or popping their head in to see me.

I am hoping once I get on a routine that I will be doing videos and pictures of my classroom and the kids. So stay tuned!