Teaching

Yes…this is the main reason I came to Seoul, and yet, have written next to nothing about it.

Why? ...

Honestly, I guess for me it is just something I find hard to accurately describe to everyone, but also, I feel what happens in the classroom should mainly stay there.  For me, learning has always been a private and personal journey, and I don’t think it should be any different for my students.  Also, I have been putting in a lot of extra time outside of the classroom, in order to improve what is going on inside of the classroom so I really don't wanna talk shop in these blogs or tell you how many Hyung Hee's and Jin's I have in my class, or explain to you how much my grade six students annoy me at the moment :)

What I will say is that I do love my job and am glad I decided to become a teacher.  It is the perfect career for me as it is rewarding and challenging all at the same time, and my students make every single day an adventure.  But don’t be fooled by what I say.  “Adventure” doesn’t always mean it’s been a good day.  I have had some really rough days!  Times where I wanna hop on a plane and fly home because I feel like I am the WORST teacher in the world and think to myself, “damn…I should have listened more in Prouty’s CR management class”… or days when I look around at my students in hopes of finding signs of any comprehension, but unfortunately they stare back at me blankly.

Being a new teacher or a new ANYTHING is hard work. I truly believe that most challenges we face arise from the things we are most passionate about.  That said, no fear...I am not giving up or flying home anytime soon.  I have sooooo much to learn and experience yet.

For those that I have been speaking to about coming over to teach, I think you’d be CRAZY not to do it.  TEACHING EXPERIENCE is still EXPERIENCE no matter where you do it.  Don’t listen to those who feel otherwise (you know who I mean…this fear that principals in Canada will think that ESL teaching isn’t REAL teaching, so they won’t hire you once you return to start a REAL teaching job). 

Pssst! ...I teach REAL children here at REAL schools!!!  Not the fake ones.   

Bye bye for now :)