first week of the new semester!

This week was my first week of teaching my own classes in my own classroom! I have some fun stories and pictures to share with you all from this week. (I wish I had some pictures of the kids, but I'm not really sure yet what the rules are when it comes to taking pictures of students. In America, there are some really strict rules about taking pictures of kids and posting them online, so I wouldn't want to cross any lines if there were similar rules in Korea.) Anyways, read on for a picture of what this week was like for me!

Preparation phase: my type-A, Gold, OCD personality LOVES being able to make folders for each level that I teach, have daily rosters in binder clips, and use highlighter to color-code the day's classes. Call me crazy.

It makes such a big difference for me to have my own space where I can prepare my lessons and set up before class starts. I even have my name and picture on the door! 

(I have no idea what the words beneath my name mean, but the sign on the right says something along the lines of "the teacher who used to teach in 2B has moved upstairs to 3F!".)

I asked the teacher who was in this room last semester to leave all the student work from last semester up so that the walls wouldn't be totally bare when I moved in. Throughout the semester, I'll take down the old posters and projects and put up new ones as my students make presentations and work on projects. 

Because this was the first week of the semester, I mostly focused on introducing myself to the students, getting to know them, and teaching them my rules and expectations for my class. I began each class by introducing myself using a series of pictures. The following are the pictures I used to introduce myself, along with some questions that I asked about each picture and some of the questions and comments I got from the students.

In Korean culture, anyone who is older than you must be addressed with a title. As a teacher, my title would be "Alyssa 선생님", which translates to "Alyssa Teacher". But because the kids have to use English words, "Alyssa Teacher" is what we get, even if it sounds a little awkward in English.

(I realized halfway through the week that this map that I used isn't correct, because Mexico is highlighted along with the U.S.  At least the kids didn't notice!)

On this slide, I would ask, "Where am I from?" "Has anyone here traveled to the United States before?" "What states did you visit?" "Who can find South Korea on the map?" And I would point out, "Look how far apart the United States and Korea are!"

One student commented: "Teacher, Asia is on the wrong side of the map! Asia should be on the left!" It took a little while to explain that because the world is round, the map can be represented either way, but American maps usually look like this one, and Asian maps are usually oriented the opposite way.

On this slide, I told the students that I am from Washington. In just about every class, one student would say, "Ahh, Washington D.C.! Do you know Obama?" I would have to clarify every time that Washington D.C. and Washington State are two very different places. Then some students asked why Alaska and Hawaii were there, and I had to explain how they are part of the U.S., but they are not connected to the rest of the states. Then every student wanted to point out the states they had been to, the states their cousins or uncles or aunts had lived in, the states their parents had traveled to in college, the states they wanted to go to, etc., etc. Whew!

On this slide, I would talk about my hometown, Snohomish, and how I think it is a very small town compared to Seoul (population of 10,000 compared to 10,000,000!!). One student asked "Is it small like Radiator Springs?" For those of you who don't know, "Radiator Springs" is the (very) small town from the kids movie "Cars". That cracked me up!

Then, of course, I shared a picture of my family. There were lots of "oohhs" and "ahhs" when I showed this picture: the kids all said that my mom looked so young! (You're welcome, Mom!) They laughed at the graduation garb that my brother and I were wearing, and stared at me bug-eyed when I told them that my 18-year-old brother is taller than me (they already think I'm really tall!). 

One girl raised her hand and asked "Is your mom kind to you or bad?" "Kind," I said. "Is your sister kind to you or bad?" "Kind." "Is your brother kind to you or bad?" "Kind." "Is your father kind to you or bad?" "Kind." She was so surprised that I got along with everyone in my family and that they are all kind to me. That moment made me miss my kind family and think of how blessed I am to have them!

I explained to the kids that our family name is "Green". They all thought that was so funny! I went through and said each of my family member's first and last names so they could get used to hearing "Green" used as a family name. When I said that my dad's name is Kevin Green, one boy stood up out of his seat with the most serious look on his face, and said "Teacher, I'm your father!!!". His name is Kevin too, so now he wants me to call him "Kevin-Father". I'm sure I won't forget that kid's name! 

I used this image (that I ripped off the internet) to represent my age. In Korea, I'm 23 years old, even though I'm 22 in America. In Korea, you are one year old when you're born, and then your age is counted up from there. In America, you're zero when you're born, and you don't turn one until a year after the date of your birth. So I told the kids that I'm 23, but each time I said, "but in my heart, I'm really 22". This will be additionally confusing when the lunar new year comes around, because in Korea everyone turns another year older at the beginning of the new year. So after the new year, I'll be 24 in Korea, but all the while I'll still be 22 in America until my birthday in June! So confusing!

I asked the kids to guess what this block of color meant, and after a few attempts they would figure out that this is my favorite color. I would say that my favorite color should be green (because it's my last name), but I really love the color purple. Then I would joke that my name should have been Alyssa Purple! I got so tired of hearing myself make that joke by the end of the week!

I used these images to get the kids to figure out what my hobbies are. This inspired them to share their hobbies too, ask what books I like, ask what dishes I like to cook, and so on. I was just glad to hear them speaking! It was great language practice!

I showed the following image and asked the kids what it could mean. They would giggle a bit, and then shout "You didn't married!" I would tell them that I'm not married, I don't have kids, and I don't have a boyfriend. Inevitably there was a kid who would shout "SOLO!" or would ask, "Are you sad?" I would explain that I'm too young to get married, citing the fact that I'm only 22/23, and they would nod in agreement. In Korea, most women don't get married until they are 28 or 30, so they think of 23 as being very young. When I showed this slide in one class, a smarty-pants boy looked at me slyly and asked, "Teacher, do you even like men?" Yes, kid. Thanks for asking.

Finally, I showed this image to represent the fact that I love Korean food, because the kids are always interested to hear whether or not their teacher likes Korean cuisine. They were always surprised to hear that I like spicy food, because they perceive that foreigners can't handle the spiciness of Korean food.

After introducing myself to each class, I played a name game of some kind, fitting to the level of students' proficiency. With the younger kids, I played a game where they had to throw a ball to a classmate and say their name, and the person who caught the ball would say "thank you, _____" to the student who threw it. With the older students, I had them write questions to ask each other in pairs, and then ask those questions to another pair. It worked really well and got them writing and speaking together!

Finally, I spent some time in each class teaching my rules to the students. I showed the following slide and asked them to guess what the pictures represented. As a visual learner, I find that showing images is much more effective than putting a bunch of words up on the screen.

 So here they are, Alyssa Teacher's rules:
1) No fighting. This means no punching, no kicking, no teasing, no pushing, no taking other people's stuff.
2) No shouting/screaming. 
3) Sit down when you come in to class, and please for the love of pete don't tip in your chair. The chairs start to crack after a while from kids leaning back in them, and I've seen several students fall when they tip back too far. Not worth it.
4) Speak English! We're in English class! Please don't speak Korean unless you're translating a word.
5) Raise your hand if you want to say something.

Once we had talked about my five rules, I asked the students if they wanted to add any others. Some other ones that they suggested were "don't talk while the teacher is talking", "don't draw on the desks", "come to class on time", and "don't eat in class". If anyone suggested "don't eat in class", I told them that I don't actually mind if they eat in my class, because honestly I don't know when they have time to eat otherwise! Korean kids often go straight from public school to one hagwon to another hagwon and so on until it's 9 or 10 o'clock at night! So I said it's fine with me if they have a snack in my class, because I don't want them to die on me. You would have thought I had just told them they were going to Disneyland! Kids cheered, high-fived each other, got all squirrelly and thanked me profusely when I told them that. Apparently it's the small things, like eating, that can make a kid's day.

Once we had decided on the rules in each class, I had the students write or draw my rules on the inside cover of their textbooks so they could remember them. I signed their rule page when they were done, and made them sign it too, like a little contract between teacher and student in which they promised that they would keep those rules. We'll see how that holds up throughout the semester!

I wanted to mention one thing that JLS does that I just think is really cool. At the beginning of the afternoon, the kids come to JLS on buses from the public school. We (the teachers) stand out on the sidewalk and greet the kids, give them high-fives, ask how their day is going, talk to them about what they did over the weekend, and so on. And at the end of class or the end of the day, we bring the students back out to the sidewalk to be picked up by the bus driver or their parents. There is a line called "the high-five line" where we give the kids high-fives and send them off. It creates such a sense of friendliness and welcoming and I just love it! 

I got a creeper picture of the high-five line at the end of the evening today from the seventh floor of our building. The buses lined up on the sidewalk are JLS buses ready to take kids home.

Finally, I want to share some of the kids' English names that just crack me up every time. Of course I never let on to the kids that their names are...unique, because I don't want them to feel badly about their names, but I can share them with you all for a little laugh. In my classes, I have students named Mint, Tinkerbell, Brave, Hero, Korea, Rain, Kizer, and Kipper. And the rest are ALL Sally, Kevin, Paul, Daniel, David, or Jessica. Literally.

Thanks for reading about the first week of teaching my own classes in my very own classroom! I leave you with the words of Nelson Mandela, a champion for education and social justice. May he rest in peace. 

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." ~Nelson Mandela