Secret File: Jillian-Teacher

So, I was reminded recently that I have not shared anything about my kids or my school on the blog! In fact, I really haven't written that much on here at all...I guess I don't want to bore people, but if you want details about Korean education, who am I to deny?

I teach at a Hagwon -> private school. LCI Kids Club offers Kindergarten during the day -- it is a 3 year program for 5, 6, & 7 year olds. LCI, unlike some other hagwons, is completely in English. There is a Korean staff who offer supplemental courses, but the bulk of the courses are taught by North Americans (specifically). I have 7 year old 3rd years (they are 7 and this is their 3rd year at LCI, so they are pretty good at English). First, let me explain Korean age. Koreans are automatically "1 year old" when they are born, and they only age on New Year's. So, if you are born on Dec. 31, you are "two years old" by Jan. 2. So saying my kids are 7 is a loose interpretation.
There are 9 students in my class. Kindergarten goes from 10-3 every day. We start the day by WASHING OUR HANDS (as recently mandated by the government). H1n1? Not in my hagwon. Then we have "circle time." We sit on a mat and talk about the date and the weather and how all of my students are feeling. Today, Lisa, one my moodier students, would not tell us how she was feeling...so I let the class decide (they voted "tired"). Then I had the bright idea that we should all make up a story about why she was tired. I started it with "Lisa went on a magical journey," then let each of my students add on a sentence. Well, "Lisa found a bunny. Then she found a hunter. And she gave the bunny to the hunter. The hunter went away. Then she broke his house. She made the house again. Then she found another bunny. She cut it into tiny pieces. She became a great hunter. Then she returned home and went to bed." Next, we talk about that week's theme and try to play a game. Unless our feelings took a long time, then we just go through flashcards. This week's them has been hobbies. Lisa said her hobby was riding a fish.
After circle time, we wash our hands again and then do desk work: spelling, reading, answering questions about the reading, phonics, and math. Plus, every day, one student reads a book to the class. Then it's play time.
And we wash our hands, and go to lunch.
After lunch we wash our hands. Every day, my students have a different afternoon activity. Mondays are Brain Bank (Nonfiction reading...with a CD); Tuesdays are Arts'n'Crafts (this week we drew the Statue of Liberty...why?); Wednesdays are playroom (there is like a big playset with a slide and tunnels and all sorts of things....during this time, my students often act like each other's pets or have turf wars over who gets the best "house") + Manners & Etiquette (this week we learned how to "Resolve Problems in the Classroom" aka 1) don't whine over accidents 2) say you're SORRY!); Thursdays are science (this week we learned about how sound can travel up a wet string and out of a paper cup. It was pretty cool. Last week we made stethoscopes out of funnels, balloons, and plastic tubes. It was worth it when about 3 of my kids were able to hear their hearts beat and their eyes just LIT UP:); Fridays we have P.E. and Kids Excel. This month, I am supposed to be teaching Tae Kwan Do during P.E. As I don't know Tae Kwan Do, this week I taught them how to do the Cha Cha Slide. 3 of my students suddenly remembered that they had hurt their legs the night before. (Later on we had a talk about PARTICIPATION and doing things you don't always want to do). Kids Excel is when I am supposed to find something educational and show it to them on the SMART board...so it's usually like from Sesame Street...but we might start learning VeggieTales songs.
After afternoon activities, we WASH OUR HANDS.
The last part of the day is writing. Right now, they are writing monster stories. Helen, one of my girls, has named her monster Pee Pee Super. It can be really big or really small.

So, after Kindergarten, LCI offers a number of after-school programs for older kids. Once students have graduated from Kindergarten and moved on to regular school, they can come back for English classes! Classes go until 7 pm and are either 80 minutes or 50 minutes long. Right now, I teach a combination of 4 afterschool programs. I have 1 class every day from 3-4:30. The students in that class are in their first year out of Kindergarten. There are 5 girls and 1 boy...the boy can be smart but apparently is already "cracking" from the pressure of too much homework, so he doesn't really talk too much. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I teach 2 more classes after this first one. Both of these classes are for kids who finished Kindergarten 2 years ago. These classes are probably the least-stressful because the kids understand humor/sarcasm a little bit more, and they don't whine over every single thing.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I only teach one class in addition to the one that meets everyday. This class is also for students who are 1 year out of Kindergarten. They like to talk...ALOT...which would be ok, except there is so much to get through during class (spelling test, new spelling words, checking homework, reading, reading questions, writing...), there is not much time to talk about Transformers or Rooney (soccer player). My students like to have nicknames...Daniel wants to be Danielformer (as in Transformers), Tim wants to be Timdinosaur, Sunny wants to be Sun, and Brian wants to be Rooney. Then Tim started crying because I forgot to use his nickname. From that day on, nicknames were outlawed. Sometimes in class we have to talk about things that I feel like I didn't learn until I was 15 or so....like character development. I really do not expect an 8 year old to understand character development...yet they are supposed to give a presentation on it. We used Sam (from Transformers)as our example and talked about how Sam had to learn how to bring Optimus Prime back to life...just like characters often grow through learning something.

One thing I've noticed about my students, and maybe the larger educational theory, is critical thinking is not really an important skill...it's all about memorization. If I ask my students a question, and the answer is not explicitly written in the book, they are so lost. Hence, why "character development" is kind of a problem. If it's not something they can memorize, very few students really understand...or so it seems. On the other hand, most adult Koreans I met have seemed to make it through the educational system just fine, so maybe it works out.
Also, Korean children seem to be extrememly involved. Most of my Kinder are in other activities: swimming, tae-kwan-do, piano, violin, Hanguel (learning Korean), Math Academy, Art School... My older students attend elementary school during the day and then come to LCI afterwards plus whatever other various schools/activities they are a part of. Sometimes I feel bad giving them homework, because I know they already have a lot to do.

So, that's my life Monday-Friday. I tried to be thorough (as per a request), but if I forgot anything, just let me know! :)