Meghan Teacher

(photo: One of my Kindergarten classes)

By night, I’m “Meghan” or “Min Jin”… but by day, I’m “Meghan Teacher.” I have taught for 4 days and here are some details of what it’s like:

*I teach 8 different classes (71 students total)

*I teach students from ages 6 years old to 12 years old (American Age)
***When a child is born in Korea, they are 1 years old. So I am 27 in Korean age and 26 American Age. If someone asks how old you are, you say I am a 1982.

*I teach different subjects (which I didn’t know I was going to do) - kindergarten phonics, reading/writing, science, TOEFL, Debate class

*Class size: ranges from 5-12

*There are Korean teachers and native English speaking teachers. We all teach our lessons in English. The children understand English for the most part and you’re expected to point, draw pictures, etc to help the learning process

*The curriculum is set so you just follow the syllabus and can add your own activities as long as you cover the overall content of the lesson.

*Some students only come to our school. Other students come to our school AFTER they go to Korean School and my latest class starts at 7:10pm!
***This creates some bad behavior since they’ve already had a long day

So… so far it’s going ok. I am struggling with classroom management and finding creative ways to teach a lesson that will keep their attention. I know it’ll get better and I am trying not to worry about things too much since this is not my career goal and it’s just a job to get me over here.