25%

I've now been in Korea for a little over three months. Incidently, it means that my first semester as a Teacher is nearly complete. (They're a total of three months each). Not counting my adult classes, I only have one remaining class for each group of kids- which means 10 classes, to be completed Thursday and Monday.

The experience of teaching has been a pretty great one so far. 80% of my classes are always fun to teach, mostly because the kids are genuinely interested in learning. The other two classes (for those who've managed to do the math), are what i'd consider a waste of time. Kids rarely pay attention, and when they do, it's a challenge keeping that attention for longer than 10 minutes - so instead of having them learn language skills, most of the time is spent arguing or doing discipline. The few in the class that do want to learn, are the ones that end up suffering.

It almost sounds cliché, after having heard this attitude for years and years from teachers and Professors (''those who don't want to be here, leave''), but a negative classroom environment can be incredibly frustrating . While other students might not be directly frustrated at someone acting up, a lot of their time is wasted when one person has to be pinpointed by the teacher (and the general-attention level also drifts away - making the whole class harder to manage).

But back to the positive: The classes that are good are really good. The more they know what to expect, the smoother the classes go. I think there's a period, at the beginning of the semester, where all kids in all classes are just sizing you up on discipline and teaching style.

It's not the easiest balance to strike. My approach is to be silly and easy-going most of the time, but letting the kids know when I need them to be serious. That way it keeps the class fun (and interesting), yet in control. But the level of how easy-going and serious is a shifting scale, from class to class. Some kids may not need any sort of discipline, while some may need quite a bit of it... so the more you know each child in the class, the easier it is to teach them.

Sadly, with the end of the semester, i've been told that i'm going to have to change co-teachers (which also means a change of kids). Generally, the kids stick with the Korean co-teachers, which is a shame... but also an opportunity to start again, and learn from my mistakes. Hopefully I can manage to make 100% of my classes great (or at least, to get the bad ones under a tighter leash).

Anyway, the upcoming weekend shouldn't be anything special - i'm hoping to finish my Christmas shopping (or have it almost finished, anyway) so that I can start mailing things in two or three weeks.

Have a good one