How to Teach- Part 2

Before I moved to Korea, the content of the following video provided almost the entirety of my education on Korean education. For a new teacher, the rigor of it all sounded like a promise for effortless classroom management. The content of the video supports what I've since discovered, but academic intensity only goes so far. Take a peek at the video. After that, I'll fill in some gaps.

When I ask my students, "What did you do last weekend?", they scream (or yawn) "STUDY!". As if anything could possibly change from one weekend to the next, I always press them further, "And what else did you do?", knowing full well their answers will be, "Studieeeeeed! And played computer games!". Like an idiot, I hope desperately that some kid in the class will tell me a different story: went on a picnic, went to the movie theater, read a book... for FUN. Something feels oddly amiss here. Since I'm in no position to make real changes, my most subversive actions include telling students that rest is good, playing and having fun are good, and you can even do better in school if you're not overly stressed. Making those comments always leaves me feeling a little like a rebel. 

While I search out videos and articles on educational philosophy that suggest other methods of learning (and, no, I don't think the US has it all figured out either), my students stampede their way from one class to the next. In short form, the next video provides a spot-on depiction of a student's day, right down to the metal lunch trays. My students confirmed it when I showed them the video, begging for repeats and shrieking with laughter.

This video always deserves a repeat! 

Korean students spend a full day in school, enjoy a brief break around 4 pm during which time they inhale hotdogs from the street vendors, take music lessons, or play computer games in a PC room (they call it a pee-shee bong, bong= room), and then head to hagwons for more classes until 10pm. As the first video noted, many students attend classes on the weekends at hagwons now that public school classes only run from Monday through Friday. In the past, Guest English Teachers were permitted a two day weekend, while Korean teachers continued to work on Saturdays as well. The school year is longer this year as a result of the change. 

I won't pretend that every moment of my after-school life gleamed with productive activities as a kid, though I question whether free time always results in time poorly spent. Developmental research consistently shows the value of creative play, and there's so very little time for it here. The students are more than capable of it when given the opportunity. Because, in the midst of the intensity, kids are still kids and ridiculousness is never far. To illustrate this, I've assembled a few brilliant moments from my classroom, as well as several shared by my fellow English teachers throughout the past couple of months. 

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"Just went to check on a group of 16 year old students who'd been accidentally left unsupervised for half an hour. This is what I busted them getting up to. Not exactly what I would have expected in this situation back home...."

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Fun little story from the other day: I've been conducting an American culture/history trivia game with my students. One of the questions was, "Americans celebrate their freedom on this day."
Every student wrote down "Friday" as their answer.

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Student: "Teacher, how to spell shupple dance?" 
The teacher looks down at the paper and finds the student has written "supple dance". A seductive dance, surely, but further conversation clarifies that the desired term is "shuffle dance." 

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I entered a classroom today, only to be welcomed by a kid strumming a guitar and shrieking, "BETHANY, I LOOOOVE YOU! I LOOOOVE YOU!", until he dropped to the ground laughing (still strumming and singing). 

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Teacher: hey ladies! Do any of you have hairspray?
Girls: (completely serious) No teacher, we really don't use stuff for our hair. You should ask the boys for that.

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While editing the school's English newspaper, I came across a sentence that read: "Olympic national team members' passion which is hotter than summer bore irreplaceable fruit." I just left it. It was one of the best sentences on the page.

More to come ;)