This morning:
My non-English speaking co-T said, "Jam Asian. Talk about me." I didn't correct her, just smiled and followed. In my mind I was thinking, 'Do you want me to leave the school? Am I fired? Please be fired.'
WHAT? How can I think that, you ask? Simple.
That lady has such a low English level that all four classes at that school are suffering and really becoming a pain to teach. At the end of the 5th month of the year I just want them to shut the door and nicely or rudely ask me not to return.
Anywho, we went into the teacher's office and sat down. She started off with, "Jam Asian..... you class.... uhhhh one two three four, class English. You game......me...... So you 10 minute...... oh......never mind. Ok. Class 40 minutes, you 10 minutes, me 30 minutes. You ....... ok? Oh....key points! Yes. 10 minutes key points."
Did you get that? Let me break it down.
"Jam Asian..... you class.... uhhhh one two three four, class English."
--Teacher, you only teach 3rd through 4th grade here. You teach on Tuesdays.
"You game......me...... So you 10 minute...... oh......never mind."
--You always plan a game, so I have to re-do the pages you miss in the book. Therefore you should just do a review of the key points in the class for the last 10min. What's 'key points' again? oh fricken.(She didn't cuss.) I don't do English. Never mind.
"Ok. Class 40 minutes, you 10 minutes, me 30 minutes. You ....... ok? Oh....key points! Yes. 10 minutes key points."
--Ok. The class is only 40minutes and I want you to teach for 10 and I'll do 30. You can just play your games or whatever and do phonics and speaking, ok? Oh, Phonics, speaking and it's called key points! Yes. Go over the key points for the last 10minutes.
To which I replied, "Oh ok. You want to teach for 30min and you want me to do 10 right? Ok. Everyday?"
Blank stare...."what?"
"Every class?" Blank stare. "10 minutes every Tuesday?"
chuckle, "It's ok." Goes back to the computer.
I was happy inside. Yes, I pretended not to understand her because she only speaks Korean to me. You may think this is rude, but to work here we are not required and NOT encouraged to learn Korean.They expect us to expose as much English as possible. So I just agreed and went on with life...for the next 3min anyway.
Turning point
It was at that point that she told the secretary in the room. "I just don't get English I don't know why I need a foreigner in my class." To which the sec responded with, "Yea, you just gotta tell her. That's your class." Then another teacher walks in with slightly better English skills and is introduced to the situation to which she inputs, "Tell her you're the main teacher! She's not the teacher. I know they are supposed to run the middle school classes, but this is elementary. No, I'll tell her."
At this point my co-teacher jumps up saying, "It's ok, I talked to her." but the other lady persisted and said (in English), "Katie right? (to my co-t even though that's not my name) Katie she is main teacher. You middle school is main teacher. Here is main teacher she. Ok? At (my other elementary) school, who main teacher?"
I told her I am...because I am. My other co-teacher speaks great English and we are able to balance out that she does review and we use the book's videos to preview and then I teach a lesson. We even tag team so that we don't have set times to be the focus of the class.
She says (in Korean) " well we are not those schools." then in English, "She is main teacher."
After again confirming that I would only teach for 10min of classes I was mad. How dare these people say and firmly believe that I'm not a teacher? Their kids are of the lower level out of the two elems and it's greatly due to her that the kids are depreciating. That's right I said depreciating.
The last co-teacher was so amazing that I wanted to only input once in a while, because I needed to learn from her tactics. She moved to another job trying to fulfill her dream of teaching high school students and getting them to learn so much that it moves her to tears. I believe she can do it.
The New Style of Class
I decided to just sit in the back of the room and do some lesson planning from their books. It's possible that I could change schools next year and get a new school that uses that book. Well 3rd grade took it pretty well. They thought it was funny that I was sitting there, but didn't say question her. The class was all in Korean except the repeating of the dialogues. The 4th grade looked back and a few students gasped and made remarks under their breath about it. She told them they could have time with me at the end of class. Some kids said it was boring and she just replied that they needed to stick to the book and play later. 5th grade expressed complete discontent to the point that she got upset and told them that since they only play games with me life was hard for her. (I'm trying to be as close to her words as possible and she did say, 힘드로.) I found it funny that she had the nerve to yell. Then she put a smile back on her face as she had them repeat the dialogue a few times. 6th grade doodled in their books and looked back at me. They tried to talk to me while she looked for the next step of her lesson.
That really moved me. I'm so glad to know that they do like me. Although (6th grade especially) they don't understand everything they like to have my class. I will stay this way until next semester for sure because I really need the extra time for my other two schools. They appreciate my classes, talk with me often and 95% of the time in English. My students are building their amounts of English every week. I feel that the other elem is at 60% and the middle is at 75%. The only problem I have with them is they try to jump the gun and use unknown words :/
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