This is a very broad topic for Tower's round-table discussion today. I'll spend a few minutes before next class, and then I'll add more later. Living in South Korea over the last four years or so, I've learned that there are many differences in teaching formats, and how things are done.
I'll discuss some things here about the teaching environments that I have taken part in, and then I will discuss what teaching can do for your life, or a kid's life.
First of all, I have worked in teaching environments in this country, where it isn't always about how good you teach, or how smart the kids are.These places I have worked in are more like businesses, because that is what they really are. I call ATM's for people that are willing to put up the money and the time to invest. There are some people with tons of money that own these things known as academies (hagwon in Korean), that I have worked in.
There are also public and private elementary schools as well. For example, the place I work in these days has an academy, pre-K, and a kindergarten. The K, and pre-K kids come in the morning time and start class about 10 am. Then they finish around 2pm, and will come to the academy building for English, or special classes, or they may even go home, or to another place for something such as Taekwondo or Art.
After 3:30, this place becomes an academy, where kids from public and private schools come to learn English, until 6 pm. Some of these kids have been to places for music, art, or sports before, or may even go to those places afterwards as well. I even taught one year or so at a place where the students came as late as 6-8pm, and stayed sometimes until 10pm. Most of these kids though were late elementary or middle school students though. My high school girls that I teach on Sunday nights have told me that their school starts at 9 am, and usually does not finish until 10, or 11 pm. They do get half-days or vacation days, but not too many. They probably almost all of their winter and summer vacations in school as well. They don't take many holidays as high school students.
I have seven minutes left, and I will tackle that seven minutes in a little while. Time to go to the other building to rock out a little story-book time.
Took me a while to get back to this seven minutes that I have remaining. I promised some kids choco-pies this afternoon so I kind of had to walk quickly to the store after my little class (actually really big) in the other building on our "campus" here.
Back to teaching again. Many times over the last few years, I have found myself telling Koreans, or friends back home "I'm not really a teacher." Truth of the matter, we are all teachers in some way or another in regards to how we live our lives. I find myself teaching these kids about all kinds of things (nothing explicit, that I remember), besides just English. They've been learning about Snoopy lately, for example.
Pastor Ken tells us often that we are teachers in the way that we live our lives. I credit him for telling us that, because it is a great motivator, to show how strong you walk in your Christian world, when you separate yourselves from others in this world of many non-Christian folks.
I use the TV show Glee on Sunday nights to show my older girls a little bit of what life is like in American high schools. Perhaps that show may not be the greatest depiction, but it keeps them interested, and I can explain a lot of jargon and slang to them that they may not otherwise be able to take in. During the last episode the Glee Club director was telling Finn (a recent high school graduate who has almost hit rock bottom), that he didn't have to have the title of teacher to his name to actually be one. It was interesting to hear, as Finn had been influencing a young football player to take part in a school musical. The influence really helped him find his niche during the episode and the Glee Club director was needing a substitute over the next few months. So Finn was his guy.
I thought to myself after that episode, that one doesn't have to be formally called a teacher to teach or influence others in this world. Most importantly when we teach others, we can be taught many things as well. In my Fulbright application for Bulgaria, I duly noted that teaching has a give and take concept to it. The little ones teach me about being a father, uncle, friend, etc, and they get some English lessons in exchange.
One minute over!! Oops.
Took me a while to get back to this seven minutes that I have remaining. I promised some kids choco-pies this afternoon so I kind of had to walk quickly to the store after my little class (actually really big) in the other building on our "campus" here.
Back to teaching again. Many times over the last few years, I have found myself telling Koreans, or friends back home "I'm not really a teacher." Truth of the matter, we are all teachers in some way or another in regards to how we live our lives. I find myself teaching these kids about all kinds of things (nothing explicit, that I remember), besides just English. They've been learning about Snoopy lately, for example.
Pastor Ken tells us often that we are teachers in the way that we live our lives. I credit him for telling us that, because it is a great motivator, to show how strong you walk in your Christian world, when you separate yourselves from others in this world of many non-Christian folks.
I use the TV show Glee on Sunday nights to show my older girls a little bit of what life is like in American high schools. Perhaps that show may not be the greatest depiction, but it keeps them interested, and I can explain a lot of jargon and slang to them that they may not otherwise be able to take in. During the last episode the Glee Club director was telling Finn (a recent high school graduate who has almost hit rock bottom), that he didn't have to have the title of teacher to his name to actually be one. It was interesting to hear, as Finn had been influencing a young football player to take part in a school musical. The influence really helped him find his niche during the episode and the Glee Club director was needing a substitute over the next few months. So Finn was his guy.
I thought to myself after that episode, that one doesn't have to be formally called a teacher to teach or influence others in this world. Most importantly when we teach others, we can be taught many things as well. In my Fulbright application for Bulgaria, I duly noted that teaching has a give and take concept to it. The little ones teach me about being a father, uncle, friend, etc, and they get some English lessons in exchange.
One minute over!! Oops.
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