Don't be a play...a hater

The background for My Dino Pet.

So for the wonderful month of February, which is when kids graduate and move up to the next level of their schooling (for 7 of ours kids it meant the transition from our Hagwon to a real school).  Graduations are of course a huge deal in Korea much like at home, they actually have graduation ceremonies for kindergarten of all things.  I actually remember graduating from the kindergarten vaguely, I slid down a twisty slide and grabbed a piece of paper out of an elderly woman's hands.  So of course our private school was going to go all out for its dinky graduation.

Manda coloring in a roof.

We were informed at the beginning of February that we would be having the children do a play for their parents.  This is the first time the school has attempted this, and it would be for sure a train wreck even before the first curtain call.  Manda and I combed the internet for the least painful plays we could possibly find.  Originally Manda had chosen Peter Pan, however decided to go with the classic Stone Soup since her kids have the attention span of gerbils.  I grabbed a nice little play written by a 12 year old Mexican child by the name of "My Dino Pet."

Working hard on the Stone Soup background.

The month was painful and long, but it was all worth it when we finally finished the night and had a nice long three day weekend.  I had everything ready and Manda and I had even custom made our own backgrounds for the plays to make them look a bit better.  The children themselves actually had costumes ordered from them, Manda's poor villages became fruit and vegetables (for some reason).  My students who were supposed to be 3 small children, a mother, a doctor, and a dinosaur somehow became wizards, a sailor, and two ring masters.  I am not really sure what the the director was thinking with that one, but it is hard to complain about it at this point since it is after the fact.

The little trouble maker.

The star of my play "Peter the Dinosaur" had a blue dragon outfit.  The child I starred in the role is the biggest airhead in my class, so I figured he would enjoy running around on all fours and roaring like a dinosaur.  He certainly performed his role as a crazy lizard.  When the play actually started instead of staying in the cage that he was meant to wait in he ran around the stage and fought me when I tried to put him back. After much coaxing he stayed in his cage and the play went on.  Then when it came to the scene change he once again fought me to stay on the stage, and I literally had to drag him off the stage.  It was pretty mortifying but honestly it was pretty funny not that I can look back on it.

Insert scream goats here.

The best part about the play though is that we are now halfway done with our contract here in Korea.  It is hard to believe that as I am typing this we are 5 and a half months from our flight home.  I have some more content planned for the blog very soon so I shouldn't be such a ghost on here anymore.  Look forward to some very...interesting posts in the future.

The continuing path of becoming a teacher

From left to right Kate, Lily, Aiden, Carley, Susan

One of my lessons

So now that I have been in Korea close to 3 months it is time to talk about(after a long hiatus of not posting sorry about that) what my feeling are as a teacher and what turning into a teacher is like for me.  For a long time I actually dreamed about being a teacher and helping shape children into successful adults.  I was hoping there would be children who looked back upon my classes fondly, but due to being a terrible student (or at least having a bad first few semesters in college) my dreams of being a teacher were put aside.

So my topic today is how I feel about being a teacher and my continuing path to actually feel like I am a teacher.  When I first arrived in Korea I was overwhelmed at the idea that I would be in charge or (close to) 10 children all of whom I would have to take care of, teach, and furthermore discipline if they got out of hand.  The first two weeks didn't really help matters.  The former teachers Rob and Rachael warned us that the kids were going to be worse due to our presence, but it just heightened the overwhelming feeling.

Now that I have been teaching for three months I am finally starting to get my wings with the whole teaching thing.  While Monday and Tuesday are usually lost causes due to the kids being so riled up from the weekend.  Wednesday and Thursday I get some real teaching done, and then Friday both I and the kids are so exhausted from the week once again nothing gets done but that is OK because its FRIDAY!  While the kids still run wild due to being children I think I am getting better at discipline aspect of the job.  I have experimented with a few different formats of discipline, of which writing the offending child's name on the board seems most effective.  Of course this only really working for the Kindergarten class, since they are actually feel shame at being bad.  Contrast this with me Elementary class where the bad kids are the heroes of the class almost no discipline system actually works, other than literally forcing the kids to do what they need to do.

I think I can see my house from here!

Days like today are great, everyone gets along I am in a good mood and things actually get done.  Whats even better is that these sorts of days are increasing, and with it my comfort in teaching in general.  I'm three months through our ESL Honeymoon Adventures and I am looking forward to the next 9 months and of course to coming home to start a brand new domestic adventure afterward.