Teaching

So I've been teaching for a month now, and I feel like I'm getting the hang of it. The kids like me and my boss says she and the parents really like the homework I give, so I'm glad of that. The Canadian teacher here has seen my homework and my corrections and comments and says I seem like a natural. I said it's because I'm constantly teaching, even when there's no one around. He said I shouldn't tell people that.

Right now I have seven classes, meeting from once to five times a week, with two to eight kids, with ages ranging from about six to about twelve. At first, I was having trouble figuring out how to fill up the class time, which is 50 minutes for all but two advanced classes, which meet for an hour. Now I find I often don't have time to do everything I wanted, so I think that's a good sign.

My schedule was easy for January and February, but come March it's going to increase by about 50%. The teacher I replaced told me the school needs to make more money, so that's why they're adding classes. I will go from having three to five classes a day to having seven classes on Monday and six the other four days. I'm not starting from scratch, though; most of the classes I have now will continue, and I'll be getting several more lower level classes.

I generally enjoy teaching the upper level classes more, because the kids can converse and understand better and they're better behaved, but the homework is a real chore. I can correct a full class of Level B or C students in twenty minutes, but the assignments naturally get longer and more complicated at higher levels.

I kind of feel misled about the amount of time I'm supposed to spend working. I was told by my placement agency that teachers usually work a maximum of 30 hours a week in Korea, but I'm definitely putting in about 40 hours even with a light schedule. It'll probably go up to 45 when I get my extra classes. I will be getting a little bit of overtime for the long teaching days, but we don't get paid for correcting time. Lame.