Thursday, April 24, 2014

Just Can't Let It Go

Frozen castposter
Retrieved from: http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Frozen
So Frozen is still a hit here in Korea. My young students request "Ursa Song" almost every day. I feel very fortunate to have found Elsa's Song Let It Go on 10 hour loop so I can play it during the break without having to be in my classroom.

Since every week I am in a new active zone, and I have to admit that I wasn't overly thrilled with the Fluency Build Up zone with a theme of A Hunting We Will Go, I took the same fluency concepts and made Lesson Plans for Let It Go. I am willing to share, but I don't think I can put the documents online due to using images of the characters which are copyrighted.


A screenshot of one of the basic worksheets.


I feel like I have sometimes not had as much fun as I would hope to in active zone, but I really enjoyed these new lessons. The students were having fun, and although that meant I had to listen to Let It Go for 2 days straight, the excitement and learning that I witnessed made it worth it.

I was so proud of my students. They asked me if they could take home the lyric sheet I had made up to "practice" and "read with". I was amazed at the ability of my lower level students to follow along with the proper English words and their drive to want to practice the song more.

A screenshot of the lyrics
It's in these moments that I realize why I am a teacher, to watch the excitement, the growth and the motivation in my students to learn more and do better. There was no test at the end, there was no competition, it was individuals working together to increase their English fluency. This is what I want my classroom to be like.

What is a "Real Teacher"?

So I’ve been working in Korea for a little over 4 months now and I am loving it!

Of course there are the good days, the days that go according to plan, and the days where I wish I could run away from the students and never see them again. I am in a school with 8 Korean teachers, who teach in English, and 8 foreign teachers. This week I used an interactive whiteboard, which I was told has not been properly used since no one knows how to. They just make a PowerPoint presentation and use the pen to click, which is still amusing for most students. But when the power is in the students hand to move an image, WOW! They are sitting quietly with their hand up AND listening intently. Amazing!

I was talking with some of the foreign teachers I work with, talking about teacher things, like students we like, students we really try to like, lesson plans, ideas, and all the usual things. I have heard time and time again that I have some neat ideas and that “It must be so nice being a ‘real’ teacher”. “You know how to use an interactive whiteboard because you’re a ‘real teacher’. You know where to find fun and engaging activities because you are a “real teacher”. Yes it’s true. I really am a teacher, but so are they!
We all show up to work in the morning, prepare lessons and engaging activities and we interact and teach, or some days we attempt to teach, our students. We all talk about “our kids” and the proud moments we have of them! We are all teachers.

Maybe their university training did not lead them into pursuing a Bachelor of Education or an education related field, but I can confirm with them that some of the “real teachers” out there do less teaching than they are doing. Just because I have training to be a teacher back home does not mean I am a better teacher in a different country with students who are learning to speak English. I know I have a different approach and access to different resources in my network of friends who are teachers, but we are all real teachers, teaching real students, real things.


Here is to all the interns, teachers, and people who teach who do not feel like you are a "real teacher". 
 I hope one day you realize that you really are a REAL TEACHER.