I was wary that this would be nothing more than a time-consuming hoop to jump through, but it turned out to be surprisingly beneficial. My biggest complaint, in fact, is that I didn't receive the training-- or at least some version of it-- earlier on, or even before the semester began. I think I would have been better prepared for the task at hand and could have gone in with a better game-plan from the start had I known from the beginning some of the things that I learned at orientation. Then again, having first-hand knowledge of what we are up against made the conflict resolution and lesson planning small group sessions very useful.
Meeting so many foreign teachers who are currently in the same situation as me (brand-spanking new to teaching in Korean public schools) and being around them for such an extended period of time was a nice change of pace... I had forgotten what it was like to hear so much English around me. Orientation was a great opportunity for networking and making new friends, and especially helpful to be able to draw on one another's common experiences, as well as to discuss the challenges that were unique to each of our particular schools and situations. By the end of the three days, I was certainly ready to head home (the final day was stretched out much longer than was necessary), but I was feeling much more encouraged, motivated, better equipped and more confident in my abilities as a teacher than before.
A few orientation highlights...
Eatyourkimchi.com
I actually discovered this site early on in my stay in Korea. My dad, a former teacher, took pity on my lesson planning and class management woes and took it upon himself to help me look for creative classroom ideas online. Among the many resources that he pointed me to, he emailed me the link to a video about how to use middle school students' love for K-pop (see #3) to your advantage in the classroom. He also encouraged me to check out the site that it came from: eatyourkimchi.com-- a blog set up by a Canadian couple teaching ESL in Bucheon, South Korea (not far from where I live). I gave the site a cursory browse and found it entertaining, but didn't appreciate what a true gem it was until this weekend.
The makers of the site gave a lecture at the orientation, and it was the best one given, hands down. Not only was their lecture highly entertaining, but it was obvious that both speakers really love teaching in Korea, and their enthusiasm was catching. They gave a ton of practical ideas about how to transistion students into "English-mode," how to trick students into actually wanting to participate in class, and how to create more engaging lessons even when forced to use not-so-engaging text book material. The ideas were truly brilliant, and as they were being presented it was easy to imagine how well they would work in an actual classroom setting with my own students. Plus, each of the activities and games that required a ton of prep are downloadable from their website-- which is unbelievably helpful. But the best part was that the lecture sent my brain into overdrive and got me thinking of a million ways that I could use not just their ideas but the principles behind the ideas for other activities in my own classroom.
Introducing GEPIK and The History of English Language Curriculum in Korea
While certainly nowhere as entertaining as the lecture I described above, these two lectures gave me a much better understanding of the educational goals in Korea, why I was really brought here, and how the Korean government is hoping that native teachers like me can improve English education in Korea. I learned during my last internship, prior to coming to Korea, how important it is for me to be oriented towards the big-picture in my daily work-- I want to know how my work fits into bettering the lives of others and society as a whole, so that I don't get bogged down in the day-to-day. Maintaining my perspective by focusing on the big picture is one of the main ways that I am able to stay motivated to put forth my best effort in the face of the challenging and mundane, and that is something that I had not had in Korea up until this point. After these lectures, however, I now have a much better understanding of my role and of the expectations that not only my school but that the entire Korean educational system have with regard to native teachers in Korea, and thus have a much better understanding of what it is that I am working for and towards.
Small Groups
For a number of sessions, we were broken up into small groups for more interactive idea-sharing training. It was our opportunity to troubleshoot and brainstorm with other teachers as well as with GEPIK coordinators about how to deal with specific classroom issues that we had encountered. During these sessions we broke up into even smaller groups of 2 or 3 and participated in both conflict role play as well as demo lessons. We had the opportunity to role play any classroom conflict of our choice-- some of the conflicts we discussed included being pressured by the school to work extra hours, having certain expectations placed on you based on the methods of the school's former English teacher, and dealing with uncooperative or unhelpful co-teachers and school staff. Lesson topics, by contrast, were assigned at random. We had one evening to prepare and then deliver the lesson to the whole group, who were instructed not only to evaluate us but to test our classroom management skills by acting out periodically during out lesson. It was a great opportunity to draw on the ideas and expertise of other teachers and to get feedback on our own teaching, professionalism and classroom management techniques. Of all the lectures at the orientation, nothing did more to help build my confidence and to give me practical tools for the classroom than these sessions. I am grateful that the other teachers in my group put forth their best effort, because we were all able to get much more out of it as a result.
Cultural Orientation
Not all of the lectures pertained to teaching English in Korea directly. We also had a number of culture lessons. Going into them, I was completely sure that these would be a wash, but only because I was overly confident in my own knowledge of Korean culture; turns out I was able to learn a quite few new things. However, my favorite part of the cultural orientation was the traditional Korean dance that was performed for us-- not only because it was fun to watch, but because I had a really strong and unexpected emotional reaction to it; I even had to fight back tears. At first I didn't understand this, but upon reflection I think I reacted so strongly because, in the beginning, I simply appreciated the dance as something completely foreign and exotic, until it hit me that these traditions are a part of my family's history, and by extension a part of my history, in equal measure with Western traditions. For some reason, seeing that dance exposed a depth of longing that most of the time I don't even recognize in myself-- that is, it exposed the depth of my longing to mend the disconnect that I feel from my Korean heritage. These moments of recognition hit me periodically from time to time here, and heighten my level of appreciation for Korean culture, making me extraordinarily glad that I made the choice to spend the next year here. As a matter of fact, during orientation, I had a similar experience which gave me new appreciation for Korea's immense pride in King Sejong and hangeul (the Korean alphabet), but that is another post for another day...
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