Day 2: Crack Makes the Day Better

Written by Kyle about Korea, Republic of. Feelin' happy
Kyle_happy
Ok, so Day 1 in Korea isn't exactly what I would file in my "Do it again" experiences.  In fact, I'll just put that in my "Learning" folder. 

I was glad to hear from other teachers that this whole teaching thing (gasp!) takes a little time to get used to.  Most people told me "Yeah, the first week or month kind of sucks.  But it gets better."  Beleive me, without people telling me that, I might have just thrown my arms up and said forget it.

On Day 2, after getting advice from other teaches, I figured out that kids really like stickers.  More than once, a teacher said "Stickers are like crack."  I don't know if that's entirely a good thing, but if crack makes kids sit down and listen, then crack it is.   And to my surprise, it works like a charm.  When I told a class of students that if they earn 3 stars during the class for doing good behavior they get a sticker at the end of class, everyone was suddenly interested.  Whenever someone was doing something bad (like getting out of his/her chair or speaking Korean), I would only have to say "Can you get back into your chair, please, so that you don't lose a star?" and the child was in the chair before I would finish the sentence.

And, man what a difference that makes.  Compared to Day 1, Day 2 made me feel accomplished and a little bit like a teacher.  It was a good way to follow up day one and remind myself that, yes, I can do this.  I'm sure some day I'll feel like a full-fledged teacher, but until then, I'll keep distributing the crack.

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