Day 3, the Last of the Observations

Friday is my last day of observations, and James' last day of work. He teaches two classes today, both are exactly the same but with different students so only one lesson plan is needed. I am going to observe the first class, and teach half of the second class. This is also the day that I was told I would be moving into my apartment, so I packed up all of my things that morning. I ditched the box underneath the bed and redistributed my things into the order they were in before the airport rearrangement.

I also tried to get a bank account today, but the bank closes at 4:30 pm, and we missed it by a few minutes, so I will be taking care of that on Monday.

I sat in on James' first class, took notes and tried to imagine which part of the class I would be better at teaching. The first part was a group outline of dangerous animals. The second was an interview process where I ask the students questions, they answer and I give them money. The whole idea of teaching, after my unsatisfying experience of model teaching, frightened me. Thankfully, during the break between his classes I was given some good news.

My new apartment is much better than the motel. I will devote a whole blog post to it later. Back at school I had to decide which part of class I should take. I decided to do what I always do, I'm not one to test the water, instead I just jump right in. I opted to teach the entire class, all seventy minutes with the fifteen teenage Koreans.

I had no idea what to expect as I entered the classroom. James' opened the class and introduced me as their new teacher and then I took it away. It went really well. Thankfully James was there as a disciplinary measure. He was kind of surprised at how well I handled myself, having only a few suggestions for me; I need to speak louder, patrol the class and be tougher with the discipline. I think that James was also happy that he didn't have to teach his last class. It was a good day.