In the Lumberyard.
While I am infinitely happier here on the mainland, I still have nagging dark remnants. I'm doing my best to get rid of them, and am slowly gaining focus, I think. I guess I need to consider that I am still in my Hwasun infancy...it's not even been a month yet.
My workload is most certainly less, though with the change of books, I have a little extra to do at the moment. And I am trying to incorporate more use of the textbook cds to further lighten my load. Even my main co-teacher urged me to do it saying I was burning too much of my own time creating lessons. My only fear is that the students will despise being in class (more than they likely already do), and the job will become the doldrums. I must consider where I was and where I gone (and where I need to go).
Within the struggles, I see many of the fellow teachers posting things on various forums designed as a shared database for all of us. Some are specific to region, Jeollanamdo, while some are specific to textbook, and some are cross sections of what ever other categories there might be.
It seems taxing that I was the only one that was creating lessons for the new textbook last year in the middle school, outside of 1 or 2 others, 1 of which I know is now gone; and even looking at the old textbooks, from as long ago as 2009, I was still the most recent poster of material, with everyone else just downloading the lessons I made and using those. I am glad they are useful, but am dismayed there is such little reciprocation.
Someone else had posted the desire for Korean subtitles for a film (I can't remember the film), but in a moment of weakness, I responded that while I didn't want to make them feel bad, any video likely over 5-7 minutes simply becomes a time sink and turns into pure entertainment with very little language learning (if any) occurring.
Another poster then chastised me for "lecturing" the guy, and while it wasn't my intention to make anyone feel bad, I can't help but think that there are *so many 'teachers' here that are simply allowed to put in videos and do very little teaching.
I don't think I'm 'all that' or any portion of a bag of chips, but at least I try to identify the target language, why we use it, when we use it, try to get the students to use the sentences in the contexts from which they spawn, and to see the bigger picture along with trying to teach bits of learning strategies. I know I could do much better at making my classroom more student centered, but find difficulty in doing so due to only seeing them once a week, and that makes doing projects much more difficult. Typically, by the time I see them two times, we are moving on to another topic, subject, piece of language usage to target.
I guess I don't mind that someone snapped back at me for chiming in, though it sucks. But it's my own fault. I shouldn't have said anything. I am neither their confidante, nor their boss. He wanted subtitles, I should have just kept my yapper shut.
Concerning where I live now, however, though I love it and there are infinitely more people and access to a gazillion things in comparison to the Isle of Lucy (Imja-do) and where I lived last year, I still don't really know anyone and other than my students from Dongmyeon middle school, Donovan, who just had a baby with his wife, and the grandmother that lives next door to me and dries her weeds in the hall, I still feel a bit (ok, a great deal), like an outsider.
I am hoping that feeling dissolves, but it seems whenever I see another foreigner, they scurry away as if trying to avoid me. As much as it would be cool to have a friend, I am not going to beg, and I am not going to befriend someone just because we speak the same language. I wouldn't do it in the U.S., why do it here? It's a curious place, though it seems far less community organized than Seosan was (those times they are a changin', right?). I also need to consider that with my mental make-up and feeling pretty much worth less than 0, even if someone did say hello I'd probably wonder why and then ultimately avoid them, too.
I know there is another dinner coming up, (I missed the 'welcome' dinner) with other foreigners, but I am trying to be resilient. I likely need to just let it play out, and work toward losing the massive amount of weight I gained living on the island with nothing to do, no time to do it, and gale force winds for 5 months of the year; just keep my focus on the goals I really need, do my job at all three schools as best I can, and quit listening to any of the crap that doesn't involve me (that includes me not chiming in).
Be the ball.
My workload is most certainly less, though with the change of books, I have a little extra to do at the moment. And I am trying to incorporate more use of the textbook cds to further lighten my load. Even my main co-teacher urged me to do it saying I was burning too much of my own time creating lessons. My only fear is that the students will despise being in class (more than they likely already do), and the job will become the doldrums. I must consider where I was and where I gone (and where I need to go).
Within the struggles, I see many of the fellow teachers posting things on various forums designed as a shared database for all of us. Some are specific to region, Jeollanamdo, while some are specific to textbook, and some are cross sections of what ever other categories there might be.
It seems taxing that I was the only one that was creating lessons for the new textbook last year in the middle school, outside of 1 or 2 others, 1 of which I know is now gone; and even looking at the old textbooks, from as long ago as 2009, I was still the most recent poster of material, with everyone else just downloading the lessons I made and using those. I am glad they are useful, but am dismayed there is such little reciprocation.
Someone else had posted the desire for Korean subtitles for a film (I can't remember the film), but in a moment of weakness, I responded that while I didn't want to make them feel bad, any video likely over 5-7 minutes simply becomes a time sink and turns into pure entertainment with very little language learning (if any) occurring.
Another poster then chastised me for "lecturing" the guy, and while it wasn't my intention to make anyone feel bad, I can't help but think that there are *so many 'teachers' here that are simply allowed to put in videos and do very little teaching.
I don't think I'm 'all that' or any portion of a bag of chips, but at least I try to identify the target language, why we use it, when we use it, try to get the students to use the sentences in the contexts from which they spawn, and to see the bigger picture along with trying to teach bits of learning strategies. I know I could do much better at making my classroom more student centered, but find difficulty in doing so due to only seeing them once a week, and that makes doing projects much more difficult. Typically, by the time I see them two times, we are moving on to another topic, subject, piece of language usage to target.
I guess I don't mind that someone snapped back at me for chiming in, though it sucks. But it's my own fault. I shouldn't have said anything. I am neither their confidante, nor their boss. He wanted subtitles, I should have just kept my yapper shut.
Concerning where I live now, however, though I love it and there are infinitely more people and access to a gazillion things in comparison to the Isle of Lucy (Imja-do) and where I lived last year, I still don't really know anyone and other than my students from Dongmyeon middle school, Donovan, who just had a baby with his wife, and the grandmother that lives next door to me and dries her weeds in the hall, I still feel a bit (ok, a great deal), like an outsider.
I am hoping that feeling dissolves, but it seems whenever I see another foreigner, they scurry away as if trying to avoid me. As much as it would be cool to have a friend, I am not going to beg, and I am not going to befriend someone just because we speak the same language. I wouldn't do it in the U.S., why do it here? It's a curious place, though it seems far less community organized than Seosan was (those times they are a changin', right?). I also need to consider that with my mental make-up and feeling pretty much worth less than 0, even if someone did say hello I'd probably wonder why and then ultimately avoid them, too.
I know there is another dinner coming up, (I missed the 'welcome' dinner) with other foreigners, but I am trying to be resilient. I likely need to just let it play out, and work toward losing the massive amount of weight I gained living on the island with nothing to do, no time to do it, and gale force winds for 5 months of the year; just keep my focus on the goals I really need, do my job at all three schools as best I can, and quit listening to any of the crap that doesn't involve me (that includes me not chiming in).
Be the ball.
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