Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Bloopity Bloop]

Hi folks,

This is my first year teaching and I just had my last classes with my sixth graders. I was blessed with a great school and awesome students who are, relatively, super well behaved and are very fun to teach. I didn't realize the semester would fly by so fast and now that they will be leaving soon, it almost feels a bit like losing... family? That's probably not the right word. Anyway, I'll still see them around until grad in February, but I feel like I took the year for granted. I will try be more appreciative of my job this upcoming semester.

I kind of just gave this lame-o speech at the end of the classes about how I'm glad they were my first students. I had a lot of fun teaching them this semester. They will be successful. Good luck in middle school. They put on an awesome performance (my school put on this huge, INCREDIBLE, 3 hour show last night). We took pictures. Then they all asked for my e-mail and phone number, which I now realize giving them that info was probably not the best idea, but whatever. I'm a pretty sentimental dude and I hope one day I'll be able to see what's become of my students. I realize that while it was sometimes a struggle for me to teach them and I sometimes viewed them as incarnations of the devil, I am really proud of my students. And I'm really glad to have been a part of their lives.

Looking at the school polls, I was consistently rated one of my school's students' favorite teachers but I feel like I could have done more. My classes were easy, but they definitely degraded in quality as the year went on... Ah well.

This feeling reminds me of this guy who worked in a freshmen dorm cafeteria back in Uni. He used to take the last week of the year off because he couldn't bear to see all these students leave. Is that overly sappy and cheesy? Am I being overly sappy? You might say, they're only elementary school kids, but I didn't realize until recently how much teaching affects both students and instructors. It's a powerful thing and I will remember this time for the rest of my life.

Did any other vet teachers feel this way at all when your first set of students finished your classes?

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I do have a sort of mother hen (father hen?) feeling with a class I like at the end of the term. You will get this at the end of every semester, but you never, um, forget your first. Classes I didn't like I wasn't so sentimental about!

[Ya-ta Boy]

Moldy's right. You heave a sigh of relief to see the backside of a bad group but you never completely get over being sorry to see the good ones go. If it's sappy, who cares? It's real. One of the real joys of teaching is meeting former students on down the road.

[Burndog]

I agree with the two chaps who posted above.

I taught High School back home, and the kids would go straight from me to University...to life. It was an emotional thing to see them grow up so much over that final year of stress and deal with the pressure of exams and reports and romance and booze and all of the other things 17/18 year olds get up to.

I was surprised when my first lot of Elementary Grade 6 students left. I really did feel a little tug on my heart. There was one crappy class that I was delighted to never see again...but there was also an awesome class that I knew I would miss. They still visit me. They even remember things like my birthday or teacher's day and decorate my classroom and bring me gifts. I have been humbled by their genuine warmth and respect for me as their teacher...it makes a lot of the negative things seem stupid and insignificant.

Your feelings are yours, don't worry about whether you're being sappy or a big girl's blouse...just be yourself and appreciate that they will miss you too.

[ddeubel]

I remember when I graduated teacher's college (years ago!). I did my last practicum with my mentor, my old high school geography teacher and soccer coach.

The last day, he took me outside and told me there was one terrible thing about teaching but I'd have to get used to it -- saying goodbye. He said it was the worst thing about the job, this "treadmill" of people who you commit to and who come and go. He said it was like falling in and out of head over heels love - hundreds of times...

Yes, it sucks. That's about all I can say. I've never got used to it. Maybe some shared pain, softens it?

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[andrewchon]

Kinda hard to tell whether you're suffering from Stockholm Syndrome or
you wish the graduates would suffer the Stockholm Syndrome.
Either way, better not to know I reckon!

[VanIslander]

I had dozens of students for three years at one hagwon, so when I left it was HARD.

Then I had nearly a hundred of the same students for another three years at another hagwon (a hagwon where students don't disappear after elementary school, as the hagwon had a lot of middle school classes too) and when I left there it was HARDER. In fact, I pine to go back, as the grade 5 and 6ers i (I!) taught from day one of their ABCs. And those in 2nd year middle school classes at the hagwon I had since late grade 5, before their teenage hormones kicked in, and to teach them through their last year of middle school would be a hoot, especially since that's the year students get serious, are revving up for high school.

I can't imagine teaching a class for just one year then jumping to another school. It takes three to six months to get the students fully trained/into sync. My second and third years at each hagwon were much more productive and fun than the first years.

The highs and lows. Before the post-class depression is the pre-ending mania. Teaching is a bi-polar profession.

[Draz]

[RBJfaraway]

I'm would just like to add that as someone trying to land their first job, it's great to hear about someone who had a good time and connected with their students.

You seem to have a bittersweet feeling about all of it, but overall it sounds like a very positive thing. Good for you.

[Bloopity Bloop]

[hagwonnewbie]

I think the students that a teacher has their first year, make the biggest impression on him/her.

[You]

I adore my students. I keep telling them how much I'll miss them. Also, the three 5th grade boys that clean my classroom are bummed because as 6th graders they might not get to clean my classroom, I'll miss seeing them after classes the most.

Do you think they remember us? They'll have a new foreign teacher in middle school.

[skinsk05]

I've been a teacher for, um, 15 years? I remember some of my first year students (and student-teaching) but to be honest, after so many years of good, bad, and (mostly) in-the-middle classes, they do tend to blur together. Still, it's always nice to see and hear from old students, especially the ones you do remember:-) In Korea, I've taught Uni for 6 years. Most of my students have had native English teachers either at school or institutes and they have pretty strong opinions! We definitely leave strong impressions, which often help shape our students' opinions of foreigners or Westerners in general! We are also most closely tied to the subject we teach, so we have a lot of influence to motivate our students and make English "fun" or reinforce the impression that English is tedious and difficult and "turn them off."

[yingwenlaoshi]