Just Venting.

I think I've gotten pretty good at dealing with stressed out Koreans over the last year and a half. I've learned when to just retreat and meditate and let stuff go. Unfortunately Miss Bahn chose the wrong day to say the wrong thing. She compared her teaching in English (after 17 years of classes and lessons) to me teaching in Korean with all of 30 hours of class.


Yeah. No comparison. I feel a little bad about basically saying you should be better at English. but not really. The truth is she is an English teacher now. She should be comfortable speaking in English and not freak out.

I remember the fear of my first teacher observation. It was scary and rightfully so. I didn't know when it was coming, never had done one before. But I knew my material and I knew my students. I survived it. Just like she will survive this.
Open classes here in Korea I think are better and yet worse than teacher observations in Atlanta. They know when they are coming. They can plan the lesson, do the whole dog and pony show. The kids know because their parents are there they have to behave. Oh yeah did I mention the parents and other teachers and the principal observe the open classes and evaluate the teachers based on them. I've gotten used to this and I know the parents, students and principal love me here. They know I've worked hard with their students and am friendly outside of school. I have an advantage because I am a known factor now. The first few were for everyone from parents to teachers and administrators through out the whole city. Those were nerve wracking. I also refuse to let the kids get away with right answers for everything. Sorry I'll try to make you look good but you should know your stuff too. I'm not going to make the class so easy that the parents who've seen my classes before think wonder what happened to make this one so easy.

I guess all of those years of hearing and seeing that students will rise and fall to a level of expectations have stuck. I'm not going to dumb down my class because the co teacher can't handle the harder classes.

I feel a little calmer now. Maybe I can go explain things better and try to relax her but I am not going to back down on my level of expectations for the students. Our school is known for it's English program... because I have always challenged the students.