A little smile goes a long way...

I am currently starting my second year at a public middle school in Busan, South Korea and loving every minute of the time I spend with the teachers and my students.

I teach three grades -- first grade (13 year olds), second grade (14 year olds) and third grade (15 year olds). My largest classes are with the first grade students, averaging somewhere between 30-35 students a class. My second and third grade students are in what we call 'leveled' classes, meaning students are separated by their English level (high and medium to low). These classes tend to have somewhere between 20-25 students in each class.

In the public schools, foreign English teachers have Korean co-teachers with them in each class to assist with teaching, lesson planning, materials, and offer Korean translation if necessary. I have 7 amazing co-teachers that I work with throughout the day. This number varies by the size of your school and what level you teach (elementary, middle, or high school). I am lucky in that my co-teachers give me free reign of how I structure and teach my speaking class with the only exception of making sure to always incorporate their textbook into the lesson. So, I take the lesson for the day and structure my activities and games to fit with the key phrases in the book.

The structure of my classes look somewhat like this:

- Welcome, small talk, and warm-up

- Introduction of Lesson, key phrases

- Textbook dialogue CD (students follow along in their books), teachers then model the conversation again, students practice phrases and conversation with a partner.

- Practice, practice, practice! Students practice but this time using different types of conversations with the same key phrases. Usually, this is an active part of class. I do like using activities that move students around the class, always changing partners a few times, to keep them interested and having fun.

- Production activity. This lets me know students have practiced and understand the material. This is always an active part of class. I have a soft soccer ball I through around the class to have students stand up and practice or I play a game or sometimes both depending on the time.

- Calm down, review, and goodbyes!

One thing I've learned while teaching in my middle school is how important it is to smile and really be available for your students to talk to throughout the day. For my birthday last year, a student brought me a card she had made the night before (I later found out she was up at 3 AM doing it). But inside the card there was one thing she said that really stood out to me, "Teacher I like you very much. You always smile to us and you are always happy. That is why I like your class."

I genuinely love my job and my students. Teaching is always what you make it. Some day the students are bouncing off the walls and driving you crazy and other days they just won't talk! But a smile goes a long way with these students. If you show that you care just a little bit, they will often give you more joy than you could have ever imagined.