email: i got it easy in comparison

Subject:
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 03:54:39 +0000
dear mom and dad,

it's monday morning, im preparing for my classes. im going to try to make something like a grade book or something today, or at least separate my classes into separate folders or something. for example i teach 4 of the same class, with a different set of students each class, and i never know which set of kids im seeing next!

and jeez,checking their homework is a whole thing in and of itself! the kids have the homework that i assign them in class, as well as "m-learning" meaning they use the phone and respond to the speaking topic, and "e-learning" meaning they go on the school website to write about whatever the topic is. so i check to see they did all of this, and then assign a homework grade. and this is all on top of whatever homework they have to do from public school during the day.

and i've found that kids dont just go to english hogwans (private schools like the one i work for that is exclusively for learning english), they go to math hogwans, and science hogwans, and many have private tutors at home as well. good god. glad i didnt grow up here in korea. when do they have time to be kids? no wonder many are so tired and listless when the come to my class!

some teachers complain, and rightly so, that a lot of esl teaching here is "entertaining." true, it is, but that isnt all a bad thing. it means that you have to make your lesson plans exciting/engaging. and not b/c the kids dont care, tho im sure some dont, but b/c they already have so much work to do! well im off, i just wanted to say a quick hi. my regards to mr. hector gonzales. ~sha.