Attempting to Live a Good Story...: Open Class = donezo!

As you all know, today was a big day for me. In case you don't know and might feel left out, this is what happened. I had my "Open Class" which is a mandatory part of my program. Us newbies are all placed in Critical Friend Groups (lovingly called CFGs), where 3 or 4 of us new teachers are grouped together along with a mentor who has been teaching in Korea for at least 2 years. We are required to visit the classrooms of each teacher in our group and observe a class. Not only do we attend, but a representative from the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education (DMOE, we like acronyms here) is present and evaluates our performance. This not only allows them to make sure you aren't just being a goof in your job but let's them rate you for the chance of renewing your contract at the end of the year.

Some schools make your open class into a huge production and as well as the foreign teachers and DMOE evaluator, other English teachers, the vice principal, or principal may sit in to watch. I've also visited ones where the class was video taped. However, that being said, it varies greatly from school to school. When I asked my coteacher who would be attending other than the few I knew for sure, she didn't have a definite answer. As it turned out, mine was [thankfully] low key. The DMOE evaluator, my mentor and fellow teachers in my CFG group, and a video camera on a tripod were the only extra beings in my room (if you count a video camera as a being - it practically is.)

One more piece of background information before I tell you how it went. Technically, I am always supposed to be "coteaching" in all of my classes - meaning I am planning and executing lessons with a Korean English Teacher. However, my school told me in the beginning that I will be teaching alone and I actually like it - but for the DMOE evaluation, we needed to put on the front that we are always coteaching. As I was preparing for the lesson, I found it hard to put together a lesson in which we'd equally teach and share. 1. I've never done that before 2. Our schedules conflicted so we never were able to practice in front of a class. 3. It's hard even if you have the time and the experience. Anyway, I found a way to work her into the lesson and knew I would get some criticisms about her lack of lecturing but hoped my stellar performance would balance it out.

Now to the good stuff. To put it bluntly, I rocked that lesson.

I hadn't been nervous at all until the day before and then I was a bundle of nerves. Plus, I'm a procrastinator by nature. Usually, I'm frantically working on things until the last minute. However, with this, I was way prepared - to the point where I had absolutely nothing left to do the day of the lesson. I think it was worse to have time to be scared, so, in the future, I will go back to procrastination.

Anyway, the class could not have gone better. I had warned the girls of that class last week that this lesson is very, very important to me and if they could be good, I would be very appreciative. And I am sooo proud of them. They were the most attentive and interactive they have ever been. Their reactions made my lesson seem exciting, (well, of course it was, but their ooooh's and ahhhhh's made it even better), they laughed extra in the Mr. Bean video, they worked hard and overall made me relax so I could perform better as well. After the class, a few came up to me and asked "Rachel Teacher, did we do good enough?" so it was wonderful that they cared. I will definitely be bringing them a little treat next week to thank them!

Not only were the students wonderful, but lesson itself went well. It wasn't rushed, it wasn't drawn out, and it actually taught them something. I felt like I knew the material and was comfortable teaching it, and I received positive feedback from the DMOE and CFG group. The only suggestion they had was to involve the coteacher in the lesson more - but remember, I don't even normally teach with her, so I'm seeing it as if I had no major criticisms!! Success!!

It is wonderful to have the Open Class behind me (we only need to do it once in the whole year) and I think I needed to hear the affirmation that I'm doing an acceptable job at teaching. Sometimes I remember that I have no training in teaching and get insecure, so it was lovely to hear a little encouragement that I'm doing well.

One of the girls in the CFG group is a friend of mine, so I asked her to take a few pictures of me teaching. They're pretty good for her taking them from her seat in the back of the room! Here you go!