Monday, October 12, 2009

Is a little peace and quiet too much to ask?

It's a good thing that my workload isn't that big because I would never get anything done. My office/English library is crawling with kids all day. Some of them want to talk to me and are genuinely interested in improving their English ability. However, most of them just use the library as their own personal playground. I love all of my students and I am by far the most lenient teacher in my school, which makes sense for a few obvious reasons. One, I don't speak Korean nearly well enough to control the kids. Two, my relationship with the kids is much more liberal than with their Korean teachers. Lastly, I am new to teaching and haven't figured out where to draw the line between teacher and the fun foreign guy. After 8 months of craziness and no peace and quiet, I have finally taken charge and put an end to the madness. I probably give the kids more credit than they deserve, but I wanted to deliver my message in a personalized way. So, I drafted a giant letter and had my co teacher translate it into Korean so the kids could understand it. I was a little skeptical that it would work but it did the trick. When the kids would read it, they would come up to me and tell me how sorry they were. I no longer have a carnival inside my office but here's a video to give you an idea of what it was like. Keep in mind that this was a rather mild day!

Here's the magic letter. A little guilt trip goes a long way I guess. Click on the picture for a larger version.

1 comment:

  1. Wow Osteen! You said they were crazy, but I had no idea! No wonder you made the sign... I thought you were just being dramatic when you said they used your office as a playground! ... but you def weren't kidding!

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