The Internet Ramblings of the QiRanger

I sit here on a drizzling Tuesday morning following my first night of teaching. I have to say, these kids are great. Last night’s classes were a blast and it was such a joy to get back in the classroom after nearly six months away. I’m not sure what it is about teaching that energizes me so much, but it certainly does. In fact, when I got home a little after 10pm, I found that I could not sleep and tossed and turned for nearly an hour before settling down to sleep.

Teaching for this school is vastly different from the last one, since Native Speaking teachers play an auxiliary role in instruction. That doesn’t diminish our roles, but is actually a challenge, since I don’t have the same number of contact hours per student as my Korean co-teachers. I would love a 1:1 relationship; however, I must admit that their English and pronunciation are very good and on par with ESL learners would they be immersed in a total native speaking environment.

I will also go on record and say that my Korean co-teachers do a fantastic job in organizing the classrooms. Each student, thus far, has been prepared and ready to participate. I think this is mainly due to the fact that they are in routine communication with the students’ parents and can immediately relay any kind of poor performance and have it rectified.

Today is a shorter day (meaning that we’re done an hour earlier), but I do have to go in at 10am to get a ride to the medical clinic to complete my examinations. It’s all part of the process to obtain your Alien Registration Card (ARC). Without the ARC, you’re not really legal and could be deported after 90 days. More importantly, without the ARC, you can’t obtain services like a mobile phone or Internet… and as much as I enjoy my new place of employment, I do not like going in an hour or two early every day, just so I can check e-mail and chat with friends and family. I like it even less when I head over to the coffee shop to use their Internet so I can connect with Jo each day. How I long to be able to do that here!

Switching gears a bit… today, and for the remainder of the week, we’re going to have rain. I’m not too jazzed about that. At least it’s supposed to clear up this weekend, but still, having every day off until 4pm and have it be raining is not what I call fun!

Keep it real folks!