Teaching highlights from the week of March 31 - April 4

- On Monday, I was asked to teach a quick lesson on sports around the world, so rather than stick to the textbook and go on about soccer and baseball, which they're already experts at, I focused on three sports the kids aren't usually exposed to: American football, hockey, and Ultimate Frisbee.

One of my favourite parts was showing them clips of girls kicking ass at Ultimate and hockey, which blew their minds. One kid in particular laughed hysterically when he saw a picture of Shannon Szabados, goaltender for Canada's Olympic gold medal women's hockey team from the Vancouver Games, making a killer glove save; but that quickly changed to an impressive look of disbelief and awe after he saw a couple clips of her making some unbelievable saves.

The other awesome part was showing shot after shot of the Packers destroying the Bears. Here's just a sample from the lesson: That's Jay Cutler--he's the quarterback. Remember, the quarterback is the one who throws the ball. Jay Cutler plays for the Bears. Mr. Mendoza doesn't like the Bears. That's Clay Matthews. His job is to hunt down Jay Cutler and tackle him. When you tackle the quarterback, that's called a sack. As you can see from the picture, Clay Matthews likes to sack Jay Cutler. Now when we watch the video, everybody cheer with Mr. Mendoza when Jay Cutler gets sacked.

It was also a lot of fun to see their reactions to the Barry Sanders highlights I showed them. Every time he shed a tackle (or five) or spun away from a defender, they let out a roar of awe and disbelief.

- On Tuesday, I was asked to teach the Grade 3's about the differences between Rock, Paper, Scissors and the Korean equivalent, Kawi Bawi Bo. I couldn't teach them about RPS without talking about the RPS World Championship held in Toronto every year. Their heads hit the ceiling when I mentioned the $10, 000 grand prize. I'm slowly but surely convincing every child at Samsan Elementary to move to Toronto, grade by grade.

- On Tuesday I started receiving some of my Grade 5 and 6 pen pal letters that I'll be sending home to the wonderful kids at Malvern Junior Public School. My absolute very line that had me in stitches: "PS: My sister Olivia traveled to Canada. Do you know her?" They're so damn adorable.

- On Wednesday, I played a game of Connect Four with the Grade 6's to teach them about the weather. It was girls versus boys. At first, they were just intrigued by the display on the screen; but as the chips fell with every correct answer and they saw the strategy involved in the game, things started to heat up. Boys started to argue from across the room over which spot to pick next; girls pointed at the screen with eyes bulged open and screamed what I can only assume was "We can't choose spot 26, because then they get win! Look, you stupid girl!" Boys and girls cursed and screamed at each other when they were blocked by the opposing team.

What made this scene absolutely hysterical was that this particular bunch of sixth graders are usually so quiet, calm, and reserved. This was a whole other side I'd never seen before. My co-teacher and I just looked at each other in disbelief at the pandemonium erupting before our very eyes. It was beautiful.

It was a pretty exciting game; both sides had ample opportunities to win it all. The girls came away with the win in the end, though. Just as the bell rang, the boys missed a diagonal the girls had set up. As soon as one of the boys called out 16 instead of 14, the girls realized the game was theirs; they raised their arms and let out a cheer that nearly blew out all the windows in the classroom.

- On Friday, a girl came up to me and said, "Teacher, we have 4 tests on April two-two (22nd)--Math, Science, History, Social Studies. We play game today?" In my head I screamed, "You're goddamn right we're going to play a game today!" However the words that actually came out of my mouth were, "Of course we're going to play a game! It will be very fun!" She clapped and smiled and ran to her seat.

Afterwards, she came up to me exhausted and out of breath, grinning from ear to ear, and thanked me for a very fun game. That, as far as I'm concerned, is my job as a Native English Teacher here in Korea. At my school, I'm not allowed to reprimand students for misbehaviour, so class management isn't really of my concern; I don't mark or assign homework; I don't deal with parents or homeroom teachers; and I don't really lesson plan because I'm just told by my co-teacher which pages or sections I'm going to be teaching from the textbook the next day. I have next to no creative input in my job.

On top of all that, having over 600 kids whose names I don't know and who I only see once a week, it's very difficult to get to know the students and form a genuine relationship. The most I can get out of a kid is what they did on the weekend, what movie they recently watched, how they did in their soccer game, how hungry they are, or how much homework they did last night. That's it. And they see me for 40 minutes a week.

Yet, when I walk into the door, they go crazy with excitement--not because I'm a great teacher (though I hope I am), but because I'm their entertainment. I'm the guy with the fun games, the guy who makes funny faces, the guy who laughs at everything and gives them a high five, the goof who dances a jig during the excruciating "Story Chant." I'm here to make them smile, bring them some fun, and help them, if only for the twenty minutes I'm in front of the class, take off the overwhelming academic responsibilities that weigh on their shoulders. If they happen to learn some English in the process, well all the better.