Open Class

So I heard I was going to have an open class about a month ago. I knew what is was and kind of knew what to expect, and man was it interestingly fun. An open class is where other teachers and education representatives attend your class for observation. You pretty much perform an ideal class and your students will most likely be on their best behavior. So all in all, it's the class you wish you always had...

The night before I was actually worried I might be a little anxious, but luckily I slept well the whole night. My co-teacher actually prepared most of the materials, therefore she just handed me a script and sent me a powerpoint of our class activities. I kept telling her to let me know if she needed me to do anything, but she works too hard. So I did not partake much in the planning process. She prepared who was going to lead what and the exact activities. She gave me the script about two days before the open class and also gave me the ppt about a day before/ day of to look at. I had asked her some questions about open class because I read some stuff online and talked to other teachers about their open classes. I asked her what she expected of me. She just wanted me to start the class, follow the script and not use any Korean. (Usually I mix in a little and she also translates a lot during our normal classes) But for open class, there was supposed to be no Korean at all. (Only very very tiny)

So coming to school, I was actually really looking forward to my open class. I read the script and went over the activities a couple times and thought "Man, it has more activities than the normal class, but it's still like normal class." Therefore I was not very nervous or worried. My my co-teacher talked to me at school, she kept saying she was nervous. That's the thing. Sometimes when people keep saying they're nervous, nerves start to attack me. I kept trying to keep my cool and remembering, just think about the kids, forget the other old people watching us in the back. So starting I was a little jittery, but quickly became comfortable. It was just another regular-ish class.

So my CT starts talking and man I couldn't help but smile heavily. I know smiling is important when teaching and working with children. But I was smiling because of the way my CT was teaching. It was with a kind of awkward robotic English and of course to me, very scripted. And then I was also laughing because my students were on their best behavior ever. They were also robotic and did everything they were supposed to do! I just laughed in my head at the silliness of it all. Shoo, I'm still laughing right now. My CT was also quite nervous or something because she went through the activity I was supposed to be in charge of so quickly I didn't even get to speak. I was just like "WT?!? We gon end early...." So everything was going quite smoothly until we had 10 minutes left over. I asked some review questions to kill sometime, but I thought maybe I should also give my CT some time since she tends to always take lead. Unfortunately she was just like "Okay, that is all for class..." I was like "HUH? We gon end 10 minutes early?" in my head. So I just said bye to the kids telling them they did great. One thing I notice about some Koreans is that they really like to keep to the book and find it hard to work out of the book. So, although not preferable, we ended our class 10 minutes early... HAHAHA okay. yeah.

So after dismissing the children we sat down to hear what the observers had to say. There was the middle school English teacher and another elementary school English teacher. And then there was a head guy from the province English education board along with his helper. They were all very kind. The only guy who spoke English said he was quite satisfied with the class. The only thing they suggested was not ending class early, (hahhaha) more fill-in the blank activities, and using a laser pointer instead of me using my hand. I think if my CT would have entrusted me with the one activity and not have rushed it, our time would have been a little better.

Overall I liked the people who visited. The class was actually quite good. I smiled a lot due to the hilarity of my CT and students and enjoyed the whole experience. It can be nerve-wrecking to be observed at one's job, but I had quite a funny experience. I wonder what the students think... :)