Open Class

It has been a while since I have been able to blog because we have had "OPEN CLASS" at our school. For those of you who don't know, this is where parents come and observe the classroom by sitting in with the children and watching the teacher and the child to see their progress with learning the English language. The pressure as a new teacher to perform is insurmountable and the continuous "encouragement" we give the children (more like force feeding them the correct English answers) is relentless! We prepare for weeks ahead of time and when the week of open class finally arrives the stress truly starts to pile on. We are told to make sure the children are ready for Circle time and Table time, but to not over prepare them so that they sound too rehearsed. Since they are smart children they pick up on our anxiety and begin to misbehave, and it is almost unbearable as you begin to think of all the ways the day could go wrong. You begin to bribe your children with the promise of candy or cakes if they just behave during Open Class while your superiors and parents are watching intently to every little thing that happens in your classroom. It is the most unnatural event where teachers and children have to act totally natural with a plastered smile on your face.

With this being said, my group of troublemakers did extraordinarily well and I received numerous compliments from the parents. My Korean manager told me that I did wonderful, and once the pounding migraine passed I felt as though I could fly! All the stress and worry was behind me, and my beautiful children and I could finally celebrate our success. Getting back to the daily ritual will be hard, but I have to admit, once a year for this event is plenty for me!