Wednesday, May 12, 2010

"Korean teacher is supposed to be the devil teacher"

I just met my friend, Sarah for dinner. She always says that I'm her "living diary" because she opens up to me a lot. Therefore, I feel the trust is mutual so I've also shared things with her that I don't with many people here. One of the main reasons is the language barrier, and Sarah's English level is near perfect. We just click.

This evening I told her how I've been feeling lately about teaching, especially with the little ones.

"What about your co-teacher?" she asked.
"She's there, but she's not 'there'," I tried to explain.

Sarah is familiar with KH (my co-teacher for 3rd and 4th grade) so she knows her style (and her Fran Drescher voice on max).

We talked about authority in the classroom. I told her how when I was the only teacher in the room, the kids were good, but the minute the Korean teacher came back, the student's changed. Sarah told me that kids are very clever and they know who they can take advantage of.

"So who's supposed to be in charge of the discipline?" I wanted to know.
"The Korean teacher is supposed to be the devil teacher."

Sarah often told me that I'm the "angel teacher" and the Korean teacher is the "devil teacher" as they are the ones who are supposed to deal with discipline of the students, not me.

There. Straight from a Korean teacher's mouth.
  

1 comment:

arr-jay said...

That is crazy! And HAS to be frustrating. It almost sounds like a parenting situation (when both parents are not on the same disciplinary page).

Devil teacher. Good Lord!