Sunday, September 27, 2009

Co-Workers

Sometime ago I posted about my co-teachers. Well, since that time our English Department has grown some. When I first started back in March I had two co-teachers, Kate and Grace. I taught with them for the majority of the time. In the first semester I taught 3rd and 5th graders with Grace. I had six 3rd grade classes and four 5th grade classes. I taught four 6th grade classes with Kate. Now that we are in a new semester I am now teaching five 4th grade classes instead of the 3rd graders. Co-teaching is really easy. We pretty much dominate the classroom together. In our textbooks there are four sections to a chapter. I do the lesson plans for the 2nd and 3rd periods of each chapter and Grace and Kate do the other two. We feed off of each other very well. I must say, lesson planning for these classes are really easy, mainly because of the book. The book give us a basic outline and we add and subtract from it as we please.
I have had another co-teacher, her name is Heather. I don't actually teach with her but we share an after school Special English Class. I don't particularly like the title but oh well. It is suppose to be for gifted kids not special in the sense of challenged kids. We have worked our schedule out so that she teaches the two hour class on Wednesdays and I on Mondays and Fridays. I fill in for her if she needs me too. She tends to be really busy. You see, she is not a designated English teacher she is actually a homeroom teacher. She teaches second grade. But because she ran the English program the previous two years, they Vice Principal felt it necessary for her to run the class.
I have yet one more co-teacher to bring it to an even four. Her name is Un Hey. She teaches in the BEST (Baekbong English Special Town) program. Once again, more of that special business. The new facility was built for after school English studies. The center is state of the art with a cooking room, dance studio, green room, reading cafe and huge multipurpose room. I answer to Un Hey when it's about my class in the BEST program. It's a writing class. and I just started it a few weeks ago. I teach it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I love this class because I only have 10 students. It is much different than my regular classes of 35.
My other co-workers in our English department are Ben and Lydia. They teach strictly in the BEST program with the exception of a few hours. They are a couple from England. Latanya and I hang out with them often. We always seem to have a great time together.
So that's our staff. We all get along really well. I have heard many horror stories of really bad co-teachers and I find myself very lucky.

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