"Thank you, Asia" series. 94 days left.
How could I go any longer before thanking Asia for my amazing experiences teaching high schoolers? Truthfully, I was feeling rather burned out by the time we left Green Bay in June 2010. At that time I had been the IB Coordinator while also teaching 3 sections of grade 9 English (90 students). I was exhausted and looking for greater balance.
Teaching in Korea was a breath of fresh air. My students in Korea were kind, bright, funny, well-behaved, and very tired! They challenged me to be at the top of my game with how and what I could teach. Classroom management issues disappeared overnight; it was all about connecting with kids and teaching my subject well. I had a blast. I grew. I fine-tuned my craft.
That first year at KIS brought the balance I had been dreaming of. I was full-time with only four classes and under 60 students to teach! I took on AP Literature - a college level course - for the first time (and continued to this day). I am fairly certain that first group of students taught me more about "close reading and analysis" than I taught them. I loved that group so much. Additionally, I took on the Speech and Debate Club, something I knew well. Again, the students were amazing leaders and learners, sending some students on to represent Korea at international competitions.
These trends didn't change when, four years later, I began teaching at HKIS. Here, the students were more awake, more spirited, more. . . Westernized. But they were and are just as spectacular, interesting, kind, and driven. Perhaps they are more creative; certainly the student body is more international in nature than KIS. Here, I continued working with public speaking as I coached Forensics for the last seven years. For much of that time, I had the great pleasure of traveling with the team to China and Malaysia. Recently, our team participated in an online Forensics Festival organized out of Amman, Jordan. What a blast (even on Zoom)!
Teaching has truly been a joy in Asia. I have been entirely spoiled. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the hundreds of students with whom I have had the pleasure to know.
