Observation day at Wonderland
After a day of observing my fellow foreign teachers' classes today, I feel like I was meant to be at Wonderland. Not only is this job well-suited for me because it is a teaching position, it is also complimentary because of the other educational roles I have taken on in my past; Residence Assisting, Montessori supervising, GirlsLEAD-ing, and tutoring have all helped to perfectly prepare me for the task I am embarking on here.
Similar to being on the Res Life Staff, Wonderland really emphasizes the importance of treating co-workers like teammates. Also, in working with and living so closely to the other Foreign Teachers, your co-workers feel like family. Working with children aged 3 to 6 at Montessori has certainly given me the patience and child-like attitude that is necessary to teach my Blueberry class of 6 year-olds. GirlsLEAD camp caused me to become accustomed to long, high-energy days wherein a smile is just as important when you start your day as it is when you end your day at 730am; after all Wonderland’s motto is “Everyone Smiles at Wonderland”. Even better, GirlsLEAD Barbados taught me the important lesson of being observant of cultural differences and using cultural elements (like food, customs, etc) to connect with the children. Also, since my afternoon classes are smaller in size –on average 8 students per class –tutoring throughout the last couple of years prove to be great practice for me to be able to help my struggling students keep pace with the rest of the students in my class.
Ultimately, I look forward to the opportunity to use all of these skills and strategies I’ve acquired when I start teaching my classes on Thursday. I’m also really looking forward to eating the 42cm pizza I just bought for 11,900 won ($11.90) with thin crust, spicy sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms and peppers –after I’ve picked off the olives, onions, and ground meat balls. This pizza is made up of 8 giant slices that I plan to eat all week long, especially when the lunches provided at Wonderland smell a bit too much like raw fish gruel or I want to opt out of using metal chopsticks :D
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