It was the first week of class at Sunduck Middle School in Seoul and the students were giddy and excited to see me: their new American English teacher. I looked the part: I was wearing a tie and was standing in front of a very professional-looking (or so I thought) PowerPoint with a question and answer game. I was beaming a confident smile that hid how completely terrified I was. It was my first time in front of a classroom ever.
The “Me” Game
The question and answer game was all about me. When I asked my co-teachers what I should do for the first day of class, they told me to do something fun and introduce myself. I talked to a few other new teachers from Canada and America who were teaching at different schools around Seoul and they gave me some ideas. So I slapped together one of the most narcissistic and yet boring PowerPoints I’ve ever created: questions about which state I’m from, what my mother’s name is, my favorite food, etc. Students worked in teams to answer these boilerplate questions about me. After each group said their answer, in a complete sentence shouted in unison, I awarded points to the teams that got the correct answer.
And that was it – I just moved on to the next question. I didn’t go on to talk about what my mother is really like, how she can bake great apple pies, or about the best places in my hometown to get pizza, my favorite food. I just gave a point if they answered “a) Joan” or “b) pizza” and moved on.
