Friday, October 17, 2008

What would you do to develop professionally if your school “gave” you 1 day per week to pursue your goal(s).

Korean elementary school teachers should have many strings to their bow. Homeroom teachers teach almost every subject except a few subjects. There are special teachers for specific subject like English, Physical, Music and Fine art education. They teach only one subject to whole graders. But it depends on individual schools that they have special teachers or not. So there is a case that homeroom teachers have to teach every subject including physical, music, and fine art education. Also subject teachers can be homeroom teachers and vise versa. Every the end of the year we, teachers can decide whether they want to be homeroom teachers or subject teachers during next year. And we can the grades as well.
That’s why Korean elementary school teachers should know the entire curriculum from 1st grade to 6th grade about all subjects. And often teachers choose one subject that they’re interested in or good at and keep studying in graduate schools. Teachers are required to be men of accomplishments so if my school gave me 1 day per week for my profession development, I would like to do many things.
First of all I’d like to learn how to play the piano more. If I played the piano well I could teach songs playing the piano. I can do now but it needs to be practiced for quite a long time so if I could do that without much practice, I could do that with confidence and focus to my students not my playing. Furthermore classic music and the beautiful sound of piano give me metal relaxation and energy. It will definitely helpful to my school life.
Secondly I’d like to study Japanese. Other days I study English and just one day per week I want to invest my time in learning Japanese. I am interested in Language itself and knowing some languages can be a powerful tool for understanding their culture and people. In a globalized society we should understand about other countries, so many Korean students are studying Japanese as their second foreign language. Maybe I could teach Japanese to my students in an after school or extra curricular activity.
At last I want to go to swimming. I know how to swim but I’m not good at. I need to practice more especially the butterfly stroke and backstroke. It’s good for my health and I can teach how to swim to my students in an after school or extra curricular activity. And when I teach about swimming in Physical education I could teach in a practical, interesting way if I were good at.
The more I teach the students, the more I need to improve myself. It is one of important duties as a teacher that I give the chance to experience various things to my students. To do that, I should have more time for self-improvement. If I could have 1 day per week it would be awesome. I hope I can be a mature adult and a teacher.

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