During my first year in the teaching field, as I learned a new culture and language and took in new surroundings, I also learned and grew a lot as a teacher. This week I will be sharing some of these lessons learned while teaching ESL in South Korea.
Staying organized is so important no matter your field, or your job. By nature I am a pretty organized person and like to keep things in order. At times, I think this borders on crazy. At least, that’s what some of my coworkers thought when I had no sooner arrived to the institute and begun classes, that I took it upon myself to reorganize the staff room with its piles and piles of textbooks we had at our disposal. I liked to keep things neat and tidy, for ease of use and access when teachers were scrambling to learn new class schedules every two months, and needed the corresponding book STAT. Needless to say, it came in handy. For me, it was more visually pleasing to have a staff room that didn’t reek of clutter. For my coworkers, it meant knowing exactly where things were. I think it was part of this Type A mentality that led me to be chosen as the Coordinator at my local institute within my first six months of teaching there.
As a teacher, it’s critical to stay organized because disorder breeds confusion, and both teachers and students hate a mess, especially when it increases the potential of assignments (or worse yet, grades!) getting lost. For me, that meant keeping all my papers in one place, and my books lined up in my locker in just the order I would need them each day. Saves time, and stress.
Amanda M. Orozco 