“The Sun rises in the morning along the clear seashore……” It has already been eight years since I sang the school song at the graduation ceremony in February, 2003. At that time, I thought I would come to this school again just to visit the teachers I met over the three years I was here, but, now, eight years later, I came to school not as a student but as a teacher for four weeks in May, 2011. It was very awkward saying hello with the teachers by bowing each other, while they used to react with the single and simple word “Hi!” when I bowed to them. Over the four weeks of teaching practice, I could learn and feel so many things and it left me three amazing gifts touching my heart.

The first gift I was given is getting to know Mr. Kim Jeong-gwan, who helped and taught me a lot as the guidance teacher. In the application for teaching practice, there were five choices I wrote down, and I did not hesitate at all to fill the blank of the first preference with “Hyundai Middle School.” That was because I wanted to meet and learn more from Ms. Nam Yeong-suk, my first grade homeroom teacher and the very first English teacher of my life. Unfortunately, however, she was just transferred to another school this year leaving this school, where she worked over a decade. I was very disappointed at first but expected to meet new beautiful people and I came to meet my guidance teacher Mr. Kim on the very first day of my teaching practice. We said hello each other with a handshake and I asked him his phone number and typed it on my cell phone. Then, it was very strange that I could see Ms. Nam’s number until I typed out nine numbers out of 10 of his. In other words, their phone numbers were just the same but the last number. With curiosity, I came back home and called my first grade homeroom teacher to say hi and let her know how the first day went with me. Then, she said she already heard about it and that was just as I expected. How wonderful! From then, the husband of my teacher from 11 years ago came to help and teach me for the last one month.

Another gift is the five new friends, the fellow student teachers, who spent the most of the time together over the four weeks. This year at the school, there were six student teachers including me, and we all taught different subjects: English, Korean, Science, Music, Fine Arts, and P.E., which made it full of fun and variety. We all felt quite uncomfortable and did not know what to say at the first moment meeting at the teachers’ office, but we could keep getting closer as we have more time to talk each other. What the six of us spent the most time together on seems like writing the daily record of teaching practice. Having to write it and get approval every single day, we asked and helped each other about what to write to fill in the blanks, and that remains as a real interesting part of my memories there. At the beginning of the program, the research director told us many things to help us and said the four weeks of teaching practice would never go away from the head and the fellow student teachers would remain as real precious friends. By now, at the end of the whole process, I can totally understand what he meant by that.

The other I could get from the 20 days at Hyundai Middle School is the 30 students from the first grade class 1. Entering the school 11 years ago, I was, too, in the class 1 as a first grader, so it reminded me of my time back in the days to become a teacher of ‘the juniors’ of my juniors. I remember students’ big laughter in the entire building at the moment I was on TV with the unique hairstyle and unusual appearance for the on-air morning meeting of all students. I came to know this later through one student from my class, but the class students found me very interesting and they were jealous of the class I was going to take care of. I think they did not pay good attention to the sound and missed the comment to introduce each student teachers’ subject and class. Actually, I first thought they might not be glad to have me as their class teacher because they are all boys, but it was the opposite of what I worried. They welcomed me very warmly and I could never forget them calling me “Teacher!” with the naive faces.

Out of the 30, I have got my favorite student, too. I observed how they speak or act over the first three weeks and, leaving a few days until the farewell, I felt like counseling them one on one because, as a young kid in their age, I struggled with myself on many troubles of relationship with classmates, self-esteem, self-identity, and so on. As a matter of fact, this is the most important reason I want to become a teacher. I enjoy teaching my favorite subject English to young students, but I am more eager to listen to what they suffer from and teach them, based on my personal experiences, that all the hard time at the moment is just the process to shine the light in the future. Even preparing to start teaching practice, I really wanted to find and help a kid who is just like me. Then, through the personal counseling, I could achieve my goal to meet a kid struggling with the same issue I dealt with 11 years ago and give lots of advice. The truth is that people around you may not like you now for being different, but every great man in the future is born with something very unique to be distinguished from any others.
 

In fact, the main purpose of teaching practice is to take a chance to give classes at a real school, but teaching was not something new to me since I have experienced college students’ volunteer in teaching and I am currently a teacher for the English Sunday school. Despite the fact, I was a little nervous at the very first class with around 30 students all in the same school uniform. I made some mistakes meeting some unexpected troubles but they never complained being generous and I was very thankful for that. Going through several classes, I could find myself making fewer mistakes but giving better delivery. The most important thing I care as a future teacher is that a class must be fun and interesting no matter what. If a class is not interesting to the teacher oneself, how would the learners feel about it? Thus, I tried to make my class exciting with the high-toned voice and various gestures and keep them having fun and paying attention throughout the 45 minutes by playing a game in the step of consolidation. For the research class on the last week, only one of the six student teachers was supposed to give an open class and I volunteered and became the representative. To be honest with myself, I was not professional enough at some points, but everyone gave me a great compliment during the class appraisal, which was briefly done at the cleaning time, and I was embarrassed but stayed humble with full of thanks.
 

The teaching practice began and ended in the month of May. Then, sometimes when I walk on the streets, I find some kids looking like middle school students who stare at me just like they cannot believe their eyes. I do not know them but many students remember me as a ‘teacher’ and say hi to me when they run into me on the streets. That even makes me look around once more with the expectation of meeting some kids feeling happy to meet me again.

Leaving a few weeks until the beginning of teaching practice, somebody told me that I will get to know when I finish it all if it really is my dream to become a teacher. By now, finishing the four weeks of teaching practice, I can surely tell what I really want…