Reflective Teacher Blog Challenge – Day Seven: Who is your most inspirational colleague? Why?

That’s easy! My co-teacher! She inspires me both as a teacher and as a person in general. Her mastery of English motivates me to learn as much Korean as I can while I’m here. Sure, she’s been learning English since she was in grade school, so she’s got a few more years of experience studying English than I have with Korean. But a waygook (foreigner) can always aspire to be fluent, right? Her understanding of English at both the conversational and technical level makes her an invaluable asset to the students and the school. She’s kind, patient and encouraging with the kids. She cares about them, and wants them to succeed. And she is familiar with the students’ individual language abilities, so she knows how hard to push each of them. With me, she communicates in a timely and clear way. She’s positive, flexible, and she knows how to think ahead during a lesson. Furthermore, she goes out of her way to help me whenever possible and she’s always willing to try new things in class.  She (and all of my other colleagues) are incredibly hardworking, too. After eating dinner at school every night, you’d think it’d be time to call it a day (I sure do). But all of my coworkers, including my co-teacher, continue to work sometimes until 10 pm, only to be back at school by no later than 8 am the next day!

By exuding all of these great qualities, my co-teacher inspires me to be the best educator and person I can be. She might be small in size, but she’s having a big impact on me!