EPIK Reflections

I’m just finishing the first week of my second ‘EPIK’ year.   I’ve got my schedule for the middle school, but will be getting the elementary schedules next week when those schools start up again.  My schedule has changed from last year.  I’m at the elementary schools and the middle school 4 times on a weekly basis, which means teaching at one school in the moring and another in the afternoon.  But that only happens twice a week.  Also it’s good for the students to have their lessons spread out over the week as opposed seeing me once a week.  I’ve also got a new partner teacher, which is good and bad.  He’s quite nice and seems passionate about teaching.  Unfortunately, I’ve only got two partners out of six that I consider to be really effective co-teachers.  The others are quite nice, but they don’t involve themselves in the classes we share.  I think from my standpoint one of the biggest problems in EPIK is the interaction between the co-teachers.

Both sides could use a little more training on cultural issues, and setting concrete roles for each teacher in the classroom.  For example, deciding on a disciplinary  system  to be used to deal with misbehavior.  Ideally it could be applied by either teacher.  This way the students will behave better on the occasions when the NT has to teach them alone.  Also, clear roles need to be defined for the teachers during the class, ie which teacher leads during an activity, and how the other teacher can provide support during that time.  They do demo classes but as far as I know there isn’t any manifesto, and the program suffers for that.  Another point that could use work is setting up a standardized curriculum, as it is, my middle school motto is ‘you can teach as you please’.   So after a couple of classes trying to get an idea of student’s level of proficiency, I settled on a textbook and have been using ever since.  I want there to be a connection between all of my lessons, a curriculum with concrete aims to achieve.

Anyways, looking back on the job, I can say it’s been good to me.  I had the choice of trying a different location, but I didn’t want to risk trading down.  I know some teachers who haven’t enjoyed their placements, and I don’t want to wind up in that kind of situation.  I feel appreciated where I work now, and I’ve got a good schedule.  One in the hand is worth two in the bush as they say.