Erin Lee (Kang-mul
Lee)
1987. 09. 16
I’m Erin from South Korea. Kangmul
is my Korean name which means river. I am
Bio
Poem
Enthusiastic,
Caring, Sincere
Whose mission for
teaching is
to help students
find their path and aid them through it, and to encourage them to develop their
talents and skills.
Who loves to share
experiences and feelings
Whose own favorite
teacher was Sung-hee Kim, her fifth grade homeroom teacher
Who wants to teach
students
how to learn and
make the best out of what they learned.
“The wisest mind
has something yet to learn.”
- George Santayana
-
A List of
Nothing in Particular
A Small List for Great Motivation
Erin Lee (Kangmul Lee)
Education is the ability to
listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
- Robert Frost
1.
The Story Book
“Once upon a time…” “… There lived a
princess.” Two voices overlapped.
One little girl suddenly started to follow her father’s reading. Her father
was surprised and then looked at her.
“Hey! Did you read the letters?
Can you read them?” “Yes, daddy.
I can read!” The little girl shouted out but she also didn’t know what just happened to her. It
was the
moment of my first reading, when I was 3 years old.
I don’t remember how I felt at the very first moment
I read. I only heard the story of it from my parents later on.
All I remember is the fact that when I was young, my father read me a storybook every evening, while my mother took care of my
younger sister. It was the best time of my day at that
time. I would lie in bed under the big and cozy blanket, and my father sat beside me, reading the books. When he
read, “Once upon a
time, there lived a little girl named ‘Cong-ji’”, I became that little girl. He
read another book the other day. “One day, the rabbit and the turtle decided to
have a race.” This time
I became the
rabbit. I really enjoyed listening to
the storybook, because it showed
me a totally different world where I’d never been to.
Sometimes the story flowed into my
dreams because I fell asleep while he was reading. I would
meet a monster, a
princess or the animals there. I believed that
the world in my storybooks actually existed somewhere.
Even now I enjoy reading novels before I go
to bed because of this
childhood memory. After I went
to the elementary school, I learned a lot about ‘how to read a book’.
However, it was my father who had the biggest influence on improving
my reading skills.
He kept telling me
that he couldn’t forget the very first moment I read the letters, how it happened all of a sudden. It’s said
that children
usually start to read naturally, without a great effort to teach how to
read. For me, the moment came a little early. I believe it owes much to my father. Every day I had ‘a book time’ with him and I really enjoyed it.
To me, reading
was not a stress, but a
joy. I saw many friends who didn’t like reading books. They usually
hated it because
they considered it boring. I think my father not only taught me how to read the letters, but also the more important lesson to ‘enjoy’ reading.
After I realized this fact, I have wanted to be a teacher. I want to teach others,
just like my father
did for me. What he showed me was that
teaching is not always about giving away
some great knowledge,
but helping the
students learn how to
enjoy their study and how to be involved into it naturally. I’m
not interested in
teaching something
fabulous. I just want to share my
experience to make the students feel happy, like my father did to me. It was only a little storybook that my father
gave to me, but it was also a great lesson about teaching someone how to enjoy
learning.
2. A piece
of paper
Why should I do this? It doesn’t make sense at all. I don’t want to do this STUPID thing anymore.
I looked at my textbook. Then I
looked around to see my classmates. They
were all concentrating on solving math problems. I was in math class in fifth grade. At
that time, I had trouble with studying mathematics. In fact,
I really hated it. I had not been
in trouble with math earlier,
but as I got older, the formulas were getting
harder for me to keep up with. “The sum of two numbers is 255. When the
smaller number is
subtracted from…” What the teacher said sounded like a
language I had never heard of. Is Emma
going to marry him? I thought about the novels that I read
yesterday. I should
call Ji-min to change our meeting place. I
also thought about
the appointment I made with my friends.
I was sitting in the classroom,
but my mind was
somewhere else. My math classes passed by like that.
One day, my teacher had me stay
after class. It’s certainly because of my test
result, I
thought. I messed up math exams. It was terrible, because all I saw during the
exam was the combination of black and white(the numbers and the paper).
‘Is she going to scold me? Maybe
she’ll
call my parents.’
My heart started beating so fast. “Kang-mul, do you know why
I called you?” I was too scared to
answer the question. “I’d like to give something to you. Please read it at home.” To my surprise, she
didn’t scold me. She didn’t say that
‘she was disappointed’-what most
teachers would say in
this situation. She just gave me a piece
of paper. When I got home, I started reading it slowly. It was a paper with the formulas and the explanations
of them were written down on
it. It started from the 3rd grade
level, which I could
understand on my own. At the bottom of the paper, the time and
dates were written. Monday through Wednesday: 3:00 pm ~ 5:00 pm, Thursday: 4:00 pm~ 5:00
pm. There was also the teacher’s
comment. It said,
“I understand the problem that you’re
having now. I didn’t like math either when I was young, but let me tell you something. What you’re
obsessed with is the fear
that you made up,
not the subject itself. Please understand it. I wrote down the time when I can help you to
study math additionally to keep up with other students. Feel free to come and see me at that time if
you need to. I encourage you to do so.” She was right. It was me who (unconsciously) decided
to hate math, because I
couldn’t keep up
with others. I felt that she understood me well. I was deeply impressed. For the past two years, the teachers always
scolded me or didn’t even care about my poor math level. Sometimes I thought that the math scores
could get better if I tried harder. Whenever
I thought that way, however, I simply threw out the idea because the teachers
didn’t even care about me, but this time her paper was a great motivation for me to try
studying
mathematics. Even though I’ve not been so good at math after that, at least I could
keep up with my
grade level.
Sometimes I feel that some teachers
don’t understand why their students have problems with studying, because the subjects are really
easy for the teachers. They had little experience of struggling in that
area when they were learners. Since they
don’t know why students don’t get their words, they can’t teach their students in the
right way. Having the knowledge of a subject is different from teaching it
well. The teacher should understand the learner’s position and
feelings first. I learned it from my 5th homeroom
teacher. She was an enthusiastic, powerful and bright
person, yet the most
important quality that she had was the ability to fully understand her students. I want to be a teacher like her who listens
to, cares, and understands the students. The greatest
gift I received from her was not the math skill, but a piece of paper that
encouraged me and changed me a lot.
3. A picture
It was boiling hot. The air conditioner didn’t work. I felt sticky due to the high humidity, and from
the open window the disgusting wind blew in.
One summer day, I was teaching English to
three high school students. It was too
hot to concentrate. I didn’t even
prepare enough for the lecture. ‘How
about just finishing
today’s class here?’ ‘No. I have to help them prepare for their
final exam.’ These two
thoughts were conflicting in my mind. So I decided to quickly explain the main points that they should know and
finish early. I hurried, and finally, explained the last
grammar rule. I raised my head up and looked at my students; they
were staring at me with
six puzzled eyes. Their faces seemed to say, ‘What’s
going on?’
I clearly remember that day because it was the most terrible memory of
my teaching experiences. Since I entered university, I’ve had a part time job for tutoring
English and also volunteered to teach English to children who couldn’t afford to get extra
education. The first class I had with my students was really terrific. I was pleased when
they understood my words and when their
grades got better. I also felt good because
I could help someone. Yet the most important thing was that
I was enthusiastic about
teaching them. So I prepared for the lessons every time, strived not to make mistakes, and tried to love my students. My first student was a girl named ‘Eun-ji.’ Her English level was a little bit low to
enter the university she wanted to go to.
She and I studied together for 10 months, and her English scores were
getting better and better as time went by.
In the end, she could enter the university that she wished for. It was a great delight, even though I knew
that it was the result of her great effort, not solely because of my
contribution. At the last time we met,
she gave me a small present. It was a
picture we took together one day during a short break in our lesson. On the back of the picture she wrote, ‘Thank
you, teacher. I appreciate that you
always tried your best to teach me and encourage me.’ Though I wasn’t good at teaching then, the
one thing that I had was the passion to teach.
As time went by, however, it was getting hard for me to pay
full attention
to my students. I had a lot of work and study to do on my
own. I also had to spend time hanging out with my friends. It was getting easier for me to forget the feeling of
joy I had felt at the very first lesson.
I finally realized
this on the day I saw the
three frustrated faces in class.
My father, who teaches English in high
school, tells me that
sometimes it’s
really difficult for him to
be enthusiastic for teaching, because
he would
give the same
lecture for every single class. It isn’t easy or interesting to repeat the same contents several
times. I think this is the biggest reason why some
teachers lose their original passion for teaching.
The other day I looked up the picture that my first
student gave me and had it in a picture frame.
‘Passion and Enthusiasm.’ If I really want to feel the joy of teaching,
I should always remember these two words.
One small picture gave me both the great happiness and the compass I
would depend on in the future, whenever I feel like losing my original
intention.
Quotation
Education is the
most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
– Nelson Mandela -