It's been two months since I replaced Gary at this school, and still students (not all, but more than a few) clearly miss him and leave me feeling dull and mediocre in comparison. This is discouraging. I am not the same sort of "funny," dynamic personality as he was, and although I have my strengths (e.g. my breadth of knowledge and experience, my linguistic training, and at least some pedagogical theory), these are not strengths typically appreciated by teenagers. I learned only on the 3rd week here that I already had a nickname among some of the students, which was, roughly, "the professor." This is almost eerie given that was also my nickname when I taught at Moorestown in 97-98.
Well. So this whole "take on the teaching thing again" is not feeling like a good move, just at the moment. What should I be doing different? Being "the professor" is not all bad, but it may not be what Korean teenagers want or need. That leaves me struggling to define and then fill a more appropriate role, but one which no doubt will come less naturally to me.