“I Didn’t Want to Stop Teaching” with Kyle Letot

Please note, this transcript is generated by AI and may include some errors. 

Spencer Payne: All right, here we are with another great episode of Front of the Class, Real Stories from Real Educators. And our real educator today is Kyle Letot. And Kyle, can you help give us a little introduction? Where are you right now? How long have you been teaching? What do you teach? All that good stuff. How do you introduce yourself when you're in the company of other educators?

Kyle Letot: Well, that's loaded, but here we go. my name is Kyle Letot. Usually if I introduce myself to other educators, I just say the same thing. Currently, however, I am talking to you from, if I want to get really specific, from Deogyang-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea right now at this point. And it is pretty late at night, but we're doing good. So it's all good here. But yeah.

Spencer Payne: Perfect. And what do you teach there? And how long you've been teaching subjects, age groups, give it a little bit of a makeup of the school, private, international, public, all that kind of good stuff. What's the quick spiel of the school? How long you've been teaching all that kind of good stuff.

Kyle Letot: Okay, so the school I teach at, I'll give you both names. So the Korean name is Goyang Wiggo Golden Hakkyo, but it's also known as Goyang Foreign Language High School. And I teach what they call first years, which would be equivalent to American 10th year, like 10th grade students. And I teach English conversation. So I teach about writing and speaking primarily with students.

And this is currently my second year doing it, but I've actually been an educator now for officially 10 years. So I've been in the education field and my God, it has been a lot of different jobs across the US and South Korea as well. And so pretty much currently at this time, I teach, I think we're close to about 300 students, since that's roughly how much the class is currently which is kind of similar to the US when I was teaching there, but trust me, there are a lot of differences between teaching in the US versus teaching in Korea as well. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: Well, we're definitely going to explore what some of those differences and maybe some similarities are throughout this. But first, curious, 10 years in the profession. What got you into this profession in the first place? Is it something you always wanted to do? Did you back into it? What's your teacher origination story?

Kyle Letot: Yes that's always a good question. So for the most part, before any and all of this, I always wanted to be an astronaut. That was the goal. I loved astronomy. I loved the stars. I wanted to explore. Unfortunately, and God rest his soul, my dad passed me. Well, my mom and dad combined, but I'm colorblind. And so at the time when I wanted to try to pursue astrophysics and everything, I would never have been accepted into any NASA's program.

So I was devastated. I was a devastated 13 year old having gone to space camp. And my dad shows me articles about teaching in space. And he said to me, you you can still like go to space, but you can just do it through education. And I was like, this is brilliant. I could do this. And it helped to like, my mom is also an educator. My mom taught eighth grade algebra for...15 years, 15, 16 years, but she had been herself an educator for almost 30 years herself. She was literally teaching since she graduated college at the age of 21 and had retired back in 2020. And so I was like, okay, I could be a teacher. But then, you you get to high school and the subjects get more difficult. And as much as I absolutely love science, unfortunately, science requires a lot of math.

And even though my mom is a math educator, that was not my strong suit, but I was totally into English and literature and I love language and linguistics. So I was like, I can go into, I can still teach and do English education. And that just kind of happened. And so when I went to university, I majored in secondary education in English and I minored in teaching earth and space science because I can't give up my love of astronomy and the stars and everything like that and so I ended up going into it. And then of course, I ended up getting my degree and I got my bachelor's and everything in it. And it kind of escalated from there. Like I always knew I wanted to go to other places and stuff. And it just kind of worked out in that way as well from there. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: And now you are in other places, that being the US to South Korea. So can you help us understand a little bit more of how did that happen? Like you've been teaching for 10 years, when in the journey did you move from the United States teaching to teaching in South Korea? And also why, what led you to this life?

Kyle Letot: So it's really funny, it was two people who led me to doing this, but to start originally. So I started teaching back in 2015. So after I graduated university, I taught for two years in Arizona. And when I was in my second year of Arizona, I was getting burned out. A lot of new teachers, it happens to many of us, you get burned out, you get overworked. It was just, I was like, oh, but I didn't wanna stop teaching. I got so, I get so much enjoyment and pleasure from it. So I was like, I still want to do it.

Spencer Payne: And real quick, sorry, if you don't mind, could you help us understand a little bit? What part did you love and what part burned you out? Just so we can understand, because that's an interesting dichotomy that you share of like, I loved it, but it was too much based on whatever was being asked of me at the time. So we're going to get into South Korea for a second. But can you just expand on that for a little bit, if you don't mind?

Kyle Letot: Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Absolutely. So, okay. With a lot of educators, when you're in your first couple years of teaching, you... I hate to say this, but college can give you such great foundational knowledge, but the actual practice...and doing the classroom and being in it is totally different. And so when you have your own classroom and you're figuring out yourself and your teaching strategies and your own philosophies and what you're doing, it is. It's literally like you're being tossed into the wolves and they're like, all right, have fun. And so during that time, if you don't have a good support system, especially from your administration, it's really difficult.

And for me, I'm...23, then then like I was 23 to 25, I was teaching high school and I was also in charge of student council. I never did student council when I was in high school myself. I was never like, I was put to be in charge of this and it was incredibly difficult because we were also in charge of all the other student activities and groups. We were in charge of all the dances. We were in charge of organizing all these things. And then I had to like, you know, every time I needed to spend money for it from like the council's fund, I had to always put in this paperwork, but sometimes they would deny it because, it's too late or you can't. I ended up spending a lot of my own money for the school. And of course, part of that with the teacher salary is I was struggling a lot with finance. And so that and the stress of it all was just and I had to teach my own classes on top of it. And it was just it was way it was just I was so burdened.

And the problem was I was getting help, but I was getting a lot of help. And the help I was getting was more like, you understand this, right? And I'm like, no, this is my first time doing it. How can you expect me to understand? And so the first year I had a coworker with me doing it, but then he was like, I can't do this anymore. And then I was by myself and I was like, this is also my second year of teaching and I have to do everything alone. And I was really fortunate, like shout out seriously to Sue Du Bois, Casey Guipe, and god, there was another woman too, who her name is also Sue, her dearly. Those three women made my life so much easier when I was teaching. So shout out to them if they ever hear this or see this. But it was just, it was a lot of work. And so then one of my best friends who I've known her, god, for 13 years now, we went to college together as well, her name's Sarah, she was the one who said to me, hey, you wanted to go abroad. So why don't you try this TEFL program? It's called ITA. It's like International TEFL Academy. And they have their main headquarters through Chicago, but you can go online and do the certification process. And what it is, it gets you your teaching English as a foreign language certification. And I thought, this is brilliant. I'll do this.

So during my last year of teaching, I was also studying and taking classes so that way I can get my certification. And I think it took like four months if I remember correctly, was like four or five months, because it took a while for the certification to be processed. And as you're doing it, they ask you, know, which continents do you want to go to? And I'm thinking to myself, like, where do I want to go? At first, I'm like, Europe would be cool. But I'm like, but I could always go visit that. And then I South America. But then I'm like, again, I'm in North America. I can always go visit. So then I was debating between did I want to go to either Africa, Middle East or Asia? And in my mind, I'm like I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to go to Asia. I'm gonna try Asia. And so then as I'm looking at it, one of my, I had another great friend, her name's Shara from the Philippines. I worked at this hotel when I was 19 and 20 and a lot of my coworkers were either Filipina or they were from Jamaica. And I was really close to a lot of the Filipinos.

And she said, she asked me too the same question, like which countries in Asia? And I was like, okay, I'm looking kind of at Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and then she immediately said, South Korea, go to South Korea. And I was like, why? And she said, it's clean, good healthcare, people are friendly, it's technologically advanced, go to South Korea. And then I said, okay. That was all it took. I was like, all right, let's do it. And so that's what I did. And so I got my certification and then I started applying through, it's called EPIC, which is English placement in Korea.

And that's how you can get placed in public schools in Korea. So I tried to do EPIC, which heads up for any teachers out there who are interested in wanting, you know, to do this. I'm so sorry to say this, but do not tell the person that you are taking any kind of anxiety, depression, any kind of mental health medication. Do not tell them. Do not say that at all. Because even when I had briefly said I was taking some anxiety medication, but not anymore.

Nope. They immediately were like, oh, thank you so much. Because at first they were going to put me in a place because I also have a teaching degree. But then as soon as I said that, they're like, nope. I'm so like, again, whoever's out there, just please don't tell them. I'm sorry to say this. You're going to have to keep it under wraps. And so that stunk because I was like, crap, that would have been good. So then I went through the private education sector in Korea. This is called Ahagwon. And what you do is it's like

Spencer Payne: Hmm. Hmm.

Kyle Letot: It's like academies. So it's like private schooling after school. So most schools in Korea, they don't go as long through the day as it does in the U.S. So if it's elementary school, I think you start at like seven or eight and you finish by 2 p.m. And then if you're a middle school, you finish by like three high school, four or five o'clock. So throughout the day, you'll start with like younger kids, older kids, and then older kids for like a lot of these academies and stuff.

So I did that and that's how I got my first job in Korea. And I was located not in Seoul, where a lot of people usually go to Seoul or something. I was in Gwangju, which is one of the more southern cities on the west side. So it's in the province of Jeollanam-do, because it literally means like the southern area. Yeah. And that's kind of how I got there.

Spencer Payne: And what's kept you there? You've been there for eight years. Is that right? And I'm guessing correct me if I'm wrong, your intent in going there wasn't, I'm committing to eight years. So like obviously something has attracted you to remain. What has kept you there for eight years after maybe your initial assumption was I'm going to try this out for a year or two. What's kept you there?

Kyle Letot: Yes, officially eight years. Yeah, this past August is my eighth year.

No, love, no. Part of it, but actually, so after my first six months in Korea, I knew I wanted to stay for another year. So, a lot of, oftentimes, you know, when you're living abroad, traveling, stuff like that, you, of course, there's going to be, I'm trying to remember the word for it, this is where my English fails me. It's a...What is it called? It's culture shock. That's it. Culture shock. There you go. People experience culture shock. so oftentimes a lot of my friends, when they came to Korea, they experienced it pretty badly. And so a lot of them only stayed for like a year or so. I never once experienced it coming to Korea. And I thought that was a good sign because I was like, I don't feel that culture shock. It was more like, yeah, this doesn't feel that unfamiliar. It feels comfortable. feels...right. And so I knew I wanted to stay for another year because I really enjoyed it. But luckily, within my year, my first year of Korea, I ended up meeting my boyfriend and we've been together now for almost seven years. And so he's been a huge factor because he is also Korean as well. So he was definitely a part of it.

But I just really enjoyed, you know, teaching here and being here. I really liked the different experiences I kept garnering each time. And so I think I can say comfortably at this time, I'm still going to plan on being in Korea for at least another two, three years for sure. And just kind of keep going from there as it continues. I think what helps a lot too, and a lot of people may or may not agree with this and that's fine. I find that I get a bit too complacent if I stay too long at a job. And sometimes I feel that I'm not getting challenged enough or I'm not feeling I'm able to push myself as much as I want to. And so then I pretty much my first job, I was there for about a year and three months. My second job, I was there for two years. My third job, three years. And I'm on my fourth job and it's been almost two years. And for me, that kind of helps because it is challenging me to take on different levels and to like teach different types of students.

I started with kindergarten and elementary and middle school students like combined at the hog one. Then I taught business English for two years. So I taught strictly adults and then I taught a university foundation program for three years. And then now I'm teaching high school students. And so it's been really cool to kind of figure out how to teach them what to do, what it's like to be at this position. And that's helped a lot with you know, my feelings when it comes to my job and everything.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And, and I just want to point something out to right. I've liked that first couple of years where you're a new teacher. And then all of sudden it's like, Hey, go help a student council and now go run all the student council and all these other things. Right. You could argue like, Hey, that's a challenge, but maybe that's just too much challenge and new stuff at once. Right. As opposed to you're kind of approaching it like, after two to three years, once I kind of feel like I've kind of maybe mastered my skill at something. Now it's time for a new challenge. Now it's time to expand. Once I feel like I'm very good at this thing that I've been doing, two totally different things. Right. And so for those of you who might feel the same way, I kind of get bored after a couple of years, like, great, take the next challenge, but don't, maybe don't take seven things all at once. Right. That can be overwhelming.

Kyle Letot: Yeah, no, that's exactly it because you know, there's a difference between being challenged and being burdened. And for me, I'm choosing these challenges when I'm switching jobs and I'm learning different things. I'm choosing it. But my first two years when I was pushed into doing all that extra work, I was voluntold. A favorite word amongst a lot of people. And so that was I didn't get to choose that and

Spencer Payne: Yeah, yeah, Yeah.

Kyle Letot: Even though I was trained on it, I was trained in like one afternoon and told this is what you do. And I'm just like, my gosh. And then I wanted to like ask for help frequently, but the person who was supposed to help me with a lot of it was not always there at the school because they were switching from being a teacher to doing an administrative thing in the town itself. So it was like, what do I do?

Spencer Payne: Yeah, just, just tough. well, one other thing you mentioned earlier on that I do want to get to is just the differences in teaching in the United States versus in South Korea. Could you share maybe just a top three, like for, for folks who were just curious and they've never been, or they'd never heard this, what are the biggest three differences in the way that maybe the schools that you've taught at so far, in South Korea approach education, teaching versus how it was approached when you were teaching in United States. What are the biggest three kind of differences, changes, could be good, could be bad, but what are the biggest three things that you see as just, this is totally different than how we do it in the States.

Kyle Letot: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Okay, so in the States, think one of the biggest differences I've noticed is a lot of the ways how we treat the students. That's a huge difference between, because I know like in the States, there's, of course, certain things you can or cannot do with students. I feel like with a lot of the students, you had to kind of find your own unique way to work with each of them to kind of get them and to understand them. But like in Korea, it's a little bit easier to kind of treat everyone more similarly to each other. And so that's when it comes like, especially with like disciplining, because of course, you do have to do this, you have to kind of like discipline or like show like this consequences, you have to handle this. So like with students in Korea, it's much easier to do that with in certain ways.

But like in the US, you have to get more creative about how you do it because if you were to outright like yell at a student in the US, like that kid could easily yell back at you and then you have a fight going on. But so you have to like find a more unique way, like a more creative way to kind of be like, okay, look, this is how I'm going to work with you. What's going on. But in Korea, it's much, you can be a lot more forceful, a lot more direct and the student will be more accepting of it. But this also, I do want to emphasize too, the high school I am teaching at, it is a private high school as well.

Well, when I taught in the US, I did teach public school. And so that's why that's another part of it too, I think too, is that dynamic. So I kind of have to be. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: As in, would it be fair to assume that it's just a different caliber of student, maybe one that is coming from a different background where discipline might be more instilled by the parents in the school you're teaching at now versus where you were before? Is that fair assumption?

Kyle Letot: Absolutely. Partly, I would say partly. I do know, like, especially because I have coworkers who've been teaching in Korea much longer than I have, and so they've noticed bigger differences in comparison. I would still say, I think what's kind of an interesting change is the parents are not exactly doing that so much, but it's more like because during the school system, since a lot of my current students are coming from, I would say, more affluent backgrounds, because like I said, it is a private, it's a private Christian high school and so they are coming from more affluent backgrounds. So in this case especially, students have to be incredibly studious. So another big difference between the two is the studious nature of the students as well. Students in the U.S., while they are pushed to study and stuff, a lot of students just don't understand like how valuable that is at the time.

While the students in Korea know how insanely valuable it is and they've been working at it since they've been in kindergarten because the competitiveness this is where you'll hear an expression called hell joseon and it means like the hell of korea because it is so competitive here in korea like the competitive nature it is it's very difficult and so students pretty much from the young ages are competing to be the most studious, have the best grades, get the highest ranks in the class. They're also competing to be more fluent in languages, to be able to do certain sports and music and stuff, because the main goal is you want to get into one of the top three universities in Korea. They call it Sky University. So that's Seoul National University. Yonsei and then Korea University or Goryeo Dehakkyo.

And so those are like, if you get into one of those three universities, especially Seoul National University. That's the dream. That's the dream every parent wants. Especially if you get into the medical school of Seoul National University. you've just made your parents happy for life. And so like a lot of students spend most of their life studying and not being a kid and not playing and living life. So that's kind of another big difference where in the US it's encouraged to do things, go out, explore, like find what you like, be creative. And that's just not as big of a push in Korea. So that would be the second thing. And then I think the third thing, the difference between the two itself. I think it's not like a huge thing, but I think it's something that kind of shows a lot.

So in most high schools, and it's pretty much in all public, all schooling, public and private, students must wear uniforms. It is an absolute requirement. You must wear a uniform. And so for a lot of students, it's, and I kind of feel bad about this, there's times where I feel like they all kind of get a little bit lumped together because I'm so used to seeing more of that individual identity, which I used to see when I was teaching high school in the US, which I would see the different styles and personalities of students. And I think that helped me to really understand and learn who they are really well. But in Korea, like since they're all wearing uniforms, it takes me a little bit longer to learn names. And it takes me a little bit longer to notice certain key features and key things about students because, you know, oftentimes our clothes are a huge identity of us.

So like just the other day I was in Ikea here in Korea and I see one of my students and I didn't even recognize her because she's not totally... No, gosh, no. She's out of uniform. She's wearing more makeup. She has her lenses in because it's a really popular thing here. I literally almost didn't recognize her.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, out of the usual.

When you say her lenses, are we talking glasses? What are we talking?

Kyle Letot: No, so a really popular thing in Korea is, and this is with both guys and girls too, not only do they wear contact lenses, but you can get different eye color lenses and you can just wear them as like a thing and they look really natural and they'll change and they can do different colors. It's a really popular thing. If you look at a lot of K-pop idols, they're all wearing lenses. That's not, none of them have that type of eye color. That's totally not a thing. Cause most pretty much I would say

Pretty much every Korean has brown eyes. Brown eyes or even black are really dark chocolate eyes. So to see any of them with like a green eye, it's fake. Yeah. Absolutely, it's really popular, yeah.

Spencer Payne: Lenses, lenses. One thing you mentioned is you seem like you spanned across elementary, adult, high school, middle school. That's a massive range from, I don't know, five to 20 years old. If we could pick on, say, maybe something simple, just high school, middle school. What are some of the differences of how you approach teaching middle schoolers versus high schoolers? Like,

Kyle Letot: Yeah. Yes.

Spencer Payne: And we're said differently, maybe someone who's going from middle school to high school. What advice might you share with them on your experience of what are some of the things that you've seen that may have worked in teaching middle schoolers that maybe don't quite apply as much in high school or vice versa? can you share a little advice to others or maybe yourself on, hey, I'm going from middle school to high school. What do I need to know? What maybe should I think about doing differently because those age groups just are different and how do I need to change my approach?

Kyle Letot: Okay, so I will, okay. So in Korea, middle school is kind of like one of the last opportunities for students to have more fun before they have to get serious and studious. So oftentimes students are a lot more wild in middle school. And so I would say if you're going to be teaching middle school in Korea, you need to be a lot more firm and a lot stricter with them.

Only because in that case, since you gotta prepare them for high school and since high school is such a pivotal time for them, students kind of see it as, that's in the future. I don't have to worry about it now. So if you are teaching middle school, you gotta be willing to be firm with students. And if you cannot handle that, then they're gonna eat you alive. And so, but at the same time too, you cannot, you also have to understand that they're kids and this is their last opportunity to have fun.

So you have to find a really good balance between the two. And so that was a big thing. Like I tried to make sure I did when I was teaching my middle schoolers while things were incredibly serious. I tried to like, I would, you know, make more jokes with them. I'd make them laugh. I would do things to kind of ease tension because it's like, yes, we're going to be serious, but I want you to still have fun before you do have to like buckle down for the next three years and pretty much study 10 plus hours a day until you graduate. And so yeah, it's incredibly serious. And so that's something I would recommend. Now for high school, this is where it's going to be a lot of, you need to have a lot of empathy for these students, because a lot of them, it's going to be some of the toughest years of their life because they're working so hard.

There is a difference in dynamic between private and public high school. Like, there's like a joke like public high school is a lot rougher compared to private high school. But it's going to be that same thing of, you know, you have to kind of understand a lot of these students, this is like incredibly difficult time for them. So you need to have empathy for that. So you have to still be pretty direct. Don't be afraid to like, get like really serious with students about stuff. But yeah.

Spencer Payne: What's an example maybe of how you've been very direct? any examples that you can share in the classroom, maybe even the past month, whatever it may be of like, give us an example of what being direct means to you in that context.

Kyle Letot: Okay, so if it's, for example, sometimes students, not sometimes, it's always, but they'll say something and it's like they completely say it without thinking. And so for me, I will literally look and be like, excuse you, or I'll be like, the students are me they're like, and so I will look at them and say, do you realize what you said? And they're like, what? And I'm like, you cannot be doing that in my class. And I get really serious face with them.

But then after I get serious and look at them, then I'm like, it's fine. Because again, a lot of these students are under intense pressure. So it's a lot of that seriousness. I've not done it, but I know a lot of, only because I haven't needed to do so. But I know with other students, especially Korean teachers, we'll take them into the hallway and just scream at them. Which I'm like, ooh. Because  I understand that's their way of it, because it's kind of part of that humiliation, but I don't agree with that. So for me, I'd rather kind of do it more subdued, where a lot of it is my look in my face and how I look at them and be like, you just messed up right now. Do you know why you just messed up? Because I want them to first understand what did they do wrong. And so I try to take care of it right there in that moment.

Or if it's a serious thing, then I ask to see them after class or I will say, please go in the hall and I'll talk to you. And I talk quietly. So that's kind of my more direct method in that sense. Or another thing I often do, which I'm gonna say I got this from my mom because my mom, she taught middle school in the US for like a long time. So she used to do this all the time too. I use a lot of sarcasm, a lot, a lot of sarcasm. And it's a really strong defense mechanism. So what I do is when I use sarcasm, I do it as jokes say it with the students. So it's that gentleness of, am joking with you, I am making fun of you. I hope you understand I'm making fun of you because this is like me kind of chiding, scolding a little bit at you, but I'm not trying to be malicious at the same time.

So you have to find that balance between, especially with the students and since, know. Of course, it's a Korean school, English is not the first language of many students. You have to kind of identify what is the culture of the class as well. So that's kind of the big thing.

Spencer Payne: And yeah, yeah. And I'd love to talk some stories after 10 years of your time in the classroom. Any particular proudest moments that strike you of either something you, a student, a class, a group, student council group, whatever, anything that you were a part of that you look back on and think that was a special moment. Any proudest moments after 10 years in classroom.

Kyle Letot: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

That's a really good question. It's, gosh, I'm gonna tell you, it's really hard to think of one specific thing. It's more of just certain small stuff over the years that have really touched me. When I was teaching high school in the US, when I would have students who would just be flunking my class, and then at the end of the year, they get a C, I'm just like, my God. And they're literally like, I did it. And I'm like, you did that. And I'm just so proud because it's like they got it together. Or other students who start to actually take school seriously and then they start coming more often than they're actually participating. I'm like, yes, this is what I want to see. Or when I was at my first talk, yeah.

Spencer Payne: And real quick on that note, how do you encourage that? Like any example, like you said, this is what I want to see. Like that first time they raised their hand, even if they're wrong, are you like that? how? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kyle Letot: Yeah. Yes. Yes. I'm like, I'm literally like, yes. Good try. Love it. I'm like, it's not right, but do it again. I do that every time. Like when I have students who give the wrong answer, I'll always say, ooh, close, but, and then I'll say, let's try it again. Or I'm like, ooh, I want another one. That's what I do too. I'll always ask for more. So even though I'm taking up more time, it's that thing of like, I'm not, cause I always tell the students, look, you guys can ask any question.

It can be a very silly, very terrible question. I will still answer it. And they're like, really? I'm like, yes. Or there's times where I'll get asked something and I literally don't know how to respond because I have, I am about to start laughing if I do. So I'm just like, I just kind of look at them and another student was like, should I not have asked it? And another student's like, well, what do you think? So I'm just like, it's fine, it's fine. just, let me take a moment.

That kind of thing. That's a huge thing I always do. I, oh, something else I absolutely love, and this is very recent. I had, so students had to do a performance test, which means I have to check how is their speaking level ability in English. So I do writing, I do speaking. And I just did speaking recently with students. And I, it was amazing to see how some students were like so serious.

Like so like I want to be perfect when I'm doing this. Because some students are incredibly shy. They don't really speak a lot in class, but they're like, okay, great. I can record myself, send it to her, she'll hear it. I had several students who absolutely shocked me at how professional, at how strong they were in their speaking. Because they had to do a news report where they were like in the news team and they were giving like, here's the first, or here's our headline story, here's our sports news, here's our pop culture.

And some of these students were just like, I'm like, my God, like this was you? Like you did this. And they're just like, teacher, I was that good? I'm like, yes, you were that amazing. And I try to make sure like I explain like this is something you did well, but here's also some things to work on to help you for next time. And so it's, I'm telling you, it's so cool when I see some students who are really shy or who I'm worried about, but then they do that. And I'm like, my they got this. They're good. This is great. And it just kind of shows like how some like really when it comes to it, they're way better than what you give them credit for.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, there are some people who have a lot of a lot higher, higher competence level than maybe you think or they think, but they lack the confidence or they don't maybe believe that they do. I will share, like, those are some of my favorite people in the world to work with, right? Because they're usually, they're very good at what they do. They just, they need, they just need some love, right? Like as, as opposed to the person who is extremely high confidence, but maybe not that confident or high confidence, but maybe not that confident.

And they're ready to just like, yeah, and then you're just like, my god, how do you how do you how do you work with this one? This one? That one's a tougher one. But those ones that are very good, but not confident. Those are some of my favorite people to work with. Because it's just like, how do we tease this out of you? How do we how do we show you more love encourage you because those are people who are just like, especially once you see it just like I had no idea you're this good. Yeah, want to show them show them more love.

Kyle Letot: Yes, it's absolutely, it's in, the thing too is like even the ones who they try so hard and unfortunately it's just not their strong suit, I'm always like just keep doing it. I need you to keep practicing. I give them homework like okay, this is not really official homework but this is something you can be doing to help. And my God, like one student in particular I have, bless his little heart, he's such, he's, when I say he's weird, I don't mean creepy weird. I just mean he's so adorably weird because he just says some of the most random stuff in English because he's practicing and he'll just, first semester, barely ever talk to me. And I was really worried about this. was like, crap, like his English is not gonna be good. This is really bad because especially at the school, you've gotta be at least somewhat decent at English or this is really difficult for me to teach you.

I think it's because I said it to him so seriously in first semester. said to him, you've got to get better at English. You've got to practice it. You've got to be doing something. He's gotten more confident and more comfortable, especially with me, that while his English is getting a little bit by a little bit better, it's because of the confidence. It's kind of that thing where I'm like, wow, look at him go. And I told him, I'm like, you're getting better. And he was like, really? I'm like, yes, but I'm like, but you need to keep practicing. And he was like, and I'm like, have to keep practicing. But it was just so delightful because, like I said, he'll say the most strangest things and he'll kind of be like, should I stop? And I'm like, no, you need to practice. So I said, you can keep going. But I told him, but I'm still going to look at you like, so. But yeah, so it was that is something I love to see.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. And on another note of stories after 10 years in the classroom, any funniest, wildest, craziest, I still can't believe that actually happened or that person said this, any of those that you're able to share, especially if potentially no names involved, they don't need to be, but any of those wild, crazy, yeah, those wild, crazy stories that you can, you can remember that have really stuck out to you after, after 10 years in the classroom across two continents and multiple schools.

Kyle Letot: Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. That's why I've been trying to do no names. Yeah man, God, been so many. It's several different ones. I'll just kind of like briefly touch on some of them. One of my favorite ones back in, when I was teaching in Arizona, one student, he was very, very funny and he had really great witty quips. And I told him, I'm like, I need to start writing down the things that you're saying. And so I actually started to write down every time he'd have like a silly quip or if I came up with something, I'd write it down. I love that because we, unfortunately, we didn't get very far with it, but it was a very funny moment where he and I kept like Playing off of each other. We kept bouncing back and forth in class Just like trying to one-up each other on like witty silly things to say it was that I absolutely loved that That was so fun. Love that dearly Another time that I'm trying to think like another one I loved. That was really cool

So it was my last year in Arizona and I, we were finishing up prom and I was, I'm telling you. And I I give credit, the student council kids really worked hard on it, but I also know I had to do so much extra stuff above and beyond. But it was really cool the fact that parents who came, all the students who came, we sold all of our tickets, which never happens. Most of the student class came, which never happens. And everyone who came literally all said, well done. This is amazing. This is the best one we've ever had. And that felt so good to hear from students as just like a thing. And I was so proud because then after that, I actually set the bar. So the following years after I heard like they tried to keep up to that same level. So that to me was just a moment of, I love that I started this with you guys because we could do this together. And that was cool. But my gosh, coming into Korea.

But in Korea though, God, there's so many. But I think one very recently that happened, which I told him I'm gonna laugh about this forever. So one of my students in class, we were doing a thing where they had to predict technology 50 years in the future. So in 2075. And I said, what do you guys think are gonna be the ways how we communicate with each other? Students were saying telepathy, computer chips, holograms, teleportation devices, tons of stuff. He said, pigeons, which I was like.

And it took me a second, because I was like, no, he did not. Did he? And I was like, can you say that again? And he said, pigeons. And I'm like. And I just burst out laughing. I was laughing so hard. But at the same time, I'm like, that's a fair point. Because if something happens and it completely destroys all typical technology that we have, I'm like, that's actually a good idea. But I was laughing so hard because I was just... And I've done that unit. Even when I was teaching my university students, I did this unit. Nobody ever said this before. It just took me by complete surprise.

And so after that, I kept making pigeon jokes to him and he was a very good sport about it. But the thing is, because I said it and then I jokingly said to him, well, now I'll just call you Mr. Pigeon. That's his English name in my class. He is Mr. Pigeon and he has completely taken it. He's been such a good sport and so I will make jokes. And so one time he came late to class and I'm like, Mr. Pigeon, you need to leave the nest faster. And everyone laughs and he's laughing too. Or he'll do something and I'm like, oh, did you hurt your wing? Just like literally just, it's so silly, but he's been such a good sport and he laughs. And I said to him, you don't have to pretend. I told the students, you guys don't have to pretend. I know I'm not that funny. And they're like, no teacher you're really funny that's why we're laughing and I'm like shucks but that to me was one I will never forget because that made me laugh so hard just things like that yeah mm-hmm

Spencer Payne: Yep. And on the note real quick of the witty student, you know, I've said this before here, but I'll say it again. Like when stuff happens like that, you got to write it down. The shortest pencil is worth more than the longest memory. Like if you don't write it down, you're going to forget. like I've got a little three year old and anytime he says something that just like, I'm like, where did that come from? I've got a little note in my folder of like cool lines. My three year old says, and I'm just writing them down because otherwise I'm to, I'm going to forget them. And I don't want to forget because they're really memorable in the moment, but if I don't write it down in a month, I will completely forget what it was that he said. encourage others. If you want to go remember those witty quips, those hilarious lines that happened, go write it down at end of the day, or you will forget. No matter how much you trick yourself, I'll remember that one forever. You will not. You gotta go write it down.

Kyle Letot: No, you're right. know. especially to like, so, and like, I had another student who he wrote, it was definitely a dig at Americans, which it made me laugh really hard, actually. Because there is this kind of, because in truth, with the political climate and everything, I won't get too much into it. But with the political climate, there is a lot of memes, a lot of jokes about stuff that's happening. And he said, a very like a really good kind of insult towards like Americans and he literally before he submitted his script he's like teacher is this acceptable and so he wanted me to read it because he said if it was not appropriate he would take it out but I looked at it and I laughed for 10 minutes straight because I was like this is incredibly hilarious and I love the fact that he wants me to proofread the insult

It just made it even funnier. I took a picture of it too. I'll show you later. my gosh, it was so funny. I kept laughing and I looked at him and I'm like, and I asked him, you know, do you really like think this way? And he goes, yeah. And I'm like, I understand. I'm like, I accept that you may keep it in your news report. And he goes, really? I'm like, yeah. I said, it is not uncommon that a lot of countries and people will have opinions and biases and they will say it in their news reports. I'm like, absolutely go for it. This is hilarious. I'm like, I understand it's a joke. This is perfect. So yeah, exactly. I will show you. Okay.

Spencer Payne: I'll be looking forward to seeing that one in a little bit, but a couple of rapid fire questions as we get close to wrapping up here. What is the single best thing about this profession?

Kyle Letot: The satisfaction I get when my students are learning something and they get it and then they're like, my gosh teacher I get it or look at me I did it when I see that it it's everything everything

Spencer Payne: Yeah.

And what is the single toughest thing about this profession? Or if you had a magic wand and could just change one thing overnight, what would you change?

Kyle Letot: Mm-hmm. The stress and the anxieties and the just all like the worries like students have, if I could change that, because a lot of students, they're putting themselves under so much pressure and stress and I want to just get them to understand this is right now, but this is not your future.

Spencer Payne: Yeah. When you have a really tough day or a tough week or whatever it may be, and maybe you're questioning yourself or how you handled something, how do you bounce back? What's your secret sauce of how you kind of rebalance yourself and come back the next day and go be your best self again?

Kyle Letot: I usually will talk to my mom about it because again, she's had so many years of experience. I'll talk to my dear friend Sarah definitely. Often what helps too, like I'll bounce ideas off of my sister, Dina as well. But my boyfriend, he has been really great about stuff. So I'll kind of say something to him because sometimes it might be more of like a cultural thing that I'm not understanding. So I want to get his perspective on it since he's been through this system.

And so just when I get a chance to like talk to people about it, that's so helpful. That and also too, I love weightlifting. So I go to the gym like four times a week. That also helps a ton too. So that's been great. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: Absolutely no doubt about that one. Let's see, our cell phones, watches, smart devices, et cetera. What is the approach in your class or your school? they allowed? Are they locked down? What's the story with how they approach kind of smart devices for the kids?

Kyle Letot: That's a great question. pretty much at our school, you cannot have smartphones in the classroom. The teachers will, like the homeroom teachers will put them into like a container and then they'll take it with them. However, students can use Chromebooks. They can also use personal computers and tablets as well. I also use a computer myself. They're allowed to use those. Smartwatches, absolutely. As long as it's turned silent or vibrate, it just can't go off and stuff.

So students can use those because oftentimes they have to do like mini research stuff in class, especially for me or for their other language courses or they have to write and like fill out stuff. So that's okay. You can use your smartphone, but you have to get permission from the homeroom teacher that it's allowed or permission from me, your teacher as well, but it's okay to do so. But for the most part, we're trying to be careful about that because in the past students have been really bad about like playing games and stuff on their devices.

And so we're trying to limit that. And I also saw too in Korea, this is, we'll see how this goes. There was a recent law mandate passed that for the next year students, absolutely no smartphones, including when you're in elementary school and middle school as well. You cannot have them in school, which is gonna be a really interesting thing.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, yeah. And maybe two more really quick ones as we wrap up. What would be your number one piece of advice to a brand new teacher trying to go figure this thing out? What would be the number one thing that you'd share with that person? Or maybe go back to your first year. What advice might you give back to yourself if you could give it to yourself at that time knowing what you know now?

Kyle Letot: Yeah, of course.

Ooh, okay. So two things. First, speak up for yourself. I know that you're a brand new teacher. I know you're worried about what it's going to be like. Speak up for yourself. If it's too much, you have to tell the people it's too much. If you know that this is out of your ability, you need to say something. You've got to say something about it immediately. Only, I look back and I wish I would have spoken up more about stuff. I wish I would have said things. I wish I would have like pushed harder and advocated for myself because if you don't do it, nobody will.

So that's advice number one. Number two, the first few years are going to be a nightmare. It's okay. Because interesting enough, having those two years and then going to Korea and even though like it was still a lot of extra work and stuff I had to do, because I had those experience, that made doing Korea so much easier. So I'm gonna say for you as brand new teachers, those first two, three years probably are going to be the worst years ever, but what happens is if you either continue or go to somewhere else or do other things in education, that experience is going to be more useful and beneficial than anything else because you have somewhere to start. That's how it is. So don't think that the first years are easy. That's my big thing. Do not think that they're going to be easy. It's not.

Spencer Payne: Yeah, it's hard.

Yeah, yeah, I guess. Don't think they're going to be easy, but also don't think that it's going to be that hard for 30 years. You're going to get better. You're going to you're going to Chuck and jive. You're going to improve like just know like it's going to be the toughest couple years. You're going to get better. It's going to get way better after you get through that experience.

Kyle Letot: gosh, no. Absolutely. Yeah. And absolutely, and the cool part about it too, I think about it like this. Like my very first year of teaching, I was teaching freshmen. So we were in it together. And so it was great because then when they would move on and stuff, a bunch of them would come back and be like, Ms. Leigh Todd, I miss you. Can I have you again? And I'm like, I'm sorry, but I teach first years or same with my high schoolers too. Like when I came to my school, I was like, this is my first year here, let's do it together. It just, when you find that common ground with them and you guys are like, we're gonna do it together, this is us. They love it because they know that you're together. Yeah.

Spencer Payne: Do they celebrate Halloween in South Korea?

Kyle Letot: Okay, so this is funny enough this is a little bit on the dicier side so for years they would do like so there are certain areas where they are very foreign or heavy like such as like Itaewon and Hongdae where they do encourage it. However, this was in 2020 I Feel so bad to say this. I think it was 2022 2023. Oh, I think it was 2022. I feel so bad I know someone's gonna correct me on this later and I was here during when it happened there was an unfortunate Itaewon disaster where there was a crowd crush and over 150 people were killed. Yes, and this had happened. so up until that point, Halloween was really popular in foreign areas, but it's not a huge thing celebrated by a lot of people. It's more like small little like in like hagwons, it's common to do that stuff like that if it's like an extracurricular. Now in recent years, it's getting a bit better. Things are improving.

However, I know that Halloween is still a little bit on the iffy side with Koreans because they kind of blame the holiday, even though technically it was more of policing and crowd control issues. I think, but I know like especially amongst many of my foreigner friends, we all love it. So we all still do small little stuff for it. I still do like a little thing here. Even my nails are done for it as well. we still like a lot of us still kind of find ways to do something for ourselves and stuff. it's slowly getting its ground again, but yeah.

Spencer Payne: And any final words of wisdom, maybe something that you, we didn't have a chance to talk about that you'd like to share with other educators out there or something that maybe we did talk about, but it's so important that you want to say it one more time. So any new or repeated words of wisdom.

Kyle Letot: Okay, to kind of look hopefully straight at the camera if this is working, okay? All right. Teaching is hard. It is honestly one of the hardest professions. I hate the phrase, if you can't do teach, it's complete lies. If you can't do, don't be a teacher, okay? Don't do it, it's not gonna work. However, if you wanna help, if you want to encourage people, if you get...incredible happiness from seeing others succeeding and you want to be a part of that, know that you may not always get the credit, you may not always get what's due for you. However, the profession, it's really not about like the money and like the recognition, it's really about how you can help the next generation, how you can help these students.

And so even though this is incredibly difficult and this is a profession a lot of people can attest to that it is definitely under recognized, which it should be far more, far more. I think it's one of the most valuable and it's one of the most necessary jobs that we have out there. So for all my teachers, you guys are amazing. You guys are wonderful. You're killing it. Please don't give up on yourself. Please keep going if you can't. If you can't do what you gotta do, take care of yourself, but for those of you who are in it for the long haul, thank you. You got this.

Spencer Payne: Thank you so much for sharing your real stories from a real educator from the US to South Korea and a whole lot of stories in between. Thanks so much for sharing your story. I appreciate you.

Kyle Letot: Thank you so much for having me.