Hi. For those who don’t already know, I’m Emma. I ’m part of the administration team for FightingRSD and I’ve had RSD for just under 8 years now, affecting my right arm, hand, and shoulder. Six months ago I took the life changing decision to move to South Korea with my fiancé, Mark, to work as an English teacher in a language academy just outside Seoul.
My day starts at 7:30am, and like most sufferers of RSD I often struggle with the tasks that most people don’t even notice. Fortunately for me, my fiancé is always happy to help me, so with a bit of assistance I’m showered, dressed, we have some breakfast, and head out to work. We live in a mid-sized town outside Seoul and about a 15 minute walk to work. I work in a language academy for 5-15 year olds teaching English, and after half an hour to settle down and get ready for the days’ teaching the first of our children start to arrive. As teachers we make the effort to greet each bus and welcome in the children, it sounds mundane but it’s great for the kids and creates a nice atmosphere of inclusion.
Once the school day kicks off, the reality of my RSD means that I need to make a series of adaptations. My first class is a group of 5 year old students, only 3 in the class, but a handful nevertheless. We have a set morning routine of writing out the date and sentence of the day (a short phrase that the students must learn everyday), and this poses the first working challenge for me. Naturally I am right handed, and so my RSD makes it difficult to write very much. I know I’m going to need to write later, so each day I break the date down and get my students to write a section each on the board. For the students it’s educational, they learn days, months and years, they learn spellings and word patterns and they practice writing. For me, I get to save my limited writing capacity a little while longer. Beyond this I always make sure I’m well prepared for my lessons, and flash cards are a great device for demonstrating language without me needing to overuse my arm or hand. I can model language easily and effectively, and we can re-use the flashcards for games to help practice vocabulary and sentence building.
Simple changes such as these allow me to manage my first lesson and soon we’re packing up for the next class. Now I’m on to my class of 7 year olds, a lovely but boisterous bunch who require a ‘hands on’ approach. With limited hand capacity … that’s not so easy. So we kick off the lesson with some noisy activities – team games where the kids write down target vocabulary on the board are a favourite as not only is the language elicited and modeled (without me writing again) but the class expends some of their constant supply of energy. Next we do a speaking activity to turn the target vocab into sentences, this is great fun and with no writing or physical exertion required I can manage the whole exercise verbally. The class then completes a short writing task to consolidate their knowledge and we end with a simple game. With a class like this one, it can be tough to keep them away from my arm, but simple procedures, like always line up on the left of the teacher, keep things under control.
I return now to my five year olds, and today we’re learning body parts. The natural choice here to make the lesson fun is to learn ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ but this presents another challenge. I can’t follow the actions with my right arm. So, I model using a simple stick man drawn with my left hand on the board which makes the kids giggle at my bad drawing and squeal in delight when I point to the wrong body parts. Then it’s off to another room in the school to use a computer and digital projector. I’ve found a video of the song online, and this gives the students clear examples to follow without causing me any extra pain. My students have a great time and the video gives them a focal point; they learn the body parts well, although following the actions proves a little more challenging for one student! The lesson works really well and we have a lot of fun too, a few simple changes and some planning and what would have been an obstacle is quickly and easily negotiated.
At lunch there are so many tasks that could be difficult, such as carrying trays and food, but my co-teacher and I split the tasks seamlessly so lunch is taken care of and the students don’t even notice that there’s any difference. After lunch I teach my seven year olds once more before a well earned hour long break. By this stage my pain is starting to escalate, pain management strategies work well, but they cannot stop the inevitable, so I take advantage of my break to rest and take some medication to get me on track for the afternoon’s lessons.
Changes such as these may seem small, insignificant even, to some seem they may seem simply to be common sense; but for me they allow me to do so much more by conserving the energy and ability I have to use my arm. My job, and living in a new country is a constant challenge, but I have support for my fiancé, friends and colleagues and more importantly I get the opportunity of a lifetime. Living with RSD shouldn’t be about what we can’t do, but about finding ways to maximise what we can do.