New schedule (finally!)

I finally got my class schedule for this semester!!  I was told earlier that I was going to be teaching the first grade (equivalent to 6th grade), however now I am teaching the all of the second grade and intermediate-high level third graders.  Initially, I was really looking forward to teaching first grade since they are so small and fresh to the middle school experience.  But now, I am super excited to be teaching the second and third grade for a couple of reasons.  First, I'll be teaching a group of second grade boys that I got close to last year in an after school class and during the winter camp.  They are really sweet, intelligent, and silly boys and they are so fun to be around and really value learning English.  It was really amazing seeing them open up last year and go from kids that are nervous and shy to speak English to kids that are playing jokes on one another and speaking English non-stop.  Second, in third grade, I'll have girl students that I got to know from an English lunch club that I helped with last semester.  They are also really sweet and good girls so I know I'll have fun getting to teach them.  So, all in all, I realized that if I taught first grade all the students would be fresh faces to me, but by teaching second and third grade I get to continue to get to know some of the students that I really enjoyed last year.

I have no picture related to today's post, so I thought I'd post a picture of Yeppi in a sweater that we got for her while we were in Busan.  It has a hood with bunny ears and a little puff ball tail at the end.  The dog sweaters that you can find in this country are ridiculous, but I love them!  Originally, the sweater went around her two back legs, but it was a little bit too short for her body when we got home and tried it on her.  I just cut of the back legs and now it fits her fine!

Back to school.

Last Friday, school started up again and we, unfortunately, had to go back to work after a very nice and long break from teaching. Well, I guess the past two months weren't all vacation, since Doug and I were in class all of February to get certified in TESOL (teaching English to students of other languages).  But, let's face it, it's way easier to be a student zoning out during class than actually having to be in the front teaching.  Plus, this TESOL class was helpful at times, but for the most part it went over a lot of stuff we had already figured out since we have been teaching for five months already.  We had to sit in the same classroom for six hours each day and the teachers mostly gave us busy work to fill up the classtime.  Ideally, the KNU program has the new teachers take the TESOL class before they start teaching.  However, since we had so many problems with our visas, we arrived too late for the TESOL class.  Luckily, our friends also arrived too late, so we got to take the class with all of them (which helped the class be a little less boring!).  So now we are TESOL certified and have two extra plants in our apartment, which we got as gifts for completing the course!

So, now we are back in school.  Doug has started at his new school that is slightly out of town and I am back at the good old Shinbang Junhakkyo (Middle School).  Doug's school seems to be very relaxed and they told him that they want his class to show the students that English is fun.  He doesn't have to follow a textbook, which is really really nice since the textbooks are extremely boring and often use language and expressions that either I've never heard of or are never used. This school is coed and Doug told me that all the girls come in and ask to take pictures with him during lunch and passing period.  Apparently they were not too happy when he told them he was married!

Now, we are three days into the new school semester and I have yet to teach one class!!  They have not finished some of the teacher's schedule yet and it seems like they are nowhere near finalizing it either.  This is very typical Korean to not have the schedule made even though they have had two months to make it.  Korean culture is so different from American culture in this aspect.  We like to know all the details in advance, know exactly what is expected of us, and do things as efficiently as possible.  But, in Korea, everything trickles from the top down. If the school already has the schedule made but the principle or Department of Education wants something changed, then everything will change again.  Even if it seems counter-productive and inefficient.  The school is changing like crazy due to decisions like this.  For example, I'll have a class everyday at the same time and then I'll find out right before my class that it has changed and I don't have that class anymore.  It drove me crazy at first because I could never get a straight answer from anyone about anything.  However, now I've gotten used to it and just try to not ask too many questions, because most the time my co-teachers haven't even been told why something has changed but just to do it.

So basically, I have been coming into work and doing nothing for eight hours!  I'm at work right now writing this.  Fortunatly, I can bring a book into work to read, which has helped me pass the time!  I even brought my headhpones today so I can study up on my Spanish when I get bored of reading :)