Teaching

I can't believe I've been here almost 2 months and I still haven't made a post about teaching, which is in fact the whole reason that I'm here. I'm at school 40 hours a week and yet there are so many other exciting things to talk about!

Basically, the way it works is I'm at my main school, called Buyeong Elementary, 4 days a week, and on Thursdays I go to my "country school," which is WAY out there in the country. Buyeong is one of the biggest elementary schools in Suncheon from what I can tell. There are over 1300 students, grades Kindergarden to 6. I only teach grades 5 and 6, but it still adds up to about 20 different classes (of 35 kids each) per week.

The curriculum is pretty set for elementary schools in Korea, so I don't have much freedom with the topics I can teach, but I do get to choose the games and other activities, which is great because that's the fun part. The course book's CD-ROM has a song that the students learn for each lesson, so my friends who are also elementary teachers and I always get them stuck in our heads and we find ourselves walking around humming the same dumb little chants (e.g. "Let's play badminton....sorry I can't!" to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic).

Since I'm not teaching 9-5 every day, I have a fair amount of time off to be productive, which usually includes a little bit of lesson planning and a lot of hanging out in my office:

Which, as you can see, is a beautifully lit half-classroom divided by tall desks to be shared with the 3rd grade teachers lounge.

That stud in the orange polo is my "roommate" (thats what he calls me), the gym teacher! He really is a stud, too. I definitely underestimated him at first, but I came to discover that he's the most popular teacher in school, with both the students and the other teachers. On a typical day he comes back every 45 minutes or so much sweatier than he was when he left, and when I ask him what they did in gym class today he performs some random hand motion that I don't understand. He doesn't speak a whole lot of English, but he's had some great one-liners so far...

He's decided that his English name is Jack, and that our room is an English-only zone. So even when other teachers come in to talk to him or call him on his cell phone, he goes, "only English! I am Jack! Who are you?" Priceless.

Jack: do you like Korean food?

me: yes

Jack: is it different from American food?

me: yes

Jack: you have a good personality.

...I guess it doesn't take much to impress here. This is what he (and every Korean, for that matter) sounds like on the phone:

Uh?

Uh.

Uh.

Uh.

Uhh....

Uh!

(hang up)

My favorite fact that I've learned about Jack is when my co-teacher was trying to explain to me how funny he was in Korean, and chose the example of how he always talks into the mic on the bus during school field trips, and makes "dirty jokes, and then he is embarrassed the next day." I'm not sure if something got lost in translation there though. He also is in charge of Wednesday afternoon teacher VOLLEYBALL, which deserves a later post of its own.

Anyways, this is the view of the front of the school from my office:

School here is generally similar to school back home: 40 minute classes, mostly with your homeroom teacher for all your subjects, recess (although here it's literally a 20-minute period allotted to letting the children run around uncontrollably), cafeteria lunch, clubs, etc. Buyeoung is only a short taxi ride away--we take taxis everywhere here--and it's in the middle of new downtown, so there's tons going on around it in the afternoons.

Most importantly, the kids are great. Almost all the time. They can all be a little difficult to control, but if the homeroom teacher stays in the room while you're teaching (which they are supposed to do but actually do only 70% of the time), they're in charge of discipline, so I don't have to worry about it too much. Grade 5s are really into the songs and activities, so it's easy to keep them motivated. Grade 6s can be a little more difficult to entertain since they're entering that awesome angst-filled phase, but since they're more proficient they can actually have interesting things to say.

Thursdays are for sure the most interesting day--I take a 25 minute car ride packed with 6 people speaking rapid Korean to Woldeung, a tiny town famous for peaches! This elementary school is quite the opposite of Buyeong: one class per grade, each with 6-10 students! I teach 7 classes on this day, which is way more than usual, but it's so relaxing just being able to talk to students rather than having to scream to get their attention. The level of English is noticeably lower, but the degree of personal interaction makes up for it. And I teach all grades here, excluding 1 and 2 but including Kindergarden!!!

Basically, I love them. And these are some of my favorite grade 3s, who come and hang out around my computer all the time. I gave them altoids one morning, and by the end of that day almost every student had come to my desk asking for more "fire candy."

Well, that's all for now. More updates to come!