-
Last Week of Winter Desk Warming (For Real This Time), Day 1
I had an existential crisis over the state of English education that was prompted by the meeting of my other new co-teacher, who it turns out, will be my new “S”. From this point, you can effectively drop G, H, and S from the roster. E as I now dub her, my other new co-teacher who studied abroad in Atlanta and also the former homeroom teacher of horrendous 6-3, came by my makeshift desk this morning to ask about my previous schedule. I asked if she knew who the other teacher English teacher is. “Ah yes, she is new to the school and will teach grades four and five. She…
-
Desk Warming, Week 3, Day 5:
This afternoon I finally finished a real paperback novel! I spent the last two hours closing out The Tiger’s Wife which I had picked up used from an Aladin store months ago. What I teach to the daycare kids In the morning hast to differ from what I teach in the afternoon. Since today was a morning class, I got away with more writing and relaxed games. We spent a hefty chunk of time playing alphabet bingo and I gave everyone a sticker once they eventually reach bingo. Of course there were kids who told me “one bingo two bingo three bingos teacher I have three bingos teacher three bingos…
-
Desk Warming, Week Three, Day Four:
Let me tell you something. The kids wore me out a little bit today. We started out with a review of greetings and the alphabet song. I also introduced the concept of plurals using -S which is something Korean does not have. They’re smart little kids so I moved into body parts by teaching head shoulders knees and toes and then singing it and then we all danced it together in increasing speeds which they thought was so funny and I admit I cracked up myself too (and sweat a little). There’s a game I had originally planned to play with winter camp before its untimely cancellation. The main idea…
-
Desk Warming, Week 3, Day 3
You know that scene in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice where Jane says, “Oh Lizzie, it is such a pleasure to run my own home.”? I have been feeling that this week. It is such a pleasure to run my own classroom. Each day I have a solid hour with 10 to 20 eight year olds. I have the freedom to teach how and what I want: this way I can immediately monitor what students need and what needs to be reviewed. These kiddos are eating up material fast so I’m happy to start introducing new concepts. Today I touched on plurals using -S as Korean doesn’t specify between plural…
-
Desk Warming, Week 3, Day 2
“Teacher has an American face but is a Korean person.” High praise indeed. Thanks to my sweet new eight-year-old charges.
-
Desk Warming, Week 3, Day 1
As you know, Vacation Interruptus has lead me back to the desk for the next two weeks. S came in early to take me to lunch and as the VP and head teachers happened to come into the same family restaurant, they picked up our tab. Guilt? I hope so. She had just told me that the 6-3 homeroom teacher who studied abroad had applied to be the English subject teacher. The other is still unknown, but it’s not S. So two new teachers for me. S said the new “S” will be good since she’s fluent but in my mind, this means nothing: how good is she at incorporating…
-
Vacation, Interrupted
Sigh. S called me this afternoon from her car and mentioned something about winter camp being canceled and me doing daycare instead. She had to end the call early since her son was energetically babbling in the backseat which left me with an hour feeling very upset that Asia Time has slapped me in the face yet again. When S called back, I thought it was actually pretty lucky, and maybe a part of her plan, to let me stew and then recover from the shock before explaining the rest of the situation. In fear of the coronavirus, winter camp has been canceled. But that would leave me with two…
-
Winter Vacation, Day 3
The path started outside a horrifically tacky cruise-ship themed resort that was shut down and barricaded for “sterilization” as one customer tested positive for the virus in January. After miles of rusted grating walkway or new wooden planks which in the scariest moments prompted me to sing the same three bars of “How Do You Sleep” until I felt better, the trail ended in a very small town where the buses come every two hours. No matter, it left me time to eat and get coffee, one of which has given me very mild food poisoning but what’s life without risks?
-
Winter Vacation, Day 2
The perfect vacation: Start with a breakfast made by the hostel owner; the owner, Korean-New Zealand woman, and I have a talk for 2 hours Visit 오죽헌, the birthplace of the woman painter who is on the 50,000 won note and her Confucian scholar son who is on the 5,000 won note; find one small boy staring at me even though the only foreign part of me showing over a mask (I would say coronavirus but really it was due to pollution) was my eyes so I stared back and said 안녕! His mom and I laughed then a delayed minute later a tiny 안녕하세요 came from behind me; another…
-
Winter Vacation, Gangneung, Day 1
To put it delicately, this day has been an adventure. People espouse the benefits of the train so I left my trusty cross-country buses behind. My first mistake. There was already an issue buying the ticket because the KORAIL website and app don’t match up but I made it through that hurdle, two subway lines and a local bus, and through the tall Cheonyangni station only to be stumped at the display board. My train wasn’t listed. It was scheduled for 1pm and I was there at 12:40. Okay… I’ll just go to the Gangneung platform and check it out. There was an empty train idling so I pressed the…