Initial impressions about my school

Life at school…what can I tell you – it can be chaotic, awkward and confusing at times, but overall, I’m definitely enjoying it.  The students themselves are lots of fun, even if they don’t know a lot of English.  But that’s why I’m here right? To help them out with that. I guess I could give a bit of background here – Jeollanamdo (the province where I’m living) – is considered one of the poorer provinces in Korea, so the English level of the students here is apparently lower than in other provinces (especially compared to students living in or around Seoul).  All of the students here love to say ‘hello’ to me – and I must end up saying hello or hi at least 100 times every day.

So, about my classes: I’m teaching grades 3-6, and there are four grade 3 classes, four grade 4 classes, four grade 5 classes and five grade 6 classes, plus I have to do a teacher workshop every Friday afternoon.  With about 25-30 students in every class, (the exception being the teacher workshop, where I will have 3 teachers for sure every time and maybe another teacher or two drop in occasionally), I have a LOT of students! This school uses a textbook set and they want to really stick to it quite closely and not substitute many other activities, but then at the same time they tell me that they want me to make materials and change the activities up sometimes.  So they want things exactly the same, but changed.  That doesn’t make my life slightly frustrating at all.

 

The first time in each of my classes, when the students walked in, you could literally see their eyes get bigger. A lot of them would just sit down and ‘sneak’ looks at me or hide behind their books and giggle (especially the younger ones). Depending on the class, they might have started asking me questions before the class even started.  One of my grade 4 classes basically surrounded me and started rapid fire questions with at least five of them talking at the same time. It was fun though. The most common questions from all the students are: What’s your name? Where are you from? How old are you? and Do you have a boyfriend? Although some of them get a bit more creative with their questions. For example, the other day one little guy asks me if I have a phone, then asks what my phone number is, and when I just laughed awkwardly, he just kept on trucking and told me his phone number.  Oh children!

 

 

At my school we have a special classroom for English, where I teach 4 of the 5 workdays. (The other day I teach in a classroom on the 3^rd floor because the teacher I work with for the grade 3’s is pregnant and it’s more convenient for her not to come down to the first floor for class.) My main classroom was just built/renovated last year, so it is nice and new as well as being quite large. The windows in the classroom face out onto a little courtyard where there is a vegetable garden where they grow some things that they use for the food in the lunches.  Apparently they’re even growing some watermelons in there! I’m excited to see those grow! Here’s a video of what my classroom looks like, and since some of you (*cough* Dana) were worried that my tongue was cut out, I give you a little bit of narration! http://youtu.be/S50j3sxFJ5U
I'm sorry I have to give a link - whenever I try to put in a video on this blog it always says there's an error, so clearly I'm doing something wrong ^_^;


 

My office, which I share with my main co-teacher, is attached to the classroom.  It is also new; my only issue with it is that it is insanely cold in it!  I’m sure that will be wonderful later in the summer, but right now I’m freezing! Pictures of my office:

 

So all of the colorful things along the wall are English materials that the school provided - I haven't had a chance to use any yet though.
Of the two cubicles you can see, mine is the one on the left --> check out the nice chair I get! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the 'view' from my desk. The open door goes

into the English classroom, and the other doors go into the hallway.  One thing about Korean buildings, REALLY thin walls. If I'm not teaching and one of my co-teachers is, I can hear everything going on in the classroom. And I can hear everything in the hallway too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and since I was talking about lunches earlier – lunch is provided for EVERYONE by the school. (Although I think I read in my contract that they deduct a bit for this every month, but it was a minimal amount – something like $20-30 – couldn’t make my own lunch for that cheap!) Anyway, my co-teachers have told me that this school’s lunches are really good and much better than at some other schools.  So I lucked out on the lunch school ;)  The kids all eat together in one section of the cafeteria and the teachers eat in another section that is connected to it but slightly off a bit.  The teachers also have their own place where we get our food.  The setup is kind of buffet style.  You grab a tray (which has a large section for your rice, a round section to put your bowl, and 3 smaller sections to put the rest of your food), a bowl, chopsticks and a spoon and then get your food.  There is always rice and kimchi (of course), and everyday there is some kind of soup, and then they usually have some kind of meat, some vegetables, and then dessert is usually fruit, but sometimes they also have cupcakes or doughnuts or mini drinkable yogurts.  So far lunches have indeed been quite good.  It is kind of weird though that they don’t really have anything to drink with their meals. If you want something to drink – you usually get it after you’re done eating, and here what you do is you go grab a tiny little metal cup, and then you get some ‘water’ which is really some kind of tea. (Since this is Korea, it’s probably barley tea, but I’m not entirely sure.) It’s good if you’re thirsty, but some days, I really wish I could just have a nice cold glass of water.

 

Also, apparently volleyball is a huge thing among the teachers at all schools in Korea.  At my school, the first thing the other teachers wanted to know about me was if I played volleyball.  Alas, I had to disappoint them. ;) Once a week the teachers get together and play volleyball in the gym after classes are done, (but before work is done) and if you aren’t playing, you’re still expected to be there to watch, cheer or help keep score. I’ve also heard that at some point there will be a competition between some (or possibly all) schools.