We're here to work!

My school on a slightly overcast yet warm day.

The first week of teaching was a bit of a blur where I was so confused that I didn't really do too much. Now that the dust has settled the real teaching (or as real as an assistant teacher can get without overstepping the boundaries) has begun.

Mihye (my main co-teacher) and I at the staff dinner where I ate live octopus for the first time!

 For those interested, my weekly schedule is as follows:

Monday- Third grade in the morning, after school remedial class in the afternoon. 

Tuesday- Reading class for one grade (for this coming week its for third grade, after will be 2nd grade, then first grade, yay little ones!) in the morning and after school remedial class in the afternoon. 

Wednesday- Fourth and sixth grade in the morning and prep in the afternoon

Thursday- Fifth grade in the morning, sixth grade in the afternoon and after school class with the sixth grade soccer players.

Friday- Before school storytelling broadcast, sixth grade in the morning and prep in the afternoon.

Now entering the English Zone! Ye have been warned....

Whew, busy week! My afternoon prep time is generally spent creating powerpoints for the after school classes and reviewing the lessons for the other grades, and thinking up more activity ideas for the classes, along with any other extra prep work that comes up (as all teachers know, even the most basic worksheet can take far longer to prepare than ever imagined). 

Such as making vocabulary books, ah book binding.

My students are fun and keep me on my toes. Sometimes they seem to understand me and the next second they all just stare at me as if I am a purple alien that is asking them to fly to the moon. The language comprehension disparity is really quite large, as some students have wealthier parents and so they can afford to go to Hagwons after regular school (Hagwons are private academies that specialize in specific subjects, like English, and most Korean schoolchildren of all ages go to these regularly as a culturally enforced secondary education. It's quite a strange phenomenon to come home late from dinner or drinks with friends to see small children with backpacks on heading home from school...at 10pm!) and so their English is much more advanced. 

5th graders designed their own person from various countries.

One was named potato....from Brazil....

Playing a dice game and saying what country they're from.

 Now that the weather is nicer the students are less and less focused on lessons. More often then not there is a student shouting "HELLO TEACHER HOW ARE YOU I AM FINE THANK YOU!!!!!!" in just about every class. 

Students in between classes checking out the English library

If I had to pick a favorite grade level, it would be the sixth graders at this point. Not only is their English more advanced, but they are the ones that take more of an interest in me and take it upon themselves to come into my classroom and ask me questions or just hang around my desk and giggle or show me various books they like. Some of the remedial girl students come into my classroom early and happily start singing, "Let it go, let it GO!" in the hopes that I will turn on the projector and play a youtube video for them to sing a long to. Most of the time I do, I must be the only English teacher here who is not deathly sick of anything related to Frozen. 

As for the staff, so far I have felt very welcomed. Despite the language barrier they are all very kind. True, many of them don't spend more time with me then is strictly necessary because of their irrational fear of English, they seem kind hearted. I am sure there is plenty of drama that I don't know about, but I am content that way. There are lots of staff get togethers and every Wednesday there is teacher sports day where all teachers are meant to play a various sports activity, the first week we all played indoor field hockey, which was pretty fun! If you want to know more about school life or students, please vote on the side-bar!

Half-time chat during the all staff field hockey game.