The School

Ok, so tomorrow is finally Friday, this has been the longest week ever, it feels like forever since I've had a weekend. This first week at school I have spent a lot of my time just feeling kind of useless and out of place, there has been training and observation, but I'm actually really looking forward to teaching a full load of classes next week.

So my typical day goes like this. In the morning someone from the school comes and picks us up in a van at our apartment complex. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but all 15 or 16 units in our complex are teachers at one of the three Jayeon schools. So 7 of us ride in the van every morning and 4 or 5 other foreign teachers get there on their own. So right now we have over 10 foreign teachers at my school, but I know at least two are leaving soon, because they are covering me and Hollis while we train. We get there at about 8:45, and first classes start around 9:10.

The school has a really large staff, there are probably around 15 or so Korean teachers (that is, Korean people who are teaching English). Then there are also a couple of Chinese teachers (teaching the kids Chinese), a music teacher, and I think there is also a swimming teacher, but I think they only do swimming classes in the summer (I asked, and the pool is not for use by the teachers). Then there are also at least 5 administrative people, two cooks, and a cleaning lady. And out of ALL of these people, there are only 4 dudes. Me, Hollis, and two guys from South Africa. I actually just noticed that today.

So, some of the Korean teachers teach English classes, but some of them are there just to help out the foreign teachers. Every day, for at least part of my class, one of the Korean teachers has sat in there with me. They're there for a few reasons: they will discipline the children in Korean if need be, they need to observe the children because every few weeks or so they have to call the parents and tell them how their child is doing, and I'm pretty sure they're also there to check on the teacher too. The foreign teacher manager, who is a guy from South Africa, told us that they were not there to do that, but I don't believe it. But I'm not too worried about it, I'm already pretty confident I'll do a good job. And they are also really helpful. They are always offering to help us with lesson prep. So far I have taught the short "u" sound and the short "i" sound (I got some bad information and accidentally skipped "i" and "o" on my first day). One of the girls printed out a bunch of pictures from the internet with those sounds and laminated them for me. It was great!

So as I alluded to when I mentioned short u's and i's, I am going to be teaching phonics. The foreign teachers are split and either teach phonics or "themes". There seems to be a prevailing attitude that themes are easier and more fun to teach, and other teachers have seemed to kind of feel sorry for me, or at least seem to expect me to complain about teaching phonics. I honestly don't see it that way. Let me explain what the theme teachers do. They spend two weeks on a certain theme. Examples of themes are: the sea, space, farm life, the hospital, the market, etc... And while I think that would certainly be fun, I appreciate the routine and rigidity of the phonics schedule. I think I'll be able to hit my stride a little bit more easily. And it's not like this is some hardcore boring phonics class. You teach them a sound, and then play games the whole class. The games are great, and the other teachers have given me so many ideas for games. They all drive home the lesson... it's not like we're just playing simon says or something (ok, sometimes we just play simon says). No, but honestly, there are a lot of creative games that can teach kids phonics while they're having fun and running around. It's really a lot of fun.

Since I mentioned the themes, I wanna show you guys the pictures of the "theme rooms" we have on the fourth floor. The teachers can take the kids up there to set the atmosphere for the lesson. Any teacher will admit that the theme rooms are mostly eye candy for the parents, and are simply there to drive up enrollment, but it is a business after all. I'll talk more about that later.















































So that's the: supermarket, pharmacy, space room, florist, broadcasting room, and sea room. There are a few others too, but you get the idea. And here are a couple pictures of my room.











It's one of the smaller rooms, but it's still pretty nice, and has everything I need. The tv is connected to the computer so you can show videos and stuff easily. Here is a picture of the Korean Montessori teacher's room. It's one of the nicer rooms, because the Montessori method allows the kids to just wander around and do whatever they want the whole class (at least that is my early impression). When you're not actually teaching, you need a lot to keep the kids occupied. (Sorry if the formatting got all screwed up with the pictures. I'm too tired to fix it, so hopefully you can figure out what I'm talking about.)

One of the other great things about the school is the cafeteria. We get free breakfast and lunch every day! The breakfast thing just started after the holiday break. On Monday during the "welcome back" speech we were informed that we could request anything we want from the cooks and they would buy it and make it for us. This includes stuff like eggs and ketchup and cheese and all of those other things that Westerners love. Then on Tuesday at about 8:50 word spread like wildfire throughout the school that "they're making omeletes in the cafeteria!" We didn't have morning classes until Wednesday so every single foreign teacher went down there and ate. I had an omelete and about 3 fried eggs. It was ridiculous. I guess it is an extreme rarity to find a place that serves "western" breakfast anywhere in Korea. So this is a pretty big deal. Me, I just had eggs for breakfast on the flight over, so it's not like I was going through withdrawl or anything, but I can still appreciate it.

The only other pictures I have from the school are are these shots from the roof. Everywhere you look in Korea there are just endless rows of enormous apartment buildings. There are almost no houses anywhere. And as you can tell it is kinda smoggy. I got laughed at when I called those things behind the buildings "mountains". The teachers from more scenic parts of the world call them hills.

So, that's the basics of the school. Once I have my own regular classes and the kids are more used to me I'll take some pictures of them, because they really are the best part of the school. My class today was my best by far, I feel like they got the lesson, and had a ton of fun too. I was walking down the hall early this afternoon before my class and one of the kids said "Hi Teacher Mike!" - it was one of the best feelings. I can't wait until they all remember me and are used to me.

Other quick notes:
1) I just had my first "uh... i don't think this is chicken" experience with my takeout from the local chinese place. I'm not gonna lie though. Whatever it was, it was delicious.
2) The Discovery Channel is one of the only "all English, all the time" channels. And I thought that it was impossible to watch more Discovery Channel than I did with Dustin.
3) I found out that the rubber scraper thingy the girl left in the bathroom is most likely not for squeegy-ing the fog off of the mirror, but for pushing all the water into the drain after you shower. So no more wet socks.
4) 95% of the cars are Hyundai or Kia. I have seen ONE American car the entire time I've been here (and I've been looking). It was a Ford Taurus! And it was crazy! It looked like a luxury car. I can honestly say it was the second most pimp Ford Taurus I have seen in my life.
5) Here is what I bought on my most recent trip to the supermarket. Those are two beers on the left, Korean plum wine in the middle, and two bottles of soju on the right. Then some milk, hot sauce, toothpaste, and soap.

Alright, this might be my last entry for a couple days, who knows how the weekend will go. But I love reading all of your comments. It's made getting up really fun every morning to see who is reading.