I confess.
I haven’t been much of a blogger lately. I’m not really sure why. I guess life happened and I didn’t really feel like writing about it. No worries though. My journal writing has suffered too.
You can just call this my attempt at continuing this…whatever it is.
Since my last entry…a lot has happened. Not gonna recap much.
My first year in Korea was fine, teaching elementary and middle school students. It was fun and I had a blast but the hours were late. I usually didn’t get home until 11pm. After that year was over, I finally went back to New Zealand to visit friends and ended the 6 year hiatus. I also went home for the holidays and was able to see family and friends, and also managed to get sick 3 times!
Now, in 2015, I am back in the land of Kimchi and teaching at a kindergarten in Daegu. My school isn’t perfect but I love my students and I love teaching this age.
A typical day? Well…my schedule is a bit varied when compared to the 8 other North American teachers at my school. While they all have an English kindergarten class and their own classroom to decorate and field trips, I sit in an office with Korean teachers, my stuff heaped up on my desk and on the window sill behind me. I’m a bit of a traveling teacher/substitute when someone is sick or on vacation. When I first found this out, I was a little annoyed, but I got over myself, with God’s intervening of course. After all, my schedule is pretty open. It’s doesn’t mean that I don’t work hard, just that I have a few more breaks than the others.
The School
My school is located in a 6-story building. The first floor houses the reception area, some interview rooms, a play area, and a small gym. The 2nd floor is the Korean kindergarten. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th, floors are dedicated to the English kindergarten, and hold the 8 classrooms that the other foreign teachers teach at. Each floor has a small library, bathrooms, and an office. The 6th floor is the big gym/music room/special events room. There is a music teacher and a gym teacher who come in once a week. My office is on the 4th floor with the principle and the head Korean teacher and random other co-teachers who float in and out. I sit with my back to a window which means it’s cold in the winter and probably hot in the summer, but at my desk only. For some reason, the heater/aircon goes right over my head to reach the rest of the office. Ha!
My Schedule
I teach two 30 minute English classes, three times a week at the Korean kindergarten in my school. In the afternoon, I teach the same students in an English kindergarten setting for about 1.5 hours, everyday. I have 2 afternoon kindy classes of about 8 students each, 3 times a week (ie Class 1: M,W, TH, and Class 2: T, W, F). Since they overlap on Wednesdays, we have a combined class of 15 students! On Wednesdays and Thursdays I also have three 20 minute storytelling classes of young 3-6 year olds at another Korean kindergarten campus that’s about 10 minutes away. On Fridays I have a 30 minute Storytelling class for the preschoolers on the 2nd floor Korean kindergarten. Whew! See, I told you it was varied! All in all, on my busiest day (WED) I teach 3 classes for a total of 3.5 hours. On my lightest day (TUE) I teach 1 class for 90 minutes. It’s spread out. So, not much to complain about. I’m ahead of schedule on most things.
During afternoon kindy we cover 3 subjects; Phonics, Reading, and Writing. I have a Korean co-teacher, but she's usually gone during most of the class. These kids are beginner level students of about 5-6 years old (though I suspect some of my kids are 4). I love these kids! They’re well behaved for the most part and they know my rules and what I expect, even though most of it was initially communicated with pictures and gestures. They also get super excited about getting a sticker if they earn 5 stars by the end of class. They have grown so much in the almost 3 months that I have been teaching them! Many of them are really beginning to put sounds together into words and starting to read. It’s exciting.
I don’t know what God’s plans are for me later, but I really feel like I was made to teach young kids. If you've ever seen me around young kids, you know that I have a gift with them. I don’t know how or why, but I call it my ‘pied piper’ affect. I come home from work exhausted, but happy. I have so much fun with my students and oddly enough, they all like me too. Even the kids that I have substituted for a short time and barely know. Even the kids that I don’t know but they are excited about me because their friends are excited. You can always hear excited yells of “Hello Cara Teacher!!” from students whenever I enter a room or elevator. And more often than not, I’m getting smothered by hugs regularly.
Fun times!
