New School Year

Today is the first day of the 2011-2012 school year here at Shinhueng Elementary School. Although, really we can just say the school year is 2011... as nothing actually happens from January-March.

There is much that is different this year from last year, for instance, I no longer work at two elementary schools- I will miss the small class size of Dong Myoung, the commute, however, I will not, miss. The punctuation in that last sentence was just as annoying as my commute to Dong Myoung.

Aside from only being at one school I have a brand new set of coteachers. My old Shinhueng teachers, Youngers and Amy, have decided that they no longer want to be associated with me due to my ever increasing demands and the fact that my good looks were a major distraction during planning. Not really... I don't have many demands. I miss them already! The good news is we're still friends and they are easily my favorite Koreans in THE WORLD.

My new coteachers seem alright thus far, though we haven't taught together yet so I bite my tongue. It looks as though I will be doing the majority of the planning and teaching when we work together, which is fine by me! I did come here to teach, after all. I recieved my new schedule today: #grade-#class-- 1 hour lunch in between 4 and 5.
Mon Tues Weds Thu Fri

1. Free 5-1 6-1 5-1 6-1
2. 3-1 5-2 6-2 5-2 6-2
3. 3-2 5-3 6-3 5-3 6-3
4. 3-3 5-4 6-4 5-4 6-4
5. 3-4 5-5 Free 5-5 Free

Notice anything missing? Grade 4, perchance? I'm guessing here... but I'm fairly certain one of my coteachers, and this is a quote of the first sentence in English I ever heard her say, who said, "I don't want to be an English Teacher, but they are making me." Well, she teaches grades 3 and 5 and has 23 classes in total- the fact that I have grade 3 and double classes for 5 means that she will really only teach 9 classes solo a week. Before my old coteacher left the new one asked her if it was alright if she left during class when I am teaching- the answer was "He will probably call the MOE (office of education) on you!" I don't think she'll abandon me, but I don't expect much assistance from her. Anywho, I just like to see all the kids and I'm a little annoyed that I won't get to see grade 4... I'm contemplating an after school club just for grade 4 students. Even then I will maybe only see 10 to 15 of them.

Anyways, I'm glad to be back in school and teaching again! I do feel a little awkward in the Lady's Teacher Room without Younglan around though... but the Guy's Room is smoker-friendly and the lack of my own office really doesn't give me other places to go. That being said, I've slowly been getting closer with other teachers at my school, it's nice to walk around and get genuine smiles and greetings! Some teachers even told me to call them "hyung" or "nuna", Korean for big brother and big sister. Part of the whole Confucian hierarchy idea, but one that I find kind of endearing if you're on the 'in'.

Also, the students are in awe of my hearty sideburns.

Palace Tour and Secret Garden In Seoul

On Sunday I had the most excellent opportunity to take a tour of Changdeokgung Palace and it's recently opened to the public, "secret garden". I went with a friend's Korean coteachers who were more than happy to have me tag along, I have a feeling their new cyworld profile pictures will involve me... they love to pose! And always making the peace sign, which by the way, also means "me too" or so says my main coteacher. Some students were doing it in class after I asked a question and I was quite confused. Anyways.

Palace front gate. (These were taken on my cellphone, I've yet to get a real camera...)

We ran to the tour start destination after we entered because we were running a little late. The tour was only for the back garden, which was more like a 78 acre forest with ponds, traditional houses, temples, and trees- no well manicured floral displays or anything like that. However, it was in the middle of Seoul and once you entered the garden, all you could hear were the birds, the scraping of leaves, and the tour guide's amplifier. I didn't take a lot of pictures because one of the teachers was nominated official photographer, hopefully I'll be getting emailed some photos!

This was part of the servant quarters- it was gender separated by this wall. Many of the buildings I had seen up to this point had been painted bright colors, reds, oranges, and greens. It turns out that only temples and palaces were painted bright colors in Korea, so a pleb's house or quarters would look like above picture and not like this.

This building was called "Lotus Shrine" or something of that nature because it's very pointy roof was designed in the shape of a lotus flower.

An ancient library! The first floor was reserved for the books and the second floor was the reading and study area. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to go into any of these buildings- I would have LOVED to go into this one! I'm sure it's just an empty nest though.

The garden tour took a total of two hours and cost about 5000 won, totally worth it. I love being in a country that has more than 300 years of history, fascinating!

Volley

There's a lot about working in a Korean school that's different from the US school sytem; much of it positive, though of course there are negatives as well.

This could be taken as either a positive or negative depending on your perspective and whether or not you participate.

If you work at an elementary school in South Korea, you will most likely be asked to play volleyball with the other teachers- at least that's what I've heard and it's certainly true in my situation. At my school we play volleyball every Wednesday from about 2:30-4:30+ (whenever the last game finishes). I didn't play the first couple of weeks because I was a little intimidated, I was told it was super competitive and the last time I had played was probably gym class in High School, over seven years ago, not too confident in my skills.

I finally worked up the nerve to join them one day, I waited until about 4 before I went outside that way I would only be in for about one game. Within the first few minutes of play I had made an amazing save, which was bad news because they all thought I was really good- so for the next twenty minutes the male teachers kept trying to set me up for spikes or other cool plays which I failed not so elegantly time and time again... I don't regret playing at all though! The feeling of comraderie I had after the game was incredible and they all gave me the double high fives that they love to do here. I felt really good, like I had finally crossed the volley valley and was part of the team.

As I continue to play every wednesday the comraderie I felt after the initial day has grown tremendously. By not playing I was really feeling left out, but because I wanted to play and actually enjoy it it's become a really positive experience for me. And I'm told by my coteacher that they all really enjoy having me play with them, so it's not just a positive experience for me but for them as well. I think it's important that we try to connect with our korean teachers here, NOT JUST our coteachers- but all of them. Some of my teachers can hardly speak a lick of English but by playing volleyball with them I've entered into a dialogue of friendship that doesn't really require words.

If you don't want to play or can't play volleyball or whatever other sport your school likes to play- try to find something to connect with your Korean coworkers about. It will really improve your experience teaching here.