Surprise!

I had my first "Korean surprise" today. Just as I had finished planning my activities for the 3rd grade students, I discovered that the schedule had changed and I would actually be teaching the 2nd graders on Monday. Had a two-second meeting with my co-teacher for those classes to find out for sure which pages she wanted me to cover and then brought my book home with me for the weekend. I figured with my light schedule I could easily get all my lesson planning done at school, but sometimes you just can't plan for this stuff. Oh, well, at least I do have the weekend to prepare, better than some teachers who have just gotten tossed straight into the classroom and have to do some serious improvising!

New beginnings

So, after a whirlwind week of orientation, here I am at Sincheorwon middle school (pronounced “Shin-chul-won.” The other teachers in the area have been so helpful and welcoming, and my co-teacher, Ji-Hye is really nice. I’m trying to be as friendly as I can, but they also seem understanding when I tell them I’m a little shy. I’m sure I will be feeling comfortable here soon enough. So far, the students are very good. I’m new, so they are relatively interested in what I have to say (which isn’t much since all that I am doing this week is introducing myself). Everything I do have to say is punctuated by a long “Whooooaaa” from all the students, but I’m willing to bet that won’t last long. Middle school students sure have a knack for saying “whoooaaa” all in a chorus.

It is pouring down rain, and, like an idiot, I forgot to buy an umbrella yesterday, so I had to walk halfway to school in the rain before I make a quick detour at a convenience store to buy an umbrella. I know, I know, Washingtonians aren’t much for carrying umbrellas, but we don’t have rain like this in Washington. Luckily my waterproof coat from Sara kept me dry on the top half, but I am still sopping wet from the knees down. I’ve also learned from looking about me at the other teachers that long pants aren’t the thing to wear in the rain, so next time it rains I’ll wear short dress pants or a skirt that can’t wick the water like long pants.

Although the pouring down rain is pretty loud, it doesn’t do a whole lot to cover the sound of the neighbors’ roosters crowing or the sounds coming from the nearby military base. Last night there were loud explosions and a helicopter flying over, and this morning lots of gunfire. These are all things that I’m told I soon won’t notice at all. And right on cue, the gunfire just started up again. I guess they are right, because no one seems to notice except for me. The explosions are mostly in the late afternoon and evening, and sometimes they are so loud they make the windows and doors rattle in my poor little apartment.

 Today I’m going to class with Teacher Eun-Jeong again. I have four co-teachers here, but I’ve only gone to classes with three of them so far. I’ve already met class 1-4, and Eun-Jeong has that class again today, so I’m hoping she isn’t expecting me to take the lead, because my intro lesson isn’t finished yet. I think I will take a look over the grade 1 book and see what the students are working on. I also get to meet a new class of 1^st graders today,* so that should be fun.

*in Korea, they don’t count up from first grade all the way to 12^th, like we do in the US. Instead, there is 1^st grade-6^th grade Elementary, and then when the kids graduate to middle school they start the count over again. So I have 1^st grade middle school=7^th grade in the US, 2^nd=8^th, and 3^rd =9^th. Those are all the grades I have as of now, but it’s likely that next semester I will have to teach 1^st grade highschool (10^th grade) as well. I won’t have to worry about all that for several months though.