this week

This week was a lot of fun. It is the fourth week of teaching and review week. The school left it up to each individual teach to decide on how to review. Some teachers gave open book tests, some just talked with the students and some like me played a game. I came up with a Jeopardy game. The kids loved it. It was fun to actually let loose with them and have some fun. It is weird how picky the parents are though. The school received some phone calls from the parents asking why there was no homework. The parents like to see the kids getting lots of homework so they know they are getting their moneys worth out of the school. Here is a video of one of my classes doing some class work. My first pay day is in less than 2 weeks now on April 10. I can't wait!

Amazing weekend.

Work is fun. We are still working out details to make the school more organized. We are going to come up with a plan to make the kids more ambitious. Some kids just don't want to do their work and we have had 50 drop outs. Avalon is a program with assigns a lot of work on top of what the kids already have. Most students are doing ok with it but come to school very tired it seems. I had one student fall asleep in class!

Anyways, I met up with my college Josh again this weekend for St. Patrick's day. It was a beautiful day. We went to this outside Celtic concert. After the Celtic band a Korean 80s American music band played. It was amazing. They had to call in security to control the crowd when they started playing. After that we found some Irish Pubs and just had fun the whole night. It was amazing.

As of Friday I had worked ever since I stepped off the plane 9 days in a row. This was my first weekend to really enjoy Seoul. All the teachers went out after work friday. It was fun to finally see and get to know everyone casually. Saturday I met up with my college friend who teaches about an hour south of Seoul. It was fun to see him again. Sunday I went out exploring Seoul by myself and found this huge shopping mall. I have never seen a mall so busy and everyone was spending. The malls in Lansing during the holidays are not even this busy. I also started looking at colleges to take a Korean class. Hopefully I can enroll for a class this summer. I just can't seem to stay out of the class room but I must say it is very weird being on the other side of the class room assigning homework and not getting it. I'm loving every second of this job.

First day of classes

Our normal work hours are 3 to 10pm. After working all weekend I decided I needed to go in by 10:30am to make sure everything is done by my first class at 4:20pm. It was a good thing I did. By the time the rest of the teachers arrived by 12:30 it was pandemonium! Getting tests prepared, clearing up any confusion, still training newly arrived teachers......and I loved every second of it!

The kids I teach are amazing. I was surprised at how well they spoke english. One student, who is 10ish years old, told me the books we are using are for kids. The statement took me back! There is to go a lot of pressure on these kids to grow up. The grades they get in their junior high school are the grades that decide their whole life. The grades decide what high school they go to, what college they go to and ultimately what job and pay scale they receive. They go to school 12 hours a day. First their public school and then they come to the english school where I teach. Many of them are really tired. I feel bad for them. It is funny though that kids are kids. Korean kids are not any different than american kids. I have the class clown, the know-it-all, the goof off, the nerds, the cool kids. Though I think they seem to be better behaved then in America but maybe because it was just the first day.

Tomorrow is a different set of classes. Each class meets everyother day so I will go in early again. Maybe not till noon though now that I have a grasp on everything.

I have never been able to say that I love my job. Here I love my job, my coworkers, my life. Everyone is very respectful and honest. The law on alcohol are relaxed. After work we all will walk home with a beer in hand and it is perfectly legal.