Tuesday, August 4, 2009

the sound of lightning

the problem when you don't update often is that it's hard to know where to begin. but after pondering that quandry for a few moments, its quite easy for me to know; I'm not here to catalog every detail of my adventures -- just the important ones.

Last week was interesting because I had to work two jobs. In the summer I am teaching 19 hours per week. That's only 2 less than my normal semester. But in the normal school year I plan two class hours a week and teach them over and over again until I perfect them. In summer, I can only repeat 4 hours of my lessons... so I have to create 15 hours of material to teach. So, you can imagine that I'm actually more busy during summer vacation than I am during the regular school year. Last week was especially interesting because my city's Office of Education forced me to work at 아천초등학교 (A-cheon Elementary School) AND my high school job in the same week. So 9am - 12:30pm was Elementary school (with no downtime ... just 4 straight classes) and then I had to go teach at my high school from 2pm - 6pm. Of course I also had my 4 hours of private lessons (2 on tues, 2 on fri). So, normally i teach 23 hours in the summer and I had to add an extra 20 hours, plus more prep time. It was quite exhausting. Not only because of the hours, but because elementary students demand so much attention and energy.

I'm so glad I got to teach elementary school! I loved it. The students are so energetic and passionate. And of course they are all so cute. My high school students sleep in the 10 minutes between classes. The elementary students play dodgeball, draw pictures of me on the whiteboard, make presents for me, and of course, wrestle me. Especially the girls always want to wrestle. On Friday, I got 8 presents from my girl students (the class size is 20 students). I got 2 letters on cute stationary, handmade soap, a die(what am i supposed to do with 1 die?), and lots of handmade cards that are half in english and half in korean. I gave them my phone number after the last class on friday but then I had to rush to a lunch meeting with the people from the Office of Education. Over the next two hours I must have gotten 30 text messages, 8 phone calls, and a picture message. I couldnt answer most of them because i was in the meeting. One of the girls has been texting me every day and she gets mad if I dont respond immediately. I made a promise to her that I would study korean every day if she studies english every day.

I have to go to lunch now. I hope to post more later (with some pictures too).

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