Open Class

This past month we went on a field trip to a science museum. We spent the day there, which meant not getting a lunch break away from the kids, but at the same time, it was kind of fun to have a picnic with them. Nothing terribly notable happened during the field trip other than the fact that the school rented two greyhound like buses to take us there. This is odd because LCI owns school buses as they offer transportation to and from the school for the students and for every other field trip we have used those buses, and the science museum was just as close as the other trips we've taken. Also, there was one room full of taxidermy animals (really awfully done taxidermy, they looked incredibly frightening) and my two girls, Isla and Jenny didn't quite understand the concept. They kept asking for reassurance that the animals were just sleeping.  Here are some pictures of the day:

Isla and Jenny being their wonderful silly selves

Roy wearing my sunglasses

Unfortunately they had nowhere for the kids to store their backpacks for the day so they had to carry them (full of the millions things the Moms sent for lunch) which meant I had to carry them.

The school owner, Melanie and Jenny trying out one of the activities

There was a really cool ball you could stand in full of mirrors and lights.

Jaden and Roy - their laughter is contagious

We also had open class this past month. Open class is something I believe specific to Korea, or at least I have not heard of it elsewhere. This is where the parents are invited to come sit in our classroom for a day to see what the class is like, how we teach, how the class is run, to see their kids in action etc. This happens once at year at my school after the new school year begins. I have heard that it can be really stressful but I did not have that experience. If anything, it was just a bit annoying. First of all, it was annoying because it's staged. About a month in advance we were given a lesson plan for that day and the materials we would be using for that day (which were better than the materials we actually use on a daily basis). It was also annoying because we had to practice this full lesson over and over during class and still manage to get the day's real lesson done as well - what?! I mean obviously we managed it but the expectation was a bit ridiculous. It also is a huge reminder that schools, especially hagwons are businesses first. 

Anyway, the day came, I only ended up having three kids in class (one was on a field trip with his sister's school and the other was still in America) but it went well. All three Mom's came and sat in the class along with my supervisor and the owner of the school. In the end, my supervisor was thrilled with how well it went and thanked me for making her job easier. To reward my students, we had a popcorn party the following week. For us teachers, we had a staff dinner just the other night. We went and had Korean BBQ at a place we call Green Galbi - lots of meat, beer, soju and chungha. Following dinner, we all went to the only bar in our area for more drinks and dancing. The night was full of ridiculousness and needless to say a lot of people were in rough shape the next day, Friday morning at work. 

Laura and I with our supervisors Lucy and Joanne

I have five weeks and three days until I hit my one year in Korea. Now that I'm approaching a year, it's made me think more about teaching as a career. One thing I know for sure is that I do not want to teach in Korea for the long term. I don't enjoy teaching in the hagwon system and I can feel the effects of it now that it's almost been a year. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids, and I'm enjoying myself but I'm tired. I'm tired of not being able to have some say in what I do in the classroom. I'm tired of teaching the same textbooks over and over. I'm tired of teaching everyday - which I realize is a bit of a weird statement to make. But I truly feel that the two month break teachers receive back home is absolutely necessary. I feel like I can say that after teaching for a year, and after working several other jobs and not feeling like that in those jobs. It could also just be part of my personality as well. I like to do different things and try new things and I suppose to some degree I am getting a bit bored. 

I do think that I would enjoy teaching back home. I know this because of the volunteering that I did in the public school system before I came to Korea. While volunteering I learned that teachers must change their curriculum every year. For example, if you teach the solar system one year for science, you cannot do that again the next year, you would have to do a different unit like plants and animals or something. So that would definitely eliminate the problem of teaching the same thing over and over. My plan right now is to return to Vancouver and go through PDP which I'm excited for and will open up more opportunities to travel abroad again and teach. But sometimes I feel unsure if it's really a good decision to do PDP due to the state of the profession in BC.

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