It’s Wednesday and I’m done for the week—hooray! Tomorrow is the good ol Buddha’s birthday, so everyone has a day off from school. And for the same reason, I suppose, at my school we have Friday off, too. After finding out I haven’t been to Jirisan yet, the teachers planned a short trip there on Friday and Saturday. I think it will be a nice trip and I’m looking forward to it, but I wish they’d scheduled it so that it didn’t fall into the middle of my break! It means that I can’t really go anywhere, because I have to meet them in Buyeo Friday morning. But I suppose there are worse things…like teachers who don’t plan all-expenses paid trips for their foreign performers. I think I’m going to stay around Jirisan after they all leave and get some real hiking in, since I suspect ours will not be strenuous, if it even occurs.
Today has been a pretty good week for me. I only had to teach 10 hours of class, which is always nice. They didn’t necessarily go that well, but I feel better about them. It seemed like I was really connecting with my students—class was more of a dialogue between us, rather than the usual monologue. But then again, I always feel good about my fourth and fifth grade classes. We get along pretty well. I did have some difficulties today with my second graders. Their usually mild-mannered teacher even chewed them out at the end of class! I was so frustrated by the time class was over. It’s always on and off with them. I suppose I have a 3:1 boy:girl ratio to blame. Those darn mischievous boys! I felt like I was taking the easy way out today in that my lessons weren’t particularly difficult or involving, but they all learned something, I hope, and necessary things, too! And my curriculum plans are coming together nicely. I’ve always had the vision of what I want to accomplish here—teach my students English!—but the means to reach this end have been slow to develop. It really just falls to inexperience. I am not sure what to teach first, how to teach it, and what my students are capable of at different levels. After almost a year of teaching, I have a much better idea. I just wish I were teaching two full years instead of starting in the middle of one and ending in the middle of another. I feel I could improve a lot more this way, but alas, I highly doubt they’ll change the school system for me.
I came home early today to celebrate freedom and whiled away most of the afternoon in my room. It was nice. Man, it’s days like today I’m so glad I quit TKD! Tonight at dinner haelmoni (host dad’s mom) came over bearing gifts of crab, ddok, and watermelon. I can’t speak for the quality of the crab, but everything else was delicious. I could understand some of the things she said about me to the kids, too! Luckily none of it was bad…