Well, after a 3 day weekend courtesy of Korean Independence Day (freedom from Japan in 1919) we had our first day at school. Up early, breakfast and the short (seriously, for me its 3 minutes) walk to school I arrived bright and early. My co-teacher had not yet arrived and the office staff had no idea what to do with me. I was sent from one office to the other until Jenny arrived and escorted me to our staff office. In my office there is me, 3 Korean English teachers (Jenny, Emily and HyoJoo) and a female PE teacher (whose name I can never remember). To my surprise, the first day the kids are sent home at lunch time and all the teachers go out for lunch! I like this idea.
Pohang Hangdo Elementary School
It's quite a big elementary school with approximately 1000 students.
School gymnasium
Kindergarten building behind the kindergarten playground.
Stone at front of school - I have no idea what it says!
However, for the remainder of the first week I was left sitting in the office with nothing else to do. It turned out that week 1 of term is when teachers plan their lessons (except homeroom teachers who of course have the kiddies) but with no computer, no textbooks and no guidance from my co-teacher, I was left sitting about literally doing nothing but listening to Korean conversation for 4 whole days! The other teachers chatted amongst themselves but rarely included me, even Jenny who had been so talkative the week before on the drive to Pohang. Needless to say I found this first week very hard. I was so used to an office where everyone chatted, we were all so busy and I had a really close group of friends who I missed immensely (and still do, particularly at lunch times!). Garry was a star these first few weeks and really helped me through some tough old days, taking me for pizza and letting me eat lots of fried chicken.
Elementary English textbooks for Grades 4, 5 and 6.
My desk (busily working on facebook and with a newly bought school computer)
My office, there are 5 of us in total.
No comments:
Post a Comment