My Schools

I suppose it is time to say a little something about where I work, so here is the first in a series of posts about my schools.

I am placed at two elementary schools, Kama and Tosan. Both schools are named after the tiny towns they serve. The two schools are less than ten minutes apart by car, and each school educates less than 50 students. The biggest class I have at either school is 11 students.

I spend Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Kama where I am the main English teacher in 12 classes. Fortunately the homeroom teacher is required to co-teach with me. The homeroom teacher helps manage behavior, they translate the harder grammatical points, and they co-lead the games I plan. Monday and Friday I spend at Tosan where there is a full time English teacher. At Tosan, I am more of a classroom assistant than a teacher. I don't have to plan anything; I just show up and make sure the kids are participating. Every day I am free to plan from 2pm to 5pm.

It would be great if teachers in the United States had three hours of planning each day. At the beginning I needed every bit of this planning time, and then some for a mere 12 classes. For the first two months, I came to Kama nearly two hours early. This extra time was really necessary for organizing my classroom and being prepared for lessons. Now I'm a full month ahead in my planning, and I come in later.

My Korean co-teachers don't have as much planning time as I have either because they do much of the paperwork necessary for running a school. Since there are only 6 main teachers in each of my tiny schools, they have a much greater percentage of the paperwork than a teacher would have at a bigger school. All teachers want to be in a bigger city with bigger schools and less paperwork. Therefore the ministry of education requires each teacher to take turns working extra hard in small rural locations.

Trash

In a foreign country almost everything is an adventure, a puzzle, a challenge, or a mystery. That excitement drives me to travel and keeps me in constant wonder of every day activities like taking out the trash. After being in our humble new home for two days it became necessary to take out the trash. So we struck out to explore our ten story building. We found balconies, the garage, and abandoned floors, but alas no trash receptacle. At the time we only knew fellow newbies so we were at a loss.

After a few more days we crossed paths with a foreigner who had been around for a while and eagerly asked where we could throw away our trash. Our new mentor laughed; remembering how baffled they were when they first arrived. For them going around the block to the neighborhood trash site had become so normal that they forgot new comers would have trouble.

These trash sites have recycling for paper, plastic, metals, food, light bulbs, and batteries. Everything else goes into a bin labeled ‘combustible’. Fortunately someone gave us the tip to store our food waste in the freezer until we’re ready to take it out. This way it doesn’t smell up the apartment.

Pepero Day

Pepero Day is a cooperate holiday at its finest. It is a holiday contrived by the company pepero which makes long prezzleish sticks covered in chocolate, there are also a few other flavors. Pepero Day follows a typical marketing scheme of convincing folks that to give and receive pepero is evidence love and friendship. The advertisements feature two cute little cartoons each with one end of the pepero in their mouth. Presumably they would kiss Lady in the Tramp style once they have eaten their half of the pepero. November 11th was cleverly chosen as Pepero Day because the elevens look like pepero sticks. This November 11, was all the more important because it was 11-11-11. Pepero is available all year round, but special wrappings, flavors, teddy bears, etc make an appearance for the holiday. My co-teacher happily told me that her boyfriend gave her a really long pepero with a nice note.

Everyone is well aware of the corporate nature of Pepero Day, but they still participate because it’s fun, and it really does make friends. I brought 20 boxes to my school, and I gave them to everybody from the lunch ladies to the principal. The lunch ladies and the cleaning lady appreciated the pepero the most. Unfortunately, the lunch ladies and the cleaning ladies are the most underappreciated people at school. (rise up working class!)

I had a big win with pepero day, because the school I taught at that day doesn’t love me very much. I’m sure they love me more now. I worried that I ruined the love I earned because I was half a minute late to class after lunch on Pepero Day. One of my third graders met me on the stairs and said, “Oh, Jamie! Jamie Teacher!!!.” Then he turned on his heels and tore up the stairs screaming “Ya! Jamie Teacher! Ya! Ya!”

In Korean “Ya.” Can mean anything from affection to “sit down and shut up!” Tone and timing is critical when determining the meaning of “Ya.” Since my student was screaming, and running, I was certain that it meant “She’s late!!!”

I was much relieved to be completely ambushed by 8 third graders waving pepero in my face. I collected my pepero with smiles and thank yous, but it was really important to them that I eat it. One student showed me the ropes by saying, “teacher!” and then he ate one with wide eyes in a very exaggerated fashion. The students were much impressed when I demonstrated that I understood. Hahaha! Then when my co-teacher showed up (after me) they gave her a similar, but lower key, welcoming.

All in all I received a lot of pepero from the kids, so I felt pretty special.

Tangerines

Jeju is the Island of Tangerine Dreams. The tangerine is proudly displayed on lamp posts and bus stops. The humble tangerine tree doesn’t look to be more than a bush; I’m taller than many of them. These pretty little trees fill countless fields and small gardens all over Jeju.

Since September the anticipation for the 2011 crop has been mounting as one by one then handful by handful orange bursts sprung up everywhere. The scrawnier trees are currently doubled over from the burden of abundance they carry. For at least a week it seems that every tree I see has fully orange fruit. I keep wondering, will today be the day the tangerines start to disappear off the trees?

I’ve been told that once the crop comes in delicious tangerines grace every social interaction. Restaurants give them away, schools have them, and people offer them as gifts. I have an image of bowls overflowing with tangerines waiting to be eaten, and I’m impatient for the moment to arrive.

A fellow foreigner told me that traditionally people get married in late winter on Jeju because that is when the work from harvest is over and the money is in.

Halloween

Halloween with my students was a real treat. Since Koreans don’t celebrate Halloween, and especially since my students are in elementary it was really easy to impress them. I don’t see my classes everyday, so I dressed up twice. The first day I went as a very simplistic devil with a red shirt, red horns, and red face paint. They were so excited, and said things like, “teacher, scare” “teacher, red” “teacher, angry” teacher, mean” “ teacher, FACE!” Many of them wanted to poke my face so I pretended to attack them and they shrieked. It was great. Sorry! No photos!

The second day I was a surfer girl with a simple lei that I made because I couldn’t find any here. I sported some hilarious sunglasses and some swim trunks. You can see from the photos that the sunglasses were a huge hit.

Apart from dressing up I showed them a power point full of awesome photos that many wonderful people sent me. Thanks again! Then I showed them the Thriller video. After Thriller I taught them trick or treat, gave them a bag and took them around school to trick or treat from the accountant, librarian, and principal.

This last video is a small tour of my classroom.

Thanks for reading!