OMG...I'm a TEACHER!!!

Today was like any other Thursday in Seoul...I started it out waking up 30 minutes early to meet some of my coworkers at 8:15 (normally we meet at 8:45) due to our weekly faculty meeting at 9:15.  At the meeting we were informed that all the classrooms on my side of the building (that involves about half of us) would be getting new wallpaper over the weekend so we would need to strip our walls before then.  Having had just spent hours decorating them, several of the teachers were understandably disgruntled.  For once my procrastination has paid off...my walls are still fairly bare.  Well...it's more due to the fact I haven't yet acquired much in the way of wall decor...and I'm a terrible artist.  I'm waiting for my authentic American classroom decorations to arrive in the mail via my lovely and helpful mother.

I'm excited to get new wallpaper.  My room has 2 different kinds and they are both pretty ratty looking.  I can't wait to see what they'll surprise me with!  Anyways, the wallpaper thing is just another one of those day-to-day episodes which keep me laughing...such as the field trip the other day.  I was put in charge of helping the Nemo class (the brand new 3 & 4 year olds), which involved helping 11 tiny tots put on jackets, outdoor shoes, scarves, mittens, and face masks (here they wear a fuzzy cloth face mask to keep their faces warm), then trying to get them to line up (they haven't quite mastered that yet), then walking them down 4 flights of stairs and around the corner to the bus, helping them ON the bus, and keeping them from brutally murdering each other and, more importantly, the bus driver.  It went well.  We went to a small folk museum...and by small I mean there were 2 rooms full of ceramic bowls and a gift shop.  We paraded the children through the 2 rooms and into the projector room where they watched (or, rather, did NOT watch) a short film about making the ceramic bowls.  We were there in time to take a couple class pictures and turn right around and get back on the bus, to then repeat the process of stairs, shoes, jackets, and mittens in backwards order.  We were back at the school by 11:30am.

It was lovely...just incredibly short!

The Nemo Class in a rare moment of  civility

Having fun!

Back on the bus!

So anyways...back to today.  After the meeting my supervisor told me that my lesson plans for the next 2 weeks were due today.  Oops.  All week I've been pulled in so many different directions I hadn't had any planning time whatsoever.  So this morning, I went and "hid" in the music room (which I will be in charge of in just over a week) and filled out my lesson plans amidst the raw sound of kindergarteners taking out all of their pent-up aggression on innocent plastic instruments.  No sooner did I finish than was my hiding spot discovered and cover blown.  I was pulled into the Nemo class to "help out" for exactly 7 seconds before being pulled into a neighboring teacher's room to teach her kids math while she was pulled out to interview new potential students.  Next came lunch time, then more time in the Nemo class.  And this time, I didn't slice my finger while helping them cut construction paper!  Yay!  Luckily my clutziness so far has only resulted in self-injury.  I figure, better me than the kids...

At 2:30 the kindergarteners go home and the older elementary kids start arriving.  However, since class doesn't start until 3pm, most of them gather in the "activity room," which is the inner-city version of a playground.  There are small Little Tykes play houses, toys, and a wide screen TV with VHS tapes and DVDs of Spongebob Squarepants and various Disney Princess flicks.  I am in charge of supervising those 30 minutes in the play room.  And they don't like the children to actually play...they prefer them to sit and watch the movie.  I let them play as long as it doesn't get too crazy.  Sometimes the Korean supervising teachers come in and make them stop, but, that's ok with me!  

Since it's Thursday it's one of my long days, which means I actually have a break before my afternoon kids come in at 4:30.  Today I used that time to work on my Mon, Wed, Thurs lesson plans which are due tomorrow.  

About 45 minutes in (it still takes me a while to do my lesson plans) I was really on a role, thinking how many pages we'd have time to complete, how I'd be explaining the lesson, what the kids would be learning, etc...and the thought suddenly occurred to me...

OH MY GOD!  I'M A TEACHER!  A REAL-LIVE TEACHER!