Day 10: Saturday September 3

School Schedule & a Sleepy Saturday

I am realizing now that I should take a step back to explain my work schedule at Wonderland.  First of all, I have a BT (Big Tree) class of ten 6 year-olds that come to school at 9:20am and leave Wonderland at 2:20pm.  All BT classes are named after fruit, so Wonderland is divided into classes like Peach, Raspberry, Cranberry, Apple, Lemon, Persimmon and Blueberry –which happens to be my favourite kind of fruit and the name of my BT class –and they are decided by age and years at Wonderland.  Each class has a Korean teacher who speaks English to them and then a Foreign teacher who is played by yours truly.

Aside from the first 20 minutes of BT, when the children are welcomed off the bus and have their milk & morning snack, all Wonderland class sessions are 40 minutes long.  So, after my Blueberries have settled in and done eating, I teach them from Tiny Talk and/or Jack&Jill texts from 9:40 to 10:20.  The next session is either Phys-Ed, Kinder with a Korean-speaking teacher, Music Play or a special activity (lead by me on Thursdays) –it all depends on the day.  From 11 to 11:40, I teach my Blueberries writing, Situation English or Arts&Crafts –once again, the schedule is dictated by the day of the week.

The children have a 30-minute lunch from 11:40am-12:10pm while being supervised by Korean teachers, then 30 minutes of Story Time, Play Time or Screen Time lead by a Foreign teacher from 12:10-12:40pm.  I’m responsible for the Story Book section on Mondays, Screen Time (wherein we watch an English animation movie) on Wednesdays, and Play Time on Thursday and Fridays; Tuesdays are reserved for the Foreign Teacher staff meeting.  The afternoons are mostly run by my Korean co-teacher April, meaning that I have a break from 12:40-2pm when we come together for home time.  All the BT children collect in the play room for our weekly song & actions (this past week was B-I-N-G-O), and then they are escorted downstairs so they can safely get on their bus (I’m responsible for bus 2).   

 My afternoon classes are split into two different schedules: Monday/Wednesday/Friday and then Tuesday/Thursday.  On M/W/F, I teach six classes back-to-back from 3:05pm to 7:30pm and on T/T I teach from 3:05pm to 5:15pm (including a Reading Lab).  The classes that come in the afternoon have already been in public school all day, so they require a lot of engagement to get through their 85-minute tutorage: 40 minutes with their Foreign teacher, 40 minutes with their Korean teacher and a 5-minute break in between.

All that being said, Friday was busy-busy at work until I supervised play time after lunch and the lull allowed me to focus on missing home.  As the BT kids were whizzing around me with lego and faux kitchen utensils and dinosaur books, their childish joy fell short of contagious.  In fact, it caused this strange juxtaposition of children’s laughter and tears welling up in my eyes.  After convincing myself it was neither the time nor the place, I pulled myself together and prepared my textbooks for the afternoon classes.  Suddenly it was Friday night and I’m out having dinner with Nick&Nicole, Sarah&Chad and Hilary at an Indian place in Beomgye.  The Tandoori half-chicken was so delicious and paired with a giant basket of butter Naan for only 10500 won, aka $10.50.  We ended up at Sara’s place playing Soju catchphrase until 2:30am wherein I was alcohol-exempt on account of jet lag.

The foreign teacher gang... what you don't see is the Britney Spears MTV concert on TV

Nearing the end of my meal... the naan shown here is only 1/3 of the original amount and the pop was complimentary :D

After a late night Friday and an early morning Saturday, Hilary and I decided that a late-afternoon trip to the grocery store and simple conversations about what can be learned and explored in this country would be ideal for a sleepy Saturday.  Ultimately, the learning and exploring will continue another day because Hilary and I enjoyed a homey evening in, watching The Switch and drinking tea in our comfies.