A Typical Day

Since I live in an extremely small town there is not much to do during the weekdays.  Though I live 13 minutes by train and 45 minutes by bus to the fifth largest city called Daejeon, the trains are infrequent and both the bus and the train only get us to the edge of the city. I can't complain though, I love my little town and it has such a relaxing feel to it.

When I first arrived everything was new and exciting, but now that I have been here for awhile things have become slightly repetitive. I work a 9-5 job teaching in three elementary schools and one middle school. All of which are located in extremely rural areas of Korea. My first year in Korea I was at a large(1500 students k-6) elementary school once a week while the other three schools were rural(35-50 students). I had one co-teacher at my larger school that was extremely tough on me immediately upon arrival. This intimidated me and there were many times that I questioned my ability to teach. However, she was only pushing me to develop into a well-rounded teacher and she did a fantastic job helping me improve my teaching techniques. I can easily say that she is a mentor to me now and I have extremely high respect for her. Unfortunately, this year I swapped out my larger school for another rural school and no longer have an English speaking co-teacher. I have become accustomed to teaching alone and since my classes are quite small, discipline is only a factor once in a while. Tuesday thru Friday I get to school by bus, though the school I go to on Mondays is so rural that no buses go there. Instead, each teacher is responsible for picking up a few students on their way to school in the morning and dropping them off on their way home.

My Monday school: The entire student body and faculty on a field trip

Can you guess what song we are singing?

After reviewing body parts, I had the students write vocab words down on post it notes and post them to the correct areas on a friend. They loved it!

An active Friday afternoon class.

I teach about 22 hours of class per week and the rest of the 40hr week is spent at a desk planning lessons, goofing online, pacing outside or reading a book. As you can see, a large portion of my day is spent doing things other than my job. The first year was busy busy busy making lessons but as time goes on and you are required to use the same book as the prior year, there is not a lot more you can do to prepare for classes. I would LOVE to hangout with the other teachers during break time and chat, but there is a clear reason English teachers are so needed here in Korea...not many Koreans can speak English, especially on the countryside. This provides for a very lonely day at times and though I never had much motivation to learn Korean, regret does cross my mind time to time wishing I had picked up more conversational expressions.

Upon arriving home from school, I make myself a quick dinner and relax until 6:30 when I head to Muay Thai. I spend a little less than 2 hours there punching and kicking the stress out of me and then head home to shower, sleep and start all over.