Let's go...

I'm still kinda traumatized from English camp and I'm not yet ready to write anything about it. But as time passes I'm forgetting how hard it was and I'll soon only remember the fun things. That's when I'll talk about camp.

I've booked a few plane tickets and I'll be meeting up with a hometown friend and taking a vacation. Gonna meet her in Hong Kong (well, actually Macau) and then we head to Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. I don't know if that's the right order but that ain't important.

I'll be gone for 13 days and I plan to party for 13 days. I'll get back to Korea on the 27th with a day or two to rest and then back to school.

When I return to school I'll find out who I'll be working with for the rest of the year. The students go on to the next grade at the beginning of March and most teachers will be assigned to new grades and subjects. Many of the subject teachers wanna be homeroom teachers and the same goes for the Korean teachers who I teach English with.

I was talking to the cool old lady I teach with and she says she feels that the principal treats the subject teachers different than the homeroom teachers and she doesn't like it. She wants more respect and the way to get it is to move the homeroom. It's too bad because her English is pretty good and I enjoy working with her a lot, maybe the most. She has a good sense of humor for an "old" lady.

It will be interesting to see what unfolds because the principal has the final say and I have a feeling that he's gonna make Dong-sik and Ju Yeon (the young teachers I work with) keep teaching English. I'll be glad personally but I know they want to take the dive into being a "real" teacher instead of a subject teacher. They know their workload will increase a lot in the homeroom but at least they'll get to know their students and feel more rewarded for their hard work.

Being a subject teacher in such a big school definitely has it's draw backs. One of the best things about English camp was getting to know the students and in return, they got to know me. That's one thing that is missing from my job because I see each kid for 40 minutes a week and then they're gone. There's no time to form a relationship with the kids and unfortunately, it's a lot easier to teach children you actually know something about, even if you can't speak their language.

Yesterday we finished the English camp at my school and at least now I know a few kids who will be in my classes. The second last day we went to Olympic Park ice skating and the kids were so excited to go skating with me. It's time like that when the language barrier kind of disappears and more importantly, the children take many more risks with their English because the Korean English teachers aren't around. As cheesy as it sounds, it was good to "bond" with the kids on the ice rink and have fun with them.

What was even more fun was skating circle around them.