New Year, New classes.

Hello~

Wow, I haven’t updated this in a long time. Sorry! To be honest, we have been so freakin’ busy and stressed in the past couple weeks that it’s been hard to get on here.

So, our new semester started at the beginning of March. Unlike in Canada, the school year starts March 1st. So, when we started, we essentially started midway through the year. I think they try to stagger their foreign teachers’ start times so that they don’t have all new teachers every time. Or because then there is always another foreign teacher that’s been there for 6 months that can show us the ropes.

So, last semester, my 2 kindergarten classes were the 5 year olds, C class,  and the 6 year olds, u class. I was actually pretty bummed out that our director gave my U class to Patrick (They were a lot of fun, so I miss teaching them). So now, I have my old C class, now they are in S class, and a new 5 year old class, new C class. Unfortunately my old C class was one of my least favorite classes. They weren’t bad kids or anything, I just didnt really click with their personalities. I think I’m just not suited for the small children. I’m not maternal enough. I dont like playing or hugging and all that stuff (they are basically 4 years old, they need a mother figure). My old U class was fun since they were all pretty funny kids and would tell me stories. They each had a pretty unique personality and it was interesting to see how they reacted to certain teaching styles.

So, just that change has been quite stressful. Patrick has my old 6 year olds and a new 6 year old class. His new kids seem like they are pretty fun, so I’m kind of jealous. My new kids can’t really talk Korean very well (they are still essentially toddlers) so I’m not sure how I’ll be able to teach them English… They are so young that they can’t really hold a pencil or crayon properly.

Sorry, that’s probably super confusing….

My classes:

C class – New kids. 5 years old (4 years old international age).

S class – Old C class. 6 years old (5 years old international age) .

Pat’s classes:

H class – Old U class. 7 years old (6 years old international age) .

U class – New kids. 6 years old (5 years old international age) .

As for the afternoon, our director made some class switches that I wasn’t too fond of, but we only have our afternoon kids for 45min a day. Whereas with our kindergartners, we have around 3 classes a day with them, each. I think what bothered me the most about the changes is that she gave priority to the other foreigner teacher but didn’t ask us at all what we think. She has moved kids into classes that are way above their level. I could’ve helped her in regards to that! She also didn’t put in any effort to learn our teaching styles. Pat would do much better with the young guys. He is a way more loving and gentle person than me. It’s the kids that suffer more than us.

The worst thing that has happened for the afternoon is that our schedule is absolutely packed. so on MWF, we have 5 classes from 2:40 to 6:20 without any breaks. On T/Th we have 4 classes so we have one break, but its still so exhausting.

Since this is a new year, our director is under a lot of stress. All the teachers are stressed. I don’t know, just a lot of little things.

We have only been told all the reasons we are awful. I think a bit of it is Korean culture as well. They are really blunt here. Not only that, but they seem to not focus on what you do well, but only on what you need to do better. Hearing constant negativity makes me feel like I’m a super failure at life, but maybe I’m doing a lot of things awesome that she doesn’t say anything about. We’ve heard that that is just how things work in Korea. They believe in criticism, but not constructive criticism or praise. What’s also frustrating is that they don’t hide favouritism either. The other foreigner teacher gets away with anything because he is the favourite.

Sorry, that was a bit of a rant. I’ve been pretty stressed out lately. Change is hard!