I am teaching a class of ten first graders. It is nice to have a small number, but it feels bigger because there is so much diversity. The difference between my oldest and youngest student is more than 2 years. At least one never went to kindergarten, so has never had to learn how to do things like sit in a chair or respect a teacher before. Some don't know the sounds of the letters, while some can read at a second grade level. Most students know how to add, but I even have one who is asking to learn how to multiply now. The students have all different backrounds. Taking into account the student's country of citizenship and the countries that they have lived in, my 10 students represent at least 11 countries (India, Bangladesh, Japan, Malaysia, New Zeeland, Russia, USA, England, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Korea). So while the numbers are small, the range of teaching that I have to do feels like it is HUGE.
The year started off really hard. There was no type of orientation to the school, and no one really telling us all of the things that had to be turned in (syllabus, breakdown of the yearly plan, grading polocy etc..) Basically I would find out about these things when I heard other teachers talking about them. The first grade teacher before me basically didn't use any teaching materials (posters, manipulatives, games and stuff like that), so I am spending a lot of my time making these things as I go along. Now I am sort of in a good routine, but making all of the materials is really time consuming.
My housing here is kind of a bummer. All of the other teachers are in a real apartment building, but I am in a building that has 6 units above a bar. Mine is maybe 2/3 the size of the others. The mini-refridgerator that came in the apartment is useless. There is a problem with the seal or something, so the back half of the fridge is frozen while the front half is warm, and the freezer builds up a nice thick layer of ice (about an inch in a week) around the edges. I ended up having to get a fridge of my own, and still have this worthless mini-fridge taking up space in the tiny apartment. It took me six weeks to get internet hooked up. This is completely rediculous considering that Korea is the "most wired nation in the world." There were other teachers who had their internet in 4 days. Mostly the delay was due to a guy at my school who was too busy to make the phone call. I ended up having to get help from another friend, but even then there were more rediculous delays. (Oh yeah, and then the guy who didn't help me at my school had the nerve to tell me that "you should have called a different company") I'm not quite sure how I got stuck with this place, but there is a chance that I will be able to move to the other building in March.
I am coaching the high school cross country team, which has been quite an experience. I didn't know anything about cross country when I started. Basically the athletic director knew that I am a runner, so when they were looking for a coach he asked me. There is another coach that I am working with (who is equally clueless about cross country) which makes things a little easier. We are both first year teachers at the school, so neither of us felt like we could commit to coaching 100% of the time. This is the first year that the school is offering cross country. We have 7 boys on the team. At the first practice there were 2 girls, but they didn't come back. So far we have had 3 meets. We certainly don't have the best team (There are other teams with 45 boys and 45 girls) but I'm proud of how they are doing.
I'll try to start updating my blog on a regular basis again. I already miss everyone so much. I've bought my tickets home for Christmas, so I'll be there for sure.
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