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| For better or for worse, teaching is delightfully unpredictable. |
Being here for 8 months and
counting, I look back and reflect on things I used to be shocked by that seem
utterly normal and mundane now. I
guess it is still as odd as it was on day one, only that I’ve become a little
more used to the shock and spectacle of it.
I roll into school, go through the greetings settle down and
get my room ready for today’s circus classes. I hear the kindergarteners walking to lunch, which is my cue
to make my way to the cafeteria to eat with the 1st graders. As I walk along the covered dirt path
in my indoor sandals the janitor grandma accompanies me and talks my ear off
about who knows what, she speaks fast and has a tone quality that would give
Tom Waits a run for his money (I think I pick out something about soju and a
kimchi festival…). As I walk into
the cafeteria I see 85 kindergarteners rear their heads around as if SNSD just
walked in, I bask in the spotlight and try and ignore the fact that the kindergarten
teachers now have to corral a handful of their students who were eating just
fine until I crashed the party. I
grab my lunch tray and see what surprises the day has in store for me. Purple rice with little things of
not-rice, sweet! The lunch lady
puts a death grip on my tray with one hand as she scoops an unnecessarily large
amount of rice onto my tray, she winks and puts another scoop on top of the
already massive pile of carbs. I
continue down the line and pick up some fish thing, shredded vegetable
something, and spicy soup, 잘 먹겠습니다!
Back in my room, I continue to ready my lessons and
whatnot. It isn’t long however,
before my door slides open with various students saying hello, drawing on my
board, telling me so and so went to the hospital and can’t come to class today,
and of course the odd game of tag that wanders through my room. It isn’t long before I find myself
staring my 1st graders in the face… cue the music, song and dance
man. The day turns into a blur, I
remember bits and pieces, MinSoo put markers up his nose, Seong Kyeong just
laughed the entire time, I don’t think Boo Seong actually sat down once. Rinse and repeat for 3rd
grade, Dan is trying to tell me a
story about something with lots of explosions, Ashley doesn’t remember how to
spell her name, Lauren and Annie are convinced I am in love with my co-teacher
and Lily asks me if I want to marry her sister. Yikes. A random
fact about my 5th grade: however small in numbers, the idea of an
intimate class dynamic with thoughtful conversation goes straight out the
window after you find out that ALL of them go to the same Taekwondo
academy. Talk about keeping me on
my toes. I breathe a bit air after
the 5th grade K-Tigers leave and pack up, I’m not done yet,
though. Two teachers have their
kids in kindergarten and twice a week I read a book to them, they are darlings
and full of hunger for knowledge (they haven’t started the Hagwan circuit
yet). I say goodbye to them and
find that their mother has left a pumpkin rice cake on my desk with a note that
says “Thank you”.
On
the good days the feeling is intoxicating, and on the bad days I feel like a
bus hit me. At any rate I hang my
hat on the fact that tomorrow is a new day to try something else, or to improve
on the successes of yesterday. My
life/ Korea, Weird and Wonderful.
Same-same.
