Oh yeah, I'm a teacher... in KOREA!

I've received several reminders recently that I'm living and working in KOREA...

• Last week, I was informed late Thursday night that I would be teaching a 3 week intensive course for students during winter vacation - 4 hrs. of class each day with the same students (Usually I only teach 1 lesson each week for 45 minutes to 22 different classes of students). Immediately after being informed of this new responsibility, I was asked what I would be teaching on. (Talk about having to think on your feet!) Then, Friday afternoon at lunch, my teachers asked me for a rough outline of my class plans for winter vacation. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed and informed them that it was impossible (one of their favorite words here) for me to make a rough outline at such short notice.
  
  ** Fortunately, God has blessed me with kind, compassionate co-teachers. After some tears (from stress and cultural challenges) and honest communication, they realized that it was unfair to made such great demands on such short notice. My co-teacher also clarified what she meant by rough outline (a much less formal plan than what I originally thought). She apologized to me (a BIG thing) and was very kind and encouraging.
  My co-teachers probably think I'm the most emotional person ever... it seems like almost every week, I find my eyes tearing up about something. Bring on the Kleenex! I think living in another culture like this for an extended time just makes me more sensitive, perhaps? I really am thankful to be here, though!
  

• Monday I took a two hour nap at school (had been feeling kind of sick and so exhausted I could hardly read my computer screen). They actually have a room designated solely for teachers to nap! Hard to believe, huh? One of the teachers slept even longer than I did - if you can imagine! Only in Korea...
  
  **This is one aspect of Korean culture I'm quite thankful for!
  
  
• They told me it would happen. I went to teach one of my 3rd grade classes on Tuesday and was shocked by the silence in the halls. There were no students to be found! I soon found out that they were on a field trip for the day. Since the 1st graders were taking exams most of the week, this meant that I didn't have any classes to teach on Tuesday, but still stayed at school, of course. Another day this week, I went to class and began teaching for a good 10 minutes, only to have another teacher come in and inform me that the "time table" was changed. She was supposed to be teaching and I was supposed to arrive 2nd period rather than 1st.
  
  **Sometimes I find myself being really surprised by my reactions. Although it does get frustrating to be the last one to find out schedule changes, usually it works in my favor. Having the extra time to relax and work on lesson planning was a blessing. Also, on the upside, I received an email this morning from one of my co-teachers informing me of the time table changes for the day. Significant improvement! I appreciated her consideration so very much!
  
  
• Wednesday I was informed that I would be teaching EVERY DAY of winter vacation - the same students, four hours each day. (So, the 3 week course that I found out about last week quickly doubled and turned into a 6 1/2 week course!!!) Talk about overwhelming... Perhaps I should dedicate an entire blog post to this... it was quite an eventful day. Thursday I found out I would only be teaching during the month of January.
  
  **I am overwhelmed again and again by the power of prayer. More to come on this in my next post...
  

• Today (around 3:15 pm), my co-teacher informed me that she needed copies of all of my lesson plans and worksheets from the entire semester - immediately. Apparently all of my lesson plans needed to be turned in to the district superintendent this afternoon. It didn't throw me too much because I have the hard copies and electronic copies easily accessible in my files. So it was simple to just whip out my binder and make copies. I'm thankful God made me to be an organized person! It really wasn't a problem... just made me chuckle at the last-minute urgent requests (they seem to be quite frequent).
  
  **Within a half hour, my co-teacher and I had a nice thick stack of lesson plans and worksheets bound with a pretty looking front cover. I'm amazed by how quickly things can get done to accommodate "emergencies." Oh dear... lol.
  
  
• Although I often wish I could understand Korean for communication purposes with my teachers and daily life outside of school, there are many moments when I'm thankful I don't understand. Usually, these moments are when I'm in the classroom with my students. This may seem surprising, but allow me to explain. Several of my students feel quite free to shout profanities (in English), make obscene gestures, and write inappropriate words on their desks, the walls, and class papers(my school is very dirty - in more ways than one). I discourage this behavior but have not yet found a very effective method for dealing with it (sometimes I think making a big deal about it is worse than ignoring it). However, I say I am thankful that I don't understand Korean because I think I would probably be shocked with a lot of the things that they say to each other and talk about. I'm not completely naive... but I'm thankful that I don't understand it all. I don't know if any of that makes sense...
  
  
• On a positive note: I had a student come apologize to me today! My last 3rd grade class of the day was incredibly rowdy, disrespectful, and talkative. It takes more energy than I can even begin to describe to try to control the students sometimes (especially when my lesson plan goes so perfectly with some classes and completely fails with others). I was quite frustrated with them and let them know that I was disappointed in their behavior. However, after school, I actually had one boy come to my desk and apologize for the behavior of his class!!!!!!! Can you believe it?!?!?!?! I was SHOCKED... and really touched. It was incredibly encouraging after such a rough and exhausting class. Praise God for students that actually care. A breath of fresh air...

Yes, I think it's safe to say the "honeymoon stage" of culture shock has worn off... There are many good things about Korea and I'm thankful to be here. Just noticing more of the challenges lately...