TUESDAY
For some reason, I’ve been designated the science teacher of the school. I wonder what the chemistry teacher (Mr. Melcher) who flunked me would think of that! Fortunately, much of my curriculum is already laid out for me. The kindergarten science classes are experiments that come in this kit. The advanced elementary classes use a hardcover science book that is aimed at native English speakers. That has experiments and labs too, but I’ll have to plan them out on my own. Why the science teacher? I don’t get it. Well, they already hired a music teacher. And the social studies curriculum is combined with the math curriculum (which I won’t touch). Brant is the clown of the staff, so he’s in charge of storytelling. River is the gung-ho gym teacher. So I guess that leaves Joe Teach-a as Joe Science Teach-a. It’s tough enough explaining the scientific method to native English speakers. But oh well…
Brant and I took Julie Music Teach-a out for her welcome dinner. She’s the best Korean English speaker I’ve encountered so far. She had lived in Seattle for a year and took the job at Brighton to be closer to her boyfriend. She introduced us to some real Korean comfort food. It’s a spicy stew with big chunks of pork hocks and bok choy in it. It was like eating collard greens in navy bean stew. Very good on a chilly night. I forget the name. Something-Tang.
WEDNESDAY
Today we finished setting up for the Kindergarten term, which starts tomorrow. In between working on my curricula, we’ve been putting name tags on books and shelves with my WeakLazyLiar CDs in the CD player. They’re planning on hiring one or two more teachers, and I hope they do it soon. Our schedules are packed. All the classes have been moved around, divided, and remixed. The Aurora class that I hate so much has now been divided into two dreadful classes that I have to teach. My beloved Betty has been moved to Brant Teach-a’s class. The good thing is that I now have a definite set plan for teaching most of the classes instead of the improvising I’ve been doing for the past few weeks.
Of course, I find ways to amuse myself. One of my classes got three new boys, and I had to give them names. So I thought I’d name them after people I know. So I now teach a class with an Alan, Julian and Stefan. I’m wondering if they’ll let me get away with naming a kid Sendil or Moonpie. I know there’s a worldwide ban on naming a kid Trey Maclin.
It’s been icy cold this week, and snow was predicted for today. I haven’t seen any yet. But it’s supposed to warm up after Friday.
Today’s interesting things I’ve seen in Korea:
– Lotteria (Korea’s version of McDonald’s) is advertising a new hamburger that has peas inside of the patty.
– Budweiser is considered a hip import.