The First Daze of School

No, I have not fallen of the face of the earth. See, there is this ledge just below the surface of the earth that catches people just as they're about plummet into oblivion. I'm on that ledge now... some call it International Christian School, and it's in the middle of a rice paddy in Korea.

Today was the first day of school. So it should be kind of obvious what has been consuming my time. For the last week, we have been spending around 12 hours a day at school, with training in the morning and working in our classrooms in the afternoons. Whoever said teachers don't work much obviously has never tried it. Monday night was open house. That was interesting. Just smile, nod, say "nice to meet you," and try not to freak out when the parents ask you what your philosophy of education is. What were you thinking entrusting dear little (insert Asian name here) into the care of someone who doesn't have a clue what she's doing? "So young!" Well, that's because I am. "Are you hispanic or Spanish?" Yes, don't I look like it? I think it's the hair. Fortunately, a lot of parents really liked that I was in Spain for a while. It gives me good credibility.

But I did get my classroom ready to go, my welcome letters written, rules and procedures defined, and lesson plans ready for the first day. All in all I think it went pretty well. As it turns out I have 5 classes: Spanish I, Spanish II, 7th/8th Geography, 7th Math, and Jr/Sr Service Projects and College Prep. The jr/sr class I'm co-teaching with another girl and it just meets once a week so it's not too much work. The other teachers have been great, especially helping with geo and math since I don't have any background in teaching those. There is one teacher in particular that has taken a lot of time to help me figure out plans for the first couple days and strategies to teach the middle school classes. This is only her second year here, but she taught over 20 years in the States. Those classes will be a challenge since half the class is ESL, so I'll have to teach a lot of language in with the content, but still try to challenge the kids who are more or less fluent in English. I am the youngest teacher here, although there are a couple others who just graduated too. But I have the most random classes out of anybody, mainly cause I was hired last and they can't offer enough Spanish classes. :^)

The 7th graders are all really cute, and I think my Spanish classes will be a lot of fun, especially the SpanII class (jrs/srs). They are really comfortable from being together last year so I think I'll be able to get them to do a lot. They all introduced themselves using Spanish names. They just like to talk so I'll have to work pretty hard to shut them up when they aren't supposed to be talking. The 7th grade was really quiet today since they were scared spitless at moving up to the third floor with the high school and having class with a new teacher. Which was good since I was about scared spitless too. We'll see how it goes when they're not intimidated anymore. I do have a TA for one period a day, a really sweet senior girl. Because of schedule conflicts, she couldn't take the jr/sr class so she came up with a plan that she could be my TA if I caught her up on what she missed each week, and the director and I thought it was a great idea. We have a lot of scheduling problems since the kids usually have moved around a lot and end up needing random classes. Today was a mess trying to figure out who was actually in my classes.

The outside of my door- I inherited the sign

Looking in from the door

The left side of the room. There is no question I like Spain.

The right side of the room. My students are incredibly impressed that I actually took these pictures of Spain.

From my desk towards the front. The flags make me look like the president. Why England? I dunno. My other choices were Mexico or Canada but none of them appealed to me at the time.

Front of the room. The little white board is for writing homework for each subject.

I have lots more things I could talk about but I have to figure out what I'm doing tomorrow in my classes. So hasta ahora! I love you all!