Posted to a New School

Normally, after only one year, native English teachers in Busan are not permitted to request a change of school without submitting a whole new employment application and going through the full recruitment process. Despite that, my co-teacher offered to communicate with the board of education on my behalf should I not want to return to my boys middle school. This is in reference to some of the challenges I had at that school during the year. Either way, I would still remain at my main school.

Ultimately, I declined the opportunity to switch schools. Things had been getting better at the boys school, and I felt that a second year there would be much easier. I would have most of the lessons already prepared and I knew the boys well enough, so there wouldn't be any surprises. Working at the boys school was very challenging, but I didn't exactly want to leave.

As the schedule worked out, I would have about two months away from the boys school including my vacation time. I was completely expecting to return to that school in March, but on the off-chance that I was switched to another school, I gathered all of my things from my desk and took them home with me on my last day there. I didn't do a proper goodbye with any of the students or teachers. "See you in March," I said, honestly believing that to be true.

During my vacation away from school, I got a Facebook message from a random person who ended up being a native English teacher in Busan. Somehow, she was able to locate me, and wanted to connect me with the person replacing me at my boys school. I was shocked. Someone was replacing me? Was this a mistake? I hadn't heard anything about being replaced and I assumed I was returning to the school.

I connected with my replacement, and she is a current teacher in Busan. I gave her information about the textbooks used at that school and the size of the classes, but she didn't want any other information as she was hoping to be surprised. She struck me as an experienced teacher. I can't imagine a new teacher would decline to get information on their new school. I think she will be in for a surprise at that boys school. They are pretty rowdy.

Of course, this made me really curious. Why hadn't I been informed of the change and, more importantly, which school was I being switched to? I contacted my co-teacher for information and to double-check if I really had been switched out of my boys school. Yes, I had. She had known for a few days but had been too busy to tell me. So, my transfer was official, and many other teachers in Busan were switched to new schools for the upcoming year.

As it turned out, I was just swapping schools with the teacher replacing me. She was replacing me and I was replacing her. I re-contacted her and got some information about the school. Odd that we were simply swapping schools. Not sure what the point of that was, but that was the plan.

Now that I had the name of the school and was assured that I would be teaching there two days per week, I immediately went to the internet to find out more. It wasn't exactly easy finding the school webpage in Korean, but I eventually made it there. The first thing I wanted to know was if it was a boys school. I looked at the photos on the page. Nothing but teenaged-boys. Sure enough, I'm being switched from one boys school to another. At least the school looks nicer, with better facilities. And there is no way that these boys can be as badly behaved as those at my previous school. Also, the new school is a little closer to home and I won't have to walk up a massive hill each morning. Not a bad trade in my mind.

I don't report to the school for a few more weeks, but I'm a little nervous about going there on the first day. The first day at any school is awkward. Plus, I don't really know how they do things there. I like to do things my own way and run my own classes but I have a feeling that this school is more "by the book." At least, that's what the outgoing teacher seemed to imply. I won't be able to use all of my lessons from last year, so they'll be some extra work but at least it's the same grade level (middle school) so I can re-use some of my materials.

So, while I didn't initiate the change in schools myself, I was ultimately shifted due to the board of education reorganization plan. Year two will certainly be different from year one. I'll keep you posted.

Friendly Busan

Covid-19 restriction levels have been dropped so cafes, gyms and other businesses are operating normally. The sun is shining and the weather is mild for January. Things have taken a turn for the better.

Being one of the few foreigners in the area, and also being a creature of habit, I am becoming more frequently recognized by people, especially those who work in nearby restaurants and shops.

Over the past week or so, I've had the following interactions with locals that make me feel welcomed and recognized. Also, it's clear that I go to cafes and restaurants too much.

When the cafes first re-opened, I went to my usual spots that I had been missing over the past month. Several times I was told, "Long time, no see." And staff even remembered my drink order, "That's right, you don't like whipping cream."

At another small coffee shop, the staff said they were wondering when I would arrive. Confused, I said, "huh?" They explained that they only work on weekends, and I usually come to their shop on the weekend, so they were waiting all day for "cafe mocha" to arrive. I promised to visit them again next weekend.

This next interaction happened without English at the convenience store near my apartment. I was there for a late-night snack, my usual, a bag of popcorn. The old woman behind the counter made a gesture and smile towards the popcorn and said something like "Wow, you really like this popcorn." At least, that's what I think she said. I suppose I'm eating too much popcorn and need to switch things up.

As part of my contract renewal, I was required to visit the hospital for a comprehensive health check. The staff were very accommodating and did their best to communicate with me in English, although I had my Korean co-teacher with me to interpret everything. As is often the case, the nurses had trouble taking blood from my arms. A crowd of nurses gathered to watch in amazement at the difficulty they were having with my foreign veins. Eventually, they had to give up and take blood from a vein in my hand. 

On the way home from the hospital, I stopped at a restaurant to grab some take-out for lunch. The staff noticed the bandage on my hand and asked about it. Very kind of them to notice and check on me. I explained that I just had a health check, and I think they understood. You don't often expect concern for your health from a take-out restaurant, but it's a good example of the kindness of people here in Busan.

I returned to the hospital the next week to pick up my confidential results. On the way, I ran into a student from my boys school in the subway station. He introduced me to his mother, "This is Derek Teacher." I waved and said, "Hello, nice to meet you" and went on my way. It's nice to get recognized on the street after having arrived in the country not really knowing anyone or anything. It makes you feel important. 

Leaving the hospital, I met another student from my main school with his mother. The boy explained that he was visiting the hospital because his brother had broken his leg running into a tree. He was animated in his story-telling and I could see that his mother was enjoying the conversation and was very proud that her son could speak English with me, a native speaker.

Despite everything, friendly Busan has become my home away from home. I'm gradually connecting with people here and it adds a lot to my experience in Korea.

English Camp - Winter 2021

English Camp for Winter 2021 is now in the books. 

I organized two camps - an online camp featuring recorded video lessons and activities for my boys middle school and an in-person camp for my main school. Approximately 12 students joined each camp for extra-curricular English learning which were held during the first few days of their winter vacation.

The students volunteered for the English camp so attendance and interest were very good over the three half-days, although I obviously didn't interact directly with the online students. It was nice to spend time with a small group of students at my main school camp because it has been really hard to connect with individual students this year due to the pandemic and generally larger classes.

Of the 12 students, abilities were mixed. Some students were nearly fluent in English and could hold regular conversations with me. It was clear that they have spent years studying English and have invested extra time in conversational practice. Other students had lower confidence when speaking, but working in a low-pressure environment and with help from their friends, I think they did quite well and had some fun.

The students made name cards for the camp and were asked to choose a nickname. Humorously and unexpectedly, many of the girls in the camp chose traditional boys names, such as Timmy, Harry, Tom, and Jerry. Oh well, all in good fun.

The challenge with the camp was that there were very few guidelines that I was aware of. I had near-complete freedom to choose a theme, develop lessons, activities, and games. The only goal was to ensure that the students had fun and participated in English language learning. No grades or credit were issued for camp participation.

Here is my plan for the online camp, and I used a modified version for the in-person students with more flexibility and interactive activities:

Day 1

Introduction
Planets
Fly Me to the Moon (song)
Create a Fictional Planet

Day 2

Stars and Constellations
Moon landing and Moon Walk (dance)
Life as an Astronaut
Rocketship (origami)

Day 3

Astronaut Training
Star Wars 

The theme of the English camps was Outer Space, so I started each day with cheesy space jokes that I don't think the students truly understood. Jokes don't always translate across languages but the Korean co-teacher encouraged them to laugh out loud anyway.

I think the space ship origami activity was successful. We made two different kinds of space ships plus a fairly advanced crescent moon. Having no personal talent in the area, I played YouTube tutorial videos for the students to follow along with. 

I assigned a project to be completed and presented by the end of the camp. Students needed to design their own fictional planet, and include drawings and descriptions in a comic book or poster format. I think it was a good teaching strategy on my part because it required students to work in groups, converse in English, and they had something tangible to show at the end of the camp. Also, if I ran out of ideas or an activity took less time than expected, I had the option to give students more time to work on their projects.

Students designed a Hogwarts planet based on the Harry Potter series, a K-Pop planet for Korean idols, a planet of dinosaurs, and a half-frozen, half-hot planet. They put in a lot of work and I was proud of their final presentations.

English camp was not without its challenges though. For the duration of the camp, we had to do without running water as the pipes had frozen at the school. Toilets, faucets, and drinking fountains were out of order.

When I trained as an ESL teacher, I was required to meticulously plan my lesson time. It is a pet peeve of mine when last-minute changes are thrust upon me that disrupt my plan. I had a co-teacher helping with the camp and 30 seconds before the camp was to begin, she asked for some time during the first day to complete an activity. My plan had to be tossed and reworked to accommodate the change. Her activity was worthwhile but as a professional courtesy, at least some advanced notice would be nice. 

I thought it would be fun for students to watch a movie that related to our theme of outer space. I chose Captain Marvel because I already had it downloaded on my computer. Unfortunately, it didn't have Korean subtitles and the students quickly lost interest. Also, many students had already watched the film, so not a great activity. The co-teacher also dropped not-so-subtle hints that I should shorten movie time or cut it altogether. 

Again, if a teacher is going to have opinions on my activities, it would be nice if they were involved in the initial planning or at least state their expectations in advance. There were other notes and instructions from the co-teacher to make sure to do this or that during the camp despite the teacher not knowing what I was planning to do.

To top it off, after Day 1, my co-teacher said that she wanted to run a scavenger hunt activity on the final day of the camp. I thought, "great, so I don't need to plan my own activities for that time." Well, I started to get a little skeptical of my co-teacher actually leading an activity, so I asked her how much time she wanted for the scavenger hunt so I could plan the rest of my schedule. She said, "Oh, actually I don't recommend that you do a scavenger hunt this time because of COVID-19." So, there you go. I had one evening to come up with a new activity to fill the time slot that I had reserved for the co-teacher's scavenger hunt. It's not like COVID-19 was a sudden concern, we've been dealing with it for months. And the scavenger hunt was her idea.

Despite all of this, I have become accustomed to these last-minute changes and don't let them throw me off too much. To the co-teacher's credit, she purchased chicken burgers and snacks for all of the students at the end of the camp. She took our photos so students would have a souvenir of their time in English Camp.

The camps are now complete, so I can start my much anticipated two-week winter vacation. With lessons learned, I am looking forward to my next English camp in August.

Last week before Winter Vacation

The last week before winter vacation has been both busy and slow. 

It has been slow in that I worked from home four of five days this week and had only one in-person class. I was set to have two classes on Wednesday, but the schedule got shifted around so the students at home could watch an online orchestra during the third and fourth periods. Of course, there are only fun (or time-wasting) classes the week before vacation. Also, I naturally assumed that we would be operating on the Wednesday schedule since it was Wednesday. How foolish of me. When I got to school, I learned that we would have the Friday schedule instead. Just another fun last-minute change. Actually, it could have been really problematic because I had submitted online recordings for the specific Wednesday classes, but instead, the Friday classes were shown my lesson recording. It was just by sheer luck that those classes hadn't already viewed that lesson in the previous week. If we used a Thursday schedule on Wednesday instead of the Friday schedule, those students would have had the same lesson twice. Does that make sense? Bottom line, the school changed the schedule without telling me and luckily it worked out without problems.

Apart from the shenanigans for my one in-person class, I was actually really busy working at home this week. I even put in several hours this weekend all because I was preparing my Winter English Camps for next week. I didn't receive the details of these camps until very late, so I had very little prepared until now. Also, because one school wanted an online-recorded camp and the other school wanted an in-person camp, I essentially had to prepare two camps. Putting together the lessons, activities, and doing the recordings were very time-consuming.

There are English Camps during vacation in summer and winter. This winter my camps are 3-half days each. Just now I finished recording the lessons for my boys' school, so for all intents and purposes, I am finished with that camp. My main school camp is in-person and the theme is outer space. I will be teaching students about the planets, stars, moon, sun, and other fun things like making spaceship origami and learning to do Michael Jackson's moonwalk. I think I'll also show Captain Marvel as a space-related movie.

I'm a little nervous about how the camp will go because it will be my first in-person camp. Last summer I had an in-person camp that was changed to online at the last minute. As I understand it, the camps are meant to be fun and have activities that encourage the students to speak English. They aren't as formal or as structured as typical classes. I expect to have about 14 students who are a mix of grades 1, 2, and 3. I think I have a lot of material to keep them busy, but I'm not sure how long each activity will last. Each half-day is to include about 2.5 hours of camp time.

I assume that the students are interested in English since they have volunteered to come to the English camp during their winter vacation.

I hope it all goes well and will write a blog next week with details from the camp.

Decision: Contract Renewal

I have decided to stay in South Korea for a second year.

Actually, it wasn't simply deciding that I wanted to stay. Instead, I needed to apply to the board of education in Busan for the opportunity to renew my contract. I wrote a self-evaluation that reflected on my teaching and lesson planning throughout the year, co-teaching with Korean teachers, reasons for staying another year, and personal goals for next year.

I was told earlier in the year that I would have a meeting with the principal at the school. Depending on how that meeting went and the principal's satisfaction with my performance, the school would approve of my contract renewal, and that would be communicated to the board of education. The meeting with my principal never happened. Instead, my co-teacher made it clear that she and the school wanted me to stay. My school simply passed on their approval to the board of education.

A few weeks later, I heard back from the board of education that my contract renewal application was approved. I think most people who want to stay and do a half-way decent job as a teacher and stay out of trouble are granted another contract. Still, it was nice to officially learn that I was wanted.

That's not the end of it though. I will still need to pass a medical check and submit all of the proper paperwork for a work visa extension. Unlike in Japan where my initial work visa was valid for three years, in Korea I need to renew my visa every year or anytime I get a new job or contract. I will be taking care of these details in the coming weeks and I hope they are simply formalities.

About two weeks ago I was invited to take part in the online contract renewal orientation and training. All foreign English teachers in Busan who are renewing their contracts for next year logged in online for the afternoon session. We learned about the process for renewal and refreshed our teaching repertoire with new resources and techniques to try in the classroom. There was a heavy focus on further preparing to teach online and ensuring that this format would be beneficial for our students.

During the online orientation, there were several vague comments by the board of education coordinator that there was a possibility that teachers may be reassigned to different schools next year, depending on various factors. Although, those who teach at middle schools, like me, would likely remain at our current schools. Elementary teachers may have their responsibilities shifted because, due to budget cuts, there will be fewer native teachers hired in Busan next year. I'm thankful that I will have some stability next year and not have to worry about learning the ins and outs of a new school.

So, why did I decide to stay in Korea for year two?

It goes without saying that it was a very difficult decision and I've been shifting back and forth on my choice for weeks and months.  COVID-19 played a major factor in my decision. At the time of my decision, Ontario has had record numbers of new cases and they seem to be out of control, at least in the Toronto area, which is now under a type of lockdown.  Also, I have been monitoring the job market for the entire year, and it looks like finding another job back home in the immediate timeframe would not be very likely.

In the end, I am happy here and I expect the next year will be even better because I am much more comfortable teaching, I know my students better, and I have many teaching lessons and materials already prepared. I didn't get to explore South Korea very much this year because of the corona-virus. I have been in Busan for the whole time except for a brief trip to Jeju and Seoul, so I hope I can travel more next year. Despite some of the minor annoyances of living in a foreign country and struggling with the language, I think this is the best decision for now.

It will be very difficult to be away for another year and I don't know when it will be possible to come home for a visit. That depends on the COVID-19 situation in Canada, South Korea, and the world. I'll make the best of things here while trying to improve as a teacher and experiencing Korean culture and taking the necessary precautions against the corona-virus.