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.
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