First Day at a New School

My second school year in South Korea has officially begun, and I spent the first day at my new school. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I now teach at Y******* Boys Middle School. 

Last week, my co-teacher and I took the bus to the school so I would know how to get there on my own. It takes about 30 minutes by bus and a gruelling walk up a steep hill. My previous school was 50 minutes plus a walk up a ridiculous hill, so this is a slight improvement. I look forward to occasionally walking home (and downhill) when I don't need to rush anywhere. Also, the new school is in a residential neighbourhood with shops, restaurants, and apartment buildings. Much nicer than the industrial area with busy streets full of speeding trucks, cars, exhaust, and uneven sidewalks at the previous school.

While I am confident now on how to get to school, my visit last week wasn't very helpful in preparing me for my first day. Only the vice-principal was at the school since it was still winter vacation, so all of the other teachers, including the English teachers I'll be working with, were at home and unavailable to meet with me. All I learned was where my desk was and how to get to the English classroom.

My co-teacher reached out to the school for some information for me, and I found out the night before what time the school day begins, and what grades I'll be teaching (middle school grades 1 and 3), but that's all the information I received. I didn't know how many classes I would teach on my first day, whether they'd be in-person or online, and if online, what platform. I didn't know for sure if they'd have a computer for me to use, if there was internet available in the classroom for lessons, etc. Basically, anything that a teacher would need to know on the first day, I was clueless.

As it turned out, the first day at the school was a little rough. It was the opening of the school year for everyone, so teachers were buzzing around the whole day getting themselves organized. I learned some more details about teaching there, and the differences between my other schools are significant enough to make things uncomfortable for me until I get adjusted. I have a lot of work to do to plan and prepare my lessons.

I am scheduled to teach 5 classes per day on Monday and Tuesday, and that doesn't leave much downtime to prepare lessons during the day. Anyhow, teaching that many classes is exhausting so I normally just want to rest during any breaks that I get. Thankfully, on that first day, I only needed to teach two online classes since the other classes were cancelled for the opening ceremony and other special meetings for the incoming students.

The teachers seem friendly enough, but I have no idea about their expectations for me. Communication was lacking that first day. I had some computer problems with the school-provided laptop that had yet to be resolved when I left on Tuesday afternoon. I hope that the school I.T. person can fix it, otherwise, I won't be able to do any work on the computer next week.

My impressions after only one day were that the school was very old, supplies were lacking, classrooms were run-down, and saving money was a considerable priority at this school. I saw some students in-person and they seemed like good kids. And my online classes went as well as could be expected given the format and the fact that it was my first lessons at the school. 

My biggest worry is that I will be working with 4 English teachers and I don't know what to expect from them. I hope that I'm given the freedom to plan and run the lessons as I want, but it seems like at least some of the teachers are highly engaged, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just something to get used to.

This weekend I'm gearing up for my next week at school, after which I should have a much better idea of what teaching at this boys middle school will be like.