After a nice and long winter vacation, classes resumed in February for about a week before the official end of term and graduation. I was required to be in school from Thursday until the next Wednesday, and my task was to teach students who had just returned from a month-long break, and who were just hoping to kill a few days before spring break began. All final grades were announced several weeks ago, and the grade 3 students already knew which high schools they were bound for. In other words, I was dealing with a big bunch of unmotivated students.
COVID-19 cases have really spiked recently, were at almost 50,000 cases per day. As a precaution, half of my classes were online. At my main school, I made a video-recorded lesson for my 3rd-grade students. I was disappointed because I had taught these students for two years and I was hoping to see them once more before they graduated, but unfortunately, I had to say my goodbyes on a recording.
My lessons were quite basic this week. I did a short presentation on my life in Korea, including the interesting places that I had visited and what I had experienced in Korea. I told my students that I appreciated their country and it was a great time in my life, living in Korea. I asked them to keep studying English, do their best, and invited them to visit Canada one day.
After that, I did a short lesson on fishing. I spent some time talking about and showing pictures of ice fishing in Canada because I thought it would be interesting for them. Then I concluded the class with a game of bingo using the new 'fishing' vocabulary that I had taught them. I gave students chocolates and Canada pencils as a parting gift. Several students came up to talk to me after the lesson, and I felt their appreciation for being their teacher. It was a nice moment.
At the boys' school, my Korean teacher took me to see the principal and vice-principal for my official goodbye. I barely had any interactions with the principal for the whole year, but he was kind at my departing. The vice-principal was a very friendly man and was sure to say 'hello' to me every morning. Through our interpreter, he wished me luck and thanked me for teaching at the school.
The teachers in the staff room were also nice when we explained that this was my last day. The English teachers thanked me for the work I had done. One teacher said I was "the best native English teacher they had worked with." I'm sure she was just being kind, but it was very touching since I had hardly received any feedback on my teaching in two years.
My co-teacher, who I had sat beside and taught with for one year, walked me out of the school. She explained that it was "Korean style" to do that. So I packed up and walked with her to the door. At that point, she teared up and started crying. She waved me off and quickly slipped back into the school. It was a sad walk to the subway station for me.
I repeated this the next day at my main school. At public schools, teachers usually are rotated out every four years. So, all of the departing teachers, myself included, lined up in the staff office. The vice-principal said some nice parting words in Korean that I didn't understand. Each teacher then took the microphone and gave a short speech about their time at the school and thanked their colleagues.
I wish I was able to give my speech in Korean, but unfortunately, that was not the case. I simply spoke in slow English saying that "I had come to Korea two years ago. Thank you for two years. I love this middle school and I love Korea. I'm going back to Canada. Goodbye everyone!" A teacher gave me a thumbs up, so I assume everyone understood what I meant to say.
I leave the school with some very sweet notes from the students. These reminders of my time teaching and talking with them are my best souvenirs from Korea.
Very anticlimactically, after all of these emotional goodbye speeches, well-wishes, and parting gifts, I still need to return to the school for two days of work. By work, I mean sitting at my desk and doing nothing work-related. The other teachers will be preparing for the next semester. I suppose I'll use the time to look for a new job. After those two lame duck days next week, I'll be on vacation until I fly away from Korea.
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