The Last Day of School

I haven't been this excited about the last day of school since I was a student in high school, at least. Now, as a teacher, it's even more exciting than it was before. It's not just days off that I'm looking forward to, but one hell of a vacation. Have I mentioned that I'm already basically on vacation all the time because I live abroad and get to experience something new at every corner? Oh, well I guess I have then. The last day of school today was a real treat, and let me tell you why.

I showed up as usual right at 8:30am. The homeroom teachers were all in a really good mood, and the air conditioner was already on in the office. These are usually signs that it's going to be a really good day! My coteacher came in and I asked if the schedule would be any different today, after all, it IS the last day of school. She replied "Oh yes. You do nothing today! I'm envious!" and I smiled. Then she explained that because of the municipal office of education's policies about paying native teachers for documents, I could earn some extra cash by having extensive lesson plans and powerpoint presentations ready for summer camp on Monday. Then she said that the native teachers should leave at noon because they wanted to lock the school up. And then, as if it couldn't get any better, she said that the native teachers were not to come to work tomorrow.

I managed to finish up one lesson plan, worksheet, and powerpoint combination before I left school, and I have all day on my much-faster-than-work laptop to get the other two done. Monday we have summer English camp from 1-4 at school, and we're meeting our coteacher downtown to buy some prizes at the English bookstore for the kids. We do camp 3 days and then we're keeping our desks warm on Thursday and Friday. Oh yeah, when we come in to warm the desks, we only have to stay until noon. Gotta love the fact that the school has concerns over using too much power and would rather just lock the building down!

So the semester has come to a close, my first semester as a "real" teacher (in all senses except for having to do all the admin work a real teacher does) has been pretty successful, and I'm excited about the summer. What's not to love?

One more day...

...and this semester's a wrap.

I remember final exams being the last week of school at home. Here the exams were the second to last week, which means that this last week of the semester has been fairly worthless. The kids aren't interested at all (and the way they study for exams here I'd attribute it 100% to just being worn out and tired) in learning any more material, and they're ready for a break. Interestingly, I'm not really interested in teaching anything new this week, and I'm ready for a break too. Next week we're having our summer English camp at the middle school, though so my break will have to wait.

Summer English camp is a way to help students continue their English education after the regular semester ends. The idea is for the classes to be very fun and enjoyable and 100% in English. On the first day, my classes will get to play Fallout. The second day will be "Let's Make a Deal", and the third day is going to be my special production of "Superstar Daejin" where the kids will sing and judge each other's abilities American Idol style. I think it should be a fun three days and that the students will enjoy it quite a bit.

After middle school summer camp I'm spending a week at Babehoney's school doing camp there, and then I'm "on vacation" even though I have to come sit in the office every day for a week. After that, it's Bali time!

Tonight we're heading downtown to hopefully get a new powercord for Carolyn's computer. Hopefully we'll have time to stop at the Kyobo bookstore while we're there, I'd like to pick up a paperback novel to take to the beach with us this weekend. I think we're going to have dinner at Italy Italy because we're both craving a good pasta with a ton of cheese on top :).

It's very quiet in the office right now, and it definitely feels like the semester is winding down for the summer. I apologize for the stream of conscience style of writing, but my brain seems to have checked out for the summer :).

30 Days to Go

Ah. Final exams. The joyful time of year where I don't really have to work, but rather just sit at my desk while the kids do the hard work and I play around on the internet. This is good and nerve-wracking.

The good:

• I have plenty of time to come up with an awesome idea for my 3 day Summer Camp in 2 weeks.
• I won't have a headache at the end of the day.
• I get to eat whatever I want for lunch, because the cafeteria is closed.
• There's plenty of current events to become an expert on what with the U.S.'s potential to cause economic calamity by not raising the national debt ceiling.
• Sometimes friends and family pop onto facebook and it's good to chat a bit.
• It's fun to read about our chosen vacation destination online. Travel blogs are always fun and interesting to read.

The nerve-wracking:

• I'm having trouble coming up with awesome ideas for my 3 day Summer Camp in 2 weeks. Eek!
• The current events I tend to read about make me angry...or at least agitated.
• Sometimes friends and family DON'T pop onto facebook and chat for a bit.
• Reading about vacation destinations online makes me want to go on vacation NOW NOW NOW. But there's still 30 days (exactly 30 days) until we get to go.

All in all though, these are perfect days at work. You see, I like my job. In fact, I like my job quite a lot. This could be confusing to explain. The job I have right now is great, but I don't really enjoy working. I'd rather read about travel, travel, play video games, read about the U.S. national deficit, ANYTHING, other than work. So, sitting at a desk for a few hours without doing any actual work is perfect. Plus I don't really have any extra money to spend at the moment...I'd rather spend it somewhere like...Bali.

Next weekend we're traveling to Boryeong, a city on the West Sea (if you're in Korea, the East China Sea is the West Sea, and the Sea of Japan is the East Sea) with some sort of magical superhealthy mud. The point of the trip is to get slathered in mud and hang out with other foreigners, but it sounds like a pretty good deal of fun. I'm mainly looking forward to seeing a new place. Daegu is nice but all the buildings look pretty much the same, all of the stores carry the same product, and it doesn't feel very foreign anymore. On our trips to Seoul, Jinhae, Gyeongju, and the Hantan River it's always been refreshing to see some new sites. This is our last in-country trip before our big summer vacay, too. 

Anyhow, I know the updates have been a bit more mundane lately, but with the rainy season weather and our fairly busy schedules (taekwondo 3 nights a week, something almost every weekend) there hasn't been much time for pondering, contemplation, and weak self-realizations necessary to maintain the awesomeness of a blog. In just 40 days or so you will be bombarded with pictures and text that describes the magical island of Bali, so stay tuned!

Something I've learned as a teacher...

If there's one universal truth about teaching middle school aged kids around the world, I think this might be it. My best class is also my last class on Friday. 90% of the time, they're awesome and behaved super well, but sometimes it's Friday afternoon and they'll participate but they're tired and ready to go home. And they want to talk to their friends. So I've learned you can either get upset about it, or not, and if you don't the class moves along pretty well, even if it's a bit noisy. The kids are still good, they're just as ready for the weekend as I am :).