My Daily Life at School

My first day at Yangjeong Elementary school was August 27th.  The school had recently began their second semester after returning from summer vacation.  There was a lot to learn.  Mostly I needed to learn what my day to day work life would be like.  It quickly settled into a routine for about a month and then seemed to change a little bit each week after that.  However, there is a lot that is the same from day to day.  Since my students are finishing their school year tomorrow, I thought I would post what my day-to-day life was like for the first half of a school year that I spent in Korea.  It will change some starting March 3rd.

The school is four stories and 2 buildings.  There is a covered walkway between the two. Then English office is on the first floor front building on the right side in this picture.  The English library/classroom is on the first floor back left side in the second building.  I have yet to see the entire school.

My school day is from 8:40-4:40.  The morning announcements and homeroom time seems to be from 8:40-9:00.  At 9:00 first period starts.  Each period is 40 minutes long and are followed by a 10 minute break.  There are 4 periods before lunch which starts at 12:10.  After lunch there is 1 more period or maybe two depending on the grade.  It's a little unclear to me.  All of my classroom teaching time was during the first four periods.  After lunch, there was a break in which the English teachers didn't really work, but instead visited and had coffee until the lunch period was over at 12:55.  On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I taught a 40 minute after school class for 3rd and 4th graders from 2:00-2:40.  My after school schedule did not match up with the bell schedule.  The last bell for the day is at 2:30 but I believe that is for the end of after school classes and not regular classroom classes.  Unless its the last class for 6th grade.  It was never clear to me.

Essentially 1st and 2nd grade have 4 periods, lunch, and then 1 more period which finishes at 1:40.  3rd and 4th grade have 5 periods and then lunch.  I do not believe they have a class after lunch which means their school day ends at 1:40 as well (lunch for them is from 1:00-1:40).  Fifth and sixth grade have 4 periods, lunch, and then either 1 or 2 periods.  I think 5th grade has one and sixth grade has too. Which means 5th grade finishes at 1:40 and 6th grade finishes at 2:30.  There are after school classes that many students are involved in.  Most of them are from 1:50-2:30.  The majority of the students will also attend a hagwon or academy.  This is like extra after school classes held at a private business.  My friend Nicole works for an English hagwon.  Students attend classes with her based on their grade level and profiencey level from 2:30-8:30.  Some hagwons are open even later.   School might finish early for students, but not really as they will attend more lessons at hagwons.  They might attend Math, Korean, or English hagwons or even go to taekwondo classes or music or art classes.

For me, when I arrive I change my shoes to my indoor shoes and go to the English office.  I usually arrive around 8:30 and have planning time until 9:00.  I started classes every day at 9:00 except Wednesday.  Monday and Friday I taught all four periods before lunch.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I only taught 3 periods before lunch.  After lunch I have planning time or after school class.  However, my after school classes finished Dec. 6 so since then I have had nothing to do in the afternoon except some planning.  If I am completely planned I have to find ways to fill the time.  It's referred to as desk warming among native English speakers teaching English in Korea.  We are required to stay the full work day even if we are finished with all of our work and do not have to teach. We also work most of winter vacation and again must be there the full time.  This past winter vacation my students were out of school from Dec. 25-Feb. 3.  I taught an English camp for 2 weeks.  My first week of English camp I taught for the 4 periods before lunch.  My second week of English camp I only taught for the first 2 periods of the day.  But I was required to be at school the full 8 hours every day of winter camp except for my 9 vacation days.  It is very different from when I taught as a homeroom teacher at an international school and a GA public school.

This is where I change shoes everyday and where I keep my shoes.  My shoe cabinet is the 5th from the right on the top row.  I stop here every morning and evening.  It's inside the main entrance in the middle of the building.  There are shoe cabinets at every entrance in the front and back of the school.  My name on my cabinet was changed from Rebecca to my name after I was there for almost 3 months.  

The English office.  My desk is the first one.  I sit closest to the door.  Beside me is my coteacher that was out of maternity leave for a while.  She teaches 5th grade.  Across from her is the head English teacher's desk.  She teaches 6th grade.  Across from me there is a monitor but no computer and therefore isn't anyone's desk.  It's more of a catch-all space.  The bookshelves on the left and the books on them all belong to my head English teacher.  It will feel SOOO empty when she moves in the next two weeks. Oh and my desk stays about that clean all the time surprisingly.  I straighten it up each day before I leave.  I've never done that before in my life!

This is a view of the English classroom and library.  It's not a great one but its the best I have.  There are 4 rows of desks.  There are 6-7 desks in each row.  We only use the 3 rows for students.  In the back and on the left is the English library.  From what I've been told its the largest English library in a public elementary school in Busan.  We have so many books because we are experimental school for teaching English with picture books.  

Below is a table that shows each of my classes for my first semester in Korea.  For the numbers, the first number is the grade level and the second is the class number.  Like I said above, that is all about to change.  Starting with the new school year in March I will teach 3rd-6th grade and will not have after school classes.  My daily schedule will change.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8:40-9:00	Planning	Planning	Planning	Planning	Planning
9:00-9:40	5-1	5-5	Planning	6-5	4-3
9:50-10:30	5-2	Planning	6-2	6-6	4-4
10:40-11:20	5-3	4-1	6-3	6-1	4-5
11:30-12:10	5-4	4-2	6-4	Planning	4-6
12:10-12:55	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
1:00-2:00	Planning	Planning	Planning	Planning	Planning
2:00-2:40	Afterschool	Planning	Afterschool	Planning	Afterschool
2:40-4:40	Planning	Planning	Planning	Planning	Planning