The job

Hello all,           

            Now that we’ve been here for a full session I think it’s time to tell you about the job.

            We’re working at a hagwon, or cram school. Korean kids go to regular school and then cram schools afterwards. I think Gavin mentioned this in another blog posting, but there are a variety of types including math, music and English. The kids were on vacation for the month of August, so the session we just finished was called “intensives,” since there were more classes run than usual. Classes ran from about 9 am to 10 pm.

            The way COREM works (and I suspect most other hagwons) is that kindergarten classes run from 10 am to 2 pm, elementary classes are from 2 to 7 and middle school classes are from 5:30 to 8:30. Kindergarten classes are 35 min long and the rest are 40 with five minutes between them. Starting at the elementary level there are two streams- PK, Prep and Elite are for kids who’ve gone to English kindergarten and Pathos, Ethos, and Logos are for those who’ve been in the regular Korean system. Kindergarten kids are divided from youngest to oldest into Lemon, Melon, Pineapple, Strawberry and Banana. The youngest (Lemons) are four years old and Bananas are six.

            A note about Korean age: When a person is born here they are already considered to be a year old. On top of that, depending when they are born relative to the Lunar New Year, they could be another year older than their “real” age. This means the kindergarten kids are 5, 6, and 7 years old Korean age. At that age development is very pronounced so sometimes you get a kid who’s a lot smaller and less mature than his or her classmates and it will turn out that they’re a year younger than everyone else.

            So far I’ve been mostly an elementary and middle school teacher, with only four kindergarten classes per week and so far I’ve liked it that way. I had Strawberry three times and Melon once. Strawberry is one of the larger classes with nine students and I have to admit that they absolutely dominated me from the first. I do not have the Strawberry touch and most of my classes were spent trying to get the boys to sit down, stop screaming and jumping off things, and do their work. Screaming is a Korean child’s favourite pastime. I’m happy to report that my next session is Strawberry free, although it is kindergarten-heavy with 18 classes per week. Bring on the Lemons, Melons, Pineapples, and Bananas!!

            One of the Canadian teachers (Lisa) left his weekend and I’ve taken her schedule. I have 40 classes per week and Mon. Wed. and Fri. I teach ten, from 10 am to 7 pm. Everyday we get an hour lunch break and 20 min between 2:10 and 2:30 (the changeover from kindergarten to elementary). That means 6 hours and 40 min of actual teaching time. I have six classes on Tues and four on Thurs, so those days are very light. Gavin have just about the exact same schedule, which is nice because last session we had near opposite ones.

            Initially I was sad to find out I’d only be teaching a few elementary classes this session because I had a great time with them last month, but I’m keeping some of my favourite students and I’m sure I’ll get a handle on kindergarten soon. I liked elementary because you’re able to communicate with them but they’re still young enough to be really interested in the material.

            In terms of teaching, COREM has an extensive curriculum with tonnes of textbooks. You get to know which ones are good and which ones are duds pretty quickly. They have a “Hop, Skip, Jump” series that is made by COREM and kind of sucks. Each textbook has a syllabus that outlines which pages are to be taught each day, so there’s not a lot of planning to do on our end. Unless the book, as is the case with Hop, Skip and Jump, only provides enough fodder for about 15 min of teaching. Then we have to supplement the material with exercises of our own. It can be a pain but also a fun opportunity to do something more interesting with the kids. The lessons mostly wither focus on speaking or writing.

            Besides the classes that are taught out of a book, kindergarten and PK have gym classes (called Olympics or Playtime). Strawberry and Banana have a “multi activity” class that is either “show and tell,” a spelling bee or “cooking” class (where they make things like ice cream cookies, frozen yogurt bananas etc.). There is a science class, but Gavin will have to fill you in on that because I haven’t taught it.

            All in all the job is mostly low-stress and enjoyable, but it’s also very tiring to stand at the front of a class and (hopefully) be the center of attention all day. And there is the odd kid that you want to pull a Homer Simpson strangle move on everyday. That being said, it’s a great feeling to see a little kid poking their head out the door as you walk toward the class and hear them yell “Beth Teacher! Beth Teacher!” with a big smile.

I will post pictures to accompany this entry soon.