::A Geek in Korea::

I’ve got my planning set up for multiple weeks in three classes. I’ve got to time their class schedules well so that they’ll be finishing their books around the time when we’ll move to a new owner and not have to select books anymore. I’ve got my system set up so that I’ll have two different books to last me as long as possible. I work independently from whoever is my “partner” teacher splitting the book with me. I take as long as I need to finish the book.

I had worked out that the students would be finishing two books in the next two weeks. I had a review tests lined up for Wednesday, and would start using a workbook no one had thought to use that came along with our book series as supplimental material to last me through an extra month. I get to work on a review test, then plan out the next two weeks of classes for this material.

Then, I walk into class with all my stuff planned out. I had made a kick-ass review tests that would take up the entire class next time I see the students, and I was going to spend time prepping them for parts of it today. I told my students last week to bring their long forgotten workbook so we could get started on that for homework. My students have brought it along, as well as an entirely new books I’ve never taught before. They’re asking me when we’re beginning this new reading book in my class, since I had more than half the chapters unfinished.

Uh…what?

Somewhere along the line, someone forgot to tell me they were moving to an entirely new book. I have two months to finish it, which isn’t a problem. The book I had planned to use was already cut up into multiple pieces for different teachers. I was going to be teaching the majority of this new book, but no one had told me about it.

All of this is actually GREAT, because it means I have a wealth of material, instead of a lack of things to do, but it’s a pain because no one had told me before I walked into class. Had I known a week earlier, I could have planned earlier and worked around all the review tests I spent time making thinking. I went from needed to stall, to needing to get started on this material to finish on time. Now that the review test is written, and my schedule set up, the students would have wasted their time if I didn’t go through with the test.

When I asked my new coworker about this, she surprised me. My old Korean coworkers were conversationalists. They could joke around in English and Korean, and were really good at office stuff to keep us on task. This new coworker hired a few weeks ago was giving me a Korean, “Ung….ung…” nodding along like you would for a conversation you weren’t paying much attention to on phone. I was shocked that she might not have been following me when I was asking about books she was teaching. It’s her job to know what parts of which books she is responsible to teach. It’s also her job to TELL me when picking new books. I have to know which parts I’m responsible to complete.

I shouldn’t be finding any of this out from a student.

There are only two months left before this school is folded into some sort of franchise, and they are still dragging their feet on the different issues regarding the handover. There are going to be actual promises made to parents in a few weeks, but no one knows anything in detail. It’s going to be a hectic meeting if no one from the franchise is there to handle the details, because it looks like no one on our side knows what is going on. The newest rumors are classes on Saturdays, which is an impossibility on my part. When the final contract is put in front of me and I need to walk away after asking for WEEKS for information, I won’t be to blame.