::A Geek in Korea::

Today is the last day of our transition between the "testing phase" and the "putting students in the right level and giving them new books to study phase". (They really need catchier names for these phases.) Due to absolutely confusing and complicated schedule, I saw classes I never taught before for the first time today, and there is a good chance I’ll never see them again.

I don’t know if I will teach them again, who will be in them the next time I go in the classroom, or what book they will be using. I would just grab someone, asking them where I was going, find the room, ask the students about their books, and come in later like I knew what I was doing each time. Even the students were surprised when I would show up in the room with the right materials.

The problem with the schedule now is the fact that one class and a particular level might see my three times, while another class of the same level at a different time might only see me once or twice. This means that I need to prepare three times the work, but only can use it once at best. Preparing material the third time I see a class in a week is much more difficult as I run out of things to review and students get bored. This is supposed to be the last week I’m dealing with this so I guess I should consider myself lucky.

I got called into a meeting on my dinner break between classes.
The conversation went something like:

Me: So, what do you want me to do?
Head Teacher: Yeah, design a syllabus for all the classes you will teach for the next six months. You have six to seven class levels. You have fifteen minutes before your next class is scheduled to start. Go!
Director: I’ll be talking on the phone the entire time while you try to plan out your syllabus! I hope that doesn’t distract you too much!

Five minutes later….
Me and Head Teacher: What did you say? I can’t concentrate because she’s talking on the phone!
Director (on phone): Blah Blah Blah!
Me: (Yelling) Reading, Writing, Memorizing! Spelling Tests! Speaking Tests! Review Review Review!
Head teacher:  (Yelling) Sounds good! Oh look, your class is starting. Go back to teaching!
Me: Gladly.

My director basically said we have two more days of chaos as the children learn their classrooms, we figure out the books, and the schedule gets finalized. After that, she claimed, it would be smooth sailing. Considering I’ve been working here nearly six weeks and I still need daily help with my schedule, I’ll believe it when I see it.