::A Geek in Korea::

Today was the first of our "Halloween" parties. It was a Halloween party in name only, as we had speaking tests today in the majority of classes. No fun! We had to prepare tests and take students outside one by one for a speaking examination. Seeing as I had done this a number of times at different schools, I was sure to prepare a puzzle for all of my classes to work on while I was outside. I gave them a copy of the questions I would be asking then went outside. The students had five minutes to prepare, then I started calling students out at random.
Depending on their levels, the questions might have been a simple straight forward question/answer style response, or a more specific answer that required the knowledge of some related vocabulary. I had scores ranging from perfect to completely wrong, which is amazing considering I told the students every single question and every single answer every single day I taught them last week.

During the interview, I sat in another classroom. I had bought an alien mask, so when I called the students in after setting up the test, they entered the room to talk to an alien for their test. Some of the students were surprised, some laughed, and some were freaking out. I gave candy for every correct answer, then when I went back into class I gave them some more if they worked on their puzzle well. I also played some Haunted Hangman style games for candy as well.

When the students heard the bell rang, they were surprised. "So, whens the party? Tomorrow?"
"Uh, I gave you candy, that was the party."

 I was the ONLY teacher to wear a costume, to bring candy, or even do anything with my students vaguely related to the holiday at all. It was pathetic. The student’s expectations of a haunted house and multiple rooms of terror and parties was a bit of a stretch, but I didn’t feel like the other teachers tried at all. Even my foreign coworker was suffering what looked like a little burn out from a party heavy weekend. Tomorrow I hope the other teachers pick up the slack and deliver on some of their Halloween duties. Students are frightened of them enough, with the beatings and insane homework. All they need to do to cause abject terror would be to wear a scary mask too.