::A Geek in Korea::

Today I had to go into work four hours early. We had to choose winter intensive class materials for a months worth of classes next term. The way it was arranged was that we were given a schedule listing how many hours of a particular level we were responsible for, and if we shared materials with any other teacher. It was also arranged showing what type of book we were responsible for teaching, either reading, speaking, or listening. Some of the levels were subdivided by skill, so when even finding a book appropriate for a certain class.

Then, we also had a list of classes for the non-intensive "regular" classes we would be teaching as well in the afternoon. We needed to pick books that didn’t overlap with each other at any level. Not only that, we’d always have to teach new series that have never been taught at the school, in case a student had already gone through the series once.

For any particular class, we needed to find a book perfect for that level, of the right type, that was the right length, that was not in any series previously used by the school. Teachers sharing books didn’t need to find two individual copies, but we did need to decide on something together. Since I am the senior foreign teacher, decisions about levels and difficulties got run through me. I would be handed a book and asked, "Would this be suitable material for this class?"

I had my hands full.

I needed to approve more than a dozen or more books unofficially, while searching for my books, helping my coworker with his book choices, as well as choosing a second set of book material for a substitute teacher too. In some ways it was worse than when I was getting cornered by mothers asking for free advice in the bookstore, because I had so many factors to consider. At least this time I could make an educated guess as to the level of the students and how well some students would do when presented with the material.

There were only a few classes that were at a point where we couldn’t find something that fit out criteria for whatever reason. It was rather annoying to find the perfect book series only to be shot down because they had previously done the book two years ago at the school. Some series are objectively better than others, and being forced to choose something simply because it had been done seemed like it was a bad choice. The school’s position is that if a student wouldn’t join the class because they had already done the series, that’s like turning down free money.

My foreign coworker and I ran around for an hour and had found no more that two or three book series between us. The Korean teachers found their grammar books right away, so they came over to help us. We ended up with a massive pile of books. We had three large shopping bags full of material, and considering that stores NEVER offer spare bags unless it’s impossible to fit something inside, we must have had a ton of material. I’m very happy with most of the choices because I had a hand in everything I picked for my levels.

Some of my favorite book series will be what I’ll be spending the most time teaching this intensive period. The only problem is that when we go back to the book store to choose new book series for the Spring term, all the books we chose this time will now be off limits in keeping with their "already taught" philosophy. We’ll have an even harder time finding books in February than we did today. If we had that hard of a time with the levels we have now, reshuffling the classes and reducing the number of books we can choose from will only add more headaches.