My middle school third graders have finals next week. Not midterms, mind you. Finals.I guess the "we're going to be completely unproductive" period will begin early this year. After all, the test is the only thing that really matters, and they know it. Trying to get them to do anything afterwards is like pulling teeth, and now I'm going to have several months of it.The first graders have nothing, because my school started doing a "free semester" for first graders last year, meaning no exams for them at the end of second semester. Could just be me, but I'd think it'd make more sense to make the first semester the free semester, so you could still test them on what they've learned at the end of the year. Oh well. What do I know.The second graders have mid-terms, so that's still normal, I guess.
I'm no Korean drum expert............. .... but they practice for hours every day. A= Boom B= stick on side of drum (clicking sound)A BBBBBA BBBBB A BB A BB A BBBBB X100.I could literally learn this in 10 mins. WHY do they practice for an hour a day every morning?
Quote from: CO2 on October 23, 2017, 08:05:15 amI'm no Korean drum expert............. .... but they practice for hours every day. A= Boom B= stick on side of drum (clicking sound)A BBBBBA BBBBB A BB A BB A BBBBB X100.I could literally learn this in 10 mins. WHY do they practice for an hour a day every morning?Practicing an instrument oftentimes involves repetitive and mind numbing drills. These are performed over and over again to ingrain correct technique and timing.
The maintenance man swept away my neighborly spider's web. I assume the spider got swept away as well
Decided to not renew my contract as I wanted to go home to see friends and family. Finding it difficult to adjust to life back in Canada.I want to go back to Korea -_-. I don't really like taking chances so I'm thinking of going back to my old school but It'll be months until they have an opening.
When Koreans are surprised that you used to eat rice in your home country...Don't they know that rice is an extremely common staple food in many cultures?? And there is so much more to rice than just the sticky white rice they eat. People talk about the myth of American exceptionalism but damn if Koreans don't think they are the most unique people on this planet. They think no where else has rice, or four seasons. The other day I overheard a Korean guy telling a Canadian dude that "only in Korea" do they have workout equipment in parks. No, that's not true. At all.
Quote from: yirj17 on October 25, 2017, 08:25:19 amThis is the week of final classes with my schools (other than next Monday). Yesterday was harder than I thought it'd be, with kids begging me not to go and some even gifting me with last minute presents of pencils, hah. One of my favorites gave me a card and gel pens and insisted I take the pens. And I get to do this 3 more times. My poor heart You can do it yirj!!! At one of my countryside middle schools that I taught at for seven years, the students made a video with Oasis music. The video was them panning around the library and every student had written a post-it to me so they panned around and then focused on each post-it. At the end of my final day, the students took me to the English room and played me the video. But I didn't cry. When I got home and watched it again, I bawled my eyes out.
This is the week of final classes with my schools (other than next Monday). Yesterday was harder than I thought it'd be, with kids begging me not to go and some even gifting me with last minute presents of pencils, hah. One of my favorites gave me a card and gel pens and insisted I take the pens. And I get to do this 3 more times. My poor heart
Quote from: Sir-Mark on October 23, 2017, 10:54:20 amDecided to not renew my contract as I wanted to go home to see friends and family. Finding it difficult to adjust to life back in Canada.I want to go back to Korea -_-. I don't really like taking chances so I'm thinking of going back to my old school but It'll be months until they have an opening.Aw :( I'm sorry you're having difficulties adjusting. Sometimes the reverse culture shock can be worse than the intial culture shock. Have you looked into more temporary positions here? They're rare but you can sometimes find shorter contracts. Or you could take a job at a different school and once a job becomes available at your old school you could make the move over there.
Quote from: wanderlust8 on October 23, 2017, 12:11:06 pmQuote from: Sir-Mark on October 23, 2017, 10:54:20 amDecided to not renew my contract as I wanted to go home to see friends and family. Finding it difficult to adjust to life back in Canada.I want to go back to Korea -_-. I don't really like taking chances so I'm thinking of going back to my old school but It'll be months until they have an opening.Aw :( I'm sorry you're having difficulties adjusting. Sometimes the reverse culture shock can be worse than the intial culture shock. Have you looked into more temporary positions here? They're rare but you can sometimes find shorter contracts. Or you could take a job at a different school and once a job becomes available at your old school you could make the move over there. Reverse culture shock is definitely brutal. I wish I had thought about temporary positions when I arrived back home, that would have been a great option. I feel it's too late now to find a short one that works. I'll just have to tough it out and brush up on my Korean with the infinite free time I have here.
I know going back to your old school is comfortable (if it was an international school ignore what I am about to say), but have you considered just coming back at the February/march hiring time to get access to more gigs? Or you could do what I did this time of the year 4 years ago, I took a kindy hagwon job (so so company) with the intention of quitting to be on the March schedule for public. It worked out very well. Quote from: Sir-Mark on October 25, 2017, 09:53:21 amQuote from: wanderlust8 on October 23, 2017, 12:11:06 pmQuote from: Sir-Mark on October 23, 2017, 10:54:20 amDecided to not renew my contract as I wanted to go home to see friends and family. Finding it difficult to adjust to life back in Canada.I want to go back to Korea -_-. I don't really like taking chances so I'm thinking of going back to my old school but It'll be months until they have an opening.Aw :( I'm sorry you're having difficulties adjusting. Sometimes the reverse culture shock can be worse than the intial culture shock. Have you looked into more temporary positions here? They're rare but you can sometimes find shorter contracts. Or you could take a job at a different school and once a job becomes available at your old school you could make the move over there. Reverse culture shock is definitely brutal. I wish I had thought about temporary positions when I arrived back home, that would have been a great option. I feel it's too late now to find a short one that works. I'll just have to tough it out and brush up on my Korean with the infinite free time I have here.