A Day in the Life at Dayelin Langcon English School

So, I've started my third week of teaching in Korea and I'm still trucking along just fine.  In case you were wondering, a typical day at school goes something like this:

8:45am - This when I usually get to school.  Sometimes a little later but so far, always before 9am.  We have our teacher's meeting at 9:35am every morning and I like to get in a little early so I can get ready for the day.

10:00am - I get to my Kindergarten class a little before 10am as they are finishing up their milk and morning snack (either anchovies, bread or rice cakes).  For the first 10-15 minutes, I have them all sit on the mat for speech time (today's sentence was "today is Tuesday")...fun stuff right?  Sometimes it's like herding cats though but every morning is different.  I also ask each student how they are doing today - with a little laminated sheet that has velcro smiley faces they can choose from.  Most of them either say they are angry because it's funny or happy because they are sweet.  I won't bore you with any more details but we go through the day's work and finish up by 12:30pm when they have lunch in the classroom.

12:30pm - I have an hour for lunch each day and the food is provided by the school.  It is different each day but rotates every week or two.  Since I've been here, I don't think we've had the same meal twice but I'm sure that'll change.  It's good either way so I'm not complaining.  All of the foreign teachers eat in our communal office (I forgot to take a picture today but will post one later).

1:30pm - After lunch I go back downstairs to spend another 30minutes with my kindergarteners for either music, science or PE.  It's usually pretty easy and I'm back upstairs before I know it.

~ I should preface this by saying that the building has two floors with a basement.  The auditorium, jungle gym and theme park are in the basement, Dayelin Kindergarten is on the 1st floor and Langcon Elementary school is on the 2nd floor. ~

2:00pm - With kindergarten over, I have 30minutes to prep/wait for the elementary students to arrive at the school.

2:30pm -.... This depends on the day but right now I have four classes on Monday and Friday, two classes on Tuesday and Thursday and five classes on Wednesdays.  All are English classes, varying levels, except for one match class I teach on Wednesdays.  My oldest kids are 5th/6th graders and the youngest are 8 year olds.  Class size varies from 8-11 students which is great because anymore and I would've gone insane by now.

I'm done by 6:45pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday's and by 5:40pm on Tuesday and Thursday.  Overall, it's not that bad of a schedule.  I have a two hour break between my two classes on Tuesday/Thursday which is nice but each day has it's ups and downs.  Either way, this is merely a means to travel around and to get to know Korea, so it's all worth it.  More to come soon though!

Dayelin Langcon English School

Playtime for my kindergarten class today

Another angle of the classroom during playtime