Busy being a teacher

I officially made it through an entire week of "real" teaching and have to say-- it was a lot of fun! I teach five classes: two sections of 10th grade writing, two sections of English 10, and one section of freshmen writing. The classes are tiny (which is quite a pleasant change!). In my writing classes I have 12, 14, and 15 kids. In my English classes I have 17 and 26. I can't get over how small the groups are and how much freedom that gives me to interact w/the kids! Week one was mostly getting to know the kids and learning about the setup of my class. It was great to be able to spend so much time discovering the exciting lives my students have lived. While most are ethnically Korean, many have spent large portions of their lives living all over the globe. It has been interesting to see how diverse my students really are. Basically, teaching has completely taken over my life at the moment. But it has been really good so far (minus all the planning). I've vowed to take time away from school in a week or two when I get my feet on the ground.

As for other things in life-- I went to my first Korean baseball game. It was pretty amusing. They have these cheerleaders at the game who lead these funny cheers/dances/workout moves which the crowd mimicked (or at least my friends did). They also have a humorous version of the seventh inning stretch-- the players sprawl out on the field and stretch instead of the fans! Ha!

This week I'm starting to help coach the elementary soccer team. I'm going to assistant coach for the high school team in the spring. But for now, just playing around with the little guys should be fun. I'm really excited to be doing something other than planning English lessons. Though I'm ready for the summer heat to subside...

One final tidbit for the day-- Korean drivers are known to be a bit crazy. However, nothing prepared me for the statistic I discovered in one of my writing classes. Out of the 10 students who were present at the time, 6 had been hit by cars (as pedestrians) at some point in their lives. This prompted me to ask my next class where 4 out of 11 students had also been struck by vehicles (either motorbikes or cars). That means nearly 50% of my students have been hit! Now I'm scared that I'm next! I'm really paranoid of all car noises these days.

Anyhow, miss all. Send me happy messages!