New Classes, New Office-mates!

Well the new school year has begun and there has been a lot of stress the first two weeks. Rather than just dividing the students by student number, we have decided to divide the classes based on level to give the lower level students more of a chance to participate and learn. This means interviewing all 700 students in 1st and 2nd grade and then placing them according to how they performed in the interview. It was extremely time consuming and exhausting. But we did it and now we have classes that are divided fairly. Hopefully this will mean a better year for the students and me alike!

The other changes included office changes. For reasons that don't all make sense to me, at the beginning of the year (or perhaps every semester) the Boys School teachers change desks and offices. So my previously calm, quiet office got a few new additions. We now have 12 instead of 8 desks. I am beside the window and near the sink. I like being able to look outside! We also had a dinner last week for the new office members. There were 5 of us who joined, one of whom isn't actually in my office but maybe he just like Italian food. It was my first office dinner where everyone spoke Korean. The teachers were all very excited to speak with me and they were quite courteous, translating when I didn't know what was going on, and speaking in English to accommodate me. These men are all so nice and I look forward to working along side them.

My office-mates! Mr. Hwang, (Mr. Shin), Mr. Park, and Mr. Ryu