Forgive me for not posting yesterday; I will make up for it with a double post today during my lifetime of deskwarming.
What's that, you ask? Well, in Korea, you are expected to work (if you are a primary school teacher like me) from 8:30 to 16:30, regardless of whether you actually have anything to do during that time. You get about a half hour for lunch, but otherwise you are either teaching or sitting at your desk keeping it warm.
So normally I come into work at 8:30. I drop my stuff off in my office and then go to open up the English room, which entails opening the windows, re-situating the desks, booting up the computer, and so on. I prep the classroom for my lesson and write the day's agenda on the board. Then I go back to the office and look through my lesson plans for the day again.
I teach from 9 until 12:10. This is four lessons, ostensibly with a ten minute break between each of them, though this break is usually absorbed by students leaving late after being forced to stay to actually do their darn class work, and students arriving early because their homeroom teacher can't get rid of them fast enough. Then I close up the classroom and go back to the office where I kill a few minutes before lunch at approximately 12:30. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have one more class in the afternoon, from 13:10-13:50.
So, MWF I am free, but at work, from 13:00 until 16:30. TTh it is one half hour less, with me getting back to the office at 14:00. So those fifteen and a half hours a week in the afternoons are deskwarming time.
I use them to plan my lessons, make supplemental materials, and so on. Now, the problem is that my school is pretty slavish about using the state-mandated curriculum and adhering to the book for everything. It's hard to get my coteachers to agree to modify the curriculum in any way. So planning for my four lessons a week doesn't actually take that much time, since it mainly involves reading the lesson plan and maybe choosing how to tweak one or two exercises. I also have camp to plan for, but that is such a massive undertaking that I've only started scratching the surface thus far. The plans aren't due for another month, anyway.
So, what do I do with my time? Well, I try to use some of it wisely. I study a bit of Korean every day and, for awhile, I worked on my online training, which is now complete. I read some articles and visit some teaching websites. But I also waste tons of time. I check facebook slavishly. I write most of my blogs at work. I read articles on octopus intelligence and rat beauty contests. I read novels on my computer. I stare at my planner. I take the long walk to the water cooler.
The hours of deskwarming, though, don't even hold a candle to the times when it happens for days.
What's that, you ask? Well, in Korea, you are expected to work (if you are a primary school teacher like me) from 8:30 to 16:30, regardless of whether you actually have anything to do during that time. You get about a half hour for lunch, but otherwise you are either teaching or sitting at your desk keeping it warm.
So normally I come into work at 8:30. I drop my stuff off in my office and then go to open up the English room, which entails opening the windows, re-situating the desks, booting up the computer, and so on. I prep the classroom for my lesson and write the day's agenda on the board. Then I go back to the office and look through my lesson plans for the day again.
I teach from 9 until 12:10. This is four lessons, ostensibly with a ten minute break between each of them, though this break is usually absorbed by students leaving late after being forced to stay to actually do their darn class work, and students arriving early because their homeroom teacher can't get rid of them fast enough. Then I close up the classroom and go back to the office where I kill a few minutes before lunch at approximately 12:30. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have one more class in the afternoon, from 13:10-13:50.
So, MWF I am free, but at work, from 13:00 until 16:30. TTh it is one half hour less, with me getting back to the office at 14:00. So those fifteen and a half hours a week in the afternoons are deskwarming time.
I use them to plan my lessons, make supplemental materials, and so on. Now, the problem is that my school is pretty slavish about using the state-mandated curriculum and adhering to the book for everything. It's hard to get my coteachers to agree to modify the curriculum in any way. So planning for my four lessons a week doesn't actually take that much time, since it mainly involves reading the lesson plan and maybe choosing how to tweak one or two exercises. I also have camp to plan for, but that is such a massive undertaking that I've only started scratching the surface thus far. The plans aren't due for another month, anyway.
So, what do I do with my time? Well, I try to use some of it wisely. I study a bit of Korean every day and, for awhile, I worked on my online training, which is now complete. I read some articles and visit some teaching websites. But I also waste tons of time. I check facebook slavishly. I write most of my blogs at work. I read articles on octopus intelligence and rat beauty contests. I read novels on my computer. I stare at my planner. I take the long walk to the water cooler.
The hours of deskwarming, though, don't even hold a candle to the times when it happens for days.
Hi Lauren. You sound like you are less than thrilled with the pace. Hang in there and it'll get better. Plenty of Korean to learn. And emails to write to me! Love you, Dad xoxox
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