Today is supposedly the last day of school before summer vacation (여름방학). Summer vacation for students, that is. And many (if not most) students will be attending summer camps and hagwon for most of the summer – that's the Korean way. I will be teaching school-run summer classes for the month of August, and I will get next week off. But I have to continue coming to work this week, as there are many things going on for staff at Hongnong Elementary. Sometimes it seems a little pointless to have to stay, despite the fact that most of the staff goings-on aren't relevant to a non-Korean-speaking foreigner.
But I'm not sure I really agree with those who vilify the "desk warming" phenomenon. It's what you make of it. Most of the staff in a school during these desk-warming days are quite busy: making plans, rearranging classrooms, preparing presentations for the school talent night, etc. If one chooses to take the time to interact with these people, and offer to help, you can build a lot of goodwill and it can be a learning experience, too.
Yesterday, I had only one regular class (the others were "cancelled"). And I did a little desk-warming, I admit – surfing blogs on the internet. But I also spent some highly productive time developing lesson plans for one of my summer classes, along with the person I'll be co-teaching it with. And I accompanied one of the third grade teachers with her class to the gym for a highly entertaining PE class, where I kind of had the role of observer / English-speaking kibitzer. And on Monday, I had my morning classes canceled and the kids for my first grade afternoon class didn't show up, but I was very busy developing detailed program plans for my other summer classes (for which I won't have a co-teacher). I was working "above and beyond" as they say, making more detailed plans than requested.
Nothing is more effective in building goodwill among unpredictable Korean administrators than unexpected displays of competence and dedication, in my experience. Actually, that applies to more-or-less competent administrators anywhere. Korean administrators aren't incompetent – they're just different. They're operating by different cultural rules, that for them and their underlings are largely transparent. These rules are only opaque and seem crazy to us Westerners because we haven't grown up within them.