Today was the first day of the new term at KarmaPlus English Academy. It's winter term, which means that the kids are on "vacation" from public school – the consequence is that enrollments at hagwon often go up, and additional classes are offered. Also, there's been a lot of turn-over in staff. Because of these things, I have hugely increased teaching load. I'm going to be very busy for the next few months.
I'm not really minding it. Today's classes went well. I have some younger students, now – first and second graders. I really enjoy teaching kids this age. The overall balance of my class load is more toward middle-schoolers, though. And I've come to find things I like about teaching the older kids, too. I guess I'm feeling comfortable with teaching, lately. And I noticed something remarkable, today: my schedule has a lot of debate classes on it. That's cool, because I remember when I started the debate classes, at Karma. It was viewed as a risky proposition, and not necessarily destined for success. The fact that I have a lot of them means that it's apparently popular, at least with someone.
So I had some first classes. I had fun introducing Steve The Blue Plastic Alligator to various kids. One girl asked, as her very first question, very tentatively and wide-eyed: "Teacher! Do you like alligator?"
It was busy. Tomorrow will be busier.
It was cold, today – a reminder of why I like to call this place I live "Lower-Far Siberia." I think it will get below zero Fahrenheit tonight – something like -18 or -19 Celsius. I like how the air feels brittle when it's so cold. Walking home felt like those late nights coming home from studying at the U of Minnesota on winter nights. There's a lot of snow on the ground, too, by Seoul standards. It's all thick and solid and crunchy.
At right is a picture of Munhwa Elementary – though I've never been inside, I think of it as my "home school" in Korea (public school, I mean), since I've walked past it on my way to work for all of my Ilsan jobs. There's lots of snow on the playground.