English Camp is killing me slowly

I've been teaching at an "English Camp" for the past 2 weeks or so. What's an english camp, you ask? Well, there are no bonfires. And there are no midnight pillow fights. In fact, a more accurate title would be English Labor Camp because that's the kind of camp they're referring to.

The kids come at 9. My class is the third-graders (the youngest with the lowest speaking level). I teach them for 90 minutes straight (no break). Then there's a 30 minute snack/run around/destroy things break. Then I co-teach for 70 minutes straight (no break). Then we have lunch (this is the only break time when the kids are miraculously all sitting down at their desks and quiet) as we watch online episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants (this is the highlight of my day...SpongeBob protects my sanity). Then I teach for 50 minutes. Then another 30 minute snack/shouting/stabbing break. Then I teach a drama class for 60 minutes. Then I give them homework. Then I check their homework. Then they go home.

Sometimes when it gets really bad I run away to the teachers room and pretend to make copies.

I don't blame the kids too much - I mean, if my parents sent me to school during the holiday vacation, I'd feel like stabbing someone with a giant piece of cardboard too.

I have really good kids, kids like Candy who dot their "i"s with hearts, kids like Belity who yell at the kids who don't shut the door when they leave the room, kids like Alex and Kayle who actually try their homework before coming up to my desk, pointing at their paper and saying "Teacher Teacher!! What?"

But I also have bad kids. Kids like Chris who bite their classmates, kids like Brian who look at you when you call them and then just walk out the door, kids like Steven who run around the room with scissors and force you to pry the weapons from their tiny fingers while grabbing them by the scruff of their dandelion-yellow camp hoodie. And its the bad kids that far too often grab all of your attention.

And then there's the co-teacher situation. I could blog about it, but it would take the good part of a year to do so, and 2008's got far too much promise to waste on that task. Long story short - my co-teacher from my school followed me to this english camp (to impress the vice principal) which she is not qualified to teach at, and then specifically requested to teach with me, because she was too embarassed for anyone else to see her English ability.

All personal issues aside - the bottom line is: She is not qualified to teach English. It is detrimental to the students, and it aggravating me BEYOND REASON. To give you an analogy to the situation, let's just say that I can see that some mysterious force is keeping both my feet on the ground, but that doesn't mean I'm qualified to teach physics. Her degree is in teaching science, specifically astrophysics. I'm sure she would make a stellar (no pun intended) astrophysics teacher.

But she can't make a coherent sentence in English about 50% of the time. And that is absolutely unacceptable if you're in the position of imparting your knowledge unto others.

So yeah. If you want to hear more about it, call me and I'll waste your international phone card minutes :)

Tomorrow is the last day of camp, so hopefully I'll be in a better mood soon.

On a happier note, New Years Eve was the greatest night of my life in Korea thus far. We went to dinner, then to coffee and then to a NORAEBANG (singing room) where we sang karaoke for 2 hours (some crowd favorites were Chumbawumba's "Tub-Thumping" (I GET KNOCKED DOWN! BUT I GET UP AGAIN!!) and the "Ghostbusters" theme song which we sang twice). The we went for coffee again and when it turned midnight we ran out into the streets of Myeong-dong screaming at the top of our lungs like a bunch of American/Canadian idiots. It was glorious.

Hope your years' are starting well! Shout-out to Mackenzie who turns 10 today!! Love you and miss you, twin cousin!

And to the rest of you as well - Happy Primary Season!!

Jess