I am having a mixed up day.
I have had a class bomb, and a class go very well. And one in between.
Grade threes and "Talking about food" was a mistake. It was beyond them. Too bad, I thought it would be fun. But I was wrong. I guess it could have been worse, they could have all died.
Grade ones are beginning to get some adjective injections, beginning with "bandaemal" or opposites. It went pretty well, but very quickly. Luckily I had a long warm-up, although I almost did get involved in a game of hangman, which I am trying to avoid.
I am getting sick. It's official now, It's been over a month since I have gone three consecutive days without feeling sick. Damned yellow dust... it's effecting my classes. I'm being short, and last class I felt like I would just fall asleep standing up. Of course, the benadryl probably isn't helping in that department.
There have been some good points though. The students surprised me a lot with some of their responses to the flash cards, like saying "Sitting" and "Standing" for the "Healthy/Sick" pair. I hadn't even thought of it! But they are sitting and standing! I drew a picture because I thought it was very good.
Then at lunch, I had a good chat with James Park, who is filling in for Sukkyeong. I spoke to him about hagwons, and he basically confirmed for me that that may be better suited to me than public school. He evn offered to recommend me to a friend in Souel area. That would be great, except that I hear the yellow dust is much worse there, so maybe I should avoid Seoul.
I know I have been down on hakwons/hagwons in the past, but now that I think about it, it seems that maybe that is a better system for foreign, non-bilingual teachers. Smaller classes, split by ability (not age) and a guided, set curriculum. It sounds like a dream after this job. Sure, there are cut corners, but I don't mind a small apartment, so no problem. And more hours? no worries. With Jessie not here, I'll have no reason to not work more, and the money will be really nice.
Frankly, this has been the most boring job I have ever had, and it's because of the lack of work, and the lack of interaction with my students. With level classes of more advanced, involved students, I'll have no problem doing more work.
I know, you're thinking "but don't you always complain about having to stay at work for the whole day?" Yeah, I do. But that's because I have no work to do, and I usually just sit and play video games or read. No students come to talk to me, and I am done my work. So... I am bored.
So would a little more work be a tragedy? I doubt it. I was scared at first by my workshop's demands for more work, but I have since found that things are going much much better, and that the extra work now hardly seems like work at all, and the two hours regularly fly by.

So... maybe a hakwon is for me.

Mr Lee advised against it yesterday. We spoke about him giving me a letter of reference, and he said that he would do it, but that he would not be comfortable referring me to a hakwon/hagwon job. He said I would not like it, because I would have more work, and I would have no coteacher to help me control the classes.
Maybe I should show him what two things have recurred most commonly as complaints on this blog.
a) boredom at work
b) coteachers.
He also said that public school is better because you get time to relax between classes. That time is EXACTLY what is currently driving me insane, and causing this blog to reach gargantuan proportions.

That's enough for now, I'm rambling.