TravelBio

Wednesday morning of this past week was like any other day at work, but during the afternoon I began to lose my voice! I wasn’t feeling sick though, and my throat didn’t really hurt. Hoping that it was just temporary, I made sure to get lots of rest that night. The following morning when I woke up it was gone! All I had left was a raspy shell, the kind of sound you make when you just wake up and really need to clear your throat. Great news for a teacher, right?! When my boss found out she was obviously concerned, but I think I was more worried than her – or else she just didn’t show it but on the inside was thinking, how in the hell is he going to teach? Makes it hard to control a class of kids! Things went surprisingly well that day. I was scheduled to do special St Patrick’s Day activities in two of my kinder classes. We made necklaces and colored, which didn’t require much talking. I was afraid that my 5 year old class (only 3 and 4 year olds in...

Our kids never left school! At ECC our new school year starts at the beginning of March. The elementary schools also start a new year, so the kids who graduate from their kinder programs then move on to “ real ” school. Even though it is the start of a new school year we don ’ t get much of a break. March 1st is a national holiday in Korea – to celebrate an independence movement against Japanese in 1919 – but aside from that there is no vacation. The elementary schools do have more time off, but ECC runs throughout the year. The past week has been a lot of work both preparing for graduation and getting ready for new classes. On Tuesday we held a graduation ceremony for the students who were moving on to elementary school. Three out of the five kinder classes graduated, so it was a big event. We helped the kids prepare speeches and practice songs to sing to their parents. Several of the foreign teachers also spoke during the graduation, but since I didn ’ t ...