Gradutation Day

There are a few days where I am asked to wear a suit to school. Normally my dress code is entirely self regulated (only horizontal wrinkles allowed in my ripped jeans) so its usually an indication that parents will be around the school. So I have to show up in a suit, the other extreme. The benefit is that usually my only task for a good part of those days is to just stand around and look white. This morning was one of those days.

The kindergarten school was having graduation ceremonies, which means that my beloved Schweitzer class (you know they’re evil b/c its German!) was graduating. Schweitzer was one of my tougher classes, one that I was warned about from the get-go. Much like the townsfolk warning the Scooby gang about spending a night in the haunted slipper factory other teachers would get a faraway look when talking about this class. It stunned me when I heard that they were one of the graduating classes as their English level is sub-par and seems to only consist of the ability to ask to play games and color. Not sure how far that will get them on the streets of New York. But I suppose the school decided that was enough to earn their freedom (that and the fact that they are now entering elementary school). So I watched the graduation ceremony, and caught maybe one word in every ten minutes. Which is about par for grad ceremonies in general, even when they are in English they are too boring to really absorb. When I was in the high school band I played at three grad ceremonies before attending mine- making it even more anti-climatic. This one was also a blatant ploy to try to convince the parents to send their kids to our after school program in the future.

Now this means that next week there will be some big changes in who I teach in the morning. It could turn out that all my kindergarten classes will change. I could end up with some of Nick’s classes he could end up with mine and then there is the crop of new kids as well. There is also the possibility I will have to try to teach a room of stuffed animals English. I understand that is only a small possibility but it seems to me about the only thing that could be more futile than their current approach.

The real upside is that the remainder of my workweek looks like it will be blissfully light. With both my kindergarten classes and my elementary school classes on break – along with Thursday being a national holiday I have a fair bit of free time coming my way. Now its not super cool like a long weekend or anything but the light workweek will give me a chance to get a lot of things accomplished. Free will of course being what it is it also gives me the option to reject that opportunity and watch a bunch of American television (due to the wonders of the internet and spotty copyright laws in this country) and nap a lot.

But I will take a moment here to remember each of my graduating kids, you will be missed (assuming you are replaced with stuffed animals- and that those animals are bigger brats than you were)

Rod and Todd- I thought their names were funny and I couldn’t them you apart for the first few weeks of class. Now I can. Rod is the one that hides under the table and cries whenever he doesn’t get what he wants. Todd is the one that throws stuff.

Hunter- Again, funny name. I will always remember my shocked reaction when the lesson called for me to ask ‘what do you do after school’ and he said that he had a private English tutor. At least I know that I was not the only one failing you dear boy.

Miya- the only girl in the class, who was above most of the fooling around that went on. I never had to admonish her for being loud, she was too busy drawing pictures and ignoring me and everyone else to be noisy. I liked to convince myself that at least she was drawing in English.

David- His English level was not that bad, but his attitude was just about the worst. This presented a fun challenge for me as I could technically negotiate with him but he was a little bit of a brat so it was still tough.

Dallas and Kevin- Another set of twins, these ones almost indistinguishable (one looked a bit more well fed). Nothing bad to say about them actually, really good kids.

Bruce- I thought he dropped out a month ago. But he was there today graduating. I’d like to think that his parents recognized his talent and pulled him out of class before we could corrupt him any more.

In the end Schweitzer’s almost complete lack of interest in learning English was very beneficial to my Korean language skills.

Update-

I wrote most of this blog during the afternoon, this update comes right after finishing. So the good news is that because of the school schedule changing over I actually get tomorrow off completely. The downside is that they told Nick and I after class today that the schedule was changing as of March 1^st. They want to go from a 10-6 day like we have now to a 9:40-7:10 day. They promised us a longer lunch. Well you can imagine that I wasn’t having any of that. So we broke out the contract and I showed them that it clearly stated that I only work 30 class hours per week and only between 10 and 6. They said they were sorry. I sighed and reminded them that there were problems in the past and I was not willing to change my contract, and I was willing to leave. So they threw out some alternatives, and there’s a possibility that they might only have me there for 9:40 to 5:40, which I wasn’t going to be so much of a bitch to refuse as its basically the same shift. But that one is still iffy and I’ll find out tomorrow what the word from above is. It might be that I’m sleeping on Ken’s floor looking for a new job pretty soon. I should mention that the person I was negotiating with today is not the same assistant as before who I believe has quit. In fact a whole heck of a lot of our Korean staff is quitting, in a few days there may be almost completely new faces there. Now this of course means that they are pretty much desperate to hold onto Nick and I.

It does of course put me in a pickle. I’m willing to quit but I’m not ready to sign another 1 year contract at another school. I also don’t think that I’m ready to go back to Canada, not having saved enough money to cover my losses when buying a ticket home. I’m not stressed, or even frustrated. I’m pretty sure I can deal with whatever happens. When it comes to this matter I’d have to say that I’m just downright curious what will happen next.