Daenam Elementry School

I have to be at school at 8:30am, which means I have to leave home at the horrible time of 8:15am! A huge improvement on leaving home at 7:40am to start work in Narre Warren at 9am. The only downside is the hill I have to walk up to get to school.

It is steeper than it looks in pictures

 I'm not looking forward to it in summer, I will be a puffing sweaty mess by the time I get to the top. This will be made worse by the fact I walk to school with half of the kids.

The front of the school

Once I get to school I (and all the children and other staff) take of my nice shoes and put on a pair of bright blue slippers. Looks pretty sexy with my work attire! Sorry I forgot to take a photo.

I share an office with the 5 other English teachers. Originally there was no desk for me, so they found a random one in a classroom and some how managed to squash it in. When I am sitting down no one can get past me, which is hard considering the door is right behind me. My office (and the rest of the school) is cleaned daily by the students. It is so cute to see 10 little 6 year olds sweeping the corridor with tiny brushes and pans.

My desk (note the terrible monitor in the desk set-up)

At least being up a giant hill means we get a pretty good view over the city.

The view from outside the 6th Grade classrooms, on the 3rd floor

I teach in 2 different classrooms. The 3rd Grade room is awesome, It is called the English Zone and it is equipped with all kinds of things we are yet to use (and according the other native English teacher were never used lat year). It has a section with areas for role plays, games and reading. There is also a classroom area, with desks.

Backgrounds for role plays. You can open them up to other scenes.

Listening stations and the bookcase, filled with brand new English picture stories

The stage, with more backgrounds. The ones as the front roll up and down like curtains

 

My 3rd Grade co-teacher Hyunji, preparing for class

 I teach 6th grade and my after school classes in my other class room, it is nice, but nothing like the English Zone room (i.e. it is just a classroom).

 Our cafeteria is too small for everyone so the teachers and grades 1-3 eat there and grade 4-6 eat in their classrooms. I get a lot of "Hello's" at lunch time.

Lunch time

On Wednesday I teach 4 after school classes. School finishes at 2pm (1pm for 1st-3rd grade) so these classes are actually only 35 minutes over my normal work hours, finishing at 5:05pm rather than 4:30pm. Because for these classes I am working for a Hogwon (private after school institute), which teaches out of our classroom, I get payed over time to work when I have to be at work anyway. Korean are crazy about education and after school most kids go to Hogwons for all sorts of classes, not just English.

After school A and B class (Grade 1-2 ish)

After school, A and B class

After school, E class (grade 6-ish)