First day at school(s)

I am home and feeling quite tired after my first day teaching. I was expecting a few suprises, but not this many...

Got ready for work and it was strange to put socks on, but no shoes.... As I live in the same building I work in, there is no need for me to go outside, so no need to put on any shoes! Hee hee!

As I waited to meet the rest of the teaching staff, I stood in the corridor and had little 5 year olds looking at me, screaming and running away giggling to hide before coming back and doing this repeatedly!! :) Then it was the "hello teacher" phrase and the "I am fine thank you" phrase to follow. The rest of the staff are all lovely - all women too. My first class was the 3yr olds followed by 2 4yr old classes then a 5yr and 6yr old classes. Classes are only 20min long but very energetic for that 2omins! Concentration span is extremely short as you can imagine. Remembered a few nursery rhymes like "incy wincy spider", "the wheels on the bus", and "head, shoulders knees and toes" :) Brings back a few memories. Also had kids grabbing my legs and not letting go - so strange to have so much physical contact with children after living with ridiculous barriers between adults and children in the UK. It's good to be able to give a child a hug or pat on the back and it be a common and natural thing to do rather than being some type of abuse.

Then an 1.5hr long break. At this point I was told that I had two more classes in this school before going to another school to teach.. Uh... ANOTHER SCHOOL?! I didn't see this in my contract. But hey, i'll go along with it. This school is only a 5min walk away so no biggy. Classes are 40min long and today I had 3 classes and then we all came back for dinner -this is me thinking that the day ends here (as it says 6pm in the contract). But no, another class till 7pm.. Ok... At the end of this class, I was then told that I will be teaching a girl on her own from 7:10-7:50pm?!!! But not today - from next week. Again.. uh...?!!!! So, 2hrs over the time I was supposed to be working - and this is only day one?!! Apparently I am teaching at another school tomorrow and there is one more which is driving distance away.. And kids range between 3 and 12. Hmmm, will see how this goes.

In general, the teaching will go ok but when I was difficult today when I was expected to teach 4omin lessons to students at different levels of English, without any preparation time or teaching materials. I am not the most imaginative person about so it wasn't easy!!! I should (fingers crossed) get my schedule tomorrow but, I was told i'd get that today so hopes aren't high.

One thing I found REALLY weird, was I was asked to give all the students in one of my classes an "American name" - and this was the first thing I had to do... You never realise how difficult it is to think up names on the spot, and also without having seen on of their personality.. So, did that but I really hope they don't stick because they are extremely boring. Am going to write a list of names down in my book in case I have to go through this exercise again!

Was told again today that I had a small face :o) And that I was very tall!

New word for today is for "Hornet" - don't know how to spell it but it sounds like "maelport". It is described as a horse bee because it looks a little like a horse :)

Not much else really. Had a really good dinner - seaweed with rice and spicy noodles and kimchi. Yummy.