A Small Army

          The school year may be over here, but my work isn’t done yet.  That’s because I’ve still got winter camp to teach.  In the US, a short summer course for kids is pretty common, and it’s kinda the same idea here.  Parents can’t really be expected to spend that much time with their children. Now, you might think that camp would be a more laidback version of regular class, all movies and games and fun.  For some people, that’s probably true.  But not for me.

          I was told I’d be teaching for two weeks- a dozen 3^rd and 4^th graders the first week and a dozen 5^th and 6^th graders the second week.  In the past, I’ve never really had the same kids for more than forty minutes at a time.  In camp, I was going to have the same kids for 4 straight hours in the morning.  To top it off, the head teacher decided he wanted to sit in on the lessons, because he’s got nothing else going on.  In some ways, I felt like the school year had all been practice for this, and camp was my final exam.  I was prepared to fail.

          The first day of camp came on Monday. I’d actually made a week’s worth of lessons in advance for the 3^rd and 4^th graders, and I planned on covering the same material next week with my 5th and 6th.  The English level is pretty much the same across the board, so I thought it made sense.  Anyway, my “3^rd and 4th” graders started coming in, but I recognized some older kids.  OK, I figured they’d switched the weeks around.  I’d be teaching my 5 and 6 first and the younger ones later.  Last second changes happen all the time, and I’ve gotten used to them for the most part.

          Once ten kids were there, I started my lesson.  But as things got going, kids continued to show up.  The class grew from 10 to 12 to 15…and didn’t stop until it got to 22.  I had to go get extra chairs and tables just so everyone would have a place to sit.  And that’s when it finally dawned on me: they’d combined the classes. 

          I’ve never actually taught a class that was bigger than 10 people before, so this was a new and horrifying sight.  I can barely keep five kids in line but twenty-two?!  No way.  I expected mass chaos.  Broken supplies and broken bones.  Screaming and shouting and crying.  But over these past few days, honestly, none of that’s happened much.

          Strangely enough, I can probably thank my head teacher for that.  It’s true- since he’s here, I have to generally teach stuff, at least for a couple hours.  But when he’s in the room, the kids are complete angels.  Full attention and cooperation.  They’re almost militant in their behavior.  (He’s even had them line up in formation when they misbehaved.)  Of course, when he turns his back, they start dancing.  They are kids, after all.

          Another double-edged sword- the class size.  Sure, smaller classes are generally more fun and interactive, but big classes have benefits, too.  The main one: doing any kind of project takes forever.  Oh, we’re making snowflakes today?  Hmmm….that should be about two hours.  And what do you know, the day’s almost over.  It’s kind of great.

This is how 3D snowflakes are supposed to look.  Big surprise, our snowflakes did  not look like this.

Make your own animal puzzle!  I'd like to congratulate myself on coming up with such a time-consuming activity.

          At times, camp has had its drawbacks.  One day, the head teacher didn’t want us to take a break, so I basically taught for four straight hours.  Not to mention, my “plan” for the next week has been completely thrown out the window.  I’ll have the same 22 kids again, so I’ll have to come up with hours and hours of new material.  But really, at this point I’m comfortable with teaching, so it doesn’t worry me too much.  What’re we gonna do tomorrow?  Maybe we’ll learn about prepositions.  Or we could discuss the cultural differences between America and Korea.

          Then again, maybe we’ll have a paper airplane contest.  Yeah, that sounds more like it.