Sinju Middle School

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I thought I would write a blog with some more info about my school now that I have been there for a few weeks. Those of you who are teachers will get a kick out of some of the things they do here (and I don’t necessarily mean that in a good way!). There are just over 1000 students in my school, and I teach every single one of them! I teach the first years every week and the second and third years only every other week - so most students I only see twice a month! Students here wear uniforms and teachers dress ranging from super dressed-up to jeans and a tee. My school is only 3 years old and is one of the largest MIddle Schools in Yangsan. Here is some more info!

Firstly, girls and boys are not in classes together. That is, except for period 7, which is like the period where they get to choose what class they want - I guess like their elective period. The problem with this is (as I discovered last week) that the girls and boys REFUSE to interact with each other when they are in class together. I tried to do a big whole-class game and it was a complete flop because none of the girls would talk to the boys and vice versa! What a pain! These kids are the equivalent of grades 7-9…I think they should be past the cootie stage! lol!

Next, the classes are also separated by ability. The classes are numbered 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 etc. 1-2 means that it’s a first year class and it’s the second ‘best’ class of that year. This is something I don’t necessarily think is a good idea. It makes my life easier for planning purposes because I just make the activities easier or harder, but I think the lower-leveled students suffer, because they don’t see those higher-level students to have something to aim for. This also means that the students stay in the same room for the whole day and it's the teachers that move around from class to class. In any given week, I never teach in the same room twice.

EVERYONE eats in the cafeteria at lunch (including teachers). Granted the cafeteria food served is healthier than the burgers and fries you would find at most cafeterias in Canada (and on most days it's actually decent), it still surprised me. I asked my co-teacher about it and she said ‘Parents in Korea make enough money that they don’t need to make the kids’ lunch. They can afford to pay for lunch everyday’. Pretty bold statement. However lunch in the cafeteria costs less than 3$ per day, so it is reasonable - still, it’s something that surprised me at first to see! Another thing about the cafeteria is that all the boys have to wait for lunch and let the girls go first!! I hadn't noticed this at first, but the boys just line up and have to let all the girls go first before they can eat!

Corporal punishment is how they deal with poorly behaved students. This is probably one of the things that is the most different from back home. Each teacher (with the exception of me) has a stick, usually made of bamboo, wrapped with tape to make it more sturdy, that they have in hand at all times to correct any bad behaviour. Most of the time it’s simple (yet firm) slap on the shoulder or back to say ‘hey, pay attention’ or ‘shut-up!’, but a few times, I have witnessed some punishment that is simply horrifying. One day I had a student that I thought was sleeping in class, but my co-teacher was ignoring him when she was disciplining bad students. This didn’t make sense to me until she explained that the student had been “severely punished” (as she put it) in his last class and was in too much pain to participate in class. Hardly makes the punishment seem worth it when he is useless for the rest of the day. Later that same day I saw my first real punishment of a student by a male teacher. He brought her into the staff room, yelling at her, hitting her on the head with his stick; she was crying; he was slapping her; it was horrible and made me so upset that I had to leave the room. Luckily this does not happen on a daily basis to this degree, but there is an almost-constant background sound of backs/hands/shoulders being slapped by the sticks of teachers.

Generally, the students are so respectful (this however, does not mean that there aren't the same behaviour problems you would expect in any class, because there are!!!!!!!). Now, this doesn’t happen all the time, but I walked into a third year class one day (grade 9 - girls) and one student stood up (she was like the class leader), said something in Korean then the entire class bowed to me. It felt pretty cool, I will admit! When I asked about it I was told it was a way of welcoming me into their classroom. Respect is a pretty important thing here and I see it, even with the teachers. A younger teacher will bow slightly when they pass an older teacher in the hall. Many students will do the same when they pass teachers in the hall and they always say “Annyong haseyo’ or “Hello”, in my case.

Last week during lunch hour some guy came into the staff room and started talking and sweeping the floor with a broom. I thought at first maybe he was the janitor and was showing the teachers how they should clean the staff room more often. Only later did I realize that he was a salesman who was trying to sell these brooms to the teachers!! I had a real-life infomercial in the staff room that lasted about 20 minutes! And about 5 teachers actually bought the brooms! haha! I don’t think you would ever see some random salesman in the staff room of a school back home!! Mike had a similar experience with an insurance salesman too!

Homework is almost non-existant. Students come to school with the teeniest of backpacks, and I'll bet they are mostly filled with make-up, brushes and such to maintain their appearances. Part of the reason for no homework is that most students attend private schools (called hagwons) after school for 3-4 hours every night! This is even the case with elementary school students!

Girls hair here is not supposed to be longer than shoulder-length. If it is, they have to wear it pulled back in a pony tail...not really sure the reasoning behind this, but that is the rule.
One of my favourite things about this school is that there are not bells that ring at the end of the periods..they play this nice 10-second jingle that is much nicer to listen to than a loud ringing bell. Much nicer.

Well, I'm sure there is more to be said, but those are the major things here! It's quite different in many ways from back home, some ways better, some way definitely not better....I'd like to hear what you think about some of these things! Let me know!

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Photos

Sinju Middle School Students
These are some of the students that follow me around! When they saw I had a camera, they just struck this pose until I took their picture!

Front of the school and 'gym' area
Notice the lack of grass....there is a serious lack of grass in this country and most play area are sandy.

Students' transportation to school
No big yellow buses here! All the students walk or bike to school. Seeing as they mostly live in high-rise apartments surrounding the school, students are never more than 10 minutes from their school.

Cubby-holes for shoes
Don'tcha feel like you're back in Kindergarte?!?! Since we can't wear outdoor shoes in the school, this is where teachers store their shoes during the day!

Comments

[Irene]

That's wild! I would be really upset about the corporal punishment thing but the rest seems really neat! So much you would never know living in Canada. Hope all is well. TTFN!