Workin' to the Bone

I'm sitting here with 12 minutes left on my break between classes and thought I would write a little diddy!

Right now it is January and that means the students get a month off from school, otherwise known as Winter Break. They get one in the summer too, during July and that is their Summer Break. You may be thinking, 'Wow, I cannot believe the kids get a break. After hearing everything Kelly and Ian told me, I thought they would never get a chance to be kids!' Well, you are still right. The kids do not have their normal elementary or middle school, but they still have their academies to attend. You'd better believe there is no break from us! Whatever academy the children go to, there is an opportunity for them to take extra classes for the month they have off to improve whatever subject they are taking.

So, for example, at our school we have two tiers. One is simply called 'intensives' and they attended the academy 3 days a week for intense studying and learning. Ian is teaching that at another branch of our school, in Chang-dong. Our school administrators told him his students were going to be about 10-12 years old, and they definitely are not. He has to teach them for two hours a day and they don't know much English at all because they are super little, and the youngest class level our school offers.

The second tier is called "SPARTA." I teach this. This is an even MORE intense program and the students attend the academy 5 days a week and get mountains of homework and tests. I also teach it at the Chang-dong branch. I teach Beginner writers, intermediate writers and advanced writers. The books we have to get through (and finish!) are extremely dense and simply too long for the amount of times we see each class, so things can get a little stressful. It is also extremely bothersome to me when the kids don't do their work, or sit at their desks and stare instead of doing their work. I usually would pity them, because, growing up in Canada we didn't have such a system. However, their parents work so hard for them to be able to attend these extra, super-expensive Academy classes, just so their child has the chance to level-up. And that isn't even guaranteed!


Anyway, it is mid-January, so thankfully for everyone, we are almost through with SPARTA and intensives!!! I mean, the extra pay will be awesome, but thank goodness it is only a month! ;)