Monday I started my new job at a hagwon called American Adventures. The owners are Americans and their vision is to run the place as much like an American school as possible. Kids are split up into classes by English level, not grade level. We teach English (obviously) plus science and social studies, and starting in the fall they'll be doing some fun science experiments and history projects. Class sizes are teeny tiny, which is exactly what you need in a language-learning setting. It'll let me get to know the students really well and give them a lot of teacher time. There's this new language arts curriculum in the States called Wonders, and they bought it so I'll get to teach out of that. But my bosses are giving me tons of freedom to kind of teach how I want and what I want.
The school's logo
This situation is really rare - there aren't hagwons in Korea like this. Once I got my visa I let myself start thinking about how exciting this job is going to be and how much I'm going to be able to do with these kids. I loved my students and my schools back in Ulsan, but their English level was overall pretty low. One of the classes at American Adventures just finished reading Charlotte's Web. That's a decently hard chapter book, and they did it and they understood it. I'm going to get to read chapter books with them, and teach them how to write essays, and get to know them as people because they'll be able to talk to me more.
This is not the job I thought I was going to have when I came back to Korea. It's not even the 2nd or 3rd job I thought I was going to have. I didn't even apply for it, my pastor Mina interviewed with them and she told them about me because she thought I would be a good fit for the school. I believe this is the best job for me, and I can't wait to get to know my new kids and start teaching out of my new textbooks and see where this year takes me.
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