Back in action

The new school year has officially begun... mostly. Our school is currently under construction which makes everything twice as messy, twice as loud, and twice as confusing. When I arrived for the few days of teacher in-service, there wasn't even a working bathroom. Now we have one, to share between 100 staff members, since the children's bathrooms are not the most pleasant place. I lucked out and got one of the best classrooms in the old building. It's three times as large as the cramped space I was working in before, and it has huge windows spanning three of the four walls. Better yet, the sun doesn't shine in through the windows (which was a big problem last term) and turn the room into an oven. We have 2oo+ kids more than last term, so the playground is getting a bit hairy. I was walking around during snack duty yesterday and there was a line for the slide that rivaled those at Disney World. Kids were literally piling on top of each other at the bottom. Despite the comic relief, I feel bad that the play space is so seriously affected. It is supposed to expand once construction is done, but no one knows how long that will be. For now, us teachers have to be extra careful when walking around during playground duty.
I dropped a level and am now teaching grade 2, and they are all pretty adorable. I got flowers on the first day from a student named Son Ha, who I later found out is one of the biggest problem students, so I think his parents were making an effort to form a good impression. All of the girls are absolutely adorable, and most of the boys too. There are a few boys that are completely out of control, but that's the be expected. We were told not to oficially start teaching from the curriculum during the first week, so I've just been playing games and coloring with the students for the past two days. I have two classes, each with 22 students, and the names are definitely proving dificult. I don't know how I memorized them all last term, but since I was successful once, I think I can do it again. Should probably take me two weeks, since I'm memorizing two or three names per child instead of one.
It's definitely tough being back in the daily grind again, waking up at 6:30am and getting home at 5:30. It's a looooong day and I usually can't stay up past 10pm, but once the weekend hits I will be quite relieved. Well, students will be here any minute, got to get ready for some hot potato...