The Last Week

With the weather on the peninsula starting to get better I have been getting out more and trying to get a bit of fresh air after the long winter inside.

Last Saturday I went down to Busan for a few hours to try and get some stuff at the Disney store. Naturally the Disney store sold Disney golf clothing but no actual toys, movies etc. Figures. I also wanted a Seattle Mariners hat, and I figured the MLB store would have them. Well they did but the largest one would be tight on my grade 3 kids heads. Ah well. It was warm and Busan is always nice.

Sunday was spring cleaning. Seven garbage bags and a few trips to the charity bin later and the place looks great. With so much of Yen's stuff in here now the place was starting to look like one of those houses in that horders show. I tend to be more minimalist these days, and virtually everything I own I can pack in to two bags and a backpack, so having all of this stuff around was getting stressful. Liking it more now.

During the week I managed to do a fairly extensive rewrite of my latest paper. I'll fire it off to Andy later today. It was also warm enough to start running outside again. Not that I won't still go to the gym but running on a treadmill is boring. Outside is both more difficult and better for you. It is also enjoyable. After winter, with surgery and knee problems, I need all the exercise I can get.

I did get out and have dinner with Jarrod, who was subbing in Yongsan that day. New place right behind my school. It was good and since I hadn't seen Jarrod in a few months it was great to catch up. I also got my evaluation at work, which since I haven't heard anything in two days, I'll assume I did fine (if you bomb it you tend to hear about it asap). Since I don't actually plan to re-new my contract there is less pressure this time, but I still wanted to do well because, A- I want to do well and be good at my job.  B- I would like to extend my contract until the end of December. C- I would like a good reference from MK.

I also managed to skype a bit with friends and relax a bit. Overall a solid week.

Report Cards

One thing most teachers do, and loathe I think, is report cards. However, most report cards serve a purpose. They let the teacher reflect on their students progress and let the parents know how they are doing. In Korea, especially in private education. It is a sales pitch. My report cards are little more than checking boxes that are:

Excellent- 90
Good - 80
Satisfactory - 70.

Those are my options......

I'll point out now that these report cards are, by a wide margin, the most accurate and honest I have ever had to do here.




At my last academy my choices were 100, 90, 80, 70, 60..... but if you gave 60,70 or 80 you had to discuss it with the manager, who of course would veto it.  There were also comments about how great they were, never mind that the parents couldn't read the comments. I have also used the exceptionally honest A-,A,A+ approach and the equally frank and effective A,A+,A++ approach, minus the comments.

Now I get that private schools don't want to be failing kids, as it is bad for business, but surely some honesty in grading would be beneficial to everyone concerned. Also, if you lie to that extreme what happens when the kids don't get an A++ on their midterm exams? In that context a 70 or 80 translating to a 60-75 at school seems reasonable.

Anyway, I'm off to cook an A+ lunch.