School Day

Thursday was a slow start for all of us. I even slept in. All the late nights had caught up with me. Diane had her clarinet lesson at 10:00 and then Yunjin, the babysitter, arrived at 11:00. The girls had to do their Kumon so Yunjin and I did laundry. She taught me how to work the machine which is a washer and dryer all in one and all in Korean and I also showed her all my souvenirs. Yunjin brought over Korean ice cream
to make so it was a good reward for the girls to work towards. They made a mess mixing milk and powder to make vanilla ice cream. The only flavor was green tea. Once the ice cream was in the freezer it was time for our Thursday adventure. Our first stop was our roof top to take some pictures since the day was so clear. You could see Seoul Tower
and the landmark building that helps me find home. It is called Jongno Tower which has a Cloud Top restaurant on top and a great bookstore in the basement. Our plan was to go see a palace but as we started walking Yunjin said she had asked about schools in the area so we went to see Korean school. The first school we visited was the oldest all girl high school. Yunjin said it looks like most schools for the most part but the building is old and they are slowly adding technology. High school is just three years grades 10-12. The Seniors often have their own building with curtains so they can stay late and study even though it is against the law. The students here are grade driven. They seem to mostly care about their ranking and not so much what they are learning. The day is much like an American high school except instead of the students moving classrooms the teachers do the moving. This is an example of a schedule. Here you can see the history of the school uniform.
They have different uniforms for the different seasons. Elementary students typically do not wear uniforms. We got to visit a classroom. It looks very much like classrooms in the USA. I sat at the desk to see if I’d like to be a teacher in Korea. I also found it neat that there were shoe lockers for both students and faculty. Another neat machine that is outdated but they still use is an eraser duster. Most schools have whiteboards but they have not changed to them yet. We then walked by a middle school and then into Seoul’s second oldest elementary school.
It is 115 years old when the oldest down the road a bit is 116 years old. Unlike the high school which has mandatory summer school elementary school was closed except for summer camps. Again we were able to peek in windows to see classrooms. We had to go all the way to the top floor so Kay could see fifth grade. The classrooms were similar to mine and they even had bulletin boards. One difference was as we went up the steps the windows in the classroom got higher in the hallways. This is so kids can't look in and distract their friends. You end the day in homeroom and your homeroom teacher can keep you as long as needed. We did happen to hear English Academy going on.
Students were staying after to watch an American movie. I could not tell what it was. The playground was mostly a sand covered field for soccer and basketball, but there was also play equipment. I wonder how often they play? Yunjin said it was not often but they did have daily PE. On the way out we saw the library where each classroom has a book checkout contest. The first graders won with almost 3000 books checked out for the semester. That was just one class. Sixth graders check out much less. The very last think we saw was the science lab.
There was a camp going on. It looked like they were making fireworks on paper. Our school touring took longer than planned but it was super cool so we did not make it to the palace. It was time for Taekwondo so we hit the subway. Taekwondo is fun to watch. Today all the students were preparing for testing which was the next day. The girls want to test but the instructor said they miss too many lesson to test. He would be happy to help get them ready if they’d come more often. They go 2-3 times a week when the other kids go 5 days a week. I found it funny when two boys were punished. They had to pull each others’ ears.
Taekwondo ended early since they were practicing for the test which meant a stop for ice cream for us. Kay also spotted the new cell phone case I am coming home with. It is the year of the rabbit so I have a bunny iPhone case now. I also bought more Korean jacks for the classroom. Back at home Jen had packed everyone up as the Youngstroms were heading to China for weekend trip. I was meeting the Park family for a traditional Korean dinner.