Firstly what is desk warming?
If you are thinking about coming to live in
Korea you probably hear the term ‘desk warming’ being thrown around a lot so I
thought I’d explain a little more about it.
During the summer and winter months the
kids go home but the school stays open. The other Korean teachers will pop in
over the month but the English teachers have a different contract.
For some unknown reason a few years ago
some teachers moaned so much about their schedules being slightly different
from others that the DMOE had to put strict rules in place. Now the rule is we
come to school from 8:30 till 4:30 every day of the vacation (apart from your 8
/10 days holiday)
This sounds like a weird thing for the DMOE
to ask you to do but to be honest it really is a fantastic way to spend a few
days. I think I may have been more productive in this job than every before.
If you are smart you can do a years set of
lesson plans, read a few books, write, draw, watch movies or do some crafts.
Pretty much anything you want since the school is empty.
It is annoying I suppose since the kids
aren’t around but on the plus side…..the kids aren’t around.
So now that you know what it is, how do you
cope with 3 weeks of it…well its actually about 7 weeks in total with exams and
summer vacation so its good to have a way to cope straight away.
The only way I have coped is with lots of
planning. Here are a few ideas:
.Blogs
Your initial reaction when you hear about
blogs might be to roll your eyes, although you are reading this one so
hopefully it’s not too much of a stretch for you to start one. Blogs are
indulgent things but they are also a fantastic record of your time and a great
way to practice writing.
I have 3 blogs that I keep. One for travel,
one for animation and one for my love of all vintage things. I did intend to
blend the vintage and travel blog but in the end they were such different
things that I kept them separate. The animation one is just a geek fest so
that’s hidden away too.
These became my life line during free lessons
since I had to sit in the large teachers office with no internet. I would have
to look busy so opening Word and just typing away was the perfect distraction. Another
great things about a blog is that it is always there. This experience of living
abroad flies by with so many new things to experience that sometimes you forget
those special moments, they all tend to blur in together. My blog helps me to
remember the little things and hear the excitement in my writing from when I
first arrived to the worry I felt before teaching for the first time. It is a
silly thing and I wouldn’t go into it thinking you will be the next big thing
in the blogesphere but if it’s being written for you and as a way to pass the
time then it’s a great element to add to your desk warming routine.
.Projects
Everyone is different. Your project might
be something you’ve been meaning to sew, recipes you’ve been meaning to type
out or, like me things I’ve been wanting to animate and learn on different
computer software’s for years. This is more of a long term desk warm. I am
currently in my winter desk warming phase. I set myself the task of building my
own character to animate and it’s made the week whizz by. Luckily my textbooks
are all staying the same so my lesson planning is done. This allowed me to
invest a large portion of time to anything I wanted and I am really happy with
the results.
.Internet
This one is listed with caution. If you are
one of the lucky few that not only has internet but has internet that’s not
blocked then it’s a great source of entertainment. Especially for those one - off
lessons when you have no classes. I have been more productive than I ever have
been in my year at my desk but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been completely sucked
into evil Facebook. It’s a hindrance I wish I wanted to get rid of but its
definitely a necessity when living so far away from home. It makes you feel less
alone at your desk. That being said, it’s easy to get sucked into a stranger’s
page for hours. Have a quick catch up and then close it! Go to the BBC website
and read a news story. ‘Wiki it’ and research something random and see what
else it leads you to learn about. The internet is shockingly more than photos
of friends drinking shots and videos of puppies. Who knew!
Korean
For the majority of Westerners coming to
Korea, Korean is something you have visions of mastering. I always thought that
after 3 months of being immersed in the culture I was bound to just wake up one
day and understand everything they were saying, almost like my own ‘see the
matrix’ moment. This of course is not the case (although I still live in hope).
If you want to learn Korean, especially Hangul then your desk is as good a
place as any. There are great websites out there such as www.memrise.com that will help you learn up
to 60 words a day if you are dedicated. I am lazy. Because I can order food,
read Korean and get taxi’s I have let my Korean studies slip but it really
would be a shame to leave this place without at least being able to have a
fully Korean conversation with the people around me. It’s my mission for year
two.
Lesson plan
This sounds like an obvious one, so much so
that I considered not putting it on the list but knowing lovely people such as
my boyfriend who think planning is just a suggestion I thought I’d list it on
here. Lesson planning is a pain, it really is and we all know it. We could all
just troll through www.waygook.com and
steal our lessons but there is something special and easy about teaching a
lesson you created yourself. Saying that, I do love getting games from there
for those awkward, ‘not learning - not playing’ lessons but when I’m teaching I
like to create them myself. The beautiful thing about lessons planning is that
it gets easier every time. The amount of things I added to my first lesson
plans, just in case I ran out of material and had 40 kids looking at me, is
probably enough material for 6 lessons. You learn very quickly how long things
take in class and what the kids react to. Adding relevant and funny pictures to
your power points will get a good reaction. Adding pictures of yourself will
probably be met with raucous laughter but it will keep them engaged.
Tips for Desk Warming
. Make a ‘to do’ list and cross them off
. Think of things you’ve always wanted to
research or learn
. Bring your own lunch if you aren’t sure it’s
provided. (Some days there is one other teacher in the office who has a
sandwich box with them and other days its 12 teachers who all order food but
forget to ask me, it varies so an emergency Kimbap will keep you going)
. Bring coffee!
. Hangovers can be had but best avoided.
That VP will be watching you closely.
No matter how much you plan I promise you
there will be a moment when you want to pull your hair out and the clock goes
backwards but I hope these tips help you to make the most of it. Most
importantly, enjoy it. Yes you are sat
in school for 8 hours but you are being paid to do anything you want. Catch up
on TV shows while you learn to draw, make a crazily ambitious present for
friends who are leaving Korea, watch cooking shows and write down the recipe,
join a fantasy rugby league. What every you end up doing, enjoy this time as
it’s a rare gift you may not get again and have fun!
Happy Desk Warming Everybody.
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