New School Year, New School

It has been one heck of a ride during the last year. I had a short tour at a principal at a school in Cambodia and then returned to Korea to be at an ASP branch in Daegu. Both of those situations were difficult, but I found ways to survive them. Luckily both of those experiences lead me to where I currently am — American STEM Prep in Gwanggyo. I'm currently serving as the Vice Principal. My focus in on the secondary school and the Principal is focusing on the elementary school. We have a small, but thriving little school that has grades 6 to 10. I'm also teaching middle school science until the science teacher arrives in late October. Science is a stretch for me, but I'm excited to be back in a classroom with middle school students. Once the science teacher arrives, the Curriculum Director and I will split the middle school English classes between us. As it stands right now, we are both teaching full-time in addition to our admin roles. Not easy, but definitely worth it. The kids are great! We have a nice little leadership team for the secondary that includes a Head Teacher, Curriculum Director, and me (Vice Principal). We are utilizing Google Chats & Spaces to facilitate communication and it is working quite well so far. Day one is in the books! Looking forward to finishing the first week of school at ASP.

Second Week of the School Year 2019-20

Lately I've been doing mostly posts of my presentation materials, so I have decided to re-commit to doing more actually writing in my blogs again. As we head in to the second week of "real school." I felt it was a great time to start the process of adding written content back to my blog. For those of you who aren't educators, "real school" refers to the time when we have students at school. "Real school" is the exciting time, because the kids are on campus and learning and growing in classes. The other school days are important and necessary, but "real school" is where the action happens. Real school is messy, noisy, and chaotic. It involves mistakes, misunderstandings, epiphanies, relearning, setbacks, and growth. It is never easy; it is always a challenge; but, it can also be very fun. So welcome to another school year and the continued opportunity for seeing students grow and learn, but also the opportunity for your own personal and professional growth.