Goodbye Ellen; Back To School... Sucks

School is back on this week, and things are changing quickly. Yesterday morning, Ellen (my co-teacher) approached me with the news that as of March 1, the Principal is retiring, along with three other teachers. Additionally, the bombshell that as of March 1, she is transferring to another school. That means this is our last week teaching together... and when I come back from Thailand, there will be five new people in my office. My heart sank for a number of reasons:
1. Ellen is the ONLY person at my school who speaks English well enough to hold a conversation with; she is my only connection/interpreter to the rest of the teachers here. Yes, she will be replaced, but maybe not right away. During that time I won't have anyone to go to with problems/emergencies. There will be no one to inform me of the (daily) schedule changes, upcoming events, staff dinners, problems with students, etc. With three other new teachers and a new Principal, there will more than likely be a lot of kinks to be worked out the first couple of weeks, sudden changes in plans, etc. It worries me.
2. Ellen and I have an excellent working relationship. She has been of enormous help to me in and out of the classroom, and it took some time to get there. Over the past months, she has been there for me when I needed her- when I lost my keys, when I missed the bus and needed a ride to school, when my hot water heater broke, when my internet was broken. Plus, I genuinely like her. I'm very thankful to now have a few Korean friends outside of school that I know I can always count on if I need help, but it was nice to know I had someone on my side at work, too. I've heard plenty of horror stories of people who don't get along with their co-teachers, and I'm pretty nervous anticipating who her replacement might be.

It doesn't help that this week, everyone (teachers and students alike) is less than excited about being back in school- graduation and end of semester break happen in exactly a week, so we are in this weird no-man's land kind of area where we're expected to teach something, but nothing important/anything the students will actually care about. After not seeing my students for almost six weeks, I thought I would be happier to see them, haha. A bunch of the boys came back with perms, which I find hilarious.
Anyway, I planned a bunch of (I thought) pretty fun filler lessons to eat up a week of time. My third graders (who are graduating next Tuesday) have been absolutely uncooperative brats! I didn't expect to really care either way, but I actually can't wait for some of them to graduate. I just have to get through four more teaching days until spring break begins, Ian gets here, and Juheon and I cart off to Thailand... but what comes after spring break is pretty scary.

Trying to stay optimistic!! More soon,
<3M