Coming up for Air

I have just completed week two of the training program. Wow.

All the teacher trainees and trainers went out for lunch today to celebrate the completion of Week Two. We went to a restaurant nearby the school, each homeroom group in its own room, with Korean-style seating, i.e., floor seating. Though the food was excellent, the continuous throbbing and numbing sensations that radiated through my legs throughout the two hour lunch, made the whole event pretty darned tortuous pour moi. Though the topic of my discomfort (which I initiated a number of times, though I wasn't the only one to do so) was discussed a number of times, I'm pretty sure I heard them tell the restuarant staff on the way out that we would all be back on Tuesday.

We have thirty-three middle and secondary school teachers in the three week intensive program. On the first day we conducted a number of ice breaking activities so that we could observe them and figure out how to organize them into three groups. We decided to group them by personality characteristics rather than language proficiency levels to ensure maximum participation by all teachers. We ended up with Tigers and Mice at the extreme ends of the spectrum, and Middle People in the ... middle. I am the Mice Homeroom trainer which means that I meet with them for a half an hour every day for warm up activities, checks in, reflective journaling, announcements and such. We have formed strong bonds over these last two weeks, particularly through the journal writing and I look forward to seeing them each day. I actually like all of the teacher trainees, even the somewhat difficult ones, and have found this experience overall to be very enriching. We four trainers have also developed strong bonds and I already anticipate missing our time together now that it's coming to a close.