Back to school…finally.

Well, the time has finally come to get back to teaching after being off for almost four months. This day had to come and it all happened on Monday, October 23rd. Ready or not the kids came and we were off and running with a new school – St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju was finally open.

Our campus is beautiful and once it is completely done and teachers are all moved in to their respective areas it’s going to be very nice. The gym isn’t ready so I’m having class where I can find space. Last week it was on the recess soccer field to just get moving and this week we will be in a learning pod doing some cup stacking. Hopefully, my students will love cup stacking as much as I do.

This week was also our first day of school on Saturday. Yes, we have to make up those days somehow. Two Saturdays a month we will have class from 8 a.m. – 12 p.m Not too bad but it’s still makes for a six day workweek and having to go to school on Saturday. But, we also had an extra two months of summer so….

It’s been a crazy first week and each week will get better and more settled. All of the teachers and admin have been supportive of each other and we have all really worked well together which is good especially in a late start situation like this.

In addition to the kids starting on Monday the first time that teachers could get into their classrooms was the Friday before school started and some later than that. That made for a busy weekend. On Friday I started to unpack, inventory, label my elementary P.E. equipment that I ordered. I had the amazing opportunity of ordering all of the equipment for the elementary school. It was awesome but also overwhelming at the same time. I ordered a lot…like a lot. It filled an entire fitness room. Thank goodness SJA Jeju hired a facilities manager to manage the Sports Complex so he has been helping me while I teach during the day. We have so much cool stuff to use this year.