GRRR!!

i'm ROYALLY pissed off right now. and it's all my stupid new principal's fault. we THOUGHT he was going to be a harmless new addition, aloof and unconcerned with the small details. but, NO.

i can't even type right now i'm seething so much. (you can't tell but i took a 10 minute break after the first paragraph to pace around my classroom and consider crying). he's one of those people where appearance is THE indicator or quality. so he's all like trying to take all the 1st/2nd grade teachers on a field trip to some brand new school in ochang so we can learn to decorate our classrooms better.

HOW STUPID IS THAT?!!?!? if ANYTHING we need to take them on a business trip to watch coteaching in action, we ALL (minus the principal) agree that THAT would be exponentially more helpful to us and in the quality of our teaching.

TODAY, he ALSO insinuated that i am a CRAP teacher because i didn't graduate from a teacher's college or major in education. he was saying how the coteachers have to step it up and take charge of my classroom because i am just a "thing/machine" that speaks english but NOT an actual "teacher."

that's only the LATEST of his offenses. there are so many more, they're all just little. so i didn't take notice of them individually, but now in retrospect, they all add up to saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay: HE'S A JERK. A WORLDCLASS JERK.

AND the old 2-7 teacher who is now the 2-6 teacher is ALSO trying to tell me how to do things and push me (and the other 2nd grade teachers) around. today in our workshop (about next week's lesson) she was trying to run the show and tell me all my ideas are pretty sloppy. she kept contradicting everything i was saying, and finally the head english teacher had to jump in and defend me and tell her, "NO, i think that christine 선생님's idea could be more helpful to the students, christine선생님, why don't you explain to them like you told me?" so that 2-6 couldn't interrupt me.

URGH. i thought the lesson plan fiasco from last semester would've played itself out by now but the same dynamics are at play. i'm just reminding myself that i'm leaving soon and out of this system where the newcomers/youngns are always doing the gruntwork and the superiors/elders take all the credit. i'm also counting my blessings and thinking that i won't be stuck in this system (korea) for my whole career and i'm outta here back into the free world in 4 months.

Viva America.

i'll elucidate later. too much on my mind right now.

quick quote from ny times article :

WORK, in its most traditional sense, is the antithesis of fun. As my grandmother used to say, when I complained about a boss or a deadline, “There’s a reason they call it work.”