This year has been a rollercoaster, to say the least. The coronavirus pandemic shifted the way teaching is done worldwide. In Korea, from late March to mid September, teachers in Korea juggled teaching online, partially-online, in-person with social distancing, and alternating between which grades will come to school. And due to various reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, many EPIK teachers have either transferred out of Korea’s smaller rural towns, into bigger cities, left the EPIK program, or left Korea altogether. The remaining teachers take on new and for some, even heavier workloads. Despite the new circumstances, there was always a bright side. And there still is…
I couldn’t wait to finally talk about what it’s like to work in travel schools. Prior to coming to Korea, and teaching for EPIK, I hadn’t read any information online about teachers teaching at more than one school or the term, “travel school.” It wasn’t until I arrived in my rural town and started teaching that I learned some schools are really small and therefore only have one English class with an EPIK English teacher every week…