4 Day Weekend!

This weekend in Seoul I had a nice 4 day break, thanks to a Korean national holiday; Children's Day. I got a chance to go see the War Memorial Museum which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Seoul. There was so much to do both outside and inside, even though the weather wasnt very cooperative. I don't usually like museums but this was all very interesting to me. I loved all of the tanks, planes and helicopters that were on display.

My Trip to Japan

I enjoyed my trip to Yokohama Japan very much. I got a chance to visit my older brother who teaches English to 8th, 9th and 10th graders at St. Maur International School in Yokohama. One day I got to observe and help assist one of his 8th grade classes. The students all got a big kick out of me being there. They had a huge debate whether or not my brother and I looked alike. Also I was a little mad when his students mistook me for his older sister,(I am only 22, he is 28). All in all it was a great trip, I ate amazing sushi, I got to go out in Tokyo and most importantly I got a chance to experience a different country while in Asia.
This week when I got back to school it was time for my 6th grade class to make their own flags. They were all very excited about it, I thought I was going to need to give them more instruction but they are so creative and artistic they caught on right away. I was amazed how different and unique each of the students made their flags. I thought this lesson was going to go good and actually it went great!

Short Week

This week was a short week at the school due to the student’s field trip to English Village. Monday I taught a Social Studies lesson to the 6th graders about World flags. These students never seize to amaze me, every time I think something is going to be too hard for them they fly through it and every time I’m afraid I made something to easy they struggle. Everyday is a learning experience and I can predict absolutely nothing about these kids. Anyway the lesson was about world flags and I made a PowerPoint presentation that had the flags, then the name of the country on the following slide. I showed them 15 flags, I included easy give away one’s such as U.S.A. and South Korea. However I also included more challenging flags like Egypt and India, to my surprise 2 out of my 5 classes got every single flag right! I didn’t even know 10 of the 15 in my presentation. It was very surprising, I’m curious as to how a 5th or 6th grade class back in the states would do on my flag quiz.
Also this week I taught 1st grade Storytelling, this is by far my favorite class I teach here at Jamhyun. Every time I’m in that room it makes me wish that I would of gotten a lower grade. The students are so tiny and cute, I’m very impressed with how well they all speak English. I think that all of the students in the school know English but when their younger they are more eager to use it and as they grow up that fades away.
Also I decided that while I was in Asia I was going to use this as an opportunity to travel. I’m going to visit my brother in Japan at the end of this week, he lives in Yokohama. I will be taking a much needed break from my life here in Seoul.

Half Way

This week was the first week I finally felt settled. My weeks and lessons are now starting to become more routine. Teaching is becoming easy because I'm now familiar with the students from the different classes and grades. This week was Easter in Seoul and I managed to find my way to the Myeongdoung Catholic Cathedral for Sunday morning mass. The church was beautiful, the people were friendly and even though the mass was in Korean it was pretty easy for me to follow. This week at the school I taught Storytelling for 4th and 1st graders. It was my first week teaching the 1st graders and I really enjoyed it. Whenever I first came to Korea and found out I was having 6th grade I was a little upset at first because I prefer grades 1-3. So after teaching the 1st graders Tuesday it reminded me of how much I love teaching that age level. However I am enjoying my time here teaching the 6th graders and I'm thankful that I was given the chance to work with the other grades as well.

Ray in Seoul

This past week my brother Ray came to visit me from Seoul, it was such a great experience. We went to the DMZ on a half day tour which was really neat. We got a chance to walk through the 3rd tunnel. It was fun but at the same time I could not help but be a little uneasy considering all of the tension between North Korea and the entire world lately.Throughout the rest of his time here I got a chance to take him to Insadong for some shopping and to try out some new restaurants. One night we went and saw Namta which is basically "Stomp" only with Korean chefs in a kitchen. It was awesome, there was a lot of acting so we could following along very easily. My favorite thing we did was go to a Korean baseball game. I loved the atmosphere of being at the stadium. It was also the first warm day I've had since I've been here so that was also really nice.



This week in school I had a successful experience teaching my social studies lesson to all 5 of the 6th grade classes. For the most part I feel like I got through to everyone with the part two conclusion of my facts about Missouri lesson. I still have those few students that just stare at you like they have no idea what you are saying to them. I had the students make K-W-L charts which we transfered to poster board and hung up in the classroom. I think they all enjoyed the activity.The next lesson I'm planning with be about American symbols then specifically focusing on the American Flag. I'm looking forward to teaching this lesson now that I am more familiar with the students and their learning habits.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Before we went to the palace we went to see the Cheonggye Stream, it was beautiful. It was int he middle of Seoul, right in the heart of the city!
The visit to Gyeongbokgung Palace was very fun and interesting. The palace was huge, so were the grounds that the palace sat on. I was so impressed with all the details of the building, I couldnt believe it was 600 years old! I wanted to go to the Folk Museum but we didnt have any time. Following the Palace we went to Insadong and had lunch with Professor Seon and his family. Then we went to Professor Seons office and tasted some tea. My favorite was the last kind of tea we drank which was from China and fermented in mud! (sounds gross but it was actually good!)

Fridays Off!

Finally some good news! We will have the next 5 Fridays off to work on our portfolios! Everything is finally starting to settle down and we are getting into a routine. Now that we have a better understanding of my daily and weekly schedule. Monday and Tuesday are very busy school days filled teaching and our nights filled with lesson planning. Wednesday after Drama we have to stay and plan lessons until 5, which mean we dont get home till 6. Thursdays are way too long, we're at the schools from 8-5 then have to go to Korea University for an arranged social gathering between ourselves and Korea University students. However we do get free pizza so that is my favorite part about those meetings. So we don't get backing our rooms until about 9pm, that is a long time to be gone in one day. It doesn't really bother me anymore because now I dont have to wake up at 6am the next day. I'm so thankful to Kate for allowing us to have this time to prepare our graduation portfolios!

Social Studies & Drama

Monday I taught my first Social STudies lesson which went very well. For the first 1st-5th periods of the day I teach all 5 of the 6th grade classes. Every period a new class would rotate in and I would teach the same lesson however the lesson would always have to be modified based on the students English proficiency level. Together we filled out a KWL chart ( What you KNOW, what you WANT to know, what you've LEARNED) The children were not familiar with this particular graphic organizer so it took me some time to explain to them what the graph entailed. I showed the students a PowerPoint presentation on the state of Missouri. It mainly included pictures and quick facts. I did not want to make it too long or too detailed because of the next step of the lesson. Finally at the end the student were instructed to follow the link that took them to a website for Missouri kids. The website was very easy for them to do their research and have fun facts for kids. In the end we ran out of time so the students were asked to present their facts to the class next Monday.


Today we had our first Drama club meeting. The students are all 6th graders from all 5 of the classes. Elaine and I will be co-teaching this class together because it is so informal. The children will be putting on a play in the end of May about American Holidays. They will be singing, dancing, acting and even playing instruments. The students signed up for speaking parts and instrument parts today. We will be focusing on 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. This class will be one I look forward to teaching all week because it has been very laid back compared to the other classes we have to teach.

A.M. English

I'm having a hard time understanding the how to teach morning English to the students. We are supposed to be teaching to the middle however that does not exist in our classroom. Either the children are fluent in English and bored by the assignments or the children have no idea what we are saying to them and just stare at us with blank looks on their face. The children thats families are well off send their children to Hagwons (private schools that focus on English). So these children are way to advanced for our lessons. Then at the other other extreme of the spectrum is the kids who can't even recite the alphabet. How am I supposed to teach students about compound words when they don't even know their ABC's. I think that it's pointless just like a lot of the other things we teach but it's all about exposing the students to English so I hopefully it will benefit them in the end.

Confusion.

Now that my first full week of school has ended I have more questions and am very confused. This week was filled with more observations.It frustrates me to observe classes that are taught in Korean. I feel like it's a waste of time I that could be spent planning and preparing lessons. Especially when our free time here is so seldom. Also I was very upset to find out that my CT was under the impression that Elaine and I had training in ESL (English Second Language). This caused so much confusion when it came time to start planning lessons and figuring out what we were going to teach. Now everything has been discussed and we are moving forward trying our best to work with the situation we have been put in. I'm starting to get very worried abut my portfolio due date which is creeping up rather quickly. I'm nervous I wont have enough time to finish, I just need to make sure I plan my time wisely.

Catching Up

I have a lot to catch up on from my last post. I am working at Seoul Jamhyun Elementary School. It is on the Southern side of Seoul, which is very upscale. My morning commute consist of me walking down a huge hill for about 15 minutes arriving at the subway getting on Line 6 for about 10 minutes then we transfer (5 min.) to Line 2 which we sit on for about 25 minutes. Finally we arrive at our school which is just across the street from our subway stop. The school is so nice, it just opened in October 2008. We met our school principal, vice principal and our classroom teacher Kate. I was surprised to learn that nobody speaks English and that they hired Kate 2 weeks before our arrival because she knows English. Then I met students I will be teaching, 6th graders. Their English skills range from fluent to very little knowledge of reading, writing and speaking in English. One boy in my class just moved here from Rhode Island where he lived all of his life. Most of the children's parents work for Samsung and they live in these huge high rise apartments across the street from the school, like I said it is a very nice part of town.

My First Weekend in Seoul

My first weekend in Seoul was a good experience. We went out with our Korean Buddies and got the chance to go sing karaoke Korean style! That Saturday we went to Itaewon (aka American Town) I got a chance to do some souvenir shopping for friends and family back home. It is hard to pick out gifts for some people but in the end I just hope I have room for all of it in my suitcase! After shopping we went to The Wolfhound Irish Pub and had some burgers and fries which we so desperately needed! This was March 14th so it was the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day, so in the middle of our lunch people were coming in that had just got back from a parade. I wish we could of gone :(

I love Korean Waffles!

On day 3 of my journey I woke up with my stomach still feeling a little upset. We had a date to meet our buddies and go on a campus tour. I slept through the tour and told the girls to come back and get me for lunch. Our KU buddies took us to get Belgium waffles...Korean style! To my surprise they were delicious! Served with bananas, kiwi, green tea ice cream and whipped cream it had to be on of my favorite things I've had here so far.


Afterwards we attempted to go to Home Plus which basically Walmart only 6 stories high. We tried to get in and out as soon as possible but it was a Sunday which in Korea is the only day people have time to go shopping, so it was jam packed. We got the necessities for our dorm and got out of there and I'm never going back, ever again. So we headed back to the dorm with the rest of the day of so we could get some much needed rest.

Sickness Strikes!

Saturday morning started off really well. We were exhausted from our plane ride and the previous day that had been jam packed with events. We were ready to go out into Seoul on our own to find breakfest. We found a coffee and bagel store right by school that ended up being pretty tasty and was a break from the korean food.

Afterwards I had my first run in with a street vendor. I made my first attempt at bargaining with him (I'm told that you have to do that with everything here.) I even attempted to speak in Korean with the help of my Lonley Planet Phrase Book. Unfortunatly I was unsuccesful and paid 2500 won (about 21 dollars) for a leopard print blanket. The next day Professor Eur would tell me I could of got it for 1100 won. So pretty much I got hustled but I suppose you have to live and learn while in Seoul.

After a funfilled morning I became very sick on the way to lunch. Professor decided to bring us to a resturant on top of a mountain that had very windey roads. I think that mixed with my motion sickness, jet lag and korean food was just a recipe for disaster. I went back to the dorm were I was violently ill for the next 24 hours. My roommate Elaine wanted to bring me to the hospital on campus but I insisted I was fine while I puked my guts out.

First Day in Seoul

On Friday we arrived in Seoul. Elaine, Amy and I were greeted my Professor Eur at the airport shortly after we arrived. Once we found him we were introduced to our buddies from Korea University. They would be our guides for the next couple of weeks and help us adjust to our new lives here in Seoul. The 3 of us were immediately split up into 3 taxis with our buddies. The cab ride alone was terrifying. I'm assuming the speed limit here is about 90 because that is how fast everyone was driving and no one was wearing their seatbelt except for me of course.

The first day was filled with sightseeing, orientation events and our first traditional Korean meal. We were overwhelmed and amazed by the amount of food we were given. I was willing to try everything and was ready to embrace Korean culture to the fullest!

My First Post!

Well I leave for Seoul in 28 days. I'm starting to get very excited for my trip however at the same time the realization that I wont be able to see my family for 3 months has also begun to set it. My brother Ray has found a time that he will be able to come visit in April, so I will plan on going to the DMZ when he gets here. Haven't even started to think about packing, to busy working on my College Algebra class and my LiveText portfolio! Well I'm off to lunch with Mom, Jean and Grandpa @ Moon Beans!