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!