Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Assessments. All the time I spent with students today was on assessing them. Understandably, we had to explain that "draw a pencil sketch" means, "draw a picture," and "write a continuation of the story" means, "you make the story of what happens next."

Speaking of language, that reminds me about the very first day of school, last Friday. The students are supposed to put up a fist (instead of raising their hands) if they object to something. I was explaining the meaning of this word, and had written it on the board. Then, one student asked about the meaning of another word I had already put on the board:  "Objective." I hadn't noticed how similar they are until then! 

While explaining, I realized (luckily in my head and not out loud) that the verb to object is spelled the exact same way but pronounced differently than the noun object (as in, "What is that strange flying object in the sky?"). Wow- English; what a challenge!

Now to grade 35 "English Diaries" and 35 L.A. assessments.

(Dinner:  rice, made in the electric rice cooker, of course, and pot stickers with some sort of Korean hot sauce- yummy!)

Monday, March 5, 2012

What a great way to start! Today I had more than one hour of prep time before teaching, and I only had two classes- math and social studies- which I taught to only half my students while the other half were in tae kwon do, flute, violin, art, or other classes. (I'm not counting my "After School" English class as a class to prep for because today was very relaxed.) 

Math and social studies went well but I'm sure I can do better. I teach math and social studies again later this week to the other half of my students so they'll probably get more out of it given that I know now of a few of the kinks that need ironing out... 

One thing that surprised me was to read that a lot of my students' favorite subject in school is social studies. I heard an American teacher say that, in their Korean classes, these students don't start learning about non-Korean social studies until high school! I wonder if that's accurate?

In "After School," I had students trace their hand and write, one in each finger, five things that're important to them. Their answers blew me away! "My brain, because if my brain is dead, I am dead." Another student wrote, "see, hear, taste, touch, smell."

It's been raining outside all day so for lunch and dinner I had homemade garlic-cabbage soup, with rice of course!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Today I set up house, or started anyway. I discovered I need some things.

I need containers to organize things... Maybe I can find some small boxes at work or on the way to school. How would I find boxes on the way to school? Because one can put recycling out on the curb *every* day of the week; it's collected *every* day of the week. "Even Sunday?" you might ask. (I'm not sure yet. Need to take note next Sunday.)

I also need ways to hang things on the walls. I brought some thumb tacks with me but they're not nearly as cool as some of the things I'm sure I could find here to use... Everything here is so cute! The pens, stickers, hooks for the wall, pencil cases, pencils...

Speaking of pencils, the students are not allowed to use mechanical pencils at our school. This surprised me as it reminds me of some public schools I've worked in in the U.S. However, the pencils here that the students use *don't* have erasers on them. Therefore, the students have to have separate erasers. Curious. "Why's this?" I wonder... Is it to suggest they write it all perfectly the first time?

Anyway, today I also did a load of laundry, my first in my new apartment, which is on the fourth floor. My washing machine is in an enclosed balcony-like area off the side of my kitchen. It's quite handy to have it separated this way. Another thing of note, I'm not sure what all the buttons on the machine mean, but there are a lot of options! It takes 55 minutes to do one load of laundry, but given the amount of water I hear pouring in and out of the machine, I'm guessing the machine uses less water and less energy than your generic one in the U.S. Just a guess.

This afternoon when I went outside to walk around a bit and take pictures, an old lady walking past me on the opposite side of the narrow steep street actually stopped and stared at me as if I were an alien. Well, I guess I am, just not the kind I was thinking of... Not knowing how to react, I smiled and said, "an-nyung-ha-shim-nikka" which I believe is the "Hello" version that you're supposed to use with elders (and those of high positions). By this point I had passed her so I'm not sure what her reaction was.

Tomorrow is the first full day of school! I'll be teaching math and social studies to start with. Our job as teachers is to teach math VOCABULARY, not the mathematical concepts because apparently the students here are light years ahead of students in the U.S. when it comes to mathematics.

All for now. Goodbye. 안녕히가세요 (annyeonghi gaseyo). [I'm not sure if I should use the "go in peace" version of 'goodbye' or the "stay in peace" version in this instance.]

Street views

Some of you have been asking what the city looks like. Here are a couple street views... I'll post more in the future, *especially* after going to the Arboretum later this school year (on a field trip)!

1.  View of street on which I used to live.

2. View of houses from a bridge over train tracks.

 

View from my side...

2 Mar 2012

Dear family, friends, and colleagues,

I'm sorry I haven't posted more on this blog yet. As you can see (below), the view of my blog from my side makes it difficult to post things. All the instructions are in Korean as opposed to English regardless of which computer I use. This happened promptly upon arrival.

I hope to figure out how to get it set back on English- at least on my laptop- next week!

Sincerely,

you know who:)

Street vendor

Here's a street vendor selling hot pancakes, called "ho-duck," (only available in winter) with melt-in-your-mouth chocolate-like insides- yummy!

First day of school

Contrary to the rainy weather (a first for me), today- Friday, March 2nd- was EXCITING as it was the first day of school!

At 8:20am, the Opening Ceremony for grades 3-6 started in the chapel/event auditorium. All Korean teachers sat together, all "foreign teachers" (as we're called) sat together, and all students sat together in school uniform by grade level.

Similar to some U.S. school assemblies, the smiley principal introduced the Administrative staff, and then everyone stood for the pledge of allegiance to the Korean red-white-blue-black [flag] followed by everyone singing the national anthem's first verse (minus foreign teachers of course), accompanied by a teacher on the grand piano. Hesitantly, unsure of protocol as a foreigner, I put my hand over my heart for the pledge as the Koreans did, figuring that at least it was my way of demonstrating *respect* for the flag; a couple other foreign teachers did the same.

Next, the principal introduced all the teachers by grade level. We went up on stage, bowed when our names were called, and stood next to our well-dressed Korean counterparts. Finally, the principal gave a lengthy speech, in Korean, during which the students became increasingly fidgety and restless. Kids are kids everywhere! When I pointed to those goofing off and motioned, "No!" for them to stop, they got the message.

After the Opening Ceremony, the students went to their classrooms with their Korean teachers. An hour later, we foreign teachers spent 40 minutes with our students in their classrooms to go over rules, go over their English names, and learn a little bit about them. Then we turned them back over to their Korean teachers. Shortly after, they were done and left school.

In the afternoon, we all attended the Opening Ceremony for 1st-2nd grades. This time, however, those of us who don't teach these grades didn't go to their classrooms afterwards. Instead we had time in the Foreign Teachers' Office to prepare for next week. 

Monday will be our official full regular day of school. Yes, I'm nervous, *and* excited!