HAPPY CANADA DAY to everyone back home and to everyone Canadian who is abroad, like myself.
I don't really have anything overly exciting to post because it's only been two days into the week and nothing exciting has happened yet. Monday was a pretty standard day for the start of the week. I had five classes, which was actually something new. Usually I only have one or two classes at the start of the week, but I think because the semester is winding down they need to make sure all of the Enlish lessons get to where they need to be. Basically, I've spent every grade 5 class testing the students English speaking ability. They come up to me one at a time and read 6 words, breakfast, lunch, dinner, study, homework and bed. I give them a circle if they pronounce them all correctly and I give them a check mark on the words they didn't pronounce correctly. Seems easy enough, but it only lasts for about 10 minutes, so the rest of the class time I sit a desk and ponder life...well, not really, but I could be. The grade 5's are also making books and the book has to be about "My Day", so they have to write a book on what time they wake up, go to school, eat lunch, etc. Once they finish the book they have to then read their book to me and I test their speaking ability again. It all seems so redundant, but it's necessary to pass them I guess.
The grade 4's have gotten easier to teach now because I have full control of the classes. The grade 4 co-teacher just sits in the class and disciplines if necessary or if they are completely out of control. I do a pretty good job keeping them in line because I just raise my voice and they stop talking. The grade 4's have also started a lesson that is a lot more fun to teach, What time is it? This has definitely made the teaching easier and a lot more fun.
Since yesterday was Canada Day here in Korea I decided I would give the students Canada pins at the beginning of each class to the students I picked to answer my introduction questions. I only had grade 5's yesterday, so they got to enjoy the pins. They were a big hit and the students really liked getting them. I even gave some to the grade 5 co-teacher and the teacher's in my teacher's class I finally got to teach. They all really appreciated receiving them and were quite excited about it. I was a total dork and wore red and white clothes and accessories to school.
After school I went and hung out with Tracy and Nick for a bit and then I headed to the Arts Center area to have coffee with a Korean friend. We hung out for about an hour or so before I headed back to Yeonsu and met up with Nicole and Nick for dinner. We just ate at Sorrento's, the Italian restaurant below by building and then we headed to Indis about 2 blocks away for a jug of beer and some fruit cocktail. It's usually madatory to order food if you want drinks at most Korean pubs/bars. We ended up staying out way later than we had planned, so when we parted ways I stopped to buy some milk and headed home for the night.
Today is Canada Day in Canada, so us Canadians abroad could technically celebrate today as well. Anyways, my Canadian Canada Day started off with heading out the door to school and my door not locking. I did the natural thing and panicked before heading downstairs to meet Mrs. Kim and get her to come upstairs and help me. She tried and had no luck, so we headed up to the landlord's floor and told him about our situation and got him to come and try. He also struggled, but eventually wiggled the lock and got it to latch. He told Mrs. Kim he would have the locksmith come over to my place in the afternoon and fix the lock. I told Mrs. Kim I didn't want anyone fixing my apartment while I wasn't here because of all the valuables I have. She called him when we got to school and he set-up an appointment for the man to come after 5:00 p.m.
School today was rather chill with only four classes, three grade 5 and one grade 4. The grade 5's again were testing and the grade 4's had an English level test to complete as well. The grade 4's just had to read a dialogue they memorized to me and I said if the passed or failed. Since I had no classes after lunch I decided to get started on my summer camp lesson plans that seem to keep piling up. Jiny tells me Monday I need to have my lesson plans for my school's cummer camps in August finished by Thursday. I was like ok, but little did I know that would contain 9 lesson plans. Plus, I have a lesson plan to complete for a three day summer camp at another school at the end of July. The only thing keeping me sane is knowing I will be done with them by Friday and that I'm being paid extra for the summer camp in July at the other school. Basically, my entire afternoon consisted of me writing up lesson plans and looking up games/activities online for grade 3-6 to do during summer camp at my school. The good thing is I can use the same lessons for grade 3 and 4 and the same lessons for grade 5 and 6, so that cuts the lesson plans in half and makes the work load less. I find lesson plans to be a complete waste of time because I'm a go with the flow, do stuff on a whim kind of girl, but I understand lesson plans are needed in order for the Korean teachers to know what is going on and, so I have some direction in the classroom. Since I was getting really stressed and going crazy in the office I decided to sneak of for about 45 minutes to have some ice cream with my friend Lisa who lives in Song-do. We met at Canmore, which is a delicious coffee/ice cream shop and we ate a bowl of ice cream together, chit chatted and then parted ways. By the time I got back to school I only had an hour left, so I continued to work on the lesson plans.
I rushed home to be here ready for the locksmith and he didn't even show up until close to 6:00 p.m. and he wasn't even here 10 minutes. He didn't change the lock he just gave me a new key because apparently mine was broken and then he went on his merry way. I'm so glad I skipped going to the gym for that. Now, I'm going for an hour run instead and then I need to get ready to head to bowling because well, it's Wednesday bowling night, but most importantly it is also Alison's last bowling night because she flys home on Sunday :(
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
!!HAPPY CANADA DAY!!
HAPPY CANADA DAY to everyone back home and to everyone Canadian who is abroad, like myself.
I don't really have anything overly exciting to post because it's only been two days into the week and nothing exciting has happened yet. Monday was a pretty standard day for the start of the week. I had five classes, which was actually something new. Usually I only have one or two classes at the start of the week, but I think because the semester is winding down they need to make sure all of the Enlish lessons get to where they need to be. Basically, I've spent every grade 5 class testing the students English speaking ability. They come up to me one at a time and read 6 words, breakfast, lunch, dinner, study, homework and bed. I give them a circle if they pronounce them all correctly and I give them a check mark on the words they didn't pronounce correctly. Seems easy enough, but it only lasts for about 10 minutes, so the rest of the class time I sit a desk and ponder life...well, not really, but I could be. The grade 5's are also making books and the book has to be about "My Day", so they have to write a book on what time they wake up, go to school, eat lunch, etc. Once they finish the book they have to then read their book to me and I test their speaking ability again. It all seems so redundant, but it's necessary to pass them I guess.
The grade 4's have gotten easier to teach now because I have full control of the classes. The grade 4 co-teacher just sits in the class and disciplines if necessary or if they are completely out of control. I do a pretty good job keeping them in line because I just raise my voice and they stop talking. The grade 4's have also started a lesson that is a lot more fun to teach, What time is it? This has definitely made the teaching easier and a lot more fun.
Since yesterday was Canada Day here in Korea I decided I would give the students Canada pins at the beginning of each class to the students I picked to answer my introduction questions. I only had grade 5's yesterday, so they got to enjoy the pins. They were a big hit and the students really liked getting them. I even gave some to the grade 5 co-teacher and the teacher's in my teacher's class I finally got to teach. They all really appreciated receiving them and were quite excited about it. I was a total dork and wore red and white clothes and accessories to school.
After school I went and hung out with Tracy and Nick for a bit and then I headed to the Arts Center area to have coffee with a Korean friend. We hung out for about an hour or so before I headed back to Yeonsu and met up with Nicole and Nick for dinner. We just ate at Sorrento's, the Italian restaurant below by building and then we headed to Indis about 2 blocks away for a jug of beer and some fruit cocktail. It's usually madatory to order food if you want drinks at most Korean pubs/bars. We ended up staying out way later than we had planned, so when we parted ways I stopped to buy some milk and headed home for the night.
Today is Canada Day in Canada, so us Canadians abroad could technically celebrate today as well. Anyways, my Canadian Canada Day started off with heading out the door to school and my door not locking. I did the natural thing and panicked before heading downstairs to meet Mrs. Kim and get her to come upstairs and help me. She tried and had no luck, so we headed up to the landlord's floor and told him about our situation and got him to come and try. He also struggled, but eventually wiggled the lock and got it to latch. He told Mrs. Kim he would have the locksmith come over to my place in the afternoon and fix the lock. I told Mrs. Kim I didn't want anyone fixing my apartment while I wasn't here because of all the valuables I have. She called him when we got to school and he set-up an appointment for the man to come after 5:00 p.m.
School today was rather chill with only four classes, three grade 5 and one grade 4. The grade 5's again were testing and the grade 4's had an English level test to complete as well. The grade 4's just had to read a dialogue they memorized to me and I said if the passed or failed. Since I had no classes after lunch I decided to get started on my summer camp lesson plans that seem to keep piling up. Jiny tells me Monday I need to have my lesson plans for my school's cummer camps in August finished by Thursday. I was like ok, but little did I know that would contain 9 lesson plans. Plus, I have a lesson plan to complete for a three day summer camp at another school at the end of July. The only thing keeping me sane is knowing I will be done with them by Friday and that I'm being paid extra for the summer camp in July at the other school. Basically, my entire afternoon consisted of me writing up lesson plans and looking up games/activities online for grade 3-6 to do during summer camp at my school. The good thing is I can use the same lessons for grade 3 and 4 and the same lessons for grade 5 and 6, so that cuts the lesson plans in half and makes the work load less. I find lesson plans to be a complete waste of time because I'm a go with the flow, do stuff on a whim kind of girl, but I understand lesson plans are needed in order for the Korean teachers to know what is going on and, so I have some direction in the classroom. Since I was getting really stressed and going crazy in the office I decided to sneak of for about 45 minutes to have some ice cream with my friend Lisa who lives in Song-do. We met at Canmore, which is a delicious coffee/ice cream shop and we ate a bowl of ice cream together, chit chatted and then parted ways. By the time I got back to school I only had an hour left, so I continued to work on the lesson plans.
I rushed home to be here ready for the locksmith and he didn't even show up until close to 6:00 p.m. and he wasn't even here 10 minutes. He didn't change the lock he just gave me a new key because apparently mine was broken and then he went on his merry way. I'm so glad I skipped going to the gym for that. Now, I'm going for an hour run instead and then I need to get ready to head to bowling because well, it's Wednesday bowling night, but most importantly it is also Alison's last bowling night because she flys home on Sunday :(
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