My last week and travel home!

  My last week in Korea was great! Francis was in Korea and we got to travel to Busan. I had never been there and we got to see the ocean and went hiking! Also we celebrated Francis' birthday by having some of my favorite things in Korea, chicken galbi and waffles with ice cream! I will miss those things a lot.

At the top of the mountain
we climbed for Francis' birthday!

Dressed in traditional Korean dress
at the Korean Folk Village.

On the train to Busan!

Chicken Galbi...first time using chopsticks for Francis!

Francis left on Wednesday after he left I went out with Falyn, Erin and Hongbum. I had an amazing time and will miss Hongbum a lot! He helped us all so much this semester and I am so grateful for him. I can't believe how fast the last month went.

Our last night!!

I will miss many people that I meet in Korea and some of the food like the waffles and chicken galbi, but I will not miss the spitting or pushing that some would consider rude and gross. The culture is different, but I am so glad that I went . I have grown so much in my personal and professional perspectives. 
  I wanted to teach in Korea because I wanted a different experience and I got it! I enjoyed my time with my students and learning about different ways to teach and how different cultures view the US and education.

I had an interesting experience on the way home though. Erin and I traveled together from Seoul to Chicago. We ended up having to drag our luggage down the hill to the get a cab to take us to the bus stop which was different than what we were told. We finally did get to the airport and checked our luggage. We tried to go through security, but they told me my carry-on bags were to heavy and Erin's bags were even heavier. We were told that we had to check a third bag and we were not happy. Erin and I went to  the checking counter and told them the situation, they okayed my bags, but told Erin that she had to check hers. After some complaining  Erin got her bag checked for FREE. which was amazing! We got to the gate, got on the plane, and traveled to LAX. Erin and I had to run through the LAX airport to make our connecting flight, luckily we made it and got all the way to Chicago safely!

Teaching in Korea was a wonderful experience and I will never forget the people met and techniques I learned.

My Last Week of Teaching and A Visit from Home!

  My last week of teaching went very well, but was also sad. I had my last classes with my after school programs on Tuesday and Thursday which made those days a little bit more rough for me. I decided to throw them a pizza party. I also gave them all like bags with stickers, a pencil and Smarties, which they loved.

3rd Grade Storytelling Group!

  My week was very busy. Monday was slow, just getting ready for Francis to come visit me. On Tuesday I had my last story telling after school group and it made me miss realize how much I was going to miss the 3rd graders. Through all of my schooling I have always thought that the really young children were my favorite to teach, but after teaching here in Korea I have realized that I love teaching 3rd and 4th grade. I also said goodbye to my 4th grade classes on Monday and Tuesday. My lesson for them went very well and they put in a lot of work. I had them form groups and create posters about Korea. I told them that I wanted to be able to teach students in the US about Korea and I needed their help. They  were so excited and did a great job creating posters. The posters are packed to make the trip to the US on Thursday!
     Wednesday all of my classes  were cancelled because of the Soongin Talent Show. It was amazing! The children were  great!  Ally and Professor Son put on a great Thanksgiving Party for us on Wednesday night too.

Soongin Talent Show!

Thursday was my last day at Soongin because they had a school holiday on Friday. I said goodbye to the Principal and Vice Principal which made me very sad. I also said goodbye to Ellen, my original CT and now have a great new friend and resource here in Korea.  Min-gi and Philly took me out for dinner on my last night. I couldn't believe how much the reality of not being at the school anymore made me feel so sad. I had a sad last day, but was excited because Francis came on Friday night.
   Friday I packed most of my things and went to get Francis from the airport. After getting everything he brought and we decided to go to Seoul Tower and it was alot of fun. On Saturday we went to many of the palaces that I had already been to before, but it was fun to see things through his eyes.

The week has been fun and sad at the same time. I have learned so much from the teachers and students. I don't even know if they know how much they have taught me. I hope to keep in touch with all of the wonderful people I have meet here in Korea and maybe I will visit again someday!

My last week with 1st and 3rd grade! :(

      This week has been bitter sweet. I am very excited that I will be going home soon, but I will miss all of my students!  I planned some fun activities for the classes and most of my classes were sad to see me leave. My 3rd grade classes made me a thank you/goodbye book. I will treasure it always! I have learned so much about teaching and being more aware of how I talk to students. I have really enjoyed getting to teach all different ages for children and have learned from each class I taught.  My lessons went very well and I can't wait to teach this coming week. 
   I had a dinner with the Principal and Vice Principal of my school on Friday. The dinner went well, they asked me about my experience and thanked me for teaching so many different students. I felt like they liked what I did with the students and enjoyed having me in their school.

    I have a busy week coming up with it being my last week in the school and Francis coming on Friday! I will miss Philly and the other teachers that have helped  me so much through this process. I will also miss my students, but some of them have asked for my email to keep in touch with me and I think that is a great way for them to practice their English. I had a 1st grader email me this weekend and thank me for teaching his class.
   Can't wait until Friday when Francis comes to visit me!

Winding down and getting cold.

      The week started out a little rough, but got better as the week went on. I can tell that the students have gotten used to having me teach their class because they are starting to misbehave more and not want to listen. Monday was hard because the students weren't listening and I haven't been sleeping well so that could be part of my lack of focus.
   Tuesday's classes went so much better than Monday's partly because I changed my lesson plan for second grade. I found a memory game online and used that to help my students remember different feelings.
    Wednesday the Principal told me that she wants to have dinner and a discussion with me before I leave. I'm very nervous, I hope that Kyoungwon or Ellen will be coming to the meeting.
   Thursday was a weird day for me. The schools didn't start until 10am because of the high school students taking the University entrance exams. I still taught both of my second grade classed, but the first one was only 30min. instead of 40 min. therefore I didn't do all of the activities that I did with all of the other classes.
    Friday was 11-11-11, Pepero Day here in Korea! I think it's like Valentine's Day in the USA. I only got one pepero today, but it's because the students were told not to bring it to school. I taught to of my second grade classes for the last time and I was kinda sad. I really enjoyed teaching them and they were all sad that I wasn't going to teach them any more. The teacher called her students 'unlucky' because they don't get to have one more time with me.
    Next week is my last week teaching 1st and 3rd grade. I'm sad, but kind of excited to get back to the USA and hopefully get my own classroom.  I've been working with the teachers and have really enjoyed getting to know some of the teachers. I hope that I will be able to keep in touch with many of them and someday maybe invite them to my classroom. I am glad that I have formed relationships with my colleagues here in Korea because then I will have more people that I can network with in the future.
   The week was not very eventful. On Saturday, Erin and I went to another conference for professional development. It was interesting and it was FREE! Philly went to the conference too and we found out that Koreans don't like it when people say SOUTH Korea and NORTH Korea. They prefer Korea and North Korea, Erin and I found that very interesting.  For anyone that comes to Korea in the future I was highly suggest going to a conference. The conferences are all in English and helped me learn new ways to teach English in the classroom. I am not an ESL teacher, but with the help of the conferences I was able to change my teaching to become a better ESL teacher.
    I can't believe it, but I have officially started a count down to my last day here and in the school. I only have 9days left to teach at Soongin. I will miss the kids and Philly most of all, but that means that I get to go home soon. I have enjoyed my time here, but I can't wait to see my family again. Francis is coming to visit in 12days and I hope to get to show him all of the wonderful sights in Korea. Sorry it's so short this week. I haven't been doing very much other than working and then going home and working on my portfolio. Also it's getting colder outside, no snow, but it's feeling like late Fall now. Two weeks left!

All the wonderful lights!

    This week went very will overall. My lessons with the 1st graders went very well this week. The students worked in small groups to make monsters and tell how many of something their monster had. They enjoyed creating monsters and seeing them solve problems about how many of something to have on their monster was very neat to see. Some of the groups seemed to follow one person where as others used the rock, paper , scissor method to decide. There were some students who had a very hard time not getting their way and cried, but for the most part the students worked very well together.

I didn't know that schools in Korea do not provide paint for the students so when I planned my lesson for the 3rd grade I had them mixing paints on Monday morning. I found out about the students not having paints at school 5 minutes before I had to teach. It was a good lesson for me to learn that I need to check with the teachers before planning an activity. Despite not having the materials for my lesson I was able to create a new lesson  when I got to the class. I had student's graph the different colors they were wearing and tell how many different colors there were in the classroom that day. I did my original lesson of mixing paints the next day and I actually liked the lesson that I came up with at the last minute better than the one I had planned on teaching.

      Less than a month until I came up...I'm very excited, but sad at the same time. I will be sad to leave my students,especially because I just started to really get to know them and settle into the school. I love working the teachers and the school is amazing, I wish I had been able to settle in sooner.

 On Friday night Falyn, Erin, Keely and I went to the lantern festival in Seoul and it was amazing to see the structures people were able to create with paper. I enjoyed the week and the lantern festival was a great end to the week.

AMAZING!!!!



Ghosts, Goblins and Students Teaching!

     The week went well as a whole, I had some rough days or at least days that didn't go how I thought they would. Monday was a little rough, but mainly because the students and myself were coming off of a three day weekend. My lessons went well, but I did modify both the 2nd grade and 4th grade lessons so that there would be more time for the main activity. The 2nd graders were talking about "Are you hungry" so I planned some fun activities, but I was bored and the students didn't seem to want to sit still so I found a song on YouTube  called "Are you hungry" and sang that will all of the classes the rest of the week.
   My lesson went well for 4th grade as well, we talked about Halloween, which is always fun. I taped myself in that class, but didn't like how it turned out or how I have been teaching it seems awkward to me. I watched the video many times and made minor changes to some of my activities. 4th grade went well on Tuesday as well and I felt like an actual teacher because the homeroom teacher was gone when I got there and needed to start class so I got all of the students to calm down and get ready for the lesson. It was very nice!
    Dr. Sung came to observe my 2nd grade class on Tuesday and I think it went very well, I won't get feedback until next week sometime. I was able to give some one-on -one attention to students who didn't fully understand right away while the others moved on to the next step. At pizza night she mentioned that she liked the lesson and the children seemed to have fun too. She suggested that I have the students think of foods and write them on the board rather than me just writing words so I did that on Wednesday and it worked very well.
   I had my 3rd grade storytelling group on Tuesday as well and that went smoothly...I  am going to miss that group so much!
  Wednesday was broadcast day as usual, but this time I had to read the story 3 time because of technical difficulties. Either way it went well and students liked the story about the five little pumpkins. I taught two classes of second and they both went well and I learned some new words in Korean from the students which was very cool. I love it when the students can teach me new things. I have learned so much from the students!
  I have been working in the Talk Talk Magic Shop with parent volunteers as well and have learned a lot from them too. I love getting to know the parents and talking with them about my time in Korea and what I need to make sure to see before I leave. It has been a lot of fun and I'm going to miss my school and the people a lot.
   Thursday and Friday were uneventful days. I taught my lessons to the 2nd graders and everything went smoothly. I think I have become better manager of time in the class and more confident too. I plan on taping myself again next week to see how I can change things and make my teaching  better. 
   This weekend is Halloween weekend and lots of people are going to parties, but as of right now I am not going to any parties. I am just going to stay in and work on my homework. I really want to get all of my big assignments done so I can focus on my PORTFOLIO...the word itself is daunting. 
   I was looking at my calendar this week and realized I only have 18 more days left of teaching and only 30day from next Tuesday Nov.1st until I leave Korea. There is so much I still want to explore in Korea, but I will be glad to be home with my family again too. Overall though a pretty uneventful week.

From teaching to NORTH Korea and celebating Birthdays

This was an overall good week for me. I taught Monday through Thursday and then went to the DMZ on my birthday.  Teaching this week went pretty well, but I didn't get as much done as I was hoping.
    For some reason on Monday I felt very off / out of my groove. I taught one 1st grade class and one 3rd grade class. My 1st grade class went okay, I was teaching them body parts in English and did the song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes". I thought it would be fun and that the students would not know the song in English yet, based on what my CT told me,who is a 1st grade teacher. However, the first class I did the lesson with already know the song and the different body parts in English so instead of spending time on learning the song we went right into singing it and doing the actions. It was also a little bit harder to get the children to pay attention, I could tell it was a Monday! The students had lots of energy and really just wanted to socialize with each other. I noticed that in most of the classes the socialization is a huge part of the day. The teachers don't ask students to stop talking very often, instead they just talk over the students that are talking. It is very hard for me to do this because by the end of the day I will have no voice so I do ask the students to be quiet while I'm talking. I use the 3 fingers in the air method and it has worked very well so far.  I decided to do the song for a longer period of time because the students were having fun and to help get some of their energy out so they would be able to focus more on the the part of the lesson that had them coloring and labeling a person. I was right, it helped them sit for a little bit longer and by the time they got antsy it was time for them to stand up and learn the new good bye song, which has them moving. So overall my lesson went well in that class on Monday.
    My 3rd grade class went okay, but I wasn't as happy with how the lesson went as I had been in the past. Our topic was "I can jump" so I came up with more words that I thought they would be able to act out.  I thought that some of the words would be difficult for them and I would have to explain, but I didn't have to. The students had already had a lot of the words, which was okay.  I decided to tape myself during this lesson just to see how I could improve for my next 3rd grade class on Tuesday. I am glad I did tape it because at one point I felt like the students weren't listening and it was hard to get them all back on track, which showed me how to improve the activity for the next day. The activity was for the students to find their partner without using any words, just doing the action on the card that I gave them. I thought I had explained and that they understood to leave their pictures on the desk. I found out that they must not have understood because they all took their pictures with them to find their partner and showed the pictures to each other rather than doing the action to find their partner. I changed the lesson for the next by just showing them the picture they had to act out and it went much better.
    My lessons on Tuesday went well too. I taped myself again in the next 3rd grade grade class. I was very excited to watch it and when went I did I found out that throughout the whole movie you can't see my face, I was so mad because the lesson went so well and I wanted to use it for my video assignment.
   I still have a hard time figuring out if I am being understood in the lower grades or not. I think I will need to teach the students how to say 'slow down please', or 'can you repeat that', I need something because their are students that do understand but I know there are some that are still lost when I talk. It's hard for me to remember from one week to the next which students need more explanation because I have so many students and I only see them once every other week.

The students get Soongin Dollars to spend
they receive them by doing very well at something
in school.

     My classes on Wednesday we cancelled due to a flea market that took place at my school for the students that day. The students all got to bring things they wanted to sell and got to buy things too. It was very cool to see them all learning about the cost of things and how to make deals with people. Wednesday was a very uneventful day for me though. I did get to help in the Talk Talk Magic Shop again and this time I took some photos to show you what it looks like...I would have loved this kind of shop as a kid.

The Magic Shop before opening.

The rules for the Magic shop and they are all in English.

Students look at items to buy.

   
   Thursday was a very interesting teaching day for me! I had my CT's
   Finally Friday, it was may birthday!!! Erin, Falyn and I went to the DMZ which was very cool and a little scary at the same time. I got to step foot in North Korea and I never thought I would get to say that. I had a great day and was so tired by the time we got home. We got to see all the freedom bridge, 3rd infiltration tunnel ( they say that the US intelligence says there are like 50 of them and they have only found 4 of them).We got to go to the Observatory where we saw North and South Korea at the same time which was cool.

Freedom Bridge

People leave messages and wishes for
loved ones who died or are still in North Korea.

You can see North and South Korea.
North Korea has no trees on the mountains
because they need fire wood.

We weren't allowed to take pictures
in the tunnels so here is the coal that
North Korea painted the tunnel with to
try and cover up their plan to attack the South.

The North Korean guard that
I later got a photo with.

 In the afternoon we got to go to the JSA ( Joint Security Area). There were US soldiers there too! The US helps to secure that area along with the South Korean Soldiers. It was very neat to see North and South Korea so close and I got to spend a second in North Korea while I took my photo with one of the guards.

That was the excitement of my week this week, but I'm sure I will have to talk about next week!

A Week of Growth and Learning!!

   This week has been filled with learning experiences for me and new relationships.  I documented how each day went in a journal this week because I had been forgetting what had really happened each day of the week.
    Starting with Monday morning I knew it would be a rough week or a week full of change! It was the first time that I can remember a lesson completely flopping...to the point that I couldn't even get the students excited using songs, chant or any of my movement games.  Don't get me wrong, I am used to having lessons not go as I thought they would or have to change lessons on the spot, but this was beyond that. I changed the lesson and the activities as soon as I saw the students  becoming disengaged with the lesson, but it didn't seem to matter. No matter how funny I tried to be or how much I tried to get them involved the class just seemed dead.  I completely lost the class and I have never felt so bad and helpless in my life!  The class that I was teaching was 2nd grade and the topic was the short /a/ sound...not my favorite, but I thought I'd try to just a curriculum book. NEVER again...at least not as closely as I tried to.  Normally I can punt and get the students attention and get them to interact with me again, but it didn't work this time. I think the problem was the topic and the fact that I was not excited about the activities that I had planned for the class. I was bored with it and I should have known that it would be just as boring for the students. Needless to say I changed my lesson for the next day! I taught rhyming instead.
    My 4th grade class however went excellently. I played bingo with them using the sentence from their text book " What do you want?"   I had the review the question and the response then use it to call the bingo cards. After reviewing the sentences that would be used, we discussed the words that they would use in the sentence.  For example, " I want pizza please."  I wrote all of the words on the board for the students to look at for spelling and to be able to remember what words we were going to use.I gave each student a blank bingo card and  told them to write down one of the words on the board in each box. The students did that and then we would all ask, "what do you want" and the student that got to call the word had to answer with the sentence, "I want(word), please." It went very well and all the students were engaged in listening and speaking. I repeated this activity with the 4th grade class on Tuesday also, but had to do a little bit more practicing of the words and I gave them more time to write down the words.  I had a lot of fun!
This is a short clip of my third grade storytelling group doing a sequencing activity.

   My lesson for the 2nd grade went okay on Tuesday, but I felt like I needed some feedback from someone so I went to talk to Ellen. She had not watched my lessons that week, but I told her about it and asked for advice. She was very helpful and willing to talk with me any time. We talked for 45minutes and I got some great tips from her. She was honored that I asked for her advice and I think we will become good resources for each other. After talking with her it made me wish even more that I was in her classroom all of the time! She had great ideas and told me to focus more on the English part of the lesson and not so much on the content, which is different from what I will be doing when I get back to the US, but here that's exactly what I need to do.   I also had my storytelling after school program today and they were great! I love teaching them.
   When I went home on Tuesday I was determined to change the structure of my lessons and so I searched YouTube.com and found a very good seminar called teach English EFL/ESL. There are 6 sections to the seminar and I watched all of them! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_barTKxikvA
     It gave me great new ideas and ways to organize my lessons so that the students would be excited about learning English.   My classes on Wednesday went AMAZING. I wish I would have found this before I started teaching, but at least I found it when I did. 
   On Thursday I was really missing home and was looking at all of the assignments that I have due in the next month. I let myself become overwhelmed and started to stress because Francis is coming to visit me in November and I want to be able to spend time with him, but that also means I only had 43 days to finish everything.  The classes I taught went well and  and so did the writing group that I had after school.
   Friday, I was very tired and had a lot to do. My lessons went well once again  and I decided that I really liked the new organization for my lessons that I'm using. The students seem to be more focused when i start the new content and seem to have a little more fun too!
  Saturday and Sunday were filled with conference seminars. Falyn, Erin, Keely and I went to the KOTESOL conference. It was so good! I used to go to conferences in WI and tried to go to the NAEYC conferences as often as I could and this was similar. It is the annual international conference and there were so many 'english' speaking people there. I learned new techniques and received free teaching books which I was very excited about.  I wish that Soongin would have sent their teachers to it to get new ideas on how to teach English to students. I have 15 pages of notes to go through now and apply what I learned to my classes that I am going to be teaching next week.  Some of the seminars that I went to were called, Politeness to Participation,  K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple and Stimulating), Classroom Management:Supportive, Corrective, and Preventative Measures, Effective Ways of Approaching Speaking Classes for Children, Teaching Practice a Reflective Approach to the Classroom and one my Ken Beatty that I didn't get the name of because it was a last minutes decision to attend it. (I loved it though)
  I have a busy week ahead of me and can't wait to see how the 1st and 3rd graders like the changes I've made to my teaching.  I love going to teacher conferences and learning from other teachers and professionals that are in my field. I realized that even when I graduate I will always enjoy learning new things and I want to be a life long learner!

HOME AND BACK AGAIN!

This has been so busy and very hard for me. I went to Wisconsin last Thursday night, that  is a story of it's own. I went home to be in one of my best friend's weddings and it was worth the cost and exhaustion that followed.
   The trip started with my plane having a fuel leek and everyone had to sit on the plane for an hour and half while they fixed it. We got to San Francisco late and I, along with everyone else, had to run to their connecting flights. Luckily I made my flight and the next flight was the same way. I had to run through the Chicago airport and got to my flight to Milwaukee just as they were closing the doors. I must have looked tired and desperate because the workers opened the door and told me that I almost missed the plane. I made it safely to Milwaukee and Francis was there waiting for me which was so nice! 

The beautiful bride!

Rachael, the bride, and I.

Francis and I at the wedding.

  The next day I got to have breakfast with my family and tell them about some of the adventures I've had such as hiking, dinner with all of the teachers and living in Korea in general. My sister-in-law and niece even got to come and see me. I miss my family a lot so it was very good to see everyone.  Francis and I meet with our real estate agent and looked at some houses he liked. Then we drove to the rehearsal and had a wonderful time with our friends. The wedding was beautiful and I had a wonderful time. I am so glad that I went!
  I left Wisconsin early Sunday morning and got into Seoul on Monday night at about 9pm. I didn't get back to my room at CJ House until 11:30pm, which made for a rough Tuesday morning.  I have to say that getting on a plane to come back was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I know it would be hard, but didn't expect it to be as hard at it was.
 So I started the work week very tired, but Tuesday went surprisingly well. I taught the 3rd graders and 1st graders. This was the first time that I have had a class that I have taught in the past. It was nice to be able to review the rules and what we talked about the last time I was in their classroom. The students were all able to tell me the rules and what we had done the previous class. It made me feel like I was really teaching them something. I expanded the map lesson with the 3rd graders, which went very well. We worked on the sentences "Where am I?" and "I am in the____." I gave them clues and they had to guess where I was.  I played a game with the students and they loved guessing where I was. I wish that I could have done my lesson with both 3rd grade classes but because we had off on Monday I didn't get to have class with the other 3rd grade class.
  The 1st grade class went okay, I wouldn't say it went well, but it didn't go bad. I taught the students about families. The students did a very good just with the concept, but the activities I planned were a little bit to hard for the group of students I had on Tuesday. I was having students think about what they do with their families. Then they were to draw pictures in a mini book of those items.  The teacher told me that she thought that it was to difficult for the students and that maybe I could just have them draw one picture of something they do with their family. Taking that into consideration, I changed my lesson for the next day. Instead of making a book, I decided to have the students just draw a picture of their families and label the people they have in their family. It worked much better and the students seemed excited to show me their families.
  I also had lots of firsts this week. I had my first after school program with the 3rd graders and it was so much fun! I am teaching them about stories and discussing them. The students are so sweet and really want to be there. I have to plan something to do for next week and it has to be more difficult because this week was to easy for them.  I think I am going to start reading a chapter book and then have them try to retell the story in English.
  The Talk, Talk Magic Shop was also something that I got to help with this week and will be helping with every Wednesday and Friday for the rest of my time here in Korea. It is a little shop that the students get practice speaking English in. Students earn special money  to spend in this store and then get to pick out little items such as pencil cases, purses, baseballs, notebooks, etc. The students have to speak English to the volunteers who help run the store and are having fun will doing it. I loved being in the shop and talking with the students some of them were shy, but they all talked to me.

   Overall this weeks teaching went well, but I noticed that all the girls are much more down than we have been. After talking with most of the girls it seems like everyone is really missing home and is sick of everything here. I don't me to be a downer, but I know how they all feel. It seems like the homesickness has hit all of us at the same.  We are all talking about what we are going to do when we get home and what we will eat first...it's kind of funny. Falyn and I have received emails and a formal letter from CJ House about our room not being paid for yet and the letter said that if we didn't pay by Oct 9th, which is Sunday, then our room could be given to someone else. It just makes us a little worried, but I talked to our TA about it and she said not to worry about it. I hope she's right. 
  There is a big firework festival today, Saturday, I got all the way there and then got sick! I have been feeling sick a lot lately and it's not fun. I went to the fireworks with Erin and Falyn, but I had to leave because I wasn't feeling good and I didn't want to ruin it for them. I told them to take lots of pictures and I hope to be feeling better tomorrow.
 It's been a good week, but I think we all need to do something to make us feel more at home here. Now just to think of something to do.

English, teaching and other fun!

I am writing early because I am leaving for Wisconsin tomorrow for my friend's wedding and will be gone until Monday.  I am very excited to see everyone and tell them all about my time in Korea so far.
  I will start with the beginning of the week, Monday I taught my first 2nd and 4th grade classes which went very well. Teaching in a foreign place brings challenges that I never thought of before, such as having to explain what being kind means or getting children to talk instead of just staring. I think my greatest challenge right now is communicating with all of the homeroom teachers. I know that they want to help, but translating for the children when I am trying to check their level of English understanding makes it very difficult to get a true feeling for what the students already know. I think I just need to be more direct with the teacher from the beginning, but I don't want them to think that I don't want their help. Anyway, I am teaching 2nd grade about shapes this week and they seem to enjoy my activities, but I found out very quickly that I needed to give more direction and direct guidance for my string shapes activity. Student had a hard time keeping the string on their desk and began wrapping the string around their heads, hands, and pretty much what ever they could. I asked some of the teachers in the English department for suggestions and so as the week has gone on I think my lessons have improved. 
  My 4th grade teaching experience went very well I taught one class on Monday and one on Tuesday. Both of the classes went extremely well. First I asked the students if they had any questions for me so I had them each write down one question and I answered them all before I started in on the lesson. We discussed 'seasons' the students seemed to love my activity of  singing a rap song about the seasons. I found it on Youtube...it's called "If you need to know the seasons" if you listen to it, it will get stuck in your head. I had so much fun teaching them and can't wait to teach them again in two weeks.
  Today was the BIG English festival at Soongin and I thought it went great! I got to sit in on one of the best classes I have ever seen...and it was taught in English. The class was one that I have taught and the teacher is very good at managing her classroom. It is a 3rd grade classroom and they are able to have fun with the teacher and while watching I could tell that they know their limits within the goofing around time. The teacher created games such as pictionary and catch to help students stay engaged in the learning. I was even able to video tape some of the class, but would like to get the teacher's permission before I put it up on my blog. 
  Also some of the 5th and 6th graders put on a play for all of the teachers that had come from other schools to see how Soongin taught English. It was called "The Ants and the Grasshopper". Philly was in charge of it so she was stressing out all day long, but everything went great and I think the principal was very pleased.
   After school today, the principal took all of the teachers out to a nice BBQ place to thank them for all of their hard work.

The wonderful BBQ.

Mingi teacher, she teaches English to
4-6th graders.

Philly teacher, she teaches English to
1-3rd graders.

Drinks with the Principal.

I had so much fun getting to talk with some of the other teachers and offering the respectful gesture of doing shoots with the principal and vice principals.  Everyone at Soongin is great and I am so glad that I am at this school, even if they don't know what to do with me. The people are great!

Drinks with the Vice Principal.

A week of teaching...and then let the games begin

   This was my first week of teaching, I taught 7 classes of 1st graders and 2 classes of 3rd grade. I began by teach the 1st graders about opposites, thinking that it might be a little bit difficult for them based on what one of the 1st grade teachers had told me. I was wrong! The activities that I had planned turned out to be to simple for my classes that I taught on Monday and Tuesday so I decided to scratch most of the lessons and change it to be more difficult for teaching the rest of the classes. I found some new activities that would take their learning to the next level and it turned out that my activities we to difficult for the other classes that I taught on Thursday so as I was teaching I changed the activities to fit the level of the children in the class. Teaching the 1st grade classes on Friday went very well! I found some new activities and focused more on the speaking and listening with the children instead of the topic so heavily.  I have a feeling that my Friday classes will be much better than my Monday classes because I will figure out what works and what doesn't by the time Friday comes.

  Teach 3rd grade was amazing though! I thought I would like the younger children better just because that is what I am used to teaching, but the 3rd grade is my favorite so far.  I  taught two different 3rd grade classes, one on Monday and one on Tuesday. We discussed maps and I had the students help me draw a map of their classroom and then had them think about their bedroom at home and draw a map of it. They really enjoyed the activity and one of the teachers said that her whole class wrote about it in their journals that week. I can't wait to teach them again!
    Next week I am teaching eight classes of 2nd grade and two classes of 4th grade. I will be teaching the 2nd graders about shapes and the 4th graders about the seasons. Oddly, it was very difficult for me to write and create the lesson plan for 4th grade. I don't really know why the only thing I can think of is that 4th grade is out of my certification or maybe I was just thinking to hard. We will see how this week goes with teaching.

   This weekend were the big games at KU and it was so much FUN!!! I forgot my camera, but Pey had hers so she let me take pictures.They were played at the Olympic stadium which was cool in and of its self.  I went to the rugby game and the soccer game. I was not able to go to the hockey, baseball, or basketball games because they were on Friday.  The game on Saturday were so much fun, I went with Pey, Natalia and their KU buddies. We didn't sit down at all and their chats are crazy....I'm sore today, how pathetic. We won both of the games and after each team won they thanked all of the fans for cheering for them, it was so sweet.  Once the games ended we came back to Anam where the Alumni paid for students to eat and drink for free at certain restaurants. The KU buddies were so great they are some of the nicest people I have ever meet. I had a great week and am ready for the challenges that teaching in Korea brings.
 Oh I forgot to say that this week is the big English performance and evaluation at my school so the stress will be high and should be interesting. Philly is in charge of the play the students are going to perform. Its very cute, but she is so nervous.

The Ants in the play. They are so funny!

Also I get to go home this week, just for the weekend, but I am very excited. The jet leg should be insane though, wish me luck.

Life in Korea....

 This week has been full of surprises and change. At the beginning of the week was the Korean Holiday, Chusok and everything was closed on Monday and Tuesday  which was a little boring. However I did take advantage of the fact that I could sleep in! I went to the palace Deoksugung on Monday and  watched a traditional Korean song and dance. It was beautiful.

 Deoksugung Palace

Many of the children dressed in traditional Korean clothes.

The song and dance Keely and I watched for a little bit.

 On Tuesday I did not do very much because I was going to be going on a tour of the city on Wednesday. So that's what I did! I went on a city tour with Falyn, Erin and Keely. We left at 9am and didn't get back until 9pm, everything was paid for and we went all over the place. We went to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, to the top of the Seoul Tower, Namsangol Hanok Village (a traditional Korean Village), Dongdaemun Market (it was cool to see but all the clothes were so tiny that there was no way any of us would be able to fit into any of it...maybe in a few months we will) and we went on a Hangang River boat at sunset (it was beautiful). After a long day out I slept pretty well that night.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Gyeongbokgung Palace

The Palace guards.
 I feel so bad they must hate getting
their photos taken all the time.

They were on a field trip and were to
 cute to pass up taking a photo.

Falyn and I at the stream in Seoul.

Up yet another hill!! Seoul Tower is
at the top of this one though.

There was an act going on when
we made it to the top of the hill.

Me at the top of Seoul Tower!

    I went back to Soongin on Thursday. I got to school and settled in a little when my coordinator came in and told me that she was not going to by the coordinator any more and that someone else would be. Later that day I found out that I not only would be teaching seven classes of 1st grade and eight classes of 2nd grade, but also two classes of 3rd grade and two classes of 4th grade along with two after school programs for 5th and 6th graders. I didn't want to freak out right then, but later that night I was completely overwhelmed and didn't think I could teach 20 classes a week. I went to sleep that night just asking God to help me be a good teacher to all of them.
     The next day I got to school and decided I was going to do lesson plans all day and get as much information from the teachers about what they would like me to do. I had a plan and was determined to do my best. I was really enjoying the challenge. I also got to observe a 3rd grade class, in Korean and got lots of information about classroom management styles. I got to talk with the 3rd grade teacher and I think I will be helping her with her thesis for her degree which is very cool and will help me build my relationships with the teachers I work with. I was working on my lesson plans for Monday when my coordinator came back in and said that she is changing what I am doing again. I will still be teaching all the grades, but will be teaching 1st and 3rd grade one week and then 2nd and 4th the next, so only once every two weeks.
    I hope it goes well and that I am still able to build some kind of relationship with the classes. Relationships with my students is very important to me so this will be my new challenge. I will also be teaching an after school program for 3rd grade on Tuesdays and a 5 and 6th grade program on Thursdays. I will be helping in the Magic English Shop the school has to help students get more comfortable with speaking English and that will be Wednesdays and Fridays.
          I definitely have my work cut out for me. I can't wait to start!