Gyeongju

So since the new semester started (which was the day after I returned from my vacation) I have taken a new approach on teaching. In an attempt to bring more organization & consistency into my teaching methods (which is near impossible to do in Korea) I have implemented a rewards system based on participation and overall classroom behavior.


The basic idea of this is to get the students to understand that their participation in class counts for something. The actual chart may seem more fitting for elementary age students considering I give them a sticker for each time I believe the class went well, but hey it's working so far! Some kids ask me, "Teacher, sticker today?!" lol. Plus I figured it was something they could actually physically see on the wall.


My original idea was that they had to do well 4 classes in a row, which is 4 weeks. But then I considered the fact that classes get cancelled & it may be tough for the lower level classes. So now each week they have a chance to get a sticker, and once they have 4 stickers somewhere on the chart, they get a free day. Free days benefit me as well, haha! :) P.S. Eight decks of playing cards = best investment ever! Gives them something to do during during free time & didn't really cost that much to buy!


At first one of my co-teachers argued with me about my chart & said it would insult the co-teachers who were in charge of the lower level classes & weren't able to receive a reward. I tried to explain that the plan was to encourage their participation in class, not call them out for being lower level English speakers. It ended with him asking me to take my charts down. Instead I went to Mr. Bahn & asked him if my plan offended him. He said of course not and that he thought it was a great idea.


Oh yea, another thing that has helped with teaching is that the co-teacher who used to sleep in my class has been replaced! He was only temporary, but I didn't find that out until summer & I was so happy to hear it! I now have another female co-teacher, which puts me at 3 men & 2 women to work with. She is 100% better than the other guy because other than the obvious reason that she doesn't sleep while I teach, she actually helps me & makes sure my students stay awake. Which is great, because those classes are the lower level ones.


Overall, teaching has been going okay. Besides a couple holidays & a field trip, I had a solid 6 weeks of almost uninterrupted teaching. Progress for the students & progress for me! But now it's finals week & I must say I'm enjoying the break. My goal is to come up with atleast 3 solid teaching ideas for the next few weeks. I know I will have to start testing the students again to determine their English speaking level, so that will be close to 2 weeks of not teaching. I actually enjoyed testing the students' speaking levels last semester. Helped me to get to know my students a little better. I mean, don't ask me to tell you their names or anything, lol, but I did learn some stuff about them.


My side project from my school for now is to come up with some simple trivia type questions for their school festival at the end of this month. I was hoping "school festival" meant free day for Amanda teacher, but alas, I have been assigned to create around 50 trivia questions for an English game. Oh well, could be worse!

A couple weeks ago my school went on a field trip & since all grade levels but one were attending, I got to go with them! We actually went to a city I've been meaning to go to for some time, Gyeongju. We went to the Cultural Expo Center, where you can participate in many different cultural activities. Since Mr. Bahn had been many times, he and most of the other teachers spent the day drinking & hanging out in the food tents. 

Mr.Bahn & I

Now that is something I don't think I would ever be able to do in Texas. It surprises me how it's normal in Korea for teachers to drink on field trips, and not even hide the fact that they are, lol. I only had some traditional "dong dong ju" which is a rice wine, then I went walking around with another co-teacher who was appointed by the principal to be my tour guide, lol.


We decided to go watch some Chinese martial arts & a Korean b-boy dance performance. The martial arts was interesting & the break dancing Korean group was highly entertaining to watch. I discovered that they have been on t.v. as well as won awards for their dancing. 

The other stuff we decided to do was walk around the art exhibit (which wasn't that entertaining, but decent) and learn how to write Chinese symbols. I also made a wax replica of my hand in the shape of a peace sign. Random, yes I know, haha! But it was pretty neat how they made it. It surprised me that they could get the wax formation off my hand without messing it up. They finished it by dipping it in about 5 neon colors. A cool souvenir to say the least!

Cool Wooden House Art

 Writing Chinese Symbols

The Process (mine is getting color added)

The Result

Overall the field trip was highly enjoyable. I liked being able to just hang out with the students outside of the classroom/school. I know they enjoyed that as well because I seemed to have a little group following behind me at all times of the trip, lol. I was also entertained on the bus ride to Gyeongju because I increased my K-pop music knowledge. By the way, most buses here have TV's on them. My students begged the driver to put on music videos...and he conveniently had a CD full of them beside his steering wheel, haha! The students had fun telling me the names of all the groups we watched & which ones were good or not, as well as which guys were the most handsome. Oh, Korea! :) 

XOXO,
Amanda