Days 10-14: Getting into the Swing of Things

Monday, March 21 - Friday, March 25, 2011

Still feeling pretty sick this week (sore throats, dry coughs and stuffy noses...oh my!) but we're starting to get the hang of things. Aside from preparing for regular lessons, there is a LOT of other stuff to do (prepare science, art and math sheets for the week; correct homework, make weekly schedules, choose weekly vocabulary/conversation homework, make and photocopy tests, write report cards, etc, etc.). I got to do a science lesson with both of Kindy classes this week (Kindy science consists of the students making some random little thing-a-ma-bob or whatsa-ma-jig that demonstrates some sort of scientific principle). And while I don't think my Beethoven class is any closer to understanding magnetism (the students are 4 and 5 years old, and know about 10 English words/phrases), they had a lot of fun sticking little magnetic leaves onto a metal pole, ultimately constructing a "Magnet Tree".

We also had a "Sports Day" with the Kindies this week, which included a relay race and limbo-type game in the auditorium, planting a seed on the school's roof, and watching a movie (pretty much the farthest away you can get from engaging in any kind of sports-related physical activity). But ending with a movie helped the kids to settle down a bit so we were actually able to get some teaching done that day. Friday was Field Trip Day for the Kindies. Mike and I were exempt from going, due to the rotating field trip schedule, which meant we got to sleep in, and then supervise the kids while they ate lunch (usually, it's the Korean teachers who are responsible for this). It was really endearing (and adorable!) to see my little Beethoven students using their Hello Kitty and Spiderman chopsticks, attached together at one end and equipped with plastic rings/finger holders to help them learn how to hold chopsticks properly, like training wheels on a bicycle. Some struggled more than others, but they all managed to eat their lunch without making too big of a mess, and without me having to provide any kind of emergency response/life-saving procedures, so yay on all of those fronts!

Not so "yay" was when my Beethoven student who looks like an Ewok (and also sounds like one when she yammers on in Korean at me) cried on THREE separate occasions during the course of a single morning. Add that with the four other students who were crying, and it brings my daily cry total up to 5, a new record (or does it count as 7...?)! It was a chain reaction of crying students, setting each other off like a fireworks display, with each firework set to go off precisely 10 seconds after the one before it...one crying student setting off the next one...and then the next one...They all settled down eventually, but I'm pretty sure we killed a small forest with the amount of tissue we went through that day.

In elementary news, my supervisor observed me teaching my gr.3 class today (Science Day!). While I don't remember learning about matter, its properties, and/or the various changes of state until GRADE 9 (as opposed to AGE 9), all of my students were pretty interested in what I was blathering on about and I got some really good feedback from my supervisor. I also discovered that in my students' reading/story book, this month's unit is titled "Amazing Animals" which I'm super excited about, obviously. I wish that I could teach science and topics like this all the time, instead of just once a week, with only one of my elementary classes...

In news unrelated to teaching, we had our best Korean meal to date: dak galbi, a succulent dish of stir-fried marinated diced chicken in a chilli pepper, red curry-like sauce, with cabbage, onions, potatoes and rice noodles. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about this. At about $10 each (including side dishes and a drink), it's a bit more expensive than what we'd normally pay for dinner here, but entirely worth it! I'm definitely gonna be making it when we get back to Canada. We also bought a flatscreen TV/computer monitor so that we can watch movies, and oh yeah, play video games. In the hopes of finding an English setting for the TV, I consulted the owner's manual. And wouldn't you know it? Instead of putting English on things that might actually be useful, (i.e. NOT on the packaging of a manual can-opener), there was absolutely no English anywhere in the book. They did, however, have about fifty different pictures about how to properly care for your newly purchased TV, some of which I will include in my next post (my camera batteries are currently being charged) because they are way too hilarious not to share with you guys.

Student Quotes of the Week

"Teacha, yesterday I buyed Lego."

"Teacha, yesterday my grandma when to church."

Now, while these quotes aren't really anything special, they represent just a fraction of the random facts and tid-bits that the kids spurt out to us on a regular basis, sometimes even during the middle of a lesson. I try to think back to what it was like to be six years old, and I guess seeing my grandma or buying Lego WOULD be the highlight of my life at the time and I'd feel the need to tell anyone who would listen...Or maybe I just really wanted my teacher to get to know me. Whatever the reason, the students are using their English skills to communicate with us, despite how frustrating working through a language barrier can be, and it's pretty cool that they think we're worth it =)

Since I can't show you any pics of my TV manual, I thought I'd finish up with some even better ones:

Meet some of the kids from my Beethoven class!