School Lunch

People often ask me, "How is the lunch at your school?"  Honestly, I'm never quite sure how to answer that.  I haven't had lunch at any other school in Korea so I can't compare it.  Furthermore, I seldom eat Korean food outside of school save for Kimbap and Korean Barbeque Galbi, which we can't eat at school.  

So here is a week of my school lunch.  This was just as typical a week as any other.  In every meal we get some kind of kimchi, soup, and rice.  Then we get 1 extra source of protein and 1 other side dish.  

Monday: 

- Soup made from bean paste.  I hate this kind of soup most of all.  In the soup there are pieces of potato, tuna, and seaweed.  

- White rice and a 1/2 banana

- Kimchi

- Dried fish thingies.  I don't eat these.  

- Tofu with a slightly spice sauce on it.  

Today I ate banana, tofu and the rice.   (I took a picture of my co-teacher's tray because mine was so sparse looking.) 

Tuesday: 

- Beef.  Lots of bone and very little meat.  

- Korean pancake.  Love these.  

- Kimchi. 

- White rice and a nectarine 

- Soup with potato and fish cake

My nectarine was a little mealy tasting.  The Korean pancake (pajeon), however,  was delicious.  They are made from flour, eggs, oil, scallions, and a little vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar.   

Wednesday: 

- Boiled potato.  No salt and no butter. 

- Hot sauce for the bibimbap (Gochujang 고추장)

- Green kimchi

- Bibimbap (seasoned and sauteed vegetables like carrot, zucchini, and mushrooms) with rice.  

- Soup with potato, fishcake and something green. 

- Also, grape juice!   

Thursday: 

- Mook.  A gelatin made from buckwheat and acorn powder with seaweed and sesame on top.    

- Fried chicken with lettuce and a mustard dipping sauce. 

- Kimchi (Oisobakki: kimchi from cucumbers) 

- White rice 

  

- Not delicious soup.
















Sorry that the formatting on this sucks.  For some reason pictures are impossible to navigate on blogger.  

Here it goes again!

Here it goes again from SDub on Vimeo.

I gripe about the 5th graders a lot.  In the classroom they tend to be loud and disrespectful.  They talk and talk and don't seem to care about my class.  In class I attempt to be strict with them, but outside of the class I try to be fun and let loose with them.  I mean, how can I be strict with these kids who are forced to clean my classroom every week?  

About a week ago or so I played the music video for Ok Go's "Here We Go Again" because they wanted some music while they cleaned.  I never could have imagined how much they would love this song.  They have been assigned to clean my room about 4 or 5 times now.  And we have listened to that video (and danced!) each time.  Um yes, we.  Sometimes I dance too.  But just a little.  

Anyway, I finally caught it on video.  I hope it works! 

Advanced Student Class

Yesterday I suggested that perhaps in one of my 3 additional teaching hours I could teach an "advanced English" course for students who wanted a harder English curriculum.  My school and surrounding Yeongtong area is pretty well-off and many of the students have traveled abroad, lived abroad, and/or regularly attend English academy or private English lessons.  Although this is certainly NOT the case for all students, many of my kids are constantly bored in class because the content is too easy.  I have been itching for ways to help those kids since I got here.  

One of the things it says in my contract is that if there are more than 30-something kids in the class, the class can be split into two groups.  (Actually, I have not referenced this point in quite some time now, but I swear I read this once.)  When I asked about doing this my co-teacher laughed and basically said "yeah right!" 

This school year there are two very amazing things: 

1.  Instead of the 38-40 kids per class that I had I now only have 32-36 kids per class.  Now, I know that it doesn't seem like a big difference, and really it's not, but when the class is as large as it is, every additional kid seems to make an impact.  Now, instead of using 7 tables, I only have to use 6.  That alone is huge.  

2.  I get to teach the advanced class!  And because I am the first one ever to teach such a thing, I am designing the curriculum.  My evaluations from Winter Camp came back and although some kids expressed some grief to me during the class, they basically all rated the experience as very positive.  They really liked doing the theme and doing all the projects.  

So now I'm designing a project-based learning method for these advanced learners.  We are going to have one month on each topic.  I can't remember them all right now, but there is an entire month dedicated to the environment and natural disasters, one month on journalism where we will do a role play TV news broadcast, one month for architecture (and eco-building because I gotta bring in my propaganda experience in somehow), and the month of march will be sports/olympics.  

I'll keep you all updated as it goes along, and if you have any wonderful project-based ESL ideas and theories for me,  please do send them along.  

PS: Yes, I will do a travel update; it's just harder to do that than sitting here and type type typing.  

First Day of School (again)

Although I am still finding it incomprehensible, today, Tuesday March 2nd, is the first day of the new school year.  Although I've always known that this is the way it works here in Korea, March just doesn't seem like a new school year to me.  But yet it is, and it was abundantly clear to me as I walked into my 5th grade teachers' lounge and found a whole slew of new teachers who quickly glanced in my direction and then continued on with their conversations.  I stood there awkwardly, stepped back away from the chatter and buzz, away from the teachers frantically making photocopies before the first bell rang.  My index finger instinctively reached for my one sharp tooth in my mouth, an old nervous habit I have never bothered to outgrow.  "Can I help you?" one teacher asked me.  I thought about it for a moment.  Why was she looking at me like I didn't belong here?  This is where I have always gone for months now.  "No, I guess not," I replied. 


Finally Sun-hee came into the lounge. (She was my 6th grade English teacher last year)  "Hello Sarah," she said to me and then continued to a computer in the corner of the room, talking in Korean to the other teachers.  After a little while I worked up the courage to ask her what I was supposed to be doing, and if she had a time-schedule for me.  She pointed to another computer and told me that there was a new English teacher and that I should just wait in the classroom for her.  Slowly, humbly, I slinked out of the teachers' lounge and back into my own classroom. 

A little while later Helen came into the classroom and sat down in Eunju's old desk.  "Are you my new co-teacher?" I asked eagerly.  When she said yes I was instantly a little relieved.  But then I remembered how Helen used to come to the my after-school Teachers' English Conversation Class but she stopped at some point along the way.  Her English was good, but certainly not fluent like Eunju's.  Helen is younger than Eunju.  She isn't married but is actively looking for a potential suitor.  She gets a lot of grief from her family about why she is still single.  Helen is going to be my main co-teacher and 6th grade teacher. 

After that I met my 5th grade teacher.  Her name is Park Ji-hay.  She seems nice but I don't know a lick about her yet.

As it turns out, today I have no classes.  That means that all day long today I can just sit and do nothing, plan lessons, continue my online TEFL course or whatever.  Tomorrow starts the first real classes.  I am so scared.  This week shouldn't be any different than it has been for the last several months, yet somehow it is. 

Incidentally, I am not teaching 4th grade this year.  I know that they were debating as to whether I would teach 2 extra classes (and get paid overtime) or not teach 4th grade at all.  Eunju assured me that there was a 90% probability that I'd teach extra classes and so I had mentally prepared for it.  But as it turns out, I am not.  Now, instead of teaching 22 classes like I had last year, I am now only teaching 19 classes.  With the exception of Thursday I teach periods 1-4 only, which means after my last class it is lunch time.  It means that I have 3.5 hours of free time every day.  On Thursday I do have a 5th period, but on Friday I don't have a 1st period.

Instead, they will try to have me do a Teacher's Class 3 times a week.  We'll see how that turns out considering that I could only get 1 "student" to come to my class each week before and now she has transferred to another school!  

So here goes nothing..

Keep it goin' louder

For the past 2 weeks I have been stealing Internet from some neighbor and then suddenly it didn't work for days on end. Finally, it is back, but at a much slower speed and strength than it was before. This is a bummer. It can be awfully hard to be in a country where you don't speak the language, can not read the language, and don't have any good friends. Not having a connection to the outside world on top of that is like a punch to the gut.

But there is good news yet:

1. I am slowly learning how to read Korean. This weekend I was told that I could read better after a week of practicing than many people who have been here for a whole year. Someone asked me "How many hours a day do you practice Korean?" and I responded, "Uh, 5-10 minutes?" And he was duly impressed.
2. I am making friends. I can't say that I have "good" friends yet, but that sort of thing takes time. But I went out to Seoul this weekend with some people I'll call The Hagwan (private school) Kids and I have plans to go out for dinner with Ann on Wednesday.

So read the language? Check.

Make friends? Check

Speak the language? Well, not so much. But in due time, I'm sure.

As for school:

Well my first week came and went and now I'm on to Week 2. Things are going fine. I still can't decide if I actually like teaching or not. I love being a nanny and I love tutoring. Theme here: few kids = good // many kids = not good.

There are about 40 kids per class.

I teach 22 classes per week.

This means over 800 students. A LOT of students.

I'll upload more pictures soon but my internet has been so spotty I figured it was better to send this off into cyberspace now and do the pic thing later.

School Daze

Well I would say that my first two days of school were a success. Who knows what the students actually think of me, but I think I did alright.

Eunju, my co-teacher, picked me up both days promptly at 8:20am. As teachers we have to be at school by 8:40am. Since all the students have to get their temperature checked (due to the swine flu) students start arriving much earlier.

First the students have homeroom. I have no idea what they do there because we don't have a homeroom class. Then the madness begins.

There are 6 periods in a day. Lunch is at 12:10. I arrive at 8:40am and leave at 4:40pm. I have no idea when school starts and ends. This is something I still need to figure out. Each class is 40 minutes long, I think. See, I still don't know. Tomorrow I will write down when all the bells ring.

On Monday I teach 5 periods: four are 5th graders (12 years old because Korean ages are different) and one class of 4th grade. The teacher was sick or something so on Monday I didn't have a 4th grade class come. Tuesday is the same. Wednesday I have my 4th grade class first and then the 5th graders with an empty class (planning time) for 3rd period. On Thursdays and Fridays I have the 6th graders.

This week Eunju just wanted me to tell the students about myself and have them ask me questions. She asked me to make a PowerPoint presentation about myself so I did. There are pictures of all the places that I lived (Long Island, Marin, Boulder, and Portland). There are pictures of my family. There are pictures of my favorite things to do (snowboarding, softball, and camping) and my favorite foods. When I get to the favorite foods the kids just scream with excitement (pizza!!! sushi!!!! mango! yogurt!)

I'm not sure how I feel about the 4th grade teacher so far. That's all I have to say about her for now. I mean really, I didn't even catch her name. She's... ok.

BUT all of the other teachers are great. Eunju, my co-teacher is wonderful. The 5th grade teachers lounge is this salon of women who gather and gossip and sneak bites of sweets and fruit and gulp down instant coffee and hot tea. I love it. Even though I can not understand a word they are saying.

This evening I went to Home Plus and bought some "work shoes" since I have been wearing my "street shoes" for these past two days-- major no-no. The kids all wear these Keds-like shoes.

Oh! And the kids do not wear uniforms. I was bummed because I wanted to see them all in their cute little matching outfits, but oh well. On P.E./gym days they wear these sweatpants sets that come in some combo of either turquoise, bright pink, lavender purple, and white. I like that the boys wear pink and it's no big deal.

Maybe next week I will take some pictures of the kids and teachers. I gotta work on gaining a bit more trust first.