The play-by-play

6:30 Alarm goes off. I laugh at myself for thinking I’d wake up earlier than I need to and ignore it.

6:35 Snooze alarm goes off. I ignore. (Repeat until…)

7:25 I roll out of bed, turn on my water heater, then the lights, then fill up my kettle and turn on the stove. I do this every morning. I have it down to a science… the water is always just at a boil when I get out of the shower and I can brew my coffee, make my toast, dress for the day and head out the door. I actually love my daily ritual.

8:01 Out the door and headed to school. This is my daily walk. As you can see, it’s definitely a city, but it’s also very rural. Hard to explain, but still true.

My street

The road to school

The lovely little park in the middle of town (with dragon!)

 

8:08 Say hello to my friendly neighborhood crossing guard. He routinely salutes me (not exactly sure why) and tries to talk to me in Korean. Recently he asked me to stop using the honorific form of saying hello, meaning we can speak informally to each other. Victory!

8:13 Arrive at school. Here she is, Songwoo Middle School.

Songwoo Middle School

The principal and one of the head teachers are waiting by the gate. I say hello, bow, and head up to my office, but not before switching to my slippers. As you can see, ‘slippers’ are really just flat shoes, but I keep them at school and switch to them every day, so they’re clean. It’s lovely to not have to worry about what shoes to wear every day, though part of me misses the rationale for all my lovely shoes…

School “slippers”

When I get to the office, I’m beckoned over to the little couch in the corner to have some cake. Three days ago, a teacher gave us all rice cakes for the 100 day anniversary of his son’s birth. The teachers pooled some money together to thank him, for which he reciprocated with a cake. Since I’m mainly not involved in the intricate exchange that is Korean gift-giving, I love this… I just get to eat delicious things.

8:17 Set up my computer and answer a question from my co-teacher about whether I torrent files (I don’t, but apparently someone in the school has been and now there’s a virus going around). Good times.

My desk

8:20 Bell rings for homeroom. It’s actually not a bell, but an energetic musical piece of some kind, very inspirational-ish. I still don’t know what to make of this after 6 months of listening to it every day. I head down the English Zone, where I’ll be teaching during first period.

My classroom:

The English Zone

Graffiti

When I first got to the school, the teachers did not use the English Zone. But after a few weeks of running around the school for each class, I decided it would be much easier if the students would come to me. Added to that, I have a sort of smart board at the front of the room. It’s amazing for games and getting the kids to interact more. The computers at the individual desks, however, do not work at all. Sad, but not the end of the world. I prefer to have the students interact with me anyway.

8:35 Some students start to arrive for class. I always play some music videos, since the kids are usually interested in American pop culture and ask me a lot of questions about them. Today’s selection: Katy Perry’s Wide Awake and Bruno Mars’ Just the Way You Are. A student inevitably asks if Mars is Michael Jackson, which never fails to amuse me, and the part in the Perry video where she punches Prince Charming usually gets a few students to look at my quizzically and ask “Why, teacher?” with genuine confusion.

8:40 The bell rings for first period. About 3/4 of my 9th graders are actually in the room, which is pretty amazing for that grade. The rest straggle in, with my co-teacher arriving a few minutes later. With the 9th graders I just assume that class won’t begin right away. I walk around and ask them how they are (and refuse to accept the canned “I’m fine thank you and you?” response). Today’s lesson is about greeting people you haven’t seen for a while (Long time, no see! I haven’t seen you in ages!) and giving advice (specifically “You’d better not…”). I focused this lesson on why saying “You’d better not…” is more of a warning than just giving advice. To prove my point, I showed this film (still one of my favorite finds).

9:25 End of class. Cue hyperbolic classical music. After the kids file out, I head down to the first floor to get a new battery. It’s always a little nerve-racking to go into the supply room, since the two men that work there won’t let me take anything myself and it’s a pain to try and explain what I need. I think it’s because they want a justification for why I need the supplies, but I can only haltingly ask for them to begin with (usually lots of pointing and use of the Korean phrase for ‘please give this to me’). Mission accomplished, my shiny new AA battery and I head back upstairs for a prep period, during which I worked on my lesson plan for my upcoming “Open Class.” Every NET has an open class once a year in which the entire teaching staff (and sometimes staff from other schools, depending on if they are invited [in my case, they are]) can come and observe your class, evaluate it, and then give you feedback. My co-teacher is a little more concerned about it than I am, but then, it’s more relevant to her permanent record, I suppose. Anyway, I have good feelings about it since I’m teaching it with my favorite co-teacher and I get to choose which 8th graders to work with (8th graders are my favorite little monsters anyway).

10:15 Walk downstairs to the English Zone before the 10:20 bell. Again, I like to be in my classroom during the 10 minute break between classes so I can play videos and engage with the students who come early. I also use the time to change the supplies in the yellow basket on each desk to suit the needs of the incoming class (for this class that means putting out white boards, markers, and erasers). I also found this, apparently left by one of the 9th graders. This is actually a big deal. See the scribbles on the bottom? The student was actually taking notes as I explained what it meant to “lose touch” or “keep in touch” with people. Score!

Success!

10:30 My third period class begins, this time a 8th grade class on using the future tense and making predictions. The 8th graders are always on time. And the few who aren’t get their cheeks pinched by my co-teacher. True story. As I said, I love the 8th graders, especially since my co-teacher does an excellent job keeping them under control (not always the case last term) and on task. We watched a few Super Bowl commercials. I stopped the videos midway and asked students to predict what would happen next (writing it on their white board). Without fail, one team always predicted the people in the commercial would die. Every.time.

11:22 The class has finished, but a few students run back in after realizing they had collected enough “English Dollars” (which I give out as incentives… it’s just a small copied dollar bill [zombie George Washington] that they get when they participate, bring their book to class, etc.) to get some candy. Why it takes 5 boys to come and buy one piece of candy I’ll never know, but I enjoy the exchange. If there’s one thing every student has an opinion about, it’s what piece of candy another student should choose 😉

11:27 Head back up to the teacher’s office. A few students run down the hall to catch up with me and walk with me. This is our exchange:

Student: Maggie Teacher!! Maggie Teacher!! Hello!

Me: How are you?

Student: I’m fine thank y… no, no, I’m tired.

Me: Why aren’t you in class?

Student: Umm… [some Korean] computer time?

Me: Ah, I see.

Student: Teacher, where are you going?

Me: My office.

[We run into a few students at the end of the hall hurriedly closing a window].

Other student: Teacher! He psycho!! Throw him out window! [I’m still not sure he was trying to throw someone out a window or if I was supposed to throw him out the window.]

Me: Go to class!

Students: Okay, teacher, bye!

11:45 Lunch time! When I don’t have a 4th period class, I can head down to lunch before the official lunch hour. Here’s the delicious food that was served today.

Lunch

This is actually the first time I’ve ever had strawberries at school. This really isn’t a typical lunch, but on Wednesdays the food is usually a bit different. Overall, though, I think the school lunches are amazing. In all my time here, there’s only been two days when I could say that I did not enjoy the lunch. Not bad at all.

12:10 Finish lunch just as all the students are flooding toward the cafeteria. Lunch time is one of my favorite times, as a lot of the kids wander around the halls when they aren’t eating and some come and visit me. Today I had a few different students come and visit me. Two girls came to my desk to ask me where I was from, I showed them on Google Maps and they could not believe that my parents’ house was really as big as it is. They mostly loved the yard (both girls live in apartments… they told me it was their “dream” to have a yard). Then a couple of boys came in and told me they were going to the communication center (I have no idea what this is) to study “friendship.” When one of the boys said this, he gestured to his friend, who promptly reached out to choke him. True friendship at its best.

1:01 One of my eternally happy students comes to my desk:

Student: Teacher, how are you?

Me: Not bad. How are you?

Student: I’m very good. But I’m sad.

Me: Why?

Student: In classroom, boys hit me. I’m very sad.

1:03 Head back to the English Zone for the my third official class of the day, this time with 7th graders. My 7th graders are a lot of fun, but as I mentioned before, half of these classes are taught with a pretty disengaged teacher. He stays for about 25 minutes today and then leaves as we start our activity (which is frustrating, because that’s when I really need help with crowd control Ah well). We are playing a card game and I would guess that about half of the kids understand the directions. I plan to make a video to explain the game better for tomorrow’s class.

1:55 Class is over, but I remain in the English Zone. On Wednesday I teach my one “after school” class and today is the first day. Since I’m contracted to teach for 22 hours, and only have 21 scheduled classes, I teach an extra one after the usual class times are over. I have 12 students this term, which is basically amazing. They come from all three grades, but I purposely make the class more about projects than dictation or written work, that way they can work at their own level. I love after school class. The students tend to come in early (class starts at 2:20, but they don’t have anything to do after the day ends at 1:55, so they head on over) and we play games, talk, and (starting next week) will be creating our own board games. Exciting times. I also asked a few of them to stay and help me make the video for my 7th graders. They happily obliged when I bribed them with cookies. And no, I have no qualms whatsoever with purchasing their affection.

After School Class

3:16 Head back to my office. My chair is missing (a student is using it… maybe?), so I wait on the couch for a bit until it is returned. Then, green tea bread! A teacher hands me this slice of bread. I don’t ask questions, just take it and snack away. Green tea is super popular and is a very common flavor for just about anything. Not my favorite, but I’m rather hungry at this point of the day, so I’ll take it.

Green Tea Bread

4:20 I pack my bag, my day at school is done. The head teacher in my office tells me to “Come back home.” I try to explain the difference between come and go, which he seems to get. He doesn’t really speak English at all, but he tries. Actually, a lot of the teachers in my office try to communicate with me when they can. It’s not very often, but I appreciate the effort.

After stopping by the office to pick up a package from iHerb (a lovely American website that ships food to Korea for basically nothing), I head home.

4:25 Get home and unpack my box of deliciousness. Here’s my bounty:

iHerb Goodies

A lot of this stuff I could find in Korea if I looked really hard, but, honestly, living way up here, I find it easier to have it shipped from home. Plus, I really can’t find good oatmeal anywhere.

4:55 It’s back out the door and headed to my Korean class. Before I leave, I snap a picture of the adorable but oh-so-annoying puppy from downstairs. At night, I want to strangle the life out of this cute little thing, since he tends to howl at all hours right under my window. Please take note of the drawn eyebrows… it’s a thing in Korea right now.

A local elementary school teacher gives some of the foreign English teachers a Korean lesson every Wednesday. This is prime after school time and I run into four different groups of students on my way to the cafe, including a few of my former students who are now in high school. Most of the time the conversations are pretty short, but one group of about 7 girls felt the need to introduce their friends (from a different middle school) to me. I’m all for the practice.

5:03 Get to the cafe. As usual, I’m the first to arrive. Since everyone comes by bus from all around, there’s really no official start time. After a while some teachers come in and we all review what little Korean we know (a few are somewhat adept, but no one is fluent). I manage to sidetrack the entire conversation by asking about a movie trailer playing on the buses right now (yes, buses have TVs in them).

6:30 I head back home. I’ve got some work to get done. But before I go, I stop and take care of some bills. Bills are paid via ATMs. It was nerve-racking at first, but now it’s second nature to stop by the ATM and pay my bills.

Taking care of the bills

6:47 Settle in for the night. I’ll spend my evening reading and working on that video for the 7th grade students. I’ll spare you a detailed description of that.

And now, for the daily installment of question/answer.

 

 

1) What teaching methods have you found to be most effective with your students? (What do they respond to?)

Definitely anything over the top and humorous. I find it easier to explain English when I’m really dramatic about things. Also, anything that can get them to move around during the class is a big plus. It’s a hassle, since there are so many students, but I’ve found ways to make it work. I also try to incorporate very short video clips and/or music videos during the lesson. Never more than 5 minutes long. I find this helps the kids stay focused and gives us a common point to discuss. I spend way too much time searching youtube, etc. to find things that relate to the material I’m supposed to teach, but when it works, it’s great. My students hate crosswords and word searches, and I am not allowed to show them lengthy movies or TV shows (the Principal of my school banned that), so I try to incorporate as many educational games as I can. Things like modified apples-to-apples or English dominoes, mostly borrowed from ESL websites, seem to work pretty well, but it takes a lot of time to get the material all set up. The laminating machine and I have bonded and I’ve gone through 3 sets of scissors. Sometimes I feel like all I do is cut things up during my prep time… but, what can I say, this is the stuff that works.

2) Do you think you’re making an impact on your students’ English ability?

I really don’t know. For the students that know English enough to converse with me, I suppose it’s a yes. As depressing as it sounds, I’m not sure I’m really here to help with their English “ability” as much as to help them feel more comfortable about speaking with native English speakers. I see each kid about once a week, so my contact is minimal, but almost all of them feel like they can at least try to speak to me in English, so that is something. And not a little something, in my opinion.

 

And the links to the other blogging badgers-a-blitzing

Ashley

Abby

Rebecca

Vicky

Drew