Journey to the North and back!

I think this was probably one of the busiest weeks I have had while in Korea and it was only a 4 day school week for me! It was filled with teaching most of my unit plan, a DMZ tour, celebrating a birthday, and visiting a Korean home for a nice lunch.

School was great this week. On Monday (10/17), I started my unit plan for 6th graders which consists of 5 lessons on how to write a friendly letter. I have three different classes that I am teaching my unit plan to and the classes vary in size from 22 students down to 11 students. All of the classes are the high level of English learners. There are obviously varying levels of high level English learners though. Some of the students are good at speaking, while others are good at writing, and some are good at simply repeating what they hear. There is a huge difference between these 3 types of English Language Learners, yet they are present in every class that I have taught.

On Monday, each of the classes learned what a friendly letter is all about. I started out each class with a general greeting asking what the students did over the weekend. We went over my two rules for English class. Number 1 is to speak English while in English class. Why? I say because Erin Teacher will not be able to help them if they speak Korean. Plus, it is for their benefit to use their knowledge of English as much as possible to continue learning. Number 2 is for when students need to speak Korean. They must raise their hand and ask "May I please speak in Korean?" Students use this because they do not know all of the English equivalents for expressing themselves. Sometimes they just need a little bit of help and I am OK with that. I do not want to shut their culture and language out completely so I would rather embrace it where necessary. Then I gave them a creative writing prompt. I wanted to get their body geared towards thinking about writing in English. It was 6 pictures of Erin Teacher in different situations (photofunia.com) and the students had to come up with a story about what happened to Erin Teacher. This went over very well. The students were coming up with all sorts of answers like Erin Teacher is a criminal and is wanted all over the world but she fell in love with Edward Cullen or Erin Teacher is dating Edward Cullen and they became terrorists together. Oh the lovely mind of a 6th grader :) Next, I lead them through an interactive PPT about the parts of a friendly letter. The information discussed included where each of the 5 parts are located and what they look like in a friendly letter. After the PPT, the students participated in a game where they were given the 5 parts of a friendly letter on laminated paper and they had to figure out the right order according to their body parts (i.e. - heading would be found on the head and signature on the feet). The students loved this! We ended the class with my lovely video (thanks to Falyn and Betsy for the help!). I felt like a famous actress when I showed this to my students because I received an uproar of applause at the end of each showing. It was great!

Shy 6th grade girls putting friendly
letter parts in order

My writing prompt for 6th grade English

My second lesson was split over two days, Tuesday and Wednesday. I had one class on Tuesday afternoon and two classes Monday morning. This was my unfortunate lesson where one of my 6th grade classes could not show up because they were on a field trip and their teacher forgot to tell us. I had to push on anyways but that meant one class was now behind... :( All of the classes started with a review and some participation in my friendly letter dance/song! The students were a little bit shy but we did it twice and I was embarrassing myself so they were more encouraged to participate. We went through the words first to make sure everyone could sing the song correctly. Next we discussed what it means to have a pen pal. I have one class of 11 students, the odd class out, who had no one to be pen pals with so I enlisted the help of my family and neighbors back home (thanks again!!). So, I have 11 ecstatic 6th graders who will be writing to someone in the United States and receiving a letter back from them! It was so amazing to see the excitement on their face when I told them who they would be writing to. The other classes will be writing to each other. Some students were nervous because their pen pal was someone that they did not know so I had to explain that it is OK if you do not know your pen pal. Through writing, pen pals get to know each other. Maybe this will help form new friendships within the 6th grade classes???!! :) The students here in Korea thrive off of some friendly competition so we had a small competition where they were given the parts of a letter, some right and some wrong. They had to find the correct parts and place them in the correct order the fastest. If they had it their way, they would have played this game for the entire class period. Unfortunately we had to move on to discussing what are some topics that can be put into a friendly letter. I had a PPT

A sample question for the greeting

My Jeopardy game board!

No Pizza Night this past Wednesday because Korea University had mid-term exams. Falyn, Keely, and I had dinner together instead. We ate at a chicken galbi place which was delicious. Lots of veggies, chicken, cheese, and spice!

Thursday brought the last day of the work week! It was lesson number 3 and I had all of my classes right away in the morning. The class that was not able to show up for lesson #2 was back today. I had to teach their class a bit different since they still needed to receive their pen pals. I used the students who already knew what was going on as a teacher-helper for those who were not present last time. It worked really well!! I started class with my Jeopardy game as review. I had recorded all of the points and what questions were answered in each class so I knew where everyone left off. This was my review for the students. Next, I discussed what it meant to edit, or make changes, to a friendly letter. I found this great website called Letter Generator that allows you to write your own letter online and gives you hints about each of the 5 parts. I had the students create their own class letter. They had so much fun giving me any information that came to mind to create a funny letter. The students were laughing so much at their letters BUT they knew the information! While I was typing the letter, I made mistakes on purpose because we went back and edited the letter line by line. I wanted them to have some practice as a class first before doing it on their own. After the class letter, each student worked on editing their rough draft of their friendly letter. I walked around and assisted where necessary. Since this was the middle of my unit plan I wanted to gain an understanding of each students' friendly letter knowledge. I gave a 5 question quiz and I explained that it was not for a grade but it was for Erin Teacher to see if some things were still confusing. They all received a piece of candy for turning in the completed quiz.

Sample Letter #1

Sample Letter #2

I was also able to watch an open class on Thursday. An open class in a Korean school consists of a teacher working hard for the 2 weeks prior to come up with the best possible lesson plan. In a sense it is like showing off. I think teachers should come up with the best possible lesson plan everyday. Anyways, any teacher in the school can attend the class and they are allowed to evaluate it. The class is also videotaped. The vice principal shows up to observe, too. Teachers are required to have 2 open classes a year but EVERY SINGLE teacher stresses out so much over it. The open class I went to was 5th grade science. First off, the science teacher is the one that all of the teachers have tried to set me up with so when I walked in the room he blushed. I don't think he expected to see me and the English teachers said I made him nervous.. Ooops! :) The class was learning about densities of water and how it relates to an object floating or sinking. The thing I liked about this science class is that I could understand what was going on without a translation. Science is something that you do so it was visible to me. The teacher has a great repertoire with the students and they all seem to pay close attention to him. He is a new teacher and is very formal, according to the other teachers, because he just got done with his mandatory military service.

Overall, the students that I teach English to on a weekly basis are great. They definitely have their days where they want to participate and do not want to participate. I think a teacher will find that everywhere though because students are human after all and do have emotions. My biggest challenge during the week was my 6th period class on Tuesday. They were very chatty and only half of the class was there. The way I tested their knowledge was in the following class on Thursday. As I said earlier, they played the role of teacher-helper to their classmates that were on a field trip on Tuesday. Apparently above all of that chatty-ness they were paying attention to me after all because they were right on. Another challenge that I noticed this week was the students lack of basic English phrases. Instead of asking to use the bathroom or to repeat a sentence in English they say it in Korean. I realized it is because they do not know how to say these things in English. Joy Teacher and myself are working to put together a list of phrases that the students should know and we are going to start utilizing them in class. For example, some of the phrases include "Slow down, please", "Can you repeat?", "May I use the bathroom/go to the nurses office, please?", or "I do not understand." These are very basic sentences that I believe the students should already know so in the coming weeks our goal is to have the students use these in English classes. An obvious distraction and challenge on Wednesday was the camera that was placed in the classroom for videotaping. The students either really wanted to be on camera or really didn't want to be on camera. I explained before class that this is for Erin Teachers assignment and my teacher back home really wants to see what is going on in my classes that I teach.

Since I am teaching right around Halloween time, I spent my Thursday night crafting. Here are the adorable results...

I had way too much fun making these!

59 goodie bags for my 6th graders!

Friday was an amazing day! It was Betsy's birthday and we were able to go to the DMZ! I did not realize how much of a sore spot this still is for the country of Korea. I told my teachers at school that I planned on going and they said they have no interest of going there until unification happens. Regardless, I learned a lot about both North Korea and South Korea. I was actually in the country of North Korea for a whole 30 seconds, but not many people can say that! The tour definitely had some scary moments as well! We had very strict regulations that we had to follow, such as no pointing, waving, speaking, or gesturing to the North Korean side, no bags, bring valuables in your pockets, wear a guest badge, etc. We were ushered into the Joint Security Area in two straight lines by an American Army soldier. He was armed and told us that if anything happened he would have to use his gun to protect us. Once we were facing the North Korean side, we could not turn back towards the South Korean side until we were instructed by the soldier. There were only certain parts of the tour that we could take pictures on and sometimes the soldiers went up to tourists and had them delete any suspicious pictures. There was no messing around! Here are a few of the many interesting pictures that I was able to take:

The 3rd Infiltration Tunnel
(coal on our fingers from the walls!)

Betsy, Falyn, and I

On the North Korean side

Freedom Bridge

Lunch!

Stance of a soldier

Facing the North Korean Side

The Bridge of No Return

A North Korean who was staring at
the tourists with binoculars

On Saturday, the four of us (Falyn, Betsy, Keely, and me) went to Ewha Women's University for some cheap shopping! We spent almost all afternoon there. I ate some delicious street vendor food which was chicken and vegetables on a stick with some type of marinade :) Soo good! We all bought some Christmas presents for our friends and family back in the United States. Then Falyn, Betsy, and I went to Yongsan to look around. Yongsan is where the American Military base is located. Although we walked for a long time we could not find where the military base happened to be.. that or we are blind. It was funny because we saw some other people who looked American and they said "Hey! They're American!" to us. I think that is exactly how I feel when I see someone who looks to be from the United States. Glad to know I'm not the only one! We returned to the dorm, showered, and went out to dinner for Betsy's birthday. She wanted Italian but by the time we made it out to Hongdae, all of the Italian places were closed. We settled for Korean BBQ which is something we all love. Then we decided to go to a few bars to have some celebratory drinks. Apparently foreigners get in free at the bars and clubs. The door men get very excited when they see foreign girls and shout "AHHH FREE!! FOREIGNERS!!!" Needless to say, it was 2am by the time we left. We took a cab ride home and despite the fact that the cab said "FREE INTERPRETATION", the cab driver spoke minimal English. The girls decided I was the best candidate to sit in the front seat and give directions... HAH! It went terrible and I had no clue what I was doing. We now know what to say to cab drivers to make it back to our dorm though... "Anam Station and Gaeunsa." Apparently that gets us up the huge hill to our dormitory. The cab driver was a very nice gentleman and apologized for not knowing where we live though.

Delicious street food

Happy Birthday Betsy!

I had a very different but exciting Sunday. I was fortunate enough to be invited to a families house to enjoy lunch with them! A 3rd grader and her mom at my elementary school were the ones who invited me. I bought a cake from Paris Baguette before I headed to their house and arrived around noon. I did not know what to expect but it was actually a great time. I was able to see how a family lives here in Korea! The mother spoke English very well and she has never taken an English class. She taught herself!!! I was so amazed! We had duck, tea, and a type of wrap for lunch. Next, she served some grapes, apples, and cookies. Finally we enjoyed some of my cake for dessert. All of it was delicious! The family has so graciously invited me back before my time is up here in Korea. I cannot wait to spend more time with them!

Kids bedroom

The cake I brought!

Living room/Dining room

Me and the kids :)

HUGE apartment building
They live on the 18th floor

Kitchen

In the upcoming week, I am looking forward to finishing up my Unit Plan and being able to partake in a 6th grade homeroom! I have some assignments that are close to being due so I am starting to work on them! I would rather not procrastinate and turn them in at the last second.. low stress is key here! Anyways I hope everyone has a great week and an update will be given in the near future :)


~ E