Erin Teacher meets 2nd grade!

Well, I was in 2nd grade this past week and I loved every single minute of it! English instruction does not start until 3rd grade in the schools here in South Korea. I was very worried about this because I did not know whether the kids would know enough English to understand me. The teacher told me just to expect very low levels except for one girl. She lived in Boston, MA for 2 years and her English is exceptional! I can have almost a normal conversation at normal speed with her. The 2nd grade teacher is an absolute sweetheart. She is in charge of 34 energetic little ones! I was shocked but ready for the challenge. Another big challenge that I knew about ahead of time was the fact that the teacher told me that she is VERY lenient with her students. She really does not have many rules and no real classroom management. When a student does something that is unwanted the student has to go to the back of the room and stand with their hands up. Not my favorite form of classroom management, but like she said she is VERY lenient!

Hello, 2nd grade!

Every day except Wednesday I was in the 2nd grade classroom from 1st to 4th period. The 2nd graders only have class until 4th period and then they eat lunch and go home. Their day is very short which surprised me! For a country that is so keen on education, their students do not seem to go to an actual school for a good chunk of the day. Anyways, Monday was the day that I did my introduction PPT. I changed it a lot for these 2nd graders. I used a lot of pictures and just a couple words on each slide. It went over very well. The students were engaged and I was pleasantly surprised at their English skills. Once again, my little puppy Ozzie is a huge hit every time I introduce him! :) I was able to observe and assist in an Ethics class and PE class on Monday. I really like the idea of the Ethics classes here. They are teaching their students how to behave in society in an acceptable manner. It is a great concept filled with lots of role playing by the students. I think this concept should be extended into the upper grades as well because those are the students who seem exceptionally rough with one another. The PE class that I helped out with was by far the worst PE class I have ever seen. The students were working on jump roping but they only jumped rope for 10 minutes. The other 30 minutes of the class they were put up on stage and were practicing a song and dance. The students were lined up in 4 lines and expected to stay there and do this song and dance over and over again. This is extremely difficult for anyone let alone 34 little 2nd graders.

Tuesday I observed and assisted in Art and Math in 2nd grade. The students were listening to Peter and the Wolf in art class. I thought it was a pretty clever song to use and it wasn't what I expected for some odd reason. Then the students created an art project that showed how the music moved throughout Peter and the Wolf. There are many different instruments to listen to so the students all had very unique projects. I was set out to help a boy that apparently never pays attention. The teacher told me that he doesn't listen and she has just given up. I've noticed that he just walks around the room and does whatever he wants. It is kind of a distraction, too! Well, I sat down with him and he just thought I was hilarious because I speak very little Korean and he speaks very little English. Somehow we made it all work. I managed to get him to sit down and concentrate on his project. He became interested in what I was doing because I was creating interesting shapes that he liked. When he saw me doing that he tried to make his own. It all worked out eventually :) The Math class that I observed was literally 10 minutes long. The students were working on being able to recognize shapes that were cut in similar ways. For example, the students were asked to identify shapes cut in halves, thirds, or fourths. This was the extent of math.

Wednesday I was with my usual 5th and 6th graders. I forgot to report on how the postcard exchange went between the 6th grade classes! So, I handed out the post cards to each student and they were thrilled! They were so happy to get a piece of mail that had their name on it. The post cards that class 6-4 sent to USA finally arrived. The pen pals in USA have finished writing their letters and they are on their way back here to South Korea. The students are so excited to get them!! I cannot wait to see their faces when I hand them out. Back to other news in English classes. 6th grade was finishing up there unit on "That's too bad!" They spent the whole class playing a survey game where they walked around and made plans with people in their class for each day of the week. They had 4 days where they could make plans and 3 days where they were supposed to be sick. This was not my favorite game because it did not really make sense for how this fit into the unit. I gave the teacher an idea that we decided to do after the first 6th grade class. The students were required to write a journal after viewing an example that I made. It talks about how they got their sickness during the week, how the got better, and what they did afterwards. This way the journal related to the unit "That's too bad!" a bit more. 5th graders were finishing their unit on their family. The teacher said that the book was too easy for them so the last lesson she changed to being about similes and families. So the students were learning how to form sentences like "My mom is as beautiful as a rose." I was glad to see the teacher bringing a challenge to them because the book was not challenging enough! The students all seemed to grasp the concept by the end of the class. The funniest statement during one of the 5th grade classes was "My dad is as happy as Hippocrates!" when he meant to say hippopotamus! Too funny!! I taught them the short word "hippo" which helped them out a lot! Ah, I love teaching English Language Learners. The 5th graders are always willing to participate in class and I love that about them! They give everything their best shot!

Doing the survey game

6th graders!

Thursday and Friday I was given the chance to teach in 2nd grade! The teacher left it very open ended and told me to teach whatever I wanted. I did not know what they knew in English so I got some advice from some of the English teachers in my office. They said that the students would know the alphabet for the most part and colors. I decided that my lesson on Thursday would be about the alphabet. I started off the class with a YouTube song of the English Alphabet. We listened to it once and sang to it the second time. The students all loved it and wanted to listen to it more! Then I read a short book called ABC T-Rex. We talked about what type of animal a T-Rex is and what the T-Rex is going to do with the ABC's before I read the book. The book did have difficult words in it but I really did not care. The pictures showed things that the students knew so they could say "D! Donuts! Dunkin Donuts!" I liked the book because the students could see the ABC's and the pictures were great. Next, we played the Human Alphabet Game. The students were in three different groups and they had to form different letters or short words with their bodies. They absolutely LOVED this! Even the students who seemed to not care about anything else in 2nd grade were participating. At the end, I rewarded them for their hard work with one piece of candy each. My classroom management for times when I needed to re-gain their attention was just repeating one simple word, "Quiet" It was harder to get their attention because the students do not have any sort of phrase that they recognize even in Korean that means pay attention to the teacher. They caught on more and more each time I used it though. My class on Friday was over farm animals. I started by reading them a book called "Does a Cow Say Boo?" It is a fun book that talks about farm animals and the sounds they make. The students all recognized the animal either in English or Korean but the fact that they recognized them was important to me. After the book I asked the students where these animals lived and many students new the word farm. I explained it to them and the students caught on. Next, I put a picture up on the TV screen of a hidden object game that I made. The students helped me find all the farm animals and then we learned how to spell them, what color they are, and if they are big or small. The students liked helping me spell and loved participating in the hidden object game. To finish the lesson, I asked them to draw their favorite farm animal and color it. The results were all good. Some students even wrote the name of the animal on their paper which is great! I finished the class by telling them my favorite farm animal, which is a cow. I gave them all little gifts that included cows and they soaked that up!

W

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D O G

A R T

Alphabet Bulletin Board in the
hallway

Cow Mask :)

Bird!

2nd grade girl drew my dog
for me! :)

Friday, November 11th, 2011 (11/11/11) was also Pepero Day! It is pretty much like Valentine's Day I believe. The pepero is shaped like a one so November 11th is a very fitting day for this holiday. I received 5 boxes of Pepero from the 2nd graders! They come in all different types as well. My favorite are the wafer stick covered in chocolate and almonds. Very tasty!

Yummy! Pepero!

Two kinds of Pepero! My favorite is
on the left!

I was sad to leave 2nd grade and the kids were just as sad that I was leaving. We took many pictures together, they wrote me notes (in Korean, but it is the thought that counts!), and they even tried to stop me from leaving by blocking the door! They just stole my heart. I cannot wait to have a class of my own that just steals my heart and I look forward to seeing them everyday. My friends all tell me I chose the right profession.. I would have to agree :)

Don't leave, Erin Teacher!

Half of the 2nd grade class :)

Some students that HAD to take another
picture with me :)

The other half!

So after school on Friday, Keely and I headed to Mr. KU aka the body building competition on campus. I found it to be quite entertaining. Our friend from Pizza Nights, Minchul, particpated in it so we went to cheer him on. I was surprised at how built some of these men were but overall I just wanted to throw them a steak and say "Eat up!" It was fun, though! Each participant took their turns up on stage doing their poses and flexing while their choice of music was playing. The crowd really got into it, too! Every decent pose by the participants results in an "Oooooo!" or "Ahhhhhh!" by the crowd which was mainly men. Minchul came in 3rd place so we were all excited about that!

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place!

Minchul!

Saturday, Betsy and I took advantage of a free professional development conference at Yonsei University. We met up with one of the English teachers from her school. It was very interesting and I liked some of the sessions more than the other professional development conference that I attended. We got free bags, lunch, books, and a highlighter. I love free things. The sessions that we attended were called Active Lessons with Dramatic Results, Building Productive Language Skills, and Teach Speaking, Reading, and Writing at the Same Time. They were all good and I enjoyed the presenters. I really like going to these professional development conferences on Teaching English as a Second Language because this world was all new to me before I came here. It is nice to hear some new strategies from people who have been doing this for awhile now. After the conference, Betsy and I headed to Ewha University to do some shopping. It was the perfect fall day! Our shopping was pretty successful, too!

The rest of my weekend was spent working on my portfolio and other things that I have left to complete (and bungee jumping of course!!). The end is near and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! It is hard to believe that I only have 9 days left at my school and 18 days before I leave Korea. There is so much that I still want to do! I wish I could stay just a tiny bit longer so I could get a few things checked off my list here. I am excited to head back to the United States though. I miss my family, friends, and dog! My remaining time here is going to go by so fast. Next thing I know I will be boarding a plane. Until then I just need to enjoy myself and work towards graduation!!!

~ E