Hi everyone! Here's a quick update!

Hi! I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in...well...quite some time. So here's a quick update!

I've been busy at school...I teach the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders now! Really exciting. Each grade is so different and my 3 co-teachers are really fun to work with. I'm busier now because I can't plan ahead and prepare materials ahead of time like I did when I only taught 5th grade. This year, everything happens the day before I teach it! I'm starting to get used to it though :)


Next week is the first English festival of the year! Last year, the first festival was about Easter. Next week, I'm teaching about April Fool's Day!!! I'm going to start the lesson in Spanish. Tell the kids that the Dept. of Educ. decided they needed to learn English AND another foreign language. Since I can speak Spanish (well, you know, just a bit but the kids don't know that!) I will teach them Spanish too! Then I'm going to tell them about April Fool's, show them some good examples, and tell them I have a word search handout for them. The first person to finish it, wins! After a couple minutes I'll tell them, "APRIL FOOL'S! None of the words are there!" Oh, I'm so excited!! 


Alright, I know this is a quick update, but I need to get ready for my day! Today, I get to teach the 4th graders about high-fives, fist bumps, and shaka (hang loose). 

Bye everyone!
~Jenn

A Day in the life of Ati Teacher No.1

I always get these ideas for annual blog posts, so we have a reason to update more frequently. Anyway, here is another idea, lets see if it sticks this time eh? So the title says it all. I'll update this blog post periodically through the day, and hopefully you'll see what school life is like for me (and Jenn!) on a daily basis.


- Rode my bike to school today like usual, left my apartment at 8:00 AM, rolled up to school in about 10 minutes. I have to be at school by 8:20, but I like to get there early so I can avoid all the kiddos.


- No 1st period today so I got time to make some copies and lesson plan. 


- Gotta check email first though. Then facebook. Then drink my coffee. Oh crap. It's time for 2nd period. Whoops! There goes my productive hour...


- Just had a bunch of 9th graders for 2nd period. Man...what a bunch of zombies! They didn't even get into the game I prepared for them. Wish I could say that they're normally an awesome bunch, but nothing new here. Oh well. Gotta keep trying!


- So mentally drained from that one class. I try so hard to get them to speak just anything and it just sucks when a class doesn't participate. Sigh...


- Oh well, got a break until 5th period. Made 300 more copies. Just killed a tree right there, this industrial-sized copier is wicked though. Took about 3 minutes. Super fast! Finished powerpoint and lesson plan for part 2 of lesson 1 for 8th grade. Going to do a board game activity, 1st time ever. Lets see how that goes. Stayed productive, started part 2 of lesson 1 for 9th grade. Gotta make this lesson active, maybe I'll try to get them out of their seats so they're not such zombies. 


- Lunch time! Curry and rice. Kimchi too (of course!). And some cole slaw thing and when I refer to it as cole slaw, I mean that in the most distant of comparisons. It tastes nothing like it. o_O But it's not bad. 


- Finished lunch quick today. Just going to chill until 5th period at 1:20. Going to try out that board game activity. Wish me luck!


- Well...one period later, and I gotta say I'm not disappointed with the results, but not happy either. They played the board game, and played using the rules I gave them, BUT only when I was at their table. Aargh! Next class, I will have to be more stern about them following the rules, and give a bigger incentive probably. Overall, not bad for a first try.


- Gotta watch it though, there is a spot on the board game where you can "Get some candy." A lot of the boy students (of course right?) lied and said they landed on that spot. So I told them if they really wanted candy, they'd have to follow me to my office (on the other side of the school) and give me 5 sentences about themselves. No speaking mistakes. Ha. Let's see who wants candy now.


- 10 minutes later, 8 boy students later, and I'm out 5 pieces of candy. I can't believe they followed me to my office! But this actually made me happy, because I got to hear them think up 5 sentences on the spot about themselves, and they were correct. These were all my troublemakers too so just hearing them speak English made me super happy. 3 of them didn't speak all their sentences correctly, but I told them they could try again tomorrow. Let's see if they do! 


- On a side note, I don't actually get to give them grades here. Don't get me started on how unfair and stupid this is, just know that I strongly oppose it. So, I do have to occasionally resort to candy prizes/rewards. A reward stamp sheet has helped a lot as well. But I would get so much better participation if students actually had an incentive to try in my class. All I got going for me is that they like me and that I got candy. When they don't like me...hey, I still got candy! Haha. Enough about this topic, it just makes me angry. -_-


- Got a break right now before 7th period. Easy day today, only 3 classes. Normally have 4-6 a day. Going to prepare for my last class now. Will be trying the board game again, but this time I think I'll have them do a few textbook activities beforehand to reinforce their knowledge. See ya after 7th!


- What a difference a class makes! This class took to my board game instantly, and it was a complete success. Once I realized that the girl groups would follow my directions, I just switched back and forth between the two boy groups to make sure they weren't goofing off too much. Anyway, I felt really good about that class just now. It's always nice to have a good class before the end of the day!


-Speaking of which, the day ends in 20 minutes! I get to leave at 4:20 PM. So I'm going to finish cleaning up my desk (it always accumulates so much random items somehow), and then call it a day. Bye!

Jeju Part II

So I know we haven't updated for a while, but I think Jenn and I are finally about to get back into the swing of things. We did have a very long vacation, and for the first part of it, while we did have sporadic moments of teaching, we didn't really have too much on our plate. Anyway, school officially starts today, and so we will be updating with more stories about teaching, random outings in Korea, and just Korea in general. Let's get this year started with a post about our second trip to beautiful Jeju island!

After a wonderful month in California, we went to Jeju for 4 days. It was mainly to see our friends one more time before they headed home. Their contracts ended last week, so it was our last chance to see them before we all eventually re-unite in California sometime in the future. We got there, and well, we were really surprised, because...it was snowing! On Jeju island! A place that in August had us commenting about the beautiful beaches and warm, tropical weather. I mean, it didn't even snow in Daegu that much! So we got there, it was freezing, but we still decided to go out and do something touristy.

After a really horrible bus ride through the mountains, we arrived at our destination. Sunrise peak. It was supposed to be the best place in Korea to view the sunset. And, it was the place that everyone sees when they google Jeju, for example:

We headed up a little hiking path starting from the left side, and after about 30-40 minutes, we got to the top. It was definitely a sight to see, although, I wish that it was greener than it was. Enough talking, check out the pics and see for yourself!

Before our hike. IT WAS COLD!!

A pretty nice view!

Our not so green view of the crater

After we finished hiking, we headed back down. Later that night, we tried something that ended up being pretty fun. We went Screen Golfing!! Which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You use a real golf club, hit it a real golf ball, except that you're indoors. And hitting it at a screen. But sensors (I'm assuming), read your swing, and trace the ball as it flies toward the screen. So it's like you're playing golf, but virtual reality I guess? Although since this was the first time I've ever played golf (along with a general lack of skill all around), we got a double par on pretty much every hole. Wait. Scratch that, we didn't finish one hole. But it was still a really fun experience. They let you order drinks and snacks, and its more of a way to just relax and hang with friends. Although, in a room down from us, there were actual golfers, and they were much more impressive than we were!


We were also able to make it out to two very cool tourist spots. The first place we went to was called Gimyoung Maze Park. It is exactly what you think it is. A maze! I thought it was cool, but that was mainly because I felt like Harry Potter ;). The goal of the maze was to reach the silver bell, and it took me and Jenn half an hour, and 4-5 retries! Here are some pics!

The Maze!

Making our way through...

Made it to the bell!

After our Maze trip, we walked about ten minutes down the road to the UNESCO Lava tube. It was, well, a lava tube. I don't really have much to say about it, but it was definitely a good experience, and I really liked how they set up the tour!

At the entrance!

Those were the highlights of our Jeju trip! We didn't do as much this time because we mainly went there to spend some time with our friends before they left for California. We spent a lot more time relaxing and hanging out with one another; which Jenn and I really enjoyed! It was good seeing them one more time, and they will definitely be missed. If you guys are reading this, we miss ya, and we'll see you both in a year!