Wednesday, March 18, 2009

My first teaching week

Due to the last few weeks in having iffy internet, and being really busy, I will apologize for not updating my blog. However, I'm just going to start from what's happening now, instead of writing about what happened in the past.

So I have been teaching this week, and it is certainly an interesting experience. The kids are in gr 1, 2, and 3 (Korean middle school years), but I have varying English levels in my class. I have kids who can speak in full sentences to kids who can't even write a strand of thought properly. It is definitely a challenge, and I have been scaring the misbehaving ones with my booming dragon boat coxing voice.

Today I had tried to play Pictionary with the kids in the after-school extra curricular program. I give 5 words, and they have to draw something for their team to guess the each word within a frame of time. Unfortunately, they struggled on simple words like Eyeball, Stove, and Bone.

Kind of a bummer.

I'm teaching in the Nambu district, which is one of the poorer areas in Seoul. Typically other kids have enough financial support to go to Hagwons (private schools) after school to learn additional english, and perform better in the classroom. The Korean government has been unloading tons of money to support these low-income pockets in the city.

To add insult to injury, I have been tempted to teach Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and see what would happen.

Pics to come.

5 comments:

  1. Cool - glad you've got a blog too. Don't worry if you don't update all the time. I find that you either have to do it every day, or just when the mood strikes. There's little in-between. I'll hopefully see you at the movies...

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  2. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious might be a cruel joke. Or one of the kids may say it back to you! LOL.

    Good to hear your at it. Hopefully things will get easier. Are the kids confused about your Asianess and english?

    How's everything else been? Adjusting to life in Korea?

    Hope things are well. Dwen

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  3. To Malcolm: I don't think I will get adjusted to the food fully, ever. lol. Some of it is really good, some of it is just... not my sorta thing.

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  4. To Dwen:

    Everything is good man! So far the kids are super confused when they see me, and an English accent comes out haha. So far I'm still in adjustment mode and my apartment is kinda empty, but I know things will come together in the next month.

    How's OMNI? Anything new? Btw, ur blog is freaking sweet.

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