Hi Korea, I'm Here!

I always run out of things to say when giving presentations. No matter how I practice it and calculate the time, I end up like 15 mins early or something!! First class I taught on Monday was a 5th grade class. I ended up ending early so the coteacher used the time to administer a chapter test for the previous chapter. My coteacher is really good. She's better than any foreign teacher they could hire (including me!!) During the class, she was constantly translating and really co-teaching rather than standing on the side. If there were any breaks in the class she'd handle it with ease with more practice and keep their attention. I wish I could do that. Anyway, first 2 days ended ok!!


Today, along with the rest of the 5th graders, I had two 4th grade classes. The co-teacher for 4th grade is the one who speaks in 90% Korean during her class. She's a really good teacher as well and really strict-- they all listen to her and she's loud. During my class, she mostly stood on the side and translated when they really seemed like they had no idea what I was saying. She also gave me pointers during class when they were busy doing a game inside the book as to how to use the CD activities. 4th grade was easier to teach even though it was sooo basic and they pretty much knew it already. I just began with introduction and getting their names/group names, taught the lesson on the board, used the CD for listening & repeating, and then played a game with them at the end. I like them :p My 5th graders are a bit harder to teach. Half know the material from cram schools while the other half doesn't. If I had to sit through a class with that material, I'd fall asleep. I need to find more interesting things to do in class.


My classroom is super nice! I don't think we have air conditioning, though there's this big unit in each classroom, I think it's a heater.. I dunno. It's cold in the morning and cool in the afternoon with a breeze but without a breeze it's still really warm. With a classroom of 40 students, the classroom gets pretty hot. I can't pull the blinds up to let the air in either because the sun is too bright and just adds to the heat inside. Anyway, my classroom doesn't really look like any other classroom in the entire school. It has 6 meeting room type tables, a computer in/on each table, a huge screen tv in the front, and a surround sound system. The curtains are even different. They spoil me too much here. My own huge office, my own nice classroom, and my huge apartment. Aside from the distance from my school and my apartment being old enough that everytime it rains the water turns brown, everything is pretty awesome :o. I think I will go broke from living in a market area though. I can't stop shopping. Maybe after I get the internet I won't go out as much. I don't even have to buy a lot of groceries.. the grocery store is like 10 ft from my building. I buy food only when I'm out, so everything is fresh!


Teaching aside, lunch is still awesome as always :D My coteacher also bought us (extra curricular + English teachers) Rapokgi and Dokpokgi. One has ramen in it and one is just plain rice cake stuff in hot stuff with veggies. Ashley's Korean Teacher had told us about it so I mentioned it to my coteacher a week earlier. She's really good at helping me enjoy life here :p It was really yummy :D I noticed people here sweeten everything rather than salting. Is it more healthy this way or just a preference?

EDIT: To post pictures.. go through Picasa program.. select the pictures you want on your drive, then click "Blog This" -- it'll still give the access denied page but it will post. :D Bad thing- only posts 4 pictures at a time I think. If you know html, you can probably just upload to picasa and then type it in yourself.