I love the book Where the Wild Things Are, I have since I was little. I remember when my Kindergarten teacher read the book to the class, I also remember that I was convinced that it was a book written by her husband since both their last names were Sendak.
To honor and remember the awesomeness that was Maurice Sendak's literary legacy, I decided yesterday's Current Issue class would be a great way to introduce some of Mr. Sendak's Wild Things to some of my Wild Things.
The other day I found this photo that I had already forgotten about. It was taken of me and my kindergarten class on the first of our Monthly Field Trips, and man does it accurately portray the dynamic of my class even now (although I will say they are a lot better than they once were).
I have long since given you a tour of my apartment, so I guess it's only fair to get a tour of my school. Worwick is very different from the public school I used to work at, but still fairly common as far as Hagwons or private academies go. We are the 5th floor of a building not too far from my house.
I randomly came upon this video the other day, and for someone who teaches both Kindergarten and 2nd grade, this video is like teacher voodoo.
I mean seriously these kids look like professional actors in comparison to the daily dose of calamity that seems to rule over my class.
I'm totally planning on trying to introduce the 'blow the answer in your hand' technique tomorrow. The key word here is trying.
Now I've been teaching in traditional and non-traditional ways for quite a few years now, but watching these "Whole Brain Teaching" videos made me feel super teacher-y, and also super inspired. Both the class and the teacher appear to have a great understanding and love of learning, which who doesn't want for their class.
Yesterday was the dreaded "Parent Teacher Conferences", and I am glad to report that I am still alive and well.
I had found out about these conferences at the end of last month while looking at one of my student's newsletters. Now my Korean is far from good, but I like to look at the news letters to get an idea of when this month's field trip is and when the monthly birthday party will grace me with more cake. This time I saw mention of all the kindergarten classes and different dates- I asked one of the Koreans about it and was told we were doing parent teacher conferences.
Now I've taught open classes where the administration can come in and watch me teach, but this was my first parent teacher conference as a non-student.
One thing I don’t talk too much about here is work. The reasons why are because it’s work, and work is work, and there are plenty of people out there who are more suited to talking about my line of work than I am, and more importantly, I don’t want to talk about work.
I talk with co-workers about work all day in work. It’s work talk. The same work talk that everyone else talks about in work, which usually involves complaining/marvelling over something irrelevant to the rest of the immediate world. It’s not very exciting and the less I have of it the better. Sometimes I talk with Herself about work, and she politely grunts and changes the subject, which I’m grateful for. I do enough talking about work and you don’t deserve, need, or really want to hear me go on about work.
I have taught in Korea for approximately two and a half years now, and have taught at three different schools; two academies and I am currently teaching at an all boys High School. The students are generally fantastic, they are respectful, obedient, and hard working (if you know what buttons to push), but what I like most of all is their character. With all the study they have to do, you can't help but feel for the poor little mites. For example, in my high school (ages 16-18) they start their day at 8am and finish at 10-11pm at night, a fourteen hour plus day at school! In middle and elementary schools the day is not so long, but parents make up for this by sending their children to private after school academies called 'Hagwons'. Most students study at least a couple of hours every day after school in these academies with homework on top of this as well. Some students, however, can go to up to four different academies after school, and may possibly do Taekwondo or Hapkido also
It's Student Profile Time-aka let's talk about my kiddos.
I only managed to do two student profiles on two very special kids at DaeGyo, but with only five kids in my Kindergarten class and five in my afternoon class of 2nd graders it won't be hard to cover all my kids, if not almost all of the kiddos at school.
First up is my little Kindergarten space cadet: Owen. Owen is probably my sweetest boy and just such a cutie. All of my kids have outstanding English, and they all have strengths in different areas- Owen is a great speller and a connoisseur of Jollaman.
Like giving a lecture about Saudi Arabi relations & Korea, then meeting a Korean man that lived there for 20 years concidentally in the subway during my lunch break.
This past Friday we celebrated the Birthday of the youngest student at Worwick, Phillip.
Apparently since we're such a small school, once a month we celebrate those who have Birthday's that month with Birthday Cake and Juice Boxes and a little more indulgent lunch, and a nice little photo op. I know Phillip also got a few gifts from the other students (or more likely from the other students' parents).
Today, March 14th in Korea is "White Day" (it's also Pi Day, which I'm really bummed that went almost the whole day without realizing it- and missed both times to celebrate 3/14 at 1:59 and 26 seconds). White Day is the male counterpart of Valentine's Day - which is where women give chocolate to the man in their life and then a month later, the men reciprocate.
I wasn't really expecting anything to come out of this day other than chocolate to be on sale tomorrow, but as usual, I was wrong.
First, our principal who is both laid back and no-nonsense bought a basket of goodies for all the teachers in the office (which are all girls except one outnumbered guy). It was nice and filled with candied nuts and little cookies and some gummy candies and hung out in the staff office to be grazed on all day.
Tomorrow rounds out my first week teaching at Worwick and I will say in some ways it's very different from DaeGyo, but in others it's as if nothing has changed.
This time around the class sizes are one of the biggest differences. This year my largest class is a whopping 5 kids. Their parents call constantly to critique everything from my handwriting to the types of assignments I give (and yes I am expected to give even my kindergarteners real homework).
I have photoshop again! And this time I am really into experimenting. I have made some new cards to release at Super Sketch in Seoul. And I have updates coming to my blog, and website. I also sent in a proposal for an iphone cover design!
