On Monday the 21st I officially started teaching my students from the required curriculum. My 1st grade class (6th grade) first unit was called “Meet the twins”
A lot of my 6th grade book is still in Korean, so I just decided to do whatever felt right. I had to teach them how to say nice to meet you, what’s your name, what do you do for fun?, What’s your email address?, and what’s your phone number?.
I went over the book using a few of the listening activities, which are unbearably boring. I am almost in tears doing these exercises and the voices they use for the listening activity are absolutely ridiculous. The kids always start cracking up watching the videos and doing the listening activities… as their teacher I try to keep a straight face so that they won’t go crazy but I can’t help but crack a smile.
My goal as a teacher is to get the students speaking. They have a class 4 times a week on writing and grammar, so the one day I have them my goal is to get them interacting with each other and speaking to someone new everyday. This week for the 1st grade I decided to have them draw their neighbors face. I handed out a sheet of paper and told them to draw their neighbor and they looked terrified! I was already terrified that they were going to turn out looking the same way…. However, as bad as it sounds… I have quickly learned that not all Asians look alike. It is very easy to tell them apart even when they wear the same uniform.
One student drew me : )
I walked around while the students drew each other in the first class and was very pleased. Everyone was taking it seriously and worked quietly on their drawing. However, in classes to come I would have the exact opposite. If a boy were sitting with a boy then he would draw a devil or if they had pimples then they would take out their red correction pen and dot up their whole face. I had girls drawing other girls with hearts for eyes and another boy on the page… they would then point to the boy and scream love love… if they could turn colors.. I know these girls would be red as a beet. I had one boy draw a girl as a pig and write probably one of three words he knew.. FOOD.
The poor girl was mortified and looked like she could cry. (Andre had told me a story the day before about his last school that I thought might come true at my school. In Korea, saving your face is VERY important. At Andre’s last school, a girl was being made fun of so she opened up the window and jumped out from the 3rd floor. She survived but shattered the lower half of her body. Poor girl. I was terrified this girl might jump! It scares me how much Korean’s will risk to save their face or their families face. That is why the subway system now has doors… too many Korean’s were jumping in front of trains to save their families face. ) Anyways, most of my students were very polite so it wasn’t surprising that 10 out of 800 were mean. I then collected all the drawings and handed them back out randomly so that each student had a new face. I explained that I wanted them to get up and find the persons drawing they had by asking, “is this you”. The exercise went well in my A and B classes (The classes that scored high on the English proficiency test) but in my C and D classes it was a little bit of a struggle. Overall though, the exercise went very well. I had students meeting new students and using the language. I was a very happy teacher!
Miae explaining the directions
One of my 1st grade classes : )
In my second grade (7th grade) class, my students were learning about feelings. Unit 1 was titled “The New School Year” and we were talking about how we felt and what we hoped for.
I taught the kids to “how are you doing?” “How’s everything” “how’s it going” etc. They then learned how to respond by “great”, “super”, “fantastic” “wonderful” “So so “ “Im ok, I guess” “not bad” “Terrible” “Don’t even ask” I also taught them how to new ways to say hello and good-bye. I taught them “long time no see” “See you again” “Take Care” I had my students practice in groups and then demonstrate their dialogue in front of the class. For my A and B classes it was great.. all the students wanted to participate (to get a good grade in my class all you have to do is volunteer to participate) However, in the C and D classes NO ONE wanted to volunteer. It was so hard trying to get these kids to speak and I am still brainstorming new ways to get the C and D classes to want to speak. It may involve bribery… I then taught the classes about hopes. We looked at different pictures and were talking about what different students were hoping for. “I hope to get better grades” “I hope to travel this year” “I hope to become healthier” etc… In their book they then had a place to draw what their hopes were. I gave the students a couple minutes and let them draw their hopes. Many students hoped for a boyfriend or girlfriend.. so cute. Others hoped to see a Big Bang or 2ne1 Concert.. I then had some that hoped to quit smoking or quit drinking. Smoking and drinking is a big problem in schools here. I’ve caught many students sneaking off campus to smoke but I don’t have the power or language ability to punish them. Smoking is also very socially acceptable so even my co-teachers don’t pay much attention to it. After having the students draw their hopes I let them volunteer to tell the class.. In one class, a girl raised her hand and stated “ I hope to do my boyfriend” .. I responded with “You mean you hope to GET a boyfriend” .. her response “NOOOO I hope to DO my boyfriend” while pointing at another boy! I was mortified.
One of my 2nd grade classes
However, other than a few crazy students, I think my students learned something…I really have loved teaching them and watching them try new words. They are so cute and many really work hard to make me happy.
satisfymyseoul 