my 3rd hour class…

the stories continue….

here is the story…

Class Trip Hour 3

Day 1:

We went on a class trip on April 22^nd. Our class rode on a bus and many kinds of games. We also ate, ate, ate snacks and chocolate. We took pictures with friends, the students weren’t tired. We were very strong. About three hours later we arrived at the Archaeology Museum. We learned that Korea was the first country that printed letters of metal. We had confidence.

Next, we went to Cheangnamdae. There were many pretty flowers; yellow, green, and red…flowers. They were dazzlingly beautiful. We felt happy with flowers for the moment.

Day 2:

The next day, we got up in the morning at the hostel. The hostel had very good rooms, we slept well. We had breakfast. We started the day at the Air force Academy. There were many kinds of planes. The planes were nice, cute, and very big at the Academy. We took pictures with our friends and teachers. Next, we went to a rest stop for lunch. We ate hamburgers, steak, rice….

After we ate, we went to Everland; we saw many animals and flowers. We went on to the exciting rides; we were excited but kind of scared. Everland is the best place. The fireworks were beautiful and mysterious that night.

Day 3:

The last day we rode a few rides. The most scary ride was the Double Rockspin. It was very exciting. We rode the bus all day and we were tired, but we felt happy. We made a precious memory.

What do you think was the most important?

First, friends – I didn’t feel like being alone.

Second, Money – we needed to buy something

Third, Cell phone – we called out families

Fourth, Snacks – we can’t live without these

However the most important thing above these are friends.

What did you like best?

We ate chicken, Korean noodles, and drank many kinds of soda; we went to Everland in Yenggin by bus. We were impressed with riding the T-Express, parades, fireworks, and Laser shows. We felt happy.

What did you like least?

1. First day hostel’s food was terrible

2. We had car sickness on the bus

3. We felt dizzy on rides such as the Viking

4. We had to wait a long time to go on rides

5. Some of my friends scribbled on sleeping friends faces at night.

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my 2nd hour class…

On with the show… this is the story from my second hour class:

 

Here it is:

Class Trip Hour 2

Day 1:

The first day we went to the presidential villa. It’s a very big building and the scenery was beautiful. We were envious of the president. We climbed the hill with flowers were beautiful. The star shaped lake was very beautiful. We met a kind presidential body guard, who showed us the way to the star lake so that we didn’t lose any students. We took pictures, after star lake we went to Mount Sokri.

We unpacked at the hostel, and then we took a walk to the Beop-ju temple. We sang songs and hymns there. We came back to the hostel and ate dinner. We had recreation, played games, danced and sang songs. We enjoyed ourselves.

Day 2:

The next day we went to an amusement park. There was a log cabin, where we slept. The room was very clean and large. At the amusement park there were so many people that we were excited. First we went on the horror rides, we waited for two hours. We rode the Viking two times, and then saw a festival. Many foreigners were at the festival. It was very wonderful, we had a fantastic time.

Day 3:

We got up early and went to play in Everland. We ate ice cream and had lunch on a bear-foot shaped tray. We were very happy, and we went to the bus. We rode the bus, and are food, and sang songs. We got home at 6:00 o’clock in Gimje.

What do you think was the most important?

I think safety and health are very important during a class trip. There are foods such as ice cream, rotten fruits, and meats. When we ate these foods, we had stomach disorders. We couldn’t play anymore

Therefore our safety is important. IF we get hurt, out parents will worry about our health. Well, we have to take care of safety and health every day!

What did you like best?

I think that I was happy in Everland. There were various rides, a merry-go-round, a Ferris wheel, a twist, a room of mirrors, and the Viking. Especially, I was so excited when I rode the T-Express. It is the most awful roller coaster in Korea. Then I looked around many shops and bought gifts for my family. I was so impressed with the fireworks, Laser show, and beautiful flowers. I think that this is one of the most wonderful places.

What did you like least?

1. Weather was very hot!

2. We had to wait in line a long time because there were so many people.

3. Many were car sick

4. The Hostel was very smelly

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my 1st hour class…

This first story id from my first hour class (8:50-9:35am Tuesdays….).

Here is the story:

Class Trip Hour 1

Day 1:

1. We had breakfast at seven o’clock

2. We went to a rest stop by bus and ate lunch

3. We went to a hostel by bus

4. We visited Mount Sokri

5. We had a campfire that night

6. We ate snacks, chicken and went to sleep

Day 2:

We went to the Air force Academy on the second day. There were many model airplanes, and a museum. We saw many things. Then we went to Everland. We went on the rides. It was very exciting. That night we saw very beautiful fireworks with friends. It was fantastic. We slept at the hotel at Everland. As soon as we went to bed, we fell asleep. Anyway, it was a really fun trip.

Day 3:

We rode the bus from morning until 2:00pm. It was raining and we were tired, but we had a lot of fun. We took the bus and fell into a deep sleep, when we awoke we were back at school!

What do you think was the most important?

I think Everland was very important on our trip. It was interesting; there were many rides such as the Hurricane, T-Express, and the Viking…

What did you like best?

We were watching TV at midnight. We saw wonderful fireworks with our friends at Everland. It was very fantastic. We took some pictures with friends; the Class Trip was very interesting.

What did you like least?

We were bored on the bus and very, very tired. We were punished by our home room teacher for being late getting on the bus. We played so hard we had pains in our legs.

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The Morning Star Girl’s Middle School in Gimje…

I finally have a number of posts to put on this blog written by my 2nd grade (8th grade in the USA) girls. All of these six ‘stories’ cover their class trip they took in late April. They had a chance to go to the Korean equivalent of Disneyworld (Everland), the Korean equivalent of Camp David, a Buddhist Temple, and the Korean Air force Academy.  It is worth remembering that these girls are Korean, and that learning the English language can be quite difficult. All in all I am quite proud of them!

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educational ironies…

I’ve come across a few strange things at the schools where I work in the last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago I had a lot of time off because of mid-term standardized tests. In the middle of this week of testing is a national holiday… Children’s Day. A day for children to play an generally be happy (in theory). This year Children’s Day took place on a Tuesday, right in the middle of the midterm tests. As you could imagine in a country where student achievement is held in such high regard, you could easily see that there were thousands and thousands of students feverishly studying on this traditional day for play… pretty ironic!

This last week I was apprized of yet another holiday, Teacher’s Day. Before I came to Korea, when I was doing some research into exactly what I had gotten myself into, I found a number of references to Teacher’s Day on some of the expatriate blogs I was reading. They all referred to charming little children coming to school and giving the teacher presents. At the time, I thought…”hmmm… this may be interesting…”. This last Friday my school (and many others) had Teacher’s Day as a day off from work. It seems that this traditional holiday is related to some other traditional activities, where expectant parents annually give teachers a gift (nod, nod, wink, wink…) to help ensure that their child gets the ‘best’ possible ‘education’. Since this can quite easily be made to look like terrible corruption (maybe it is…), the practice been made functionally illegal (from what I’ve been told…remember why I named this blog what it is…). So, Teacher’s Day can be seen as a day that relates to this activity, and therefore it can be seen as rather insulting (I guess…).

For what its worth, this is a great example of why I did name my blog what it is. There is so much that goes on in this culture that is inexplicable to my western sensibilities. there is also a great deal that is quite strange until, after a long bout of explanation, I finally see what all the bother is about. I’m still not sure which category these topics relate to, inexplicable or strange…

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What is the future of Education?

I have a number of related reasons for being here, for teaching here. Last year I saw a seeming dearth of teaching jobs for an older, entry level social studies teacher in the USA. The thought of gaining some experience teaching students in another country, a year to learn about some aspects of another culture could certainly add to my curriculum vitae.

I have learned that teaching methods here vary quite a bit from those in the USA, but the intentions of teachers a generally the same. Most of the very good teachers I’ve met (in Korea and the USA) want to teach students as well as they can. But there are some interesting differences. In Korea there is a huge focus on students developing into disciplined super students, with a great deal of time spend after school studying. This Korean model of education would certainly create very compliant workers, bureaucrats, all of whom would be very comfortable doing exactly what they are told. This is certainly something that would be of value in a production economy, but with all the changes happening in the global economy (regardless of downturns), this seems to me to be something that really doesn’t hold up to any real scrutiny.

From my vantage point here in Jeonju the American education system seems very far away. I see from my online ‘travels’ a lot of focus on ‘new technology’ equally covered with polemics about how terrible schools have become. My best guess from this far away is that both of these points are presented in an equally breathless tone. It seems that both the Korean and American systems a ‘fighting the last war’ versus trying to practically determine what students really need to learn…

In some of my internet travels I have found a few links that I found to be thought provoking ( a couple are actually provocative!).

http://www.edutopia.org/future-school

http://www.instigatorblog.com/10-things-they-need-to-teach-in-highschool/2007/04/18/

http://www.naturalchild.org/guest/john_gatto.html

http://retardzone.com/2008/10/24/top-10-politically-incorrect-reasons-our-schools-are-failing/

http://www.cs.unm.edu/~sto/files/studcent.html

http://www.techlearning.com/article/7468

http://thenextweb.com/2009/03/25/twitter-social-media-taught-primary-schools-uk-front-page-national-newspaper/

Technorati Tags: Korean,Teaching,links,education reform

 

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English Names…

Most of my Korean English teachers and some of my students have ‘English Names’. For some of the students, they are given names when they attend after school academies for English lessons. This naming invariably leads to some typical (read ‘boring’) names…Mike, Tom, Mary, etc. The Korean English teachers I have worked with have names that they may have decided upon while college students. These names are a bit more complex and sometimes obscure, but they are often a good ‘fit’. Some of my teacher’s names are: Julia, Matilda, Paulina, Rosanna, and Tony. All of these names seem to fit the personalities of these people quite well.

There is a third group of names, and to me, the most interesting. Some of my middle school students rebel from the names that they may have been given (they are teenagers after all!). These students find, or even create their own ‘English;’ names. As an example, I have some 7^th and 8^th grade students with names like: ‘Onion’, ‘And’, ‘Black’, and (a boy’s name) ‘Rupert’. Their fellow students don’t understand that these names can be seen as rather strange and whimsical. For instance, some of the girls with these ‘more interesting’ names have friends with names like: Mary, Cindy, Diana, and Carl. There is another aspect of these personally derived names, at least for some of the middle school boys. I have had a couple boys with the name ‘Kaka’ (a star player with the A.C. Milan Pro Soccer team), and there have been a number of boys trying to pass off their English name as ‘Rain’ (the most famous Korean pop singer), this always leads to a chorus of jeers from his peers.

As you could imagine, this last group of names give me a window of insight into the internal lives of some of my more imaginative students. That many of these names are this whimsical and opaque tells much about the Korean psyche.

Technorati Tags: Korea,Gimje,English

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a writing contest…

Image by riehler via Flickr

I guess this may be a head’s up that within the next couple of weeks I will posting some of the results of my 8th grade girls English ‘story’ competitions. The fact that their work will be on the internet was a great incentive  to these young girls..

so stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: School,Writing contest

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the name of my school

Image via Wikipedia

One of the ‘bell ring’ activities I use when teaching middle school students (a ‘bell ring’ activity is something that you start the class with, which lasts three of four minutes to get the students prepared to go through the lesson…), is to have them teach me one Korean word every week. This last week, they taught me the name of their school (I teach at two schools…). So, I thought I could pass along some of my newfound expertise in Korean!

On Mondays, Thursday and Fridays I teach at the 김 제 중 학 교 (Gimje Joong Hak Kyo (the boys school)), and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I teach at the 금 성 여 자 중 학 교 Geumseong YeoJa Joong Hak Kyo, this is the Morning Star Girls Middle School. Since the Morning Star is the planet Venus, the name relates to women, but since this is a private Christian school, I always found the name relating to a Roman goddess of beauty to be a bit ironic…

Technorati Tags: Hangeul,Korean,Gimje,middle school

 

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School Uniforms…

First off, I should apologize for the dearth of postings in this blog this week. I’ve been trying to get over a spring cold for the last week…

So… in the last month I have been asking all of my students some general questions. One of the first questions was “Do you like wearing school uniforms?” I should mention that in Korea about 95% of all middle and high school students wear uniforms at school. I asked the girls at the Geumseong Girls Middle School (where I teach about four hundred 7^th and 8^th graders), and the overwhelming answer was YES! All of these girls are very proud of their school, and wear their uniforms very neatly.

At the Gimje Middle School, where I teach about 225 7^th and 8^th grade boys, the overwhelming answer was a resounding NO! These boys (as I can understand from my middle school experiences…) wear their uniforms with a very studied disdain. I can only imagine that the concept of uniforms is just an easy receptacle for adolescent rebelliousness.

From what I can see regarding high school student opinions, it looks like these two divergent points of view slowly converge. On the local busses, I often see high school boys wearing their school uniforms with the swagger of restaurant busboys acting like gigolos. Many high school girls (but very rarely for middle school) often wear their skirts pulled up very high (whenever they are away from home and the school). As a result it is often easy to see the differences between middle school and high school students.

Technorati Tags: school,school uniforms,korea

 

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