Effective Punishment

Teachers are like parents...they shouldn't have favourites, but deep down - they kinda do :) For example, there are certain students who my heart just melts for cause they are soooo cute.

...and then teachers have their "favourite" class *note sarcasm!

Grade 6's are going through some kind of phase... it seems as though they are nearly teens, but not quite there yet. So who knows what's going on in their minds. But I have a 6th grade class on a Tuesday who I have to spend nearly 10 % of my time shussshhing them.

Yesterday, I tried something new. 3 boys continued to talk and ignored my instructions to pay attention. I called them to the front of the class and I sat down at one of the students desks. The rest of the class were confused out of their minds.

"Teach" I told the three boys. If you don't want to listen to me teach, then you teach....

The lesson had only just begun and I had to go and call the homeroom teacher to observe the lesson since my co-teacher wasn't present (and foreign teachers are NOT - under any circumstances allowed to teach without a Korean teacher present). The class thought that having the 3 boys "teach" was hilarious, which I made clear wasn't meant to be funny.

Anyways ... when I got back to the class 60 seconds later with the homeroom teacher, I was flabbergasted to see what I saw. The three boys put the CD-ROM on and had the class listen and repeat the dialogue of the section I was going to teach! And the class was happily chanting along with their "teachers".

Needless to say, I had to go through the "Rules for the English class" yet again :)

Shopping in Dongdaemun - not for the faint hearted shopaholic...

I was walking home with one of my co teachers yesterday and we spontaneously decided to go shopping in Dongdaemun where trading hours are from 10:30 am to ..... 05:00 am!!!!!!

There are literally floors upon floors of anything and everything imaginable. I actually felt my head spin while walking around. Anyways, I managed to buy a handbag, a purse and a scarf.

And this is just for my friend, Nats .... :D

My first present...

Walking back to the teacher's room after one of my classes yesterday, a 4th grade girl rushed frantically to me to put something in my hand. It was wrapped with fancy tape, and had " to foreign teacher" written on it, together with her name. When I opened it, it was a white eraser, but she had drawn hearts and patterns on the plastic covering and wrote, "foreign teacher, I love you".

(pics are not clear)


:)

Empowering the students

One of the things I was taught during my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course was that we should "empower the students". I've incorporated this into my lessons, and now have the kids come up to the front and write on the board or act as a "representative" for their team and allow them to do the activity on the computer.

It works fantastically, because it distinctly breaks the division between teacher/students.

Here is one of my fourth graders who had to come and do an activity... I specifically chose him cause I caught him giving a zap sign (the middle finger) to another student. My kids seem to be doing this often these days, but I honestly think that they don't know what it really means...

But he's really cute, nonetheless !

Everest Restaurant

Hye Yun, Rachel, Ray & Me

One of my dearest school friends, Ray recently arrived back in Korea after an amazing few days in the States. I was so eager to see her and hear all about her trip. So we met yesterday for dinner and went to Everest Restaurant (a Nepalese, Indian & Tibetan Restaurant) in Dongdaemun. The company, as always was great...and the food - delicious!!!

Ray & me with the killer garlic naan

The menu


Samoosa's


Veg Curry


Dessert


Bollywood music video's

...and now without the video!

Some girls were keen to present "Head, Shoulders, Knees..." to the class - they were so adorable....

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Today I taught my kindergartners & special needs class "Head, Shoulder's Knees & Toes". They were soooo cute!



...and I was greeted with this:



How can your heart not melt with this?!