Next stop...Spain

Kathleen, a friend of mine whom I studied with in Madrid, let me know about a Masters program in Alcalá back in January. It is through a the Instituto Univeritario de Investigación en Estudios Norteamerianos Benjamin Franklin (Instituto Franklin) of the Universidad de Alcalá!

They have a program called the "Teach & Learn in Spain Program" which gives American students a chance to study get a Master´s from the Universidad de Alcalá while doing a paid internship teaching at a school somewhere in Madrid (or the surrounding areas).

I'm in the process of collecting the necessary paperwork, but the fact that I've been accepted at all means that hopefully in September I'll be in Spain :)

My students can be cute

I have a winter camp assignment where my advanced students have to make a recipe. So they are drawing the food and writiting their food words (cut, boil, fry etc.) and one boy comes up to me.

"Teacher....ummm... what is food..... ummmm .... that is popcorn?"

So I sit and think..."You mean corn?"

"Ahhh, yes teacher, thank you"

SO CUTE

And the day before I had two students show up late, punctuality isnt really counted in Winter Camp as they have other camps they are attending and it is technically optional.

So I hand them the workshet we are working on and they continue with the class. At the end I get everyone's name for attendence, and when I come to them they smile, "Teacher we're not student...today we're shopping"

Awww, they came just to hang out, that's pretty cool. These were the students that wrote you Thanksgiving and Christmas cards... *HUGS*

I'll miss them!

I just sumitted my notice that I do not intend to renew my contract and I am dealing with untangling some red tape now, but I have faith it will all work out!

Panties

So, I was teaching a lesson on clothing the other day and I used the peanutbutter song (not sure if anyone remembers it here video)



And one of the lines is, "On your underwear?"

Which leads to me ask the children,

"What does underwear mean?"

And one of the boys goes, "panties" (yes this happens in each class it will always be a boy).

I agree, "Yes, that's right, panties are underwear...but panties are GIRL underwear. Only girls wear panties."

The boys look confused...they are obviously in their minds wearing panties right now.

"See underwear is a word we can use with boys AND girls, but panties is a word we ONLY use for girls.

Girls wear panties...boys do not. Girls wear underwear boys do too!"

Yep, I have a deep important job in this world, explaining that boys do not wear panties...

my work in Korea is done

Speeches, the cold, Goodbyes, and the cold

So at my open class I met a teacher who didn't have a native teacher. Her school was having a speech competition and she wanted to have a native speaker judge. So she asked if I could come help (well I never actually get asked anything directly, but she asked my co-teacher who told her yes and then asked me...same-same) .

So I headed over there Wednesday. Oh my goodness the kids were ADORABLE! It was fifth and sixth graders. They seemed to fall in two categories which I will horribly explain using politically incorrect stereotypes. If I offend anyone you probably don't know me, some of my nearest and dearest friends fall into these stereotypes and are nothing like the pigeonhole I am putting people in so please, in advance, don't be offended.

The first category is the engineering student who cannot make a public speech to save his life (you know, very monotonous, no nonverbal cues, same pace the whole way through, few visual cues etc.). The other is the SDSU PR student who is basically a ham (their voice hits more tones than a grand piano, their props are sewn onto their clothes, their hand motions are exaggerated and every word has a hand motion!). It was quite a kick to watch.

Some of the students gave speeches on their dreams. One's dream was to become to the head of the UN...the speech was surprisingly good...I feel like I suddenly have very low goals. Another speech was on how people should be nice and not write mean things online because people kill themselves(and actress in Korea recently committed suicide), and one girl read a Halloween story she wrote. There was definitely a lot of different stuff and it was fun to listen to it all. Plus I got $50 (well with the won now about $40) and a box of chocolates...woo!

It is starting to get cold, I wear my ski jacket about every day and do all my lesson planning in bed with the covers pulled up to keep me warm.

This Tuesday Ant leaves the country and heads back to South Africa and this Saturday Aaron leaves. Goodbyes stink! But I guess I am going to have a lot more of them now that I am halfway through (only 10 more teachers classes until I leave).

Cute Random Story

So, I was teaching a discussion class (meaning I am on my own) and my students were being a little rowdy. So I gave them a little, "Hey, I need everyone to be quiet" and one of the boys (not even a very fluent boy, classic average kids who barely speaks English properly) looks me straight in the eyes and says, "Don't worry baby, I've got it covered"

REALLY?

really?

REALLY

He never did tell me where he learned that must have been some song or something. It was probably one of the highlight of my teaching career, although there was the kid that said two...

Well there was the one boy who would never speak English and I went over to him because he had his hand raised. So He crinkled his brow stared at his paper in complete concentration looked up at me and said, "Two?" while pointing to his paper.

I was so proud of him I nodded and said, "Yes, write it twice"

He got so proud he sat up straight in his chair shoulders back and beaming with happiness began writing. His friend, who grew up partly in America looked at me and commented snarkily, "He's very proud for only saying one word, " Prat!

I smiled and told him that that one word was perfect and I do not require my students to say, "Excuse my professor, but am I required to write this word for a total of two times?," "Two?" would suffice just fine.

Open Class

So I had my open class today. Open class is when you teach a class and other teachers from other schools (or your school if they have free time) come and evaluate you. And it is not just for English Teachers. ALL teachers in Korea have to have one open class every year.

I was sick as a dog and afraid my voice would fail, but we did a really really awesome job.

My school posted a video but my Korean is pretty rusty so all I can find right now are the pictures:

The little Korean before the pictures says,"In 5 period today, the 3-grade English teacher with a class has a public class. 3-grade class are nice too calm so well done, guys!

Good job~ Excellent! "

http://daeseon.es.kr/?act=gallery.read&code=1711&id=376

:-)

TWISTER

OK...so I hate Thursdays BUSIEST day. AND I have teachers yuck

Today was the best teacher's lesson ever. We played Twister :-)

Woot

They learned

Red
Green
Blue
Yellow

Foot
Hand
Right
Left

and I added

On

woot

About the bok/book I use to teach

The book I use to teach is pretty good actually. It comes with lame CD's that we basically follow and have some really lame game ideas but some good ones too.

I have one BIG problem with the book. The directions are almost always in Korean. So before I know what the book wants me to do I have to look at the pictures and try to guess. Look at the heading and guess, then type in the Korean to an online translator and guess that way but online translators are NOT always helpful: For example: "Sleep and tu point out quickly and it talks to play try." Yeah...not very helpful.

I just had my first class ever!!!

This morning started with me being on the tv for the school (like the morning announcements) I thanked them for having me here. Told them their city was beautiful, and I looked forward to meeting them.

I have given probably a thousand speeches in my life. That one was probably the hardest!

Then I had my class it was 5th graders. They are...12? But in the states it is 11 (because in Korea when you are born you are already 1 year old) so over here I am 24 not 23.

It went ok. I am teaching WITH my co-teacher right now. She uses A LOT of Korean when she teaches. We taught prepositions. Are you exited? Yeah you should be prepositions are VERY exciting!

Then lunch. Technically we pay for it, but it comes out of ur paycheck VERY cheap. I had a delicious lunch of...rice (shocker) some seafood soup with vegetables, some sort of meet, a kimchi made with cabbage and a seaweed salad. Quite tasty. I had to use chopsticks...I did pretty well.

I go to the hospital today. If they find something really wrong with me they send me back to the States.

Tomorrow is the day to vote so it is a public holiday (my first public paid holiday).

Oh and per my father's request I changed it so anyone can comment :-) Be nice!

:)

Carissa