Hello all! Very exciting topic for today – my visit to an
all-girls high school for teaching observations!
My visit to the school was last Monday July 8th (have
I really only been here 11 days?!). A group of us visited a school in the small
city of Daejon, about an hour and a half away from Jungwon University, and
stayed at the school most of the day to observe two classes, eat lunch with
the teachers, and get some Q&A time with the ETA we observed. That’s the
day in a nutshell. Now, for details and pictures!
The school was right in the heart of town and overlooked a
busy downtown street in Daejon. It was so interesting to have such a large
school in the heart of a city, but it happens here.
We arrived without a hitch
a little bit early, so we were greeted by Meredith, the ETA we would observe,
and ushered into the school auditorium for a presentation by the principal and
two vice principals. They were so very kind and welcoming to all of us and expressed
how happy they were with Meredith, saying “she is the best” and one of the
reasons their school does so well on their test scores. After much flattery and
return compliments, the principal and vice principals went politely on their
way and left us in Meredith’s caring hands.
Meredith was extremely kind and energetic as well as eager
for us to meet her kids. She told us we would be observing two classes – one of
her intermediate classes and one of her advanced classes. Once we were settled
into her room, the girls began pouring in and then immediately pouring back out
once they saw 15 smiling foreign faces sitting in the back of the room. After
much nervous laughter and flushing of faces as they greeted us (especially the male ETA's), they settled into their seats and Meredith took control of the class.
However, there was some public (playful) shaming to take care of seeing as a few of the girls
were late. This was swiftly and mercilessly dealt with in the form of making
the late girls dance in front of the class (and us) to a popular K-Pop song
called “Sorry, Sorry.” Hilarious, to say the least, and so adorable!
Once the dancing subsided, though, it was time for business.
I got my first taste of an ETA classroom and how to run a lesson for Korean
students, and I was eating it all up. Meredith is an extremely skilled teacher
and did an interactive and fun lesson on internet talk and “lolcats” (funny
pictures of cats with silly messages found online, which the girls loved).
The
lesson incorporated a bingo game with the girls writing in key internet lingo
for the different spots and having to recognize which one fit pictures with
which they were prompted. The winners got stickers for their rewards card and
bragging rights among their friends. It was a fun and clever activity, and one
I might very well incorporate in my class on day soon. That pretty much wrapped
up the class!
As a small tangent, I wanted to mention a great project that has been going on here in Korea called "Korean Students Speak." It was started by a past ETA, and it gives students the ability to express themselves with coloring tools and paper. They are rarely given a real chance to express their feelings about life, school, or what have you, so the kids' creativity and spirit really shines when given the opportunity. Here are some of the good ones from the classrooms we visited (the rest are in my photo albums below). Here is a link to the official tumblr for the project as well. http://koreanstudentsspeak.tumblr.com/
After observing the same lesson with her advanced kids, we
all had lunch together in the cafeteria in the teacher area, just next to the
students. I felt like being in a fish bowl, and anytime one of the male ETA's waved
at the crowd (I did it a lot) the girls would erupt into an estrogen-fueled tizzy for about 2
minutes. At one point I orchestrated that four of us turn at the same time to
wave and say “Hi!” to which we received uproarious squeals and laughter. Needless
to say, it was quite an enjoyable lunch (and delicious too!).
Following lunch, we got to tour the school to see the different
classrooms and say hi to the many students in the hallways, as it was their
break time to do chores and get ready for afternoon classes. (A fun fact about
schools in Korea is that the students are responsible for keeping the schools
clean and are required during a specific time each day to clean the halls,
floors, classrooms, etc. I think it is a brilliant idea! Anyway, just my two
cents on that) The school was very nice, and it was exciting to walk around
with a sense of celebrity as girls poked their heads out of doorways to see the
tall foreigners walking by. They would say a quick “Hello!” before blushing and
running away. It was too cute.
After a brief teaching presentation and Q&A session with
Meredith, we had to be getting back to Jungwon for some workshops and dinner. I was so happy with the visit overall. It got me even more excited to teach
and find out my placement (I would really like to teach in a single-gender
school as I would find the dynamic fun and interesting). It was also just great
to actually get into a classroom and see what we would be learning about for so
long in orientation over the coming weeks. All of the workshops I have had
since then have built on that first school visit to inspire me to really
embrace the year ahead with as much energy and eagerness as possible, so
I say “Bring it on!”
I wish you all could have come to the school with me and
seen it, but maybe some of my pictures will give you a glimpse into the truly
unique world that is a Korean high school. Literally nothing like it in the
States, and I will go into more detail about a typical school day in the
future. It averages about 17-20 hours a day of classes and studying for the
students, giving them anywhere from 4-7 hours of time at home to sleep and see
their families, and many high school students go to school 6 or 7 days a week.
But more on that to come when I have more information. I put a link below to my Snapfish album (for those of you who don’t have Facebook)
with pictures of the visit. I hope you like it!
Snapfish Album:
Will post again soon!
Lots of love,
David
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