Struggling

So, I'm trying to prepare some stuff for the impending start of the new school year. For those of you who don't live in Korea and already know this, March marks the start of a new school year, so I will be getting new 1st graders starting March 2nd, and my 1st and 2nd graders will now be 2nd and 3rd graders. I am really looking forward to the new semester, mostly because after having been here for 6 months I am starting to figure out what kinds of things work well with my students, and what kinds of things simply do not work at all. Mostly, though, I just really like teaching, and I really like learning how to be better at teaching.

Unfortunately, my school gives me virtually no guidance regarding the information I should be teaching. Additionally, I don't really know what kinds of things my students are learning in their other English classes. Moreover, there are no universal requirements across middle school education in our district or whatever, so I can't even look at a master list and say, hey, I need to cover simple and continuous present past and future, adverbs and prepositions of movement. Instead, I'm left to my own devices to decide what the students should learn. This is frustrating and difficult.

I spent much of last semester attempting to create basic conversational lessons (talking about weather, making plans, etc.) but found that students had often learned a different (and often equally appropriate OR wildly incorrect) way of responding. As such, my one day lesson only served to confuse them further.

So, I've decided to thoroughly change my approach. I'm considering spend about 3-5 weeks (depending on student interest, difficulty of grammar, variety of applications) on a single grammatical construction such as the past tense (simple and continuous) or questions (yes/no and w-questions) and extending the lesson on said grammar rule to various applications. I'd also try to maintain a primary and auxiliary grammar focus.  For example, I would spend the first week introducing vocabulary that will be used in the upcoming lessons, and discussing the basic grammar rules. I would probably include some sort of basic vocabularly reinforcement game like bingo/word search/crosswords/jumbles/etc this week. The following week, I would introduce the grammar (simple present) and discuss how to make it, blah blah blah, then do some sort of activity for the majority of the class. The following week I'd add the auxiliary topic (adjectives or frequency words, or transition words) and do another speaking activity. The last week, which would be optional, depending on interest, would be some sort of fun review game or something.

I just feel like the students need more time with each grammar topic than my once/week lesson can provide. My biggest concerns are as follows:
1. How do I make week one, which is mostly vocabulary and review and introduction, more fun?
2. What kinds of topics do I prioritize?
3. How do I analyze the efficacy of my lessons in this way? How much is too much of the same topic, and how little is too little?
4. How the hell will I find ways to teach the progressive tense in a practical/useful/fun manner?

Since I learned this stupid language from birth, the progressive tense was just meta-cognitively added to my grammatical repertoire, and so teaching it seems so exceptionally difficult.

God, I need to somehow learn how to actually teach English.

Please pardon my word vomit here.

xoxo,
A

Peppero Day

Today was Peppero Day. You see, in Korea, every month has a special love holiday, plus November has TWO. Here are the holidays:

January 14: Diary Day- couples exchange diaries or planners with all the important days (anniversaries, love holidays, 100 day celebrations, etc)
February 14: Valentine's Day- The girl buys the boy gifts
March 14: White Day- The boy buys girls gifts that are white in color. Gifts range from mints and candy to stuffed animals and underwear
April 14: Black Day- This is the day where single people go out to eat alone to mourn their singledom. Also, they eat delicious jjajjangmyeon
May 14: Yellow Day/Rose Day- couples wear yellow and exchange yellow roses. Single people go out together and eat curry
June 14: Kiss Day- self-explanatory
July 14: Silver Day- couples exchange gifts made of silver and announce their relationship to their friends
August 14: Green Day- couples wear green, go for a walk in a park or wooded area and drink soju (which comes in a green bottle); single people also drink soju this day
Sept 14: Photo&Music Day- no one celebrates this, but pics together then Noraebang!
October 24: Apple Day- I described this already. Saying SORRY!
Nov 11: Peppero Day
Nov 14: movie day- less important than and overshadowed by Peppero Day
Dec 14: Hug Day- Couples hug to stay warm during cold winters

Anyways, so today was Peppero Day, which is like valentines day but better because you don't have to give anything to anyone if you don't want to and teachers rake it in. On Peppero Day, friends give friends, and lovers give each other, boxes of Peppero to show affection and as a symbol for wishes that your friends grow tall and thin, like sticks of Peppero (which are the same as Pocky but not strawberry flavored). 11/11 was the date chosen because it looks like 4 peppero sticks lined up.

Anyways, so for Peppero Day, I got 4 boxes of peppero, one big peppero stick (I don't know how to explain except to say it was a supersized peppero) and a bag of homemade peppero. I also got two notes from two of my *favorite* students, Yu Eun-Bin and Lee Jae-Yeon (English Name: AMY!!) The notes are quite possibly the sweetest things I've ever seen. Handwritten beautiful with so much effort. I can't help but smile every time I see them. I responded to each of the notes this evening and told the girls to come to my office to get their response notes tomorrow morning.

This acted as a reminder that I love my job, and my students, and my school.

I am done planning for the month of November, by the way. I have two powerpoints to make, and I am DONE DONE DONE with November. Then I have December, and a WHOLE MONTH OFFFFFFF!

Stress.

Somehow I manage to make my job as impossibly difficult as I can. Take this week for example. Tomorrow, I fly to Manila, Philippines. My flight departs from Incheon International Airport at 9:15, so I will need to be at the airport around 7:15/7:30. It will take about an hour and a half to get to the airport from my apartment, so I need to leave no later than 6:00. I get off school at 4:30. no problem, right?

Wrong.

I have to go to the Stationary Store before I leave so I can pick up some materials for my classes next week. I need felt and foam board for the activities they will be doing (creating a news weather report). The stationary store is about 20 minutes from my apartment. So. Get off at 4:30, get to bus stop by 4:45, an hour for shopping and trip there and back, puts me at my apartment around 5:45. I guess I will probably have to take a taxi to the stationary store, which is a big fucking pain because it's expensive and stupid because the stationary store isn't that far from my apartment.

Also, I haven't so much as started making the powerpoints for either of the grades (naturally I decided to make different plans for the grades this week) so I have no idea when I will do that. Tomorrow I have one hour free to make worksheets/handouts AND powerpoints AND make sure everything is in order before I leave. I have to remember my passport and my id and 9000 other things. GAH.

Did I mention I haven't packed and that instead I'm choosing to blog. STUPID ME.

Wish me luck and minimal stress as I embark on this weekend.

Did I mention to anyone that I get back into Incheon International Airport at 6 a.m. on Monday morning. This means I will take a taxi and then manage to shower and eat and then go straight to work (where I am not prepared). FML.

xoxo,
A

Life in Korea

It's been a while since I've posted (over a week). For some of my blogging friends, that's nothing, but for me, that a long time. So, here's what I've been up to.

1. English Festival.

All our practicing and snacking paid off as seven of my students and I hit the stage for the Incheon Middle School English Festival. I had a freakin' blast hanging out with 8 students (7 dancing, and one in charge of the ppt) for two straight days. I don't think I can explain to you how completely I love my job. There are times I get frustrated, sure. There are times when I feel like no one has any idea what the hell is going on in my classroom, including myself. Yes, sometimes I just want to grab a student around the neck and say, "SHUT UP" but honestly, I have got it made here. The students really aren't that bad. My co-workers are friendly and nice. The food at my school is known to be amongst the best in Incheon. I only teach for 18-20 hours/week. I choose to stay later than I need to in order to talk to each of my students and do whatever I can. And I get to sing and dance and look completely foolish in front of 200 people at English Festivals. I mean, really, can it get better than that? I DON'T THINK SO. There isn't much to say about the festival. There were about 30 schools represented, and they did everything from skits to game shows to dances to re-enacting Harry Potter scenes (completely with British accents hahahahah). I was the only teacher who did more than just recite some lines or introduce the group. My students also fell in love with one of the other native english teachers who was there. His name is Mike; he's from England. He's really tall and terribly skinny. He is also in my Korean class. I'm completely uninterested, but my students are OBSESSED. Picture to the right. They followed him around everywhere (including to the arcade down the street on our break) and would say hello and then just giggled awkwardly while I had to make uncomfortable but hilarious conversation. He does have a fabulously British accent, but I can't emphasize enough how very skinny he was. Anyhow, here's the video of Shinheung Girls Middle School students and Native English Teacher Allison performing School's out from Disney's High School Musical 2 for your viewing pleasure:



2. Planning Lessons

So I'm not very good about this. It's hard because I am in Seoul every weekend preparing to go to Manila for the Asia-Oceania Ultimate Club Championships and Worlds Qualifier. That sounds so official. Basically, I spend every weekend in Seoul doing only three things: playing ultimate frisbee, drinking A LOT, and sleeping on the floor at disc hotel (a.k.a. Bekah/Beth/Dave's place a.k.a home away from home away from home). As such, all my work must be done at school or at home after I get off work. The problem comes into play when I have other errands to run or things to coordinate, including but not limited to, English Festival practices, going to the bank (which is a 10 minute bus ride/walk depending where I go) to pay bills, going grocery shopping (at least 20 minutes each way via bus or foot depending on the weather), taking Korean classes (twice a week, an hour each day, plus a 2 hours round-trip commute, which I am questioning the worth of), and trying to eat, sleep and stay sane. So basically, I have the time I am at work plus Sunday nights after I get back from frisbee. Most of my free time during the week (non-teaching time) is early in the week, which is difficult because I am usually trying to work the kinks out of the lesson I am teaching that week and haven't even begun to think about the next week's lesson. I should be planning more than a week in advance but it's been hard because it was a catch-up game from square one. Luckily, it's only Monday and I have a good idea of what I am going to do next week (follow-up for this week).

3. Frisbee
Two weekends ago was the League finals and league party. You all probably saw facebook pictures of the disaster than ensued (it got its own photo album because it was that ridiculous). I don't have time or energy to upload photos here which is okay because facebook contains every picture that I or anyone else took on my camera from that evening. This past weekend was a hat tournament down in Daejeon. Let me tell you what, ladies and gentlemen of Ultimate, this was an impeccably well run tournament. I don't know if it's luck or what or Korea being awesome as usual, but there was free food and candy and water and vita500 (an orange flavored vitamin c drink) and two parties with drink specials and free pizza and great prizes. I think it helped that it was a fairly small tournament, with just 4 teams. My team went 0-3 in round robin, but kicked it up for play-offs, winning in semis and taking home second place with a 1-4 record. Also, I was awarded the female mvp of the tournament award (Tweezy took home the male mvp award... haha). for winning we got little necklace thingys that are of no value, water bottles and a bottle of soju each. Upon receiving our soju bottles, everyone started cheering one shot, one shot, which is the korean version of chug chug chug chug. Keep in mind, friends that soju is typical 25% alcohol by volume and is sold in bottles roughly the size of beer bottles which are a mere 4-7% abv. I promptly said no, but Tweezy, being the gangsta he is, popped his top open and promptly chugged one half of the soju and handed it to Woody, the TD, who then passed it right along to me. At this point, I threw my hands in the air and said what the hell, and proceeded to finish off the bottle, washing it down with a little Cass beer. Needless to say in about 20 minutes I was wasted as can be. And it was 5:30 p.m. BUT, I was the MVP. We managed to stumble to the love motel (we being 6 of us or) which is the cheapest way to board in Korea besides jimjilbangs, or public saunas. Changed into halloween costumes (was a cowgirl, with the save from ben's cowboy hat!!!!!) and rolled over to BonBon for the party. Had some pizza, drank some beer, danced, flip-cupped, went back to the love motel, slept, played ultimate sunday afternoon.

No pictures. Sorry. I didn't take any.

So yeah, I've been busy busy busy with school and work and frisbee. It's been intense.

Did I mention that my students now swarm my desk and office before and after each class to talk to me and earn stamps to win a prize at the end of the semester? So, I spend probably an hour or more talking to my students and stamping their pairs in an assembly line style. It's good in the sense that more of my students are speaking English, but bad in the sense that the students who really want to learn english and came to my office to talk to me anyways no longer can do that. Instead, they are forced to wait in line and be rushed through. I feel bad for Sara and So-un and Audrey and Scarlett because I know they want to talk to me and they hardly get to at all. :-/ so it goes.

I hope I will be able to post soon about real things, not just the shallow day to day of my life.

xoxo,
A

p.s. I am going to Manila, the Philippines this weekend! OMG SO EXCITED. Keep your fingers crossed for the Korean Ultimate National Team (check the acronym), and hope hope hope that we get a bid to 2010 WORLDS in Prague. Seriously, that would be SO kick-ass.