This upcoming weekend may be the first in a long time that neither of us has been sick. There have been a lot of seasonal colds going around, and all the kids and teachers in the school have been hacking and sneezing for weeks.
Yesterday we had a fun morning. Ben and I wanted to buy doughnuts for everyone at work, so we left early and caught a bus. About 3/4ths of the way there, we hear a car honking loudly nearby. Apparently our bus cut someone off in a turning lane (it happens a lot), so the driver of the car got angry and swerved into the lane in front of us and stopped.
Unsurprisingly, the bus hit the car.
It was interesting to watch how calmly the Koreans on the bus (even the bus driver) handled the situation. I imagine that if we were in America, there would be some very angry, very loud passengers. Instead, the Korean passengers just sat quietly and attentively until the bus driver told us what to do. He called another bus to come pick us up, and we transferred with little fuss. It was all very civilized. All of this took about 5-10 minutes, so even though we were in a wreck... we still managed to get doughnuts and coffee.
Win.
Tomorrow is field trip day at school! We will be taking the kindies to an astronomy center, so I think that will be a lot of fun. Monthly tests are later this week, too, so we won't be teaching a whole lot for the rest of a week. That's good. We could use the rest.
There's more to tell, but we have to go to work now. I hope all of you are doing well!
<3
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
A new semester already!
Wow. We have been here for a month and a half already. It's mind-boggling how quickly time has flown, isn't it?
Last week was fairly easy for us at Welton School. We taught for only half the week. Thursday was a national holiday (and Ben's birthday!), so we got to stay home. Friday we went to work, but we only had to decorate our classrooms. I tied for best decorated (with Ben's help)!
Monday marked the start of a new semester for us and the kids. Our seven-year-old classes from last semester graduated, so now my old class is a seven-year-old class, and we have a bevy of new six-year-olds who don't speak a lick of English.
I got to stay with my homeroom class from last month, but now I'm down to just seven students. That's fine with me! Less homework to grade and more one-on-one time with them. For my afternoon kindergarten class, I get to spend two whole hours with the brand new six-year-olds. They're really cute, but I have one whose mom is "famous" in Korea, and she can be a little, well... entitled. It's a struggle to get her to understand that she has to stay in her seat, much less pay attention in class.
With my new six-year-olds, I've adopted a "star" system of reward and discipline. They start out with a number of stars, and if they do something that breaks the rules (get up without permission, hit, talk excessively in Korean--still working on that one, or disobey), I make a loud buzzer sound and take away a star. Call it my version of operant conditioning. I guess I was wrong when I said I would never use my psychology degree!
In the afternoons, hardly any of the teachers have breaks. We have many more elementary students signed up for this semester, so our class sizes are larger, and we have more classes. I teach four elementary classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and five on Tuesday and Thursday. Needless to say, by the end of today we will be ready to crash.
The high point of this week was speaking with my boss about my teaching style. He sat in and observed two classes of mine yesterday (one kindy and one elementary), and I was concerned as I had never received any feedback from him. He had almost entirely positive comments for me! I feel much better about how I manage my classroom now, and he even called our recruiter to thank him for introducing us to him.
So all in all, a fairly good week.
Take care everyone.
Rebekah
Last week was fairly easy for us at Welton School. We taught for only half the week. Thursday was a national holiday (and Ben's birthday!), so we got to stay home. Friday we went to work, but we only had to decorate our classrooms. I tied for best decorated (with Ben's help)!
Monday marked the start of a new semester for us and the kids. Our seven-year-old classes from last semester graduated, so now my old class is a seven-year-old class, and we have a bevy of new six-year-olds who don't speak a lick of English.
I got to stay with my homeroom class from last month, but now I'm down to just seven students. That's fine with me! Less homework to grade and more one-on-one time with them. For my afternoon kindergarten class, I get to spend two whole hours with the brand new six-year-olds. They're really cute, but I have one whose mom is "famous" in Korea, and she can be a little, well... entitled. It's a struggle to get her to understand that she has to stay in her seat, much less pay attention in class.
With my new six-year-olds, I've adopted a "star" system of reward and discipline. They start out with a number of stars, and if they do something that breaks the rules (get up without permission, hit, talk excessively in Korean--still working on that one, or disobey), I make a loud buzzer sound and take away a star. Call it my version of operant conditioning. I guess I was wrong when I said I would never use my psychology degree!
In the afternoons, hardly any of the teachers have breaks. We have many more elementary students signed up for this semester, so our class sizes are larger, and we have more classes. I teach four elementary classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and five on Tuesday and Thursday. Needless to say, by the end of today we will be ready to crash.
The high point of this week was speaking with my boss about my teaching style. He sat in and observed two classes of mine yesterday (one kindy and one elementary), and I was concerned as I had never received any feedback from him. He had almost entirely positive comments for me! I feel much better about how I manage my classroom now, and he even called our recruiter to thank him for introducing us to him.
So all in all, a fairly good week.
Take care everyone.
Rebekah
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