As of today I've been in Hwacheon for exactly one week. Last week I first visited the school and met my students on Thursday but I didn't really teach until Monday. I teach five 5th grade classes and five 6th grade classes and meet each class twice a week. Unlike other ETAs, I am fortunate to teach all 20 classes a week with the same co-teacher, the wonderful Soo Jin. This allows me to hopefully be more effective because we will both get to know each other's expectations and teaching personas. For now I am mainly teaching the pronunciation parts of the lessons and orchestrating the games while Soo Jin covers the grammar and vocabulary because normally Korean is required in these parts of the lesson. I am still definitely settling into what Soo Jin wants from me but my lessons have gone really well so far. Today we played a fly swatter game at the end of the class where the students had to decide which picture of me best matched the sentence. They loved it- especially the Face in the Hole pictures I made!
One of the projects I am most excited for this year is a letter writing project I am starting with all of my students. Every week I will give all of my fifth and sixth grade students a letter topic and they will be expected to respond and put the letter in my mailbox. The first letter is just introducing themselves and I've already received a few back. The responses have been so heartwarming but also humorous. One girl addressed me as 'New York's Angel' and told me 'she wants to know me deeply'. Another student invited me to her house to learn to cook Korean food with her mother. Since I have nearly 300 students I can't respond to each letter but I'm planning on responding to each student after they write three letters. They will also receive a prize for writing 10 letters. Sadly, I will need to use incentives for almost everything I assign, including homework because the students are so overworked and pressured to achieve. The students know English Class is not graded and they therefore slack off in my class first. As frustrating as it may get I am striving to not take the lack of participation as a lack of interest because my home stay brother is a sixth grader and I witness how much his parents pressure him every single day. My brother frequently stays up until 11 or so studying and he remains at the library after school everyday until 7 studying. It is unbelievable how nervous he already is about gaining acceptance to a top University.
I am very excited to see how my first few weeks continue to shape up. Tomorrow is my first 회식, or teachers' dinner. We are going to a restaurant in Chuncheon to say goodbye to teachers who are transferring schools. In Korea it is normal for a large number of teachers to leave at the start of every semester because the teachers are mandated to rotate schools every few years. I am excited to be able to interact with my teachers in a more casual setting but most likely the conversation will only be in English to humor Amy and I for a total of five minutes, if that.
Anways, I also attached a page with my address here in South Korea. The address I posted will be good until I return home next July.
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