Saturday 28 November 2015

Lunch

Today I went to a restaurant/lunch place that I hadn't been to before.

I knew that they served pork cutlets, but, fortunately, they also served fish cutlets, as that is what I was in the mood for:



The food was good, but I didn't eat the white bread toast.

Saturday 21 November 2015

Minibooks

Our English academy is shifting into minibook mode, one of the two large projects that we do every year (the other is presentations in the summer).

For the last two days all of my classes have been writing, creating cover and contents pages, coloring, etc.

I have been especially happy with the younger kids as they have shown a lot of enthusiasm and have spoken English in classes while completing their work.

We have more classes this semester doing writing books, so they have already written (and, in many classes, typed) texts that can be incorporated into the minibooks.

I hope to add more about this later, hopefully with some pictures.

Saturday 14 November 2015

A Surprise Class Trip

On Friday evening, in one of my favorite classes, the six girls (5th grade; usually there are seven, but one went on a trip to Jeju) were their characteristic chatty and happy selves.

However, two of them asked me for food and said they were so hungry.

A plan formed in my mind:

1. I had hungry students (aren't they always?)

2. We did not have a lot of book work to do (very unusual)

3. I had a cup of coins that had been stacking up for a year

So I went and got the coin cup, took it to class, and started counting out piles of 1,000 won/$1.

One girl asked another, "What's this?"

Another other girl responded, "It's a game!"

I didn't say anything, just checked their notebooks as they finished the evening's writing assignment.

Then I stood up from my desk and said, "Yes, it is a game.  The game is to go to the mart (convenience store) and buy a snack.  Each student gets one pile of coins."

A student said, "Really?"

"Yes," I said, "Get your coins, grab your jacket, and let's go!"

"Really?"

For context, we very rarely do things like this at my academy, and I had never taken these girls outside before, as we are too busy studying English and doing book work.  Two of the girls I have taught for 1 and 1/2 years and have never taken them out before.  However, they are great kids--they always do their homework, never complain about the workload, are are always bright and cheerful--so I like to reward them sometimes.  (When they do start singing K-pop songs, however, I tell them that they have to sing in English.)

As I walked toward the elevator they still didn't believe me.

"Teacher, are we going to the mart?  Is it true?"

They were excited, and they made me feel happy that I had decided to act on a whim.

So we went to the convenience store (less than a block away), where the Korean clerk watched with interest as I told my six Korean girls in English to quickly choose a snack.

They paid up with their coins, and then we returned to class to finish a worksheet that I had prepared for them.

All the while they kept saying, "Teacher, really, really thank you!" which was useful in prompting me to remind them to say "Thank you very much!"

A few of them were so happy that they said they would write about the experience in their diaries (that they write for weekend homework).

 I'm looking forward to reading the diaries on Monday.

Maybe I should do this more often--?

Pastry Pizza

Friday's lunch:


Very good!

(But definitely not healthy.)

Saturday 7 November 2015

Short Films

The first short film is a horror/comedy about snails.  Some of my students didn't like it; they used the words "dirty" and "disgusting".  However, I think it is quite well done (5 Min.):

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2015/10/29/escargore/



Film 2 (3 min.):

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2015/11/04/rays-big-idea/

Sunday 1 November 2015

Halloween

On Thursday and Friday we had a Halloween party for our students.  There were four theme rooms, including "Pin the heart/pumpkin on the skeleton":


The kids really enjoyed it, but they were so loud (they practiced "left, right, up, down") that I had to start telling them "No crazy yelling" because my ears were physically hurting.

The students also did a skeleton treasure hunt, face painting, and dead witch's body (feeling the icky stuff).

For the first time we rented a popcorn machine


which was a big hit, except that there was a lot of spillage to clean up, and, soon after starting it up on Thursday, it smoked and caused the building's fire alarm to go off.

However,  all's well that end's well, and this Halloween was a good one!