We have now officially been in Korea for one month. It's hard to believe, actually. Time has flown by.
Here's a short summary of what we've done since the beginning of August.
-Said goodbye to family and friends and made the 11 hour flight to Seoul, Korea.
-Moved into our little apartment, which is feeling more and more like home.
-Attended numerous training sessions to learn how to use our ESL curriculum, Grapeseed.
-Started attending Jubilee Church.
-Began teaching all of our classes. We have two classes of kindergarten each in the morning (3 hours total), a two and a half hour break to eat lunch and prepare for class and two classes of elementary school children each in the afternoon (3 hours total).
-Learned how to use the subway and started learning bus routes.
-Found the closest McDonalds's to our house, but gave up finding White Spot.
-Discovered that I (Karmen) don't really like anchovies.
Here are some things that you can help us with/ pray for.
Pray for:
-Friendships. We have started to meet some people in our area, which has been great! The small group we have signed up for starts next Sunday. Pray that it will be a place of encouragement and friendship. Some days we feel the absence of family, friends and church family strongly (is that good English? Strongly?).
-Patience. Believe it or not, Korean students are pretty much the same as Canadian students. Our classes all seem to be going through a phase of testing to see where our boundaries are as teachers. This makes for some frustrating moments.
-Energy. School days can be long and tiring. We want to be able to give our last classes of the day the same attention and attitude that we give our first ones.
You can help us by:
-Sending us recipes/meal ideas. Because we only have one burner in our apartment, we have been at a loss as to what to make for dinner every night. We've eaten more peanut butter, toast, chips and salsa than is probably healthy.
-Ideas for classroom management/ games that would work for elementary-aged kids (whose English is limited). I know that there a few teachers and mothers out there with a wealth of knowledge that we would love to tap into.
PS- A big thank you for reading our humble blog. We always feel blessed by comments and messages we get from you all!
One classroom management idea I have used frequently, and works great for kids who don't know the language or can't seem to listen even if they know the language, is a quick game of "Do what I do." I use this a lot with our carpet time. So I do a lot of things with my hands and the kids copy. Put them up, put them down, cross them in front (great for mental dexterity as this is often difficult for kids), make a funny face, etc. The kids love it and the ones who aren't listening soon want to join in the fun. Of course, half the fun is staying silent, especially if I get a little silly. The final move for them to copy is always putting my hands in my lap, and then you have them ready to listen and learn again. :) Hope it works for you, too!
ReplyDeleteHey Greg & Karmen! It's awesome to hear that you were able to find a small group already!! Yay! :)
ReplyDeleteThinking about English classroom exercises... all I can think about is when we took French every day we had a routine where the teacher would have a visual of a calendar, and different pictures of weather (sunshine, clouds, rain) and every morning we would recite after her, "Today is (Tuesday, September 10th.) Yesterday was (Monday, September 9th), Tomorrow is _____. Today the weather is (cloudy!)...." you get the point! Is this too advanced for your Elementary class? I just remember the teacher had flash cards/visual with the french spelling underneath for just about EVERYTHING. And we ALWAYS had to repeat after her. Another idea is Bingo! cards. You can make up Bingo cards for just about everything, whether they are with pictures or words. Don't be discouraged - I'm sure the kids love you both! If you google "TESOL Elementary/Kindergarten exercises" you'll probably get lots of ideas there too.
For food.... could you maybe get a slow cooker? That way meals could be ready for you by the time you get home from school?
Food ideas?! Now that's something I can handle! Perhaps a stir fry (with anchovies?), pancakes, noodles with sauces/veggies, one pot lasagna. Macaroni, spagetti, soup! Just google Kraft canada for one pot recipes..then use real ingredients instead of salad dressing and cream cheese. Do you have a toaster oven, oven or crockpot? That would expand ideas exponentially! YOu can cook almost anything in a crockpot!
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw this summary I thought it would be perfect to have it published in the Emmanuel church newsletter, so I've just sent it to the church office to go in the October issue. I'm enjoying reading your blog, and of all the blogs I subscribe to I think yours is about the most well done.
ReplyDeleteStan Olson