I have landed
Sorry for the lack of updates - at the moment lesson planning and school is taking up all my time. But I'm getting the hang of it, and should be able to have more free time once I catch the knack of lesson planning and no longer have to spend an hour and a half preparing a forty minute class.
Briefly: I'm safely landed on the outskirts of Gumi in a lovely inner-city suburb called Bonggok which is filled with parks, restaraunts and trees. My flat is new, clean, and while not large is not ridiculously cramped, either. Ten minutes by bus to school, ten minutes to downtown Gumi, which is a really fun and lively city centre. The downtown centres on Gumi Station. Gumi Station is on the Gyeongbu line, which goes from one end of South Korea to the other, passing through all the biggest cities - Seoul, Daegu, Busan. By high-speed train, if you want to pay for that. Very lucky for me.
I teach three classes - Grades 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6. 1/2 are sweet, good and shy. 3/4 are noisy and competitive and go crazy for games. 5/6 cause me problems - they are too cool for school and just want to talk to each other and use their mobile phones. I gave up halfway through today's attempt at a lesson plan with them, and instead sat down with them and got them to ask me questions, and I asked them questions. Trying to figure out what they were interested in learning, and teach English by natural conversation. That went better, so I'll try that for ten minutes in each class with them. They're almost teenagers and have that attitude - pseudo-tough, but in fact very young. They all want to travel overseas and none of them have been anywhere, so I think I'll concentrate on functional, travel English and see if they're interested in that.
They're all really likable in different ways. I just want to figure out how to get through to the 5/6ers.
Here are the 3/4 kids going crazy before class today. They come running in twenty minutes before the lesson starts and start playing with everything - powerpoint presentations, the furniture, my camera. They jabber at me in Korean. Then when class starts they sit quietly down in their seats. At least for a couple of minutes, until they start getting bored again. How insanely great is the English room where I teach? Actually two rooms, class room and fun room. This video doesn't even show the "cafeteria" section of the fun room.
And some photos I like:
More on my week and landing in Gumi soon, I promise.
Briefly: I'm safely landed on the outskirts of Gumi in a lovely inner-city suburb called Bonggok which is filled with parks, restaraunts and trees. My flat is new, clean, and while not large is not ridiculously cramped, either. Ten minutes by bus to school, ten minutes to downtown Gumi, which is a really fun and lively city centre. The downtown centres on Gumi Station. Gumi Station is on the Gyeongbu line, which goes from one end of South Korea to the other, passing through all the biggest cities - Seoul, Daegu, Busan. By high-speed train, if you want to pay for that. Very lucky for me.
I teach three classes - Grades 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6. 1/2 are sweet, good and shy. 3/4 are noisy and competitive and go crazy for games. 5/6 cause me problems - they are too cool for school and just want to talk to each other and use their mobile phones. I gave up halfway through today's attempt at a lesson plan with them, and instead sat down with them and got them to ask me questions, and I asked them questions. Trying to figure out what they were interested in learning, and teach English by natural conversation. That went better, so I'll try that for ten minutes in each class with them. They're almost teenagers and have that attitude - pseudo-tough, but in fact very young. They all want to travel overseas and none of them have been anywhere, so I think I'll concentrate on functional, travel English and see if they're interested in that.
They're all really likable in different ways. I just want to figure out how to get through to the 5/6ers.
Here are the 3/4 kids going crazy before class today. They come running in twenty minutes before the lesson starts and start playing with everything - powerpoint presentations, the furniture, my camera. They jabber at me in Korean. Then when class starts they sit quietly down in their seats. At least for a couple of minutes, until they start getting bored again. How insanely great is the English room where I teach? Actually two rooms, class room and fun room. This video doesn't even show the "cafeteria" section of the fun room.
And some photos I like:
More on my week and landing in Gumi soon, I promise.
posted by Nicholas at
6:33 AM
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