T minus one day

Field trip...where there was nothing to do but look at this pond.


Oh my gosh I love this kid. He was hot and didn't have an umbrella
so he picked a leaf to shade himself with!


One of the most adorable boys ever


They love their stickers! They count as part of their "grade" so they
get really excited when they get some.


My co-teacher and our student Kate


The boys: practicing their song


And the girls!


Waiting in line! Probably getting in trouble...



Teaching the kids how to make cookies

Playing a game that Diana came up with


Teaching them how to "crack" eggs and "stir." New vocabulary!


Fighting over the last banana pancake! Rock-paper-scissors style.



Golden Bell. This symbol means "true."

Jason was one of the finalists in Golden Bell.
So proud of him! (this is the "false" symbol)


Roger and Transformer :)

Me and my lovely roommates! Me, Diana (also my co-teacher) and Moony.

Love this kid! (Roger)

Bumblebee thinking hard!

Me and Anne

Bumblebee...he did not want a picture taken!
He looks like a trouble maker, but is one of the
smartest kids in our class and so much fun.

Jason on the right is my student, I don't remember the other's name...

Cute :)

"Survival Games"

Chaos in the gym

Teachers goofing around

Today was the last day of actual teaching! Tomorrow we will have some games and testing and other activities for the kids, then the following day we all pack up and head out. It seems like this camp took forever to pass. But now that its the end, it seems like it flew by! I am so in love with my students and had a lot of fun teaching, although I'm as tired as I have ever been. It might be a little sad to say goodbye to these kids that I've bonded with and been inspired by, but I still am looking forward to coming home :)

Here are the Korean words/phrases I've learned so far during my stay (if you speak Korean, please ignore the phonetic spelling and horrific pronunciation):
Annyong haseyo (hello) (or just 'Annyong' if you're talking to a child)
Kamsahamnida (thank you)
Bali Bali! (Hurry!)
Ne (yes-pronounced like 'nay')
Anyi (no)
Man gi gi ma (don't touch me)
Piyante (pervert)
Hua jang shil (bathroom)
Opa (brother-used by females to refer to any male older than themselves)
Oma (mom-used by my students in reference to me cooking in an apron)
Annyong hikaseyo (goodbye-if you are leaving the other person)
Annyong hikayseyo (goodbye-if you are the one staying)
Hapyang (put your hands together in front of your chest-prayer position at the temple)
Pambay (bow)
Otokay (I have no idea what it means, but hear it all the time)
Assa! (awesome!)
Nakshi! ("Just kidding!" Actually, more like "psych!")
Hull ("wow" or any other equivalent utterance of amazement/shock/surprise/excitement)
Aish (kind of like "oh my gosh")

Amy teacher!

I have a pretty amazing class of 12 year olds here at the Jeollanamdo English Camp in Damyang, South Korea. Here is who I have:

Jason-super smart and adorable
Roger-cutest kid ever. So tiny and fiesty and funny.
Transformer-trouble maker
Bumblebee-partner in crime to the above....
Soap-pretty quiet guy but so cute!
Sarah-sweet and smart and good sense of humor.
Kate-very smart girl!
Anne-suuuuper quiet and shy and scared at first, but now she's having more fun!
Nero-is disabled in some way (has a back brace) and the kids are mean to her :(
Hot Dog-ATTITUDE!
Sophia-tiiiiny little adorable girl
Jane-quiet, but apparently quite a complainer in Korean

My homeroom class enjoying their ham and cheese sandwiches!

My co-teacher, Yunhee (Diana is her English name), is amazing. She speaks English nearly perfectly, is so sweet and works hard. Some co-teachers don't want to do anything so don't really help teach at all. But Yunhee is always coming up with ideas and helping lead the class and steps in whenever she needs to. We work quite well together! And we make some dang good banana pancakes.

So we teach six 40-minute classes per day. There are 12 classes total, and they rotate through our room. We have three lessons, so every two days we teach a new lesson. My class is cooking, so the first lesson was ham and cheese sandwiches. Next up was banana pancakes, and tomorrow the cookies begin. The lessons are technically already planned for us, but we try to make it a little more interactive and interesting. So we came up with some games for the sandwich lesson (a race to put the recipe in the correct order-nine different steps). The banana pancakes take a little longer, so there isn't much time for games. But we did introduce some new vocabulary that the book didn't mention. Things like eggshell, banana peel, pour, crack (asking a class of twelve year olds to repeat the word "crack" over and over just seemed wrong....but they just know it in reference to eggs!). The cookie lesson tomorrow will have to be modified as well I'm sure, but we kind of just do it as we go and figure it out. The first few classes don't get as fun of lessons for that reason, but they still get yummy food!

The kids here are so great. They love our cooking class, which makes me happy! And they just have so much fun. I fell in love with a little girl from another class named Lolly. She sat next to me during the soccer game we watched the other night, and talked nonstop. Most kids avoid speaking in English whenever they can. So when I find a kid who actually wants to practice their English and who isn't afraid to make mistakes, I get so excited! She told her homeroom teacher after the game all about her conversation with me and now makes sure to talk to me whenever she sees me.

There is another girl named U-jin who I'm pretty sure speaks better English than I do. I don't know where she learned it or how she speaks so perfectly, but its quite impressive. She doesn't even have an accent! English is quite different from Korean, if you weren't aware. The kids have a really hard time distinguishing between "L" and "R" and also between "P" and "F." So the word "pour" might come out "four" and the word "stir" might sound like "still." My co-teacher is really good about catching that and making them say it right. But they only have one symbol for those letters, and it gets pronounced differently depending on where it falls in a word. They don't have words that end in an "r" sound, it would always be pronounced "l." So they have a hard time with that!

Besides the six classes we teach each day, there are multiple meetings with our homeroom class to just hang out, to write journals, to practice for their skit at the end of camp (my kids are singing "Summer Nights" from Grease. That's what they get for not picking a song on their own. I am SO EXCITED! They might not share that feeling...), or to give instructions for the day. We have our meal times where we eat with the kids. Then there are the evening activities. My class won the scavenger hunt last night, which I was super excited about. And I may have questioned another team's score and double checked it (resulting in two less points for them) in order to win.....but the kids were so happy!

The kids call me "teacher" or "Amy teacher" or "Amy." They live for stickers. Will choose a sticker over candy EVERY time if given the choice. I love it when they forget I am a silly American teacher and they bow to me in greeting. This is something they would have to do to a normal teacher, but sometimes out of habit they just do it to us. They have crazy long days and must be even more exhausted than me, but still have such good attitudes for the most part and just power through no matter what. They are fascinated with my height. Even more fascinated than American kids. They looove rock-paper-scissors (kai-bai-bo or something in Korean), but their version is quite violent and sometimes causes tears to be shed. And they are just adorable and so smart and goofy!

I think I'm more tired than I ever have been in my life! And talking to Ben makes me miss him a whole lot. And videos from my amazing roommate Megan make me miss my apartment and my roommates. And pictures of Sierra and the family make me miss everyone else! I am preeetttty ready to be back home. There are four more days of camp. Then 5 days of traveling. Then home sweet home! Nine days never seemed so long...

I am having a good time and am glad I had this opportunity! But five weeks is a long time to be working 13 hour days and be away from a boyfriend and missing things back home! I will come away from this trip with lots of memories and having learned a lot. But I will also come away with it ready to stay home for a while :) But can I bring home a dozen or so 12 year old Koren kids with me?

XWAKÍN

Due to a request from grandma, here's an update on my teaching experience thus far! :)

So I've had two weeks of actual "teaching" so far, two times in each of my two classes. The teachers that I work with are so sweet and encouraging and they are fantastic teachers. And of course I love all of my students. There are the trouble makers, the cryers, the quiet ones, the loud ones...and I love them all equally!

Teaching any class for the first time, or any class at all, is difficult. But when you are teaching in a language that the students don't speak or understand, its nearly impossible. I am trying to come up with fun and creative things for the kids to do. But if it requires any verbal explanation of any sort, it won't work because they just don't get it.

Besides the fact that these kids are four years old and have endless energy, and that they don't want to quit talking long enough to listen, I'm just not that great at "classroom management." I'm not very loud and just always have a hard time getting a class to quiet down and pay attention to me. But I'm not worried, I'll learn my tricks and get it figured out :)

But until that happens....things can be a bit chaotic. Things have gone pretty well overall, although it gets a bit noisy at times. But we mostly just have fun and learn about bees and frogs and flowers.

The first day of teaching, I did an activity where the kids had to put stickers on a flower picture. Well, I probably should have given some more direction with this. After the finished putting the stickers on the paper, they decided they wanted some stickers on their shirts. Then on their faces. Then on the tables and floor and wall...I felt pretty bad when we were all done, both for the parents and for the janitors. There was kind of a mess for both parties to clean up. The next class, I told them the stickers were ONLY for the paper, so things went much smoother. I didn't actually think they would obey but they did really well. Except for the student who hid their extra stickers in their backpack to take home. The teacher called me over laughing while they were playing and showed me the stickers in the student's bag that she had discovered while putting a letter to the parents in it. At least they liked it...?

This past week was a different lesson. I don't have as much freedom in my lesson plans as I had thought I would, as they pretty much want me to stick with the plans in the activity book they use. But I have managed to take the plans and change them a little to make them more fun or easier to follow. On Thursday my professor came and observed my class and gave me some tips to make things even better for the upcoming week. This professor is amazing and is so good with kids and lesson plans. Definitely an amazing resource to have!

The kids seem to be having fun, even if they aren't paying attention to everything! They still get so excited when I get there and it just makes my heart melt! When I get there at their playtime, they are in the play yard with the younger kids (3-year-olds). There are a couple of the 3-year-olds who just run up to me and grab my hand and want besitos (kisses) and just hang around by me. There is one boy who always asks what class I'm going to that day. When I say the teacher's name he always says "nooo!" and tells me to come to his class. So. precious.

My last week of teaching (a short two weeks from now!), one of my classes will be taped. I'm pretty excited. Not because I want to see myself teaching. Or hear myself singing, as I have to do every class (I can't make myself sing very loud. I don't care that they are 4 years old. I don't want to torture them with my voice). But because I want to have a video of these adorable kids so I can remember them all and the fun I had!

My adorable Pablo still just steals my heart. Although the more time I spend in his class, the more I realize what a little trouble-maker he is. I can't blame him as I can't imagine having to sit through class all day every day when you can't hear or understand anything that is happening. Also, I think he's getting mad at me for not paying as much attention to him since I have to teach the class and not just hang out with him. He still loves to sit on my lap and talk to me, but he has started acting out a little more I think to get more attention. There's also still Sandra who tries to climb up my leg when I tell her I'm not going to pick her up right then. And there's Sergio Bautista and Sergio Cuevas, the little trouble-makers in my Thursday class who just want to talk and get extra smiley faces on their workbook pages. There is Nacho who just wants to be rowdy and fight and doesn't listen when he is reprimanded. Claudia who is beautiful and a know-it-all with a major attitude. Complete with head-shaking and everything. Irene who won't talk to the teachers or me and who cries and cries when her name tag has torn a little bit. Jose Joaqín who is such a beautiful little boy and who is sooooooo preppy I can't even believe it. And all the kids who I don't always remember the names of who just want to come sit by me or hold my hand or give me a shy smile. I adore them all.




Oh yeah, regarding the title. I have a class at the university that I absolutely love. It is Spanish Phonetics and Phonology. It sounds boring. And it could be horribly, dreadfully boring. But my professor is amazing and Sofie and I have a major crush on him. In this class we are learning how to transcribe things phonetically. Basically we are learning another language. For example, our professor's name, Joaquín, spelled phonetically, is [||xwakín||]. We decided we are going to embroider something for him with his named spelled phonetically and give it to him before we leave. Not really, but it would be amazing. Anyway, we go around now practicing pronouncing things and spelling things phonetically. The other day while walking to the colegio where we both teach our English classes, we were pronouncing random words out loud to practice. Reading signs, car makes, etc. And the guy walking in front of us looked back to see what the heck we were doing. I told him we were practicing....then we quickly walked away. Awkward!!!!!! Practice makes perfect, right?!?!

I fell in love. With Pablo, age 4.

Oh I adore him. This was the first week of our "practicum" for the Teaching Development Program. We will each spend 4 hours per week in a classroom at the Irlandesas school, helping teach English. The first five weeks will be spent "observing." We hang out with the kids, take notes on how the teacher ("seño," short for "señorita") does things, help wherever we are needed, and just have fun. I go in two days per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) for two hours each day (12-2pm). Tuesdays I am in María's class, who is just wonderful and sweet and energetic and fun. Thursdays I am in class with Mari-Carmen, who is sweet and organized and lovely and has endless patience with her crazy kids (I think she got the class full off the super-rambunctious ones). Each class has about 30 or so 4-year-old kids. They are all so lovely and sweet and fun and beautiful and energetic and smart and just amazing. And I don't want to play favorites. But......there's Pablo.

Let's start at the beginning. I went to the school on Tuesday to begin my first "shift." My class starts at noon, and from 11:30-12 the kids are outside at recess. So if I get there early, I just am supposed to go play with them. The "playground" at this school consists of a fenced-in area filled with yellow-y sand along with some primary-color-painted tires half-sticking-up out of the ground. Pretty much the kids just run around and yell and have fun. I walked in the first day and they weren't really sure what to think. At one point, this adorable little boy came up to me and started talking. He spoke very quietly and wouldn't really look at me. With all the noise in the play yard and his super-soft voice, I couldn't understand what he was asking so I kept asking him to repeat it. At one point I figured out he was asking how old I was. After a few minutes of me asking him to repeat himself, he walked away for a minute. At that point, his teacher came up to me and told me he was deaf. Well. That made much more sense. He's not completely deaf. He can hear you if you speak loudly, right into his ear. Which is how the other students talk to him when they want to.

Anyway, he just wouldn't give up! He came back over and just kind of stayed by my side until it was time to go back to class. He kept asking questions, I kept not knowing what he was saying. But he was just so cute I kept trying to understand. The kids loved playing in the sand. They would bring me handfuls, then put it on my leg...at one point, one of the boys showed me a stick he found. I started drawing in the sand with it and they wanted me to draw more things. Well, I'm not an artist. So a smiley face, a heart and a rainbow was about as creative as I got. Anyway, by the time we were done, my hands were filthy and my jeans were tinted yellow from the sand (thanks for doing my laundry, Angeles!)

So then, it was time to go to class. Pablo grabbed my hand as we walked up the stairs to the classroom. The kids all sat down in their chairs as María played some classical music to calm them down. When everyone was quiet and still, she turned the music off and they moved to the corner of the room and sat down in a circle. I joined them in the circle (amongst the sand covering the ground that they had dragged in) as we played some games, sang some songs, and learned some English vocab. All the while, Pablo was sitting right next to me. Every time we moved, he made sure he was right next to me. After all the lessons, it was time to play again. Each child gets to choose the area of the room they want to play in. María calls them one by one, and they tell her where they want to play. When Pablo's turn came around, he just said he wanted to play with me. Oh it just melted my heart. So we played with some play-doh.

Today I went to the second class. The kids were playing outside again (though I didn't get there as early as I was hoping to avoid the filthy, sandy pants again), so I joined them. This time, I knew a little better who some of the kids were. The kids I didn't recognize, I knew would be in my class today. Again, there was another little boy who kind of latched onto me. José Joaquin. Super-cute. He was quite talkative. Again, hard to understand with all the noise going on. And my lack of fluency in his language. But he was showing off his knowledge of English to me, naming all the colors he saw. I met a few of the other kids in my class, then it was time once again to go in. But not before Pablo found me. He came running up so excited and grabbed my hand and started talking. We walked upstairs and got to the door of his classroom. He would not let go of my hand. I told him that I was in the other class today. That I would be back in his class next week. But he wasn't letting go. He just kept holding on until his teacher pulled him away. I almost cried. Not really. (But really.)

Now, like I said, all the kids are incredible. There is a little girl named Claudia who is just beautiful and who would just come up and squeeze me as hard as she could and kiss my cheek. There is Daniel, who is perhaps the tiniest 4-year-old I have ever seen. He's so little! There is Sergio, who is a little trouble-maker. There is a little girl who will not speak to teachers. She speaks to other students, but won't talk to teachers. And there are 50-some other kids who are just fantastic and who I can't wait to get to know better and teach English to.

But still, there's Pablo. If I come back to the states in December claiming to have gotten pregnant and given birth to a 4-year-old deaf boy during my four months in Spain, it's because I couldn't bear to leave him and I brought him back with me. Just be warned.