"And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physcial expression, go out and explore... Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say, 'What is the use?' For we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year. And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: that is worth a great deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg."

-Apsley Cherry-Garrard, from
The Worst Journey in the World



Sunday, 12 September 2010




So after the last post my parents think I am on drugs SO to maybe give a more realistic and detailed perspective on what has been happening I am going to upload millions of photos to show (rather than describe :S) what is occuring here :D.


Last week I had my grade 6 class last thing on a Thursday and the computer went down so my lesson plan was sort of thrown out the window as I couldn't upload all the stuff I wanted the kids to have. Improvisation has been a current theme for the entire week I think and last week I managed to create the 'RollerCoaster' game where the kids have three catergories of 'Emotion', 'Noise Level' (1= very quite, 10= SHOUTING) and direction (up, down, left, right, crazy right, crazy left, upside down...etc). So I got them sitting in pairs and drew a rollercoaster on the board, numbering the changes so they knew where they were, and we acted out the ride using the three catergories so they knew what to do. It went down SO WELL!! Later I used it on the 5th graders and they loved it so much. Anyway, reason I say this is that the reason the 6th graders did so well was because we had the ultimate warm up session to begin with.... called Taxi.


There are four chairs in the layout of a car and teacher is the driver. Teacher sets the emotion (happy, sad, scared, excited, bored, sleepy, crazy..etc) and drives in that emotion until a kid shouts 'TAXI!'. Taxi pulls over and the kid gets in and says 'I am HAPPY!', then the taxi drives with everybody acting out happy. The 6th graders were wayyyy to embarressed to do it so I had to be UBER enthusiastic about it which resulted in them crying from laughing so much and favourite sentences such as 'Simon teacher crazy crazy!!!' but boy did they do a good job of being on a rollercoaster afterwards. Whilst I was in orientation one of our lecturers gave us a quote,

"The greatest dances in the world are not judged by thier techniques, but by thier passion"


This quote really has had such an influence in the classroom. My 'techniques' really don't exist so much at the moment as I don't 100% know what I am doing really; however I'm hoping that in the next few weeks the technique will meet the passion and they will form perfect harmony to create the best English lessons EVER!!! So far as the passion goes, my co-teacher says that all of the kids have said that I have more energy than the last teacher, but when the kids say energy, I really think they are saying crazy. Either way it gets them motivated.... and me totally exhausted. Just teaching 'Seasons' to grades 1 and 2 on Friday resulted in everybody rolling around on the floor. In that class three girls said they were going to the toilet and didn't come back until 5mins before the end of the lesson.... hopefully they will be in tears when everybody gets a sticker on Wednesday apart from them, or at the very least they will look really really sad.









Every day has been up and down so far... generally speaking the younger kids have got more attitude than the older ones, but with the introduction of a sticker chart they have been on form. My favourite kid at the moment is 'Spongebob 2' because with everything he does, he manages to incorporate a spongebob into it, or at the very least a floating jelly fish on a picture. Some days my classes will double in number and other days they halve. Korean kids are pretty hard to keep interested if you don't have a constant flow of technology for them to look at and your not jumping in the air or running around the room.


One thing which is making me more happy than any other level of happiness is the food here. I'll start taking some pictures so you know what I'm on about. Meal times are always worth looking forward to but here I will go to school early just to get fed Korean food. It's not a matter of all your food on one plate; it is spread out on up to 10 other side dishes where you pick and choose what you want to go with your main meal. I went to a Korean class in Jejusi yesterday and we get a free meal at a restaurant after the class, which consisted of smoked duck, regular duck in lettuce pancakes followed by duck soup. Also its kinda cooked but they put it on a grill for you to finish cooking to whatever standard you like. All the food is so varied here and so so SO healthy. I eat so much but manage to lose weight somehow?!


I haven't even said who I'm living with I don't think? There is 5 of us together; 1 Aussie, 1 American and three Brits (inclusive of me). Perfect Harmony. Beach infront of my window and a volcano behind WHICH I'm hoping to climb in a month with my co-teacher. It's the highest point in South Korea and has the only natural lake in South Korea on top of it. Anywhere you go on the island you can see the Volcano. Also with reference to the beaches here, there are actually only a few considering its an island. The main coastline here is solidified lava so we are seriously lucky to have a beach 4mins cycle from our house. Seriously lucky.

It's taking about 10mins to load each photo now and its gettin late so am gonna finish em tommore.

GOODNIGHT :D

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