Whoa, really sorry for the delay guys.
I'm currently on my 2nd day of vacation.
In Jeju.
About to get hit by a typhoon--Typhoon Nakri.
Good times.
Anyway, I'm visiting the institute I used to work in, since I'm not meeting anyone yet. So I figured I could take advantage of this time to update my blog.
So yeah . . . where was I . . . ah yes: Summer District Camp at Welli Hilli Resort in Dunnae (not too far from Hoengseong). It was 3 days and 2 nights of English and other activities with 48 3rd-year middle schoolers, 48 6th-year elementary students, 10 Native English teachers (myself included), and several teachers and administration personnel.
I must admit, it was better than I thought.
The elementary and middle school students divided evenly.
Just chatting away, waiting for the program to begin.
Ice-breaking with a song.
Everyone trying to follow along with the motions.
Some like it, some don't.
Ok, now we have some volunteers.
It was nice and lively.
Alright, even more volunteers.
You're enjoying it, admit it!
Hmm, attractive cap.
Proud teacher with her student.
Hmm, looks different from what I remember.
Another ice-breaker. The room is divided into 2 groups. Group 1 takes off a shoe and leaves it on a pile in the center. Group 2 takes a shoe, finds the owner, and introduces themselves--in English.
What a good sport!
Okay, not it's Group 1's turn to pick a shoe and introduce themselves.
One teacher makes sure the shoes are really mixed in.
My only student in the entire camp.
I was told none of my 4 eligible schools were going to send their students.
Surprise! One obviously did--oh, and this is the only student too.
Oh! Let's ride the gondola!
Back of the resort from the gondola.
Going up, with a nasty scratched-up window.
From the top of the mountain, where we got off the gondola.
Too bad it was too hazy to get a good view.
The resort/hotel where we were staying and having our respective classes.
Gondola traffic.
The garden on top of the mountain.
Mountain yellow.
Among their own.
A map of the mountain, ski paths, the resort in general, etc.
Just a few moments later, most of the EPIK teachers got on and took a picture. I was enjoying the breeze from a nearby gazebo with another teacher.
In case you needed to have your bearings about you and know where certain cities/places are.
From the gazebo.
Blasted haze.
The view of the mountain from my "classroom" (hotel room converted into a temporary classroom).
Again, the gondola stop up top.
Oh! A zip-line!
I was told by someone who went on it that it was severely lacking in thrills. Like a "baby ride".
Wouldn't know. Ended up not getting to go.
This must be where some ski down in the winter.
I've never seen a ski slope in the summer/without snow.
Chairlifts over green lush grass.
Oh yeah, the actual teaching . . .
All the Native English teachers were divided into teaching Speaking or Writing for either Elementary or Middle. I did a writing lesson for the Elementary students. There were 48 students divided into 6 groups of 8 students each. Same for the middle school students. We teachers prepared a 2 hour lesson that we would teach to each group. So we taught the same thing 6 times to 6 different groups of students. Not bad, not bad at all.
I actually enjoyed this a tad bit more than my regular classes. For one, everything was prepared and I knew what I had to do. Second, I could have a better idea when I needed to compare the different groups. Some were struggling in English, and some could write almost-perfect paragraphs in English without any problem or prompting.
Here are pictures from one of the six groups:
I needed to divide the class into 2 groups for this activity. This activity introduces the use of "I want to . . . because . . . ".
There are 2 piles: the "I want to . . ." pile and the "because . . ." pile. They have to grab one card from each pile and read them together. The two cards usually don't fit, but that's the idea--to make a crazy sentence. In each class, I had a group that had "I want to go to Australia because it is delicious." All the kids got a good laugh from that.
Oh, and this was just 1 of the activities I prepared for them.
The boys reading their crazy sentences.
Now it's time to write about their dream vacation (or maybe it's one of the activity worksheets). There's the Korean teacher helping them out. She was nice and really helpful.
Last day: Golden Bell (popular Korean quiz game show) competition.
I arrived tardy, given that I heard several theories of when we had to get our stuff out of our rooms. So I decided to take my stuff out and put them where everyone put theirs. By the time I arrived, they had already started. It wasn't til at the last question that I was told I was supposed to be "mentoring my group." I have a group? I was supposed to do what again? But it's over now, so why bother to tell me?
Oh Korea . . .
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