Winter Camp -

I have 8 days of Winter camp, and as I wait for my roommate to prepare for our Journey to Daegu, I'll tell you what I've done so far. You might think some of its fun, educational and/or unearned me-time.  The first day was Christmas Eve so I sported my Christmas vest for what's felt like the millionth time and we did Christmas stuff: read the Polar Express, wrap some presents, do a word search, make ornaments out of geometric patterns, and take some pictures. I had the idea that they could take a family-type photo but that didn't happen. Instead they made a tower of presents more than once and knocked it down every time. We played hangman to wind down the day, which ends at 12:10.

Following day was Christmas, so everybody had a vacation. The following day we watched Monsters Inc. which was a really frustrating setup. The TV was older than most of the others in the school and could not read the disc properly. So it was in black and white with colors pushed up half way up the screen. Obviously  subtitles didn't work either, or ever for that matter, so they watched it in Korean. The following days we did some rhyming activities and read a couple stories saturated in rhymes (special shout-out to Dr. Seuss) and the Monorail song from the Simpsons. On the last day we kept on rhyming made trail mix which was a big hit, and then just a bunch of games: hot seat, 7 up, hangman, and what's wrong with this picture.

Working with these kids was a ton of fun because of their energy and the fact they bought into most of the things I gave them. The major challenge was channeling their energy into something productive, but during their break times I gave some of the boys and girls team-building tasks and seeing them work through that as  team was really exciting.  

Tower of Presents

The following week I had a different set of kids. It wasn't really a set this time; it was two timid girls for 3 of the 4 days. It was a completely different experience, going from a bunch of off-the-wall 4th Grade boys to 2-3 Grade 6 girls. Classroom management was not needed. All they did was giggle and only one would say, "We are very smart, hee hee hee." They were and I thought it would be a very boring time because they seemed very grade-orientated. This wasn't the case, the first afternoon they did finger painting and straw painting and went absolutely nuts, but in a controlled manner. Nothing spilled, no stained clothes, and they even helped clean up! They just laughed the whole time, there was no method to their work just trying to get as many bright colours on the page as possible. The next three days went by smoothly I gave them tasks where they could work together because these friends seemed attached at the hip as most girls are with their best friend. 

Finger Painting

When I worked with my Grade 6 co-teacher, I become the Enunciator, I merely pronounce single words, not even phrases, and the students repeat after me. I feel I don't get to know any of the students on a personal level unless they are remedial, which is incredibly stupid because I can barely speak Korean and they barely speak English, so this style is a joke. At the beginning of this past week I didn't recognize these two girls, and never knew their personality. I'm sure its different in a classroom setting, but still there isn't even any participation in my Grade 6 classes, so how would I know. This Wicked Witch of a co-teacher has sucked the life out of these kids and I doubt they have any interest in English after this year; precisely why I'm going to try and reestablish myself as a teacher and not just a voice to repeat after once the winter break is over. This could be an actual resolution people!