Videos of my students XD

So today I just started carrying my camera around with me in the hallways and almost at the end of the day i started taking videos while walking along...I wanted to record the kinds of things I see everyday walking between classes lolol. The first video is just that, walking back to my desk after my last class, but the next two are ones i took while purposely wandering the halls with my camera XD All in all, fun times.

This was towards the end of the day though, so the students were probably more active than they would have been in the morning, but this is the best time anyway ;D
Oh, also I told them all i was taking the video for my mom...felt like that would make them more willing to talk to the camera than if i'd said: "I'm taking this video to show all my foreign friends what korean school children are like." ...but who knows, that might have worked too...

Next I'll get some pictures up that I took with some of them lol


Video 1: "Walking downstairs after class"


Video 2: "Random hallway happenings pt. 1"


Video 3: "Random hallway happenings pt. 2"

buahahahaaa, i had great fun with this, and with the pictures i took, which will come next time lolz. Some of them are just such camera lovers, girls AND boys XD

I feel so accomplished now having finally used my camera ;D NOT TO MENTION actually posting it online. wow...go me >D


X3

Wait...vacation's over now?

Sooo...it's the last day of my week long vacation, and in all my extra time this week I've...posted nothing. XD


But it's been a relaxing week. Finally got to sleep in, cleaned my house, got some food/things for my place, blah blah blah. It was very nice. X3 And of course I hung out with any other epik teachers that were still in the area. We went up to the fortress that's in Cheongju and hiked around the mountain there, it was really nice, and the weather was beautiful. Sunny, but cool and not humid...unlike seoul where it was apparently typhooning and flooding...lol, I mean of course I'm sorry there was so much rain that some of the subways had to be shut down and cars looked like they were fording rivers and all that jazz...but really on the inside I was like:

Cause in Cheongju the sun was shining and the skies were blue...lolol

Anyway, I have pics from the hiking...in my camera...somewhere far away...
So those pics will come..later :P wow i'm so lazy... -__- Oh well! lol

So last night I went with a friend to explore some local bars in the downtown area. This, of course, is very important and necessary.


Apparently someone at the bar had a birthday, so at one point all the lights went out except for some flashing club-style lights and happy birthday music started playing...not REALLY unusual, just slightly different from the US i'd say, and the girl had a cake with candles and blew them out, etc etc.

Then this waiter comes out with a tray with a glass...stein...something with beer in it, and a shot glass with some red liquid in it. The lights are still off except for the club lights and now a strobe light @__@ Anyway, I saw this guy, the waiter, seem to chug some drink and was in the middle of commenting on it, when he suddenly BLEW HELLA FIRE at the tray in his other hand and lit the shot on fire. It was really...like a huge cloud of flame...So of course, after the initial shock I was all:


THEN he blew the shot out, plopped it in the beer glass, and topped the whole thing off with soju before handing it to this girl. And of course all of this was done without spilling a drop. Then the whole bar started chanting "one shot! one shot!" and this girl chugged the whole thing XD ...then the lights came back on and things went back to normal, but it was just...so much MORE than i would have expected for a birthday...even after a while I was still quite impressed lol


but uh...yeah. There's a story for you ;D To make things better we saw a guy on the street selling little rabbits for 500 won, or like...50 cents O__O They were verrrry cute. And then I won a toy out of a crane game machine 'cause i'm amazing. ;D

anyway...school again tomorrow...My students will either be like this:


Or they'll be like this:


Depends on their moods...first day back from vacation...who knows o___o

oh uniforms...

Some of the students started wearing their autumn uniforms today. Basically just add a navy sweater vest and tie to the summer uniforms. XD Though, the girls' skirts also seem to be a slightly different color, a darker color.

Can't wait to see them all wearing them....also can't wait to see the winter uniforms X3

Sometimes I wish I had a uniform to wear too...SOMETIMES. It's just cause i'm lazy and would like to not have to think about what i'm wearing everyday :P

PS: did i mention the tie was pink? lol

EDIT: Ok, i was wrong about the uniforms. First of all, the sweater vest is black, not navy, and it has a pink stripe around the collar, second the shirt is long sleeved and doesn't have the blue plaid trim, third the tie is pink and black and white striped and the skirt, in the girls' cases isn't blue plaid anymore, but gray plaid...probably thicker too. I don't really know about the boys pants...they seem the same, but they're probably thicker too i guess? Phew! almost had a crisis in uniform description, heaven forbid... ;D

Pictures~

I've finally started putting my pictures online....there's too many...of the same things lol, i dunno. Anyway, there's some pictures of my apartment in the album "Cheongju" and there's some pictures of my main co-teacher Miji in the album "yong dong grape festival" as well as her little brother lol.

The weekend of the grape festival I went with my co-teacher to her home town, Yong dong, where they were having the grape festival. I came back with FIVE BUNCHES of grapes....i still have one left lol, ...i hope it's still good <.<

Anyway, some pictures here...Actually it's mostly all that i've taken. I haven't really been using my camera <.< But there hasn't really been a lot to take pictures of haha.

http://smg.photobucket.com/home/Shello/index

I'm gonna try to get some more pictures of my students ;D

random facts about my school

interesting things about my school, Yong Seong Middle School:

-The bells that sound the beginning and ending of classes aren't bells, but this cute little melody lol. Also the bell at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day is "fur elise" XD I was really surprised the first time I heard the bell ring

-When you walk into the teachers' bathroom, classical music starts playing lolol. I dunno if it's the same in the students' bathrooms, but at least in the teachers' bathroom it does that. Kinda nice haha

-My school is only 2 years old, so there are only the first and second grade of middle school here right now. The first graders have green name tags, the second graders have yellow name tags...I wonder what color the third grade name tags will be next year (aka starting in ...march? the school year starts then. Right now it's the second semester of this year)

-The first floor is where the administration office, principal's office, and main teacher's office with the vice principal (the one i'm in) are. The second floor is where the first graders are, the third floor is where the second graders are and the fourth floor, is where i'm assuming the third graders will be next year.

-Whenever teachers walk around, the students going by will always bow their heads and somtimes also say "anyeonghasaeyo" usually, sometimes while running by, running up or down the stairs, in the midst of chasing another student or throwing their slippers at each other...really in all states they do this.

-When I walk by some say "anyeonghasaeyo" others say "hi" or "hello" and some just bow their heads lol. I usually say hi/hello back. Though I've started saying "good morning!" or "good afternoon!" to see what happens XD You should see their faces, they look so confused lololol. Though today one girl said "good afternoon" to me so I'm counting it as a success. ;D

-At lunch we eat off of metal trays that have different divisions on them. Usually there is rice, some kind of soup, and three other foods, maybe kimchi, veggies and some kind of meat. Chopsticks and spoons only ;D The teachers eat in the middle (homeroom teachers will eat with their classes) and on one side are the second graders and on the other the first graders. Classes get to come to lunch at different times, it rotates every week.

-Btw, teachers totally get to cut in line. We just walk in whenever we want and get in front for trays and utensils ;D All the students just say hi or talk to the teachers about random things.

-All the classrooms have sliding doors and windows...It's really like in the cartoons lolol

-Everyone wears slippers at school, no outside shoes are worn inside. The teachers have shoe cubbies on the ground floor, the students put their shoes in their lockers. Slippers...they're very comfortable really.

-My school's uniforms are: (these are the summer uniforms)
boys: gray pants, white shirt with blue plaid collars, and trim.
girls: the same color plaid skirts, and the same shirts as the boys...but for girls lol. I've also seen some girls wearing a matching plaid tie with their shirts.
Their PE uniforms are just gray shirts and shorts with either green or yellow lining depending on their grade.

-Teachers wear....pretty much whatever they want ;D

-At the start of each day, when walking onto campus, there's always a teacher and some students that stand at the gate and greet everyone walking in. These teachers and students seem to rotate every week or every few days.

-All the teachers talk to each other by "cool messenger" ...but i have yet to really figure it out/talk to or need to talk to anyone on it. The icon is a penguin lolol, COOL messenger get it? XD

-The boys and girls at my school are separated into boys and girls classes. Guess
which are better...-___- The girls are waaay better lolol, but the more advanced boys classes can be hilarious. Really, there are only a couple boys classes that i find...difficult lol. They're usually the lower level boys who are just loud and give up cause they don't understand. -___-
The girls are just easier to impress maybe lol. Some of the more active/loud girls classes always have a million questions to ask me haha XD

-One of my advanced boys first grade classes always stands together and bows to me at the end of class (normal in school i think, but they're the only class that does it for me lol) But instead of saying "bye" they say "I love you teacher!" XDDD I like the higher level classes, I can talk to them more easily. This includes humor to some extent XD

-Both boys and girls like to scream "hello teacher!!!" at me at school, but girls are more likely to do it on the street. At lunch, when I go into the "english lab" where students can check out english books, there will often be a swarm of girls who will come in and talk to me lol. Sometimes the boys will talk to me, but not much. And neither will ever talk to me when the other gender is talking to me. They really don't like to mix much lol. It's like pulling teeth trying to get them to mingle during my extra class (the only co-ed class i have)

-THEY'RE ALL SO FUNNY/CUTE/GREAT though, I get a kick out of them everyday lolol. Especially as time goes on and they get more comfortable with me. There were always the ones that would come up and talk to me enthusiastically, now that number is increasing, so that's good. ;D

That's all for now...
lol, maybe next week....orrr....next next week (cause next week is chuseok, aka korean thanksgiving, and we get every day but monday off >D) I'll bring my camera and try to interview some of the more talkative students X3 Or at least get some (more) pictures ;D

Yeah....I'll update/post pics soon....eventually

It'll happen...
I'm just so tired when i get home usually D; I just feel like laying on my bed and watching tv mindlessly lol.


But I have most of next week off for Korean thanksgiving, so I'll probably update then...course i'm planning to do a lot in that week...we'll see how much i overcome my procrastination XD

BUT I'LL DO MY BEST. ;D


lolol, i love my 2pm gifs XD

"It's getting better all the time..."

omg, so now almost done with a complete 2 weeks of class. Almost done with my first week of teaching an actual lesson from the book. Only 5 classes left tomorrow, then it’s on to a new lesson. I feel like I’ve only just gotten the hang of this one. >.< It’s gone through several changes since Monday lol. Now I have to make a new lesson D: I feel like I’m gonna be going through every week like this lol, scrambling to come up with something that works, tweaking it through the first couple days, finally falling into a rythym by mid week, polishing it on thurs (though…thurs has some difficult, aka rowdy, classes, so probably not much polish -__-) and then on Friday scrambling to think of what to do next week @__@ Each class is different, so it’s hard to really come up with lesson plans…for this weeks’ I’ve been able to make the activity easier or harder depending on: 1. how advanced the class is, and 2. how much time the first part of the lesson takes. The first half of this lesson comes directly from the book and the cd that comes with the book, so the first half is totally fine, I really like doing it actually XD THEN comes the second half where I have them play a game which involves much running around the room and in some cases a lot of yelling and pushing and shoving too lolol (boys classes mostly). Then with the last few minutes I challenge them with some tongue twisters. I like doing the first part and I like doing the tongue twisters, it’s just the activity which is a pain…lol and I thought of it in the first place. Meh. Next week I’ll try something else……..but what? Anyway, by now I’ve kind of established a rapport with some of the students lol. You know, the ones who aren’t afraid to speak up in class or come talk to me outside of class. Most of the students are pretty quiet and shy, but almost all of them will shout “HELLO” or “HI” at me while walking through the hallways. Then there are those who are a little better at speaking, who will actually try to talk with me haha. Though, to be fair there’s also those who aren’t as good and they’ll come try to talk to me in packs, so they can bounce words off each other and make a conversation that way lol. Those conversations are filled with both Korean and English, and it's funny because for the most part, I can understand their Korean, but they don't know it. So I get the whole picture and know exactly what they want to say, but just sit there and watch them try to figure out how to say it >D BTW, these group conversations are almost always girls.....maybe even always girls.

But the individual students who talk to me are the best XD In one class there are two girls who are always together, they told me their names on the first day of class, and then EVERY DAY find me in the hall or in extra time and ask me what their names are lolol, so I know their names very well, but they're always impressed when i remember. I wonder how long this will last. Some of the other girls have started asking me to remember their names too, which...i hope doesn't lead to all of them asking me cause that could be impossible @__@ but so far, if they keep asking me, there's a good chance i'll have them all memorized haha.
There are a few boys that will talk to me. One boy in one of the advanced 1st grade (middle school 1st grade, my school has 1st and 2nd grades) asked me if people played "call of duty" in america. XD I told him, yes of course.

BUT the student that stands out MOST, the one who never fails to let his presence be known is Mr. Kim Yuna. lol. The first class i had with him in it, he introduced himself to me as kim yuna, then the next day he called himself michael jordan -__- His real name, which i finally know after days of just referring to him as kim yuna is kwang jin. That kid is loud. And he's in an advanced class, so he has a lot to say lol. He's always very quick to answer too. Some of the things he says all the time are: "Oh, no no.." or "Oh, of course." and a whole collection of other random things XD Plus he's in my extra English Conversation class, so i get to see him twice a week....yay.....lol, but he's really entertaining XD I wish more students would be like him actually, not afraid to just talk. It makes my job much easier anyway.

In any case, i'm getting more comfortable doing the lessons, so that's good. I've started a class journal, so I can remember which class is which. So far, most of the notes are like: "girls, small class, basic, active." or "boys class, big class, advanced, like games" Knowing which class i'm going to helps me think about how i'm going to do the lesson, whether i have to make it easier or harder. Now my only problem is coming up with more lesson plans D;

More later...including PICTURES, cause I finally got my alien registration card, so I should be able to use internet at hoooooommmeeee yay!

PS: I didn't think i'd write this much just now lol. I was planning on writing a short blurb XD

OMG I WANT INTERNET AT HOME D;

Who knows when i'll get it....eventually...one day....I need my alien registration card first and that will take...time -___-

I can only go online at school, so it's been real touch and go. I promise i'll actually write things when i get internet at home. I have a lot to say lol, my students are so....funny haha, and cute lolol, I feel like when i finally get internet i'll have too much to say, so i'll just summarize...i suppose that's ok.

Super hot. Super rainy. 24 classes a week. a million billion students. I can't walk down the hall without some of them waving and saying "hiii~" or "Helloo~" at me XD Sometimes i get some professions of love from the boys lol. Some students are pretty good at english...others....really not. There's such a wide range.

My school is only 2 years old, so they only have two grades, the first two of middle school. I'm the first native english teacher here, so everyone seems unsure what to do around me lol. I have 5 co-teachers and all of them are pretty great. My main co-teacher is awesome she's done so much for me. She's only two years older than me actually which is nice. Her name is Miji, Shin Miji.

I've finished my first week of class, and it's gone by pretty quickly...now i have to make up real lessons (this week was introductions) so booo. I'm worried that all the students are listening to me now because i'm new and interesting but that after, when i have real work for them to do they'll start ignoring me in class. -__-

We'll see i guess.

Anyway I'm about to go out to eat with my fellow english teachers. I think we're gonna talk about next week lessons. >.<

I'll update with PICTURES when i get internet at home D; SOMEDAY.