Weeks 6 & 7

The past two weeks have been pretty busy at work. We got our first pay checks on the 14th (we get paid on this day every month) and had to go open bank accounts. Our pay was about 1/4 of what it will normally be since we were only paid for our two weeks of training and training is paid at half rate.

We were given a piece of paper at work with a map to the bank (Woori Bank) and some instructions written in Korean for the teller. We made our way over there and took a number, this seems to be the way to wait here. After about fifteen or twenty minutes it was our turn and we went up to the teller and handed her our paper. She didn't speak English but she took out an application and we showed her that we needed two using our fingers. She got out another one and we handed her our alien cards. We had to fill in our names and the address and phone number for the school, a few signatures, input a 6 and 4 digit pin number and we were done. It was pretty quick and easy. Since the forms were all in Korean we didn't really know what we were signing, but what are you gonna do. The spaces for signing were pretty small since they are for Korean names which when written in Korean take up two small boxes of space so our signatures look pretty squished.


Having Korean accounts makes it a lot easier to pay at stores, since we can now just pay with our cards instead of always having to get cash from an ATM that accepts international cards. The cards are Check cards, that's right not Cheque cards, it actually says Check Card on the card. However, it does not help at Costco, they only take Samsung cards or cash. Once we got paid we decided to find the closest Costco and get some food that we recognize. We did a little research online to find the one that was closest to us (it is in Yeongdeungpo-gu) and made our way there by subway. The store was about a ten minute walk from the station. This Costco location was actually the first Costco in Korea. We grabbed a cart and made our way in (we brought our membership cards from home which work all over the world, how awesome is that!). The first floor was all the non-food stuff that you can get at Costco like furniture, small appliances, electronics, clothes, books, cleaning supplies and more. Then in the basement there is the food. The basement is a lot bigger than the first floor and you can find pretty much everything that you need down there, that is if you can get through the crowds.

The same massive muffins that you can get at Costco at home.

I forgot my camera so I found some pictures of the same Costco online.

We picked up spaghetti sauce, Parmesan cheese, a case of big bottles of water, cinnamon, chicken breasts, ground beef (the first that we had seen since arriving), cream cheese, sausages, hot dogs salsa (the same price for a massive jug as it is for a small jar at the local grocery store), and more. It was nice to see brand names that were familiar and food that we know how to prepare. There was also stuff that you wouldn't see in the Costco back home like kimchi, squid and copious amounts of ice coffee. We also noticed a big difference in the size of the meat portions. The chicken breasts are much smaller as well as the pork tenderloins. It really shows how farming in North America is obviously done very differently, probably due to the use of growth hormones and what they feed the animals.

Don has also been hiking for a second time. The experience was pretty similar. They were supposed to find a fresh water spring but the tour leader took the wrong path so they never found it. This time another teacher, Maggie joined Don and Brian. Maggie is a foreign teacher also but she is from China. She is teaching Mandarin at the school, a new program. Here are some pictures from that hike.

Brian and Maggie, teachers from our school.

Where's Waldo, I mean Donald

Ok, now just hold onto that for a minute, I'll be right back...

So now that we have taught a whole monthly session we thought that we would explain how it works. At the beginning of every month we have to have all of our lesson plans done for the month. There are templates for the different types of classes that we fill in. We have one set of classes for Monday, Wednesday and Friday and another set for Tuesday Thursday. Some kids come three times and week and others only two. I have two classes of kids that come all five days, but most classes don't work that way. So we have to prepare twelve lesson plans for each Monday, Wednesday, Friday class and eight for the Tuesday, Thursday classes. Anyways, at the beginning of the session we have to have these done and have three copies, one for each of the teachers and one that goes in a folder on a shelf for the administrators use.

Then we can start our classes for the month. The different types of classes require different preparation. The classes for beginners require a lot of drilling with flash cards. The students learn simple expressions and how to respond to specific questions. These classes also have daily testing, a basic quiz with around five questions. As the teacher we have to prepare these tests and provide the students with an answer key. The lesson runs pretty much the same way every day: do attendance, check and assign homework, do the daily test (this is done only by the second teacher) and review the previous lesson, and the second teacher is also responsible for doing a phonics lesson and getting the students to read from a set storybook.

Other class level run a bit different because drilling is no longer the focus. The focus turns to writing and listening and reading comprehension. The student books are really straight forward and guide each lesson. We also have specialized classes that are free to existing students such as a class to prepare students to take the TOSEL test (I teach one of these classes) and a cinema club class that teaches English with movies. Don teaches cinema club and last month they watched Finding Nemo and this month they will be watching The Incredibles.

My two classes that run every day are for students that have gone through the kindergarten program and therefore have a good English foundation. These students are very advanced and a lot is expected of them. They have five textbooks and one of them changes every month and the others either once or twice a year. The parents purchase all of these books so these classes are a big investment. These classes cover reading, writing, spelling, phonics, speaking (including public speaking) and comprehension. Last month our main focus for comprehension was understanding inferences in stories that they were reading, this month they are focusing on classifying and categorizing information.

In the third week of every session the Korean teachers have to do phone counselling. They have to call and speak to the parents of all the children. Since we have between 10 and 14 classes each and each class could have a maximum of ten students this could mean making 100 calls. Before they can make these call the foreign teachers (us) have to write up comment reports to help them on their calls. So the whole week the teachers are on the phone every chance they get.

The fourth or last week of the session is testing week, depending on the class the tests can be any day from Tuesday to Friday. The tests are usually prepared but they have to be photocopied for each class. Most of the tests have a speaking component which is the responsibility of the foreign teacher. So during the test we have to pull one student at a time out into the hall to test their speaking.

Once all of the tests are done we have to write up monthly report cards using a program that is all in Korean. We have to add the test scores and marks for participation, homework and behaviour. We also have to add a short comment for each student, this does not have to be extensive because most of the parents cannot read them anyways and the Korean teachers already covered this in their phone counselling. These report cards have to be finished by the second or third day of the start of the next session so that they can be handed out on a preset day given to the parents via the monthly newsletter. So we are usually doing report cards, tests and new lessons all in the same week which makes that week a lot busier than others.

We start a new session tomorrow so all the hectic preparations are done for now, but will commence again in around three weeks.