Eight more working days! / My classroom

Well, we have exactly 1 Friday, 1 Monday and 2 more Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays left before we leave. To make up for a real lack of posts from Korea I will attempt to post something interesting for each day we still have in Korea.

This is my classroom. Well, most of it anyway. I spend 5-6 hours in this room each week-day. My name is on the door on the blue paper. Below it there is an orange sign that reads: "First we make our habits, then our habits make us." I'm pretty sure it's meant for the teachers rather than the students...

There are two rows of desks. The kids that sit in the far back row (where the picture is taken from) usually cause the most trouble because they are the hardest to get at and they can't be seen on the video camera (see top right). All the rooms (including the staffroom) have surveillance cameras.

Most of my/our classes are taught using the computer. They all have books (which they often forget, I seriously go through a ton of trees making copies in anticipation of this) that go along with the computer programs. The computer programs are pretty simple -- it just reads what is written in the books. This isn't really necessary for us other than to save our voice, but it does have one really nice side effect: if you turn the volume up loud enough the kids will stop and listen no matter how bad they are being. Seriously, I just put something on the computer/TV screen and the kids shut up. It even has a remote so I can be across the room dealing with particularly bad children while keeping the other kid's attentions with the computer.

There is an OHP screen and a whiteboard at the front. I use the whiteboard quite a bit as I usually write the answers to their questions for them. It's also another great way to keep kids quiet: just write something on the board and get them to copy it down. Although this usually takes some effort with some kids. For example:
Me: *writing on the board* "Okay guys, this is answer one. Writing!"
-Maybe half the students start writing... the others continue talking
Me: *going around to the students* "Number one! Writing! "
-About half of the remaining students start writing... by this time some of the students are already finished ("Teacher, finished!" ... or actually some of the students that have been around longer say something like "Teacher, finished, can you check it for me please?" ... can get annoying when I am in the middle of...)
Me: *individually to the remaining students* "(Students name), writing! Number one! Pencil!"
-There is still sometimes one or two students who don't write it down... can't win 'em all. They usually end up in detention anyway so they write it down then.

So basically, the challenge is that if they aren't occupied they will be noisy. And occupied means they must be either listening to the computer, writing something off the board, reading something from their books, or doing questions in their books. However, the book material is supposed to be gone through very slowly. Our books for the elementary students are intended to be taught over three classes but instead we have to make them last around 9-12 classes. Since the classes are 50 minutes long, even if I go over things twice as slowly as intended (which is very boring and difficult) I still have 25-30 minutes left after we finish the material. You can get through around 15 minutes of this just by getting them to read everything from their books as a review. The trick always is finding something to fill that last 15 minutes. I usually come up with something each week to entertain/teach the kids for this time. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out as planned. So I need backups. One thing that works amazingly well is giving the kids word searches. They call them "puzzle games". They work like invisible duct tape. It is not only a game that 99% of the kids like, but also the only game I have tried that doesn't result in someone crying or fighting.

Finally you might notice the papers above the whiteboards. They are some common words translated into Korean. There are also two dictionaries I use. This shows the different approaches Tara and I have taken to teaching kids words they don't know: I learned to read/write Korean; Tara has become very good at charades. So when the kids don't know a word in their books I usually grab the dictionary. It usually goes like this:
Me - "Okay, here, selfish is 'i-gi-jo-gin'" *as I pronounce each syllable carefully*
Students - "What?"
Me - *faster this time* "Igijogin"
Students - *look at each other with confused looks* "I-yu-tag-ya?"
Me - *fast and annoyed this time* "Igijogin!!"
Students - "Ohhhhh, igijogin!"
After this happening numerous times (even with words they have already learned!) I can only conclude they need words to be spoken to them forcefully to understand. Or maybe they aren't really paying attention to what I say. Or they are trying to see how many times the English monkey will try to speak Korean before he gets annoyed.
Probably the latter...

So this is my classroom. Although it might not sound like it, I really have enjoyed my time in there. Even in the above situations I have a smile and a calm disposition. As I said, 5-6 hours in here each work day... that means I only have 40 some hours left in front of these kids... it almost went too fast!

I'll try to put something up here every day until we leave. If you have any suggestions about things you want to hear about, let me know! (and no, still no dog soup, Alex!)