Friday Update!

So, I realize I just wrote a blog about how Aaron and I had swapped our plan A (working at a University) with our Plan B (working at our same schools) for next year... BUT, we went ahead and gave the University job a try!  We decided to only apply at 1, which happens to be where our dear friends Jessica and Carlos work, up in Seoul!  We've decided that if we don't both get hired, we'll stay in Busan at our current schools. For the sake of including a picture, I'll leave you with this: a picture looking out from the back of my classroom, at the harbor, with a new iphone app called "PHOTO SYNTH!"

Secondly, the last couple weeks have been an absolute breeze for me at work!  Monica and Okk have been scrapping the regular English lessons for the past 2 weeks in order to prepare the students for the Nation Wide English Test, which was yesterday!  With that said, I think about 10 of my classes, in total, were canceled!  That left me with lots of time to look around on http://www.pinterest.com/, http://www.facebook.com/, http://www.blogger.com/, and http://www.sidereel.com/, where I watch TV shows.  I know, I'm living the life over here.  I'm proud to report that the scores are in, and NONE of my classes scored under an average of 86% percent!  Again, for the sake of including a picture: This was taken on Wednesday, when one of my three 5th grade classes was doing a practice test. (Photo taken with my iphone app: INSTAGRAM)

Aaron's been busy with his photography, taking gorgeous pictures around the island, and posting some to his flickr account.  He's modest though, and his own worst critic, so many of my favorite pictures never even make it onto the site.  He's also been working, one on one, with one of the teachers at his school who will be moving to Atlanta for a year with her husband.  Today was their last day of studying together, so along with a nice envelope full of cash, she brough him a homemade carrot cake from her church's bake sale!  I may or may not have eaten 1/2 of it for dinner tonight!

Winter weather has definitely set in, and I've been bundling up in my scarves and winter coats for my 1/2 mile walk in the 45 degree weather, to work every morning!  Brrrr.  Last weekend, I switched out my summer clothes for winter clothes, and put 2 huge bags full of unwanted clothes and shoes out on my street for any takers!  Both bags were gone within 5 minutes!  Aaron said he can't wait for the moment when we see an old Korean woman sporting one of my old dresses!

For the last couple weeks, I've been working with one of my 3rd graders to prepare her for the countywide Storytelling Contest.  She would come to my office for 10 minutes everyday after lunch, and I would help her with her intonation, and hand motions!  Last Friday, she went up against over 50 3rd and 4th graders, and placed 3rd!  I was so proud of her!  This is her and her mom after she performed!

We found out on Monday that she placed 3rd!  The next day, she came to class with a gift for me from her mom: A giftbag of special Kiehl's face creams to thank me for helping! 

(Worth over $60)  How nice is that?!  I've used it every night and morning since.

Tomorrow is the yearly fireworks show on the beach in Gwangali!  I've been looking forward to it all year, but when I checked the weather forecast, it said it's suppossed to rain all day tomorrow!  Uggghhh...   Such a bummer.  On a bright note, I may end up staying in and getting creative!  

Aaron just said to me, "Love, I know you don't like to talk to me when you're writing a blog. But, it kinda makes me sad."   My sweet sweet boy!  Time for this girl to sign off and give him some love! :) 

Happy Friday.

Open Class!

Today was the dreaded open class, which most Korean and foreign teachers hate because it's not a natural way of teaching and other teachers and Principal's come and watch!!  First off, for open classes, we type out a word for word lesson plan (AKA script!) including what we think the student's will say in response to our teaching.

Since I've never been that great at memorizing, I ALWAYS type out a little cheat sheet that I tape to a student's desk in the front row, so if I forget what comes next, I can glance down and remind myself!  (Oh, and this was typed in MY OWN PERSONAL FONT!)

Since I happen to have good handwriting, I usually write the key sentences on the board, but for open classes, we're expected to print the key sentences on paper and use magnets to put them up on the board!  I'm telling you... open classes are intense!  The marks at the bottom are for keeping score of which "teams" answer my questions right.  The winning team gets candy at the end of class!  It's a great incentive program!

We always prepare an interactive game on Open Class days.  Usually we will play a powerpoint game at the end of our regular classes because they're quick to make and the kids love them, but for open classes, we're expected to CREATE a game for our kineshetic learners! So, today's game was a "dice game"!  :) 

My 4th graders were like little angels today!  Usually they are terrified during open classes because people are watching, but they were REALLY interactive today and were super well behaved!  Thank you Jesus!

So glad it's over and even more glad it went so well!  Special thanks to Okk who snapped these pictures with my iphone during the class! :)

Perks!

Being an elementary teacher definitely has it's perks... Like when it's your mom's birthday and they want to sing happy birthday to her over skype (which happened earlier today!) ... Or when they proudly present you with homemade animal cookies like these! :)

My very own font!

yourfonts.com

Plan A... Plan B... Plan C...

For the past year, Aaron and I have said that Plan A would be to teach English at a University next year, solely for the purpose of having up to 4 months (2 in the summer, and 2 in the winter) of paid vacation to travel and come home to see family and the 12 hour a week teaching requirement isn't so bad either!

but...

Now, Plan A is sort of starting to become Plan B.  We are both REALLY happy at our schools.  Even though I'm required to teach 22 hours a week, I end up, on average, only teaching between 10 and 11!  Plus, yesterday I was told that next year I will probably have 3 weeks of vacation in the summer and 3 in the winter, which would be 23 days total each semester (instead of 10), and would be great for coming home to visit family and traveling!  Plus, we love our students, I adore my co-teachers, and it looks like we would actually be making more money by staying with our current jobs. Go figure, huh?!

Plan C was if we didn't renew our contracts with EPIK in November and hoped that we would get hired with a university job between November and March, but didn't get hired, we would travel for 6 months through Southeast Asia on a dime! :)  Not a bad option, eh?!

So, right now we're a little bit torn between Plan A (staying at our elementary schools) and Plan B (working for a University), but I'll keep you updated!