I'm teething... at 30!

For the past couple days I've been in some of the most intense pain I've ever experienced, as 1 of my stupid wisdom teeth has decided to rear it's nasty little head in my 30 year old mouth!  A little late, don't ya think little guy?! 

After lunch with Okk and Monica at a fantastic Japanese restaurant and gelato on the beach afterwards (that's a story for another day and time!) I went to Okk's dentist to have him take a look at my tooth.  The office was a surprisingly gorgeous, state of the art place, right near my apartment.  Bad news was, I went alone, and NO ONE spoke a lick of English!   The nurse literally just stood over me, staring at my face and hair, until the dentist came.  Awkward a bit?! For some Koreans, it's their first time ever seeing a foreigner up close! 
Apparently I was the lucky first for her!

So, there I was, laying comfortably in my padded chair, watching my own personal TV,

while the dentist was looking around in my mouth, when all of a sudden I was unpleasantly disturbed by a gigantic needle entering my mouth!  Hello, can I get a warning, please?! Luckily I made it though the whole ordeal, and for the astoundingly low price of $4.00!  And yes, that's the price without insurance!  Such a deal, eh?!  Bad news was, he said my tooth needs to come out!  Uuuuggghhhh!  Here I was thinking I was free and clear of the dreaded wisdom teeth extraction fiasco, but now I have to get it done in a foreign country! Lovely!

So, Thursday is my big day!  Good news is, I asked today, and the total price for pulling my wisdom tooth will be $19!  I'll be going to work and then meeting Aaron at 4:00pm to go to the dentist's office.  He's my support, and will hopefully wipe the drool from my mouth when I can't swallow, and feed me ice cream in bed all day!  Aaron, I hope you're reading this!  My favorite flavor is vanilla!

Then, Friday I'll be heading back to work!  There's NO rest for the weary in Korea!  If you're not dying, you come to work, regardless of the 11 days you're given of sick leave each year!  Luckily, Okk and I had scheduled to show an English movie on Friday, so I'll just lay in the back of the room with gozz in my mouth and motion with my hands when I need something!  haha! Wish me luck! 

Summer camp!

This is my 5th English camp since working in Korea! That's right, my FIFTH!  Summer English camp is a lot different than regular everyday teaching in Korea, where you teach from a text book, and have classes full of 25-30 students!  In English camp, I can create my own lesson plans, play games, read storybooks, cook, do art projects, or whatever else I can think of... and I only have 10-14 students at a time!  SCORE!  So, I'm gonna give you a run down of a typical English camp day (for beginners) in my classroom! 

Here's how it went down today!

We started with the Phonics Song!  My kids love this song and always sing along!  I, on the other hand, could do without the darn song getting stuck in my head all day long!  Suffer for the kiddos!

Then, we talked about numbers and how to spell them! These kiddos are still learning to read English. So, I made this handout for them to see the #, the English spelling, and then how to read it phonetically in their own language!  It also says "O'clock" because I'm going to use it later in the week when I teach how to tell time!

Then, I gave them this math worksheet and asked them to add the numbers and spell them in English.  This is one of my 3rd graders papers.  You might think this looks boring, but my kids LOVE stuff like this! 

How funny is 0 + 0 = "oclock"?!

 Then, we played numbers Jenga!  I found this on http://www.gmarket.com/, a Korean shopping website, and thought it would be a great way to incorporate learning numbers with a game!  After each students pulled out a Jenga piece, they would say the number AND spell it.  Most of them used their cheat sheet (above), which was okay because my goal wasn't to get them to memorize the spelling, but rather just to learn how to say the letters.

 They had no idea they were studying while playing! :)  I'm tricksy like that!

After numbers Jenga, I taught colors.  There's a great website called www.BarryFunEnglish.com that I pay $12.00 a year to be a member of.  They have games, power points, flashcards, tools, etc, that are perfect for ESL English camps, and since my classroom's computer is connected to a projector, it's a piece of cake to project the computer screen onto the wall so everyone can see.  So, today, we reviewed colors and then played the Speed Game!  One student said a color in Korean, and the other student (with his/her back to the board) said it in English.  Whichever team said the most colors in a minute, won!

 

Then, we did a color by number picture of Mickey Mouse!  I used to love color by numbers as a kid!  So, I printed a picture of Mickey off the internet, wrote different numbers all over it and made copies!  Then, I wrote the numbers 1-8 on the board and asked them what color they wanted to color that number.  Then I wrote the color next to the number, so later they would have to read the color to figure out what it should be!

Quietly and diligently coloring! :)

Ta Da!  After they were finished, I did a verbal quiz, asking "What color is Mickey's hat?"  "What color is Mickey's basket" etc, and gave a lolipop to the students who answered it right!

Then, I gave them this paper with pigs.  I told them to "Color 1 pig pink."  "Color 2 pigs tan." etc.  When we were finished coloring all of the pigs, we played BINGO!  I wrote each color, one by one, on the board, so they had to read it in English and then find that color pig!

The first student to have 3 lines (vertically or horizontally) was the winner!

Then, we topped off the day with a fun game of UNO! But not just your average UNO.  I had them say the color of the card, and the number, and if I heard them speaking Korean during the game, I hit the bell and they had to pick up an extra card!  haha! 

Then, I had them present their All About Me worksheet that they did yesterday!  Whoever could read a section of theirs would get a sticker on their nametag (an incentive program that they love!)  This is Kenny's!

Last but not least, we ended the camp by eating mini chocolate cakes and cleaning the room before saying goodbye for the day!  So, there you go!  That's what I'm up to over here on this side of the world!