I love my new school. They do all sorts of cool things that are stimulating for both the students and myself. For example, we've had a work bonding experience at a camp site up in the mountains in Geumsan a few weeks ago. We've also got three months to cover the required material, so I can go as fast as I need to on some days to make time for my own planned activities on the off-days. Plus, kindergarten has two field trips a month, usually every other week on Thursdays, and on the Thursdays in between, there is usually another interactive activity planned, such as cooking. So far, my students have helped make rice pizza and pan-fried brownies. (Which gives me an idea. Back to the blog.)
Kindergarten is tough, though. I have seven twenty-minute kindergarten classes back to back from 11am to 1:20pm, and most days I look forward to my hour-plus lunch break that begins at 1:20pm. The kindergarten classes range in level from pure beginner to having the ability to read and understand basic English. So I do activities from reading an incredibly basic version of Rapunzel to helping the students fill in their workbooks with such activities as choosing the correct word to circling the nouns and adjectives.
At the moment, I am trying to get one of my kindergarten classes to memorize a basic story during the month of June. While it may sound quite easy, with reading and repetitions galore, it's not quite as easy as it sounds. This class is taught mainly by a Korean teacher that happens to be new to teaching, starting two and a half months ago. The class is filled with thirteen of the unruliest children you've ever met. They don't listen, to English or Korean. They lack the discipline that students need. Classroom rules are not enforced. The only discipline they get is when me or one of the other foreign teachers are in the classroom for our measly twenty minutes a day.
Enter the story I have to get them to memorize during the month of June. During my twenty minutes a day.
Frank has an idea. He calls Bob.
"Bob, I have an idea. I want to make a piggy bank. Do you want to make one, too?"
Bob likes the idea.
"Sure! I have a bottle I can use. I will go to your house."
Frank puts markers on the table.
"Let's color the bottles!" says Frank.
Bob puts eight bottle caps on the table.
"Let's make legs for the bottles!" says Bob.
Frank draws big dots on his bottle.
They are blue and red.
Bob draws small dots on his bottle.
He uses many colors.
"Let's draw faces for our piggy banks!" says Frank.
Frank draws a nose on the cap.
Bob draws a smiling face.
"I will help you," Frank's dad says.
He glues plastic bottle caps on the bottles.
Then he makes holes on the bottles.
Frank's idea worked!
The two friends made piggy banks from old bottles.
"Now we can save coins in our piggy banks," says Frank.
Wow, that's dry. So dry that, if left uncovered, it would probably turn into that dried, chewy squid snack Koreans love so much.
Today was day seven of covering this in class, and I've done all I can to break up the monotony. From focusing on just a few lines, writing the entire thing on the board and having them read the words as I write, reading as fast or slow as I can, to adding my own antics through my voice, hand, and body gestures, these kids just don't give a squid anymore about this dry story they keep hearing every day.
So tonight I had a great idea. These kids need pictures. Something to look at. Something to hold. Something to touch. Something to fold the corners of while they're trying the best their ADD minds can try before unfocusing.
I took a piece of water color paper and wrote down the story. I drew relevant pictures. I colored the pictures. Tomorrow I'll make color copies of my artwork and distribute to each student, and collect at the end of my twenty minutes to re-distribute the following day, and so on. Thursday, when the newness of my artwork dissipates, I'll pass out paper for them to draw their own piggy banks and bottles on. This weekend I'll look for an easy way for thirteen six-year-olds to each construct their own piggy bank near the end of next week.
This school is worth the effort.
I love my life.
Kindergarten is tough, though. I have seven twenty-minute kindergarten classes back to back from 11am to 1:20pm, and most days I look forward to my hour-plus lunch break that begins at 1:20pm. The kindergarten classes range in level from pure beginner to having the ability to read and understand basic English. So I do activities from reading an incredibly basic version of Rapunzel to helping the students fill in their workbooks with such activities as choosing the correct word to circling the nouns and adjectives.
At the moment, I am trying to get one of my kindergarten classes to memorize a basic story during the month of June. While it may sound quite easy, with reading and repetitions galore, it's not quite as easy as it sounds. This class is taught mainly by a Korean teacher that happens to be new to teaching, starting two and a half months ago. The class is filled with thirteen of the unruliest children you've ever met. They don't listen, to English or Korean. They lack the discipline that students need. Classroom rules are not enforced. The only discipline they get is when me or one of the other foreign teachers are in the classroom for our measly twenty minutes a day.
Enter the story I have to get them to memorize during the month of June. During my twenty minutes a day.
Frank has an idea. He calls Bob.
"Bob, I have an idea. I want to make a piggy bank. Do you want to make one, too?"
Bob likes the idea.
"Sure! I have a bottle I can use. I will go to your house."
Frank puts markers on the table.
"Let's color the bottles!" says Frank.
Bob puts eight bottle caps on the table.
"Let's make legs for the bottles!" says Bob.
Frank draws big dots on his bottle.
They are blue and red.
Bob draws small dots on his bottle.
He uses many colors.
"Let's draw faces for our piggy banks!" says Frank.
Frank draws a nose on the cap.
Bob draws a smiling face.
"I will help you," Frank's dad says.
He glues plastic bottle caps on the bottles.
Then he makes holes on the bottles.
Frank's idea worked!
The two friends made piggy banks from old bottles.
"Now we can save coins in our piggy banks," says Frank.
Wow, that's dry. So dry that, if left uncovered, it would probably turn into that dried, chewy squid snack Koreans love so much.
Today was day seven of covering this in class, and I've done all I can to break up the monotony. From focusing on just a few lines, writing the entire thing on the board and having them read the words as I write, reading as fast or slow as I can, to adding my own antics through my voice, hand, and body gestures, these kids just don't give a squid anymore about this dry story they keep hearing every day.
So tonight I had a great idea. These kids need pictures. Something to look at. Something to hold. Something to touch. Something to fold the corners of while they're trying the best their ADD minds can try before unfocusing.
I took a piece of water color paper and wrote down the story. I drew relevant pictures. I colored the pictures. Tomorrow I'll make color copies of my artwork and distribute to each student, and collect at the end of my twenty minutes to re-distribute the following day, and so on. Thursday, when the newness of my artwork dissipates, I'll pass out paper for them to draw their own piggy banks and bottles on. This weekend I'll look for an easy way for thirteen six-year-olds to each construct their own piggy bank near the end of next week.
This school is worth the effort.
I love my life.
That's so fun!
ReplyDeletegood job, kate. keep up the good work, your students will learn quickly and everyone will be so impressed.
ReplyDeletexoxo
mom