Emily teacher

School has been going pretty well. I think I'm getting better at teaching at least. I took 5 years of school on how to teach kids, but teaching kids in a language that isn't theirs is a whole other story. I've had to get use to repeating things over and over, speaking slowly and clearly, and acting. I think my English has actually gotten worse! I dumb down my language a lot and then when I get together with my friends we all talk funny. We laugh about it a lot. Anyways, my school is rediculously active. They are ALWAYS having some kind of special event, most of which seem to involve English, which in turns means it involves me. For example, there was an English talent show I was a guest judge at and I had to give a speech. There was an English plaza at a park on a Saturday that I ran one of the booths for. There is a English fire safety speech competition for the district, so I've been helping the students practice and such. Anyways, about two weeks ago the school had a swimming competition. It was sooo cute seeing all the little kids in their swimsuits with matching swim caps. I was suppose to give a speech at that too, but luckily it was overridden after I strongly expressed how much I didn't want to do it. Also, for the month of October I have to come to school 20 minutes early and stand at the school gates and greet the students. The crazy vice-principle is out there with me too and she is constantly grabbing kids and forcing them to talk with me. It's mostly just "Good morning, how are you? I hope you have a nice day" and stuff like that.

I also got to go on a field trip with the 4th grade last week. We went to the National Museum of Seoul and then to the Changdeokgung Palace. It was a nice change of pace. The students took a bit to warm up to me because they were shy, but after about an hour, I had kids hanging off my arms for the rest of the time saying anything and everything they knew in the English language. It was rather funny really. The museum had a lot of stuff about ancient history, but it was hard to focus with so many kids. The Palace was really cool and we got to watch the changing of the guards. Fun time!

These last two pictures are just a little bonus!! The first one is my neighborhood at night. Aren't the lights cool! The second is the other classroom I work in. I work with two different teachers and they each have their own classroom. They are connected by our office. Just last week we totally redecorated both classrooms, so I will put updated pictures up soon. They look much better with stuff on the walls.