My Classes

I teach at a school called GDA Junior, a Hagwon for school-aged children. Hagwons are private learning academies that are very popular in South Korea. We offer immersion kindergarten in the morning and early afternoon, and supplemental English instruction in the afternoon to elementary and middle school children. I teach six different classes of kids throughout the course of the week. The school has supplied me with all the materials I need to teach. My homeroom kindergarten class is called Excellence (most of the kindergarten classes are named after Disney movies or abstract nouns). I begin each morning teaching them language arts. They are all Korean age 7 (in Korea when you are born you are 1, then everyone turns a year older on January First) meaning they would be considered 5 or 6 in America. It is their first year in "intensive" kindergarten, but most have had some prior exposure to the English language. Communicating was hard at first, but is becoming increasingly easy as the kids gain a better grasp of the language. They use a phonics book, which helps them learn letter sounds, and a reading collection, which features stories five pages long with about 3-5 words per page. Tough stuff. After teaching language arts to my kids, I teach language arts to my support class, while another teacher teaches my kids math, science, or social studies, depending on the day. My support class is called Dream. They are all the same age as the kids in Excellence, but have had one more year of English instruction. They can communicate very clearly and effectively, even if they don't quite have the grammar down. This class also has a reading collection, but there are usually a few sentences per page. The also have a Grammar and Writing Book, a Grammar and Writing Practice Book, a Practice Book, a Phonics Book, and a Writing Book (we use different books different days). This seems like a lot of work for kindergartners (and a ploy by publishers to sell more textbooks), but the kids are very capable and learn quickly.

After I teach my support class I have a half hour lunch break, then I return to my homeroom class for a period called "reinforcement." What I use this period for depends on the day. Some days my kids have gym or cooking (which have separate teachers), and I get a planning hour on those days. Other days, I teach my kids art or music. The art projects are provided for me by the school. I like art because the kids work quietly on their pictures or crafts for about 20 minutes. Last Monday they designed Easter eggs, but the most memorable art project was by far the first one, decorating cardboard boomerangs. Most of the kids couldn't speak English very well, but a quick demonstration got all of the kids (particularly a couple of the boys) riled up. After giving them 5-10 minutes of playing with their new art projects/lethal weapons, I had to transition to story time. Music usually consists of them listening to a song they have trouble understanding, me repeating each line very slowly 10-12 times and having them repeat each line after me, showing them the hand motions, and trying to sing the song 3-4 times through with the music. For some reason kids are always the most wild during music time. It could be because they are all standing or because they don't view it as "school time."

My afternoons are different depending on the day. Monday and Friday I teach a group of first graders from 2:40-4:20. This is probably my toughest class, because a hagwon is something that grade school children attend after their school day. It's a rough transition from kindergarten to first grade, especially when you have to attend English classes after school for almost two hours. On Wednesday, I teach a group of kindergartners (that stay after school) drama. I work with another American teacher who has a theater degree. She teaches them the acting part on Mondays, and I read the story with them. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach a class called reading lab, where I read stories with first grade kids, then do writing activities with them. There are three of the same kids from my Monday/Friday class in reading lab. I like this class more though because it's longer (2:40-4:40) and I have less material to cover. It allows me to play games and do more fun stuff with them. I invented a game called guess the animal (which is basically charades where animals are the only correct responses) and they seem to like it a lot. After reading lab I have a one hour break, then teach my final class of the day from 5:50-6:50. This is my only class with older kids, about 11 or 12 years old, but they are all at a very low level. For this class, I only have to teach them speaking and listening. I think this makes the class more fun and interactive.


I have some pictures of my homeroom class, but I haven't take pictures of any other classes so far.

Justin just celebrated his birthday



Rodin
This was the only picture I got of him somehow.


Ian


Harry



Henry


Rena


Eena



Brian
During play time the boys seem to be able to make guns out of just about anything. I tried the "no guns" thing, but it worked about as well as it did when I was in preschool. They are just too creative when it comes to complete destruction.




Christine



















Dominic
Dominic was very elusive when I was taking pictures, but I think these two capture the essence of Dominic. He has the most trouble following our "No Running" rule.