Well update time and if I do say so myself this update is not too late!
This week we have been getting stuff together for the kick of off the JCK program. The rooms are finally done and put back together; however mine is now strictly for kindergarten because they have the little chairs and tables in there and well my older kids just don't fit so I have permanently moved down the hall and well can't says its to bad because now I have a nice big window to enjoy. The new rooms are cute and colorful with wood floors and bookshelves. They have cute little windows that are different sizes and shapes from the whole back glass wall before.
On Monday Ryan and I had to come in at 10 to help with marketing. For once I got to use my degree in a totally legit way! If you have not read in my main blog one of the first few weeks we were here our boss took us over the the elementary school one morning to hand out Hello Kitty suckers as kids came out and once Ryan or I had the kids attention with the sucker the Korean teachers would come up behind them and slip a folder of information into their backpack. We also spent a day over at the middle school bribing them with notebooks to give us their information and take a short quiz. I found this all odd because none of these were methods we covered in any of my marketing classes and seemed a tad illegal.
Anyways this time we got handed a huge bag full of handouts and tape. I got to work with Grace Teacher, Ann Teacher and Jessica Teacher over in some of the nicer apartments in town while Ryan worked with Jasmine Teacher and Keven. Grace and I went off in one direction as Ann and Jessica went in another only for Grace and I to find out we needed a key to get into these apartment buildings. So for the first one we just rang the bell and Grace spoke to someone on the other end saying something in Korean that worked because then the door opened. Once inside she dashed for the elevators and up to the 21st floor we went. Once in the elevator she told me she lied and we needed to do this quickly. Each floor had 2 apartments and we went from floor to floor sticking handouts on the doors as fast as we could. Once back outside Grace called Ann who let us know she had a friend who lived there and would get us a key. After about an hour and 4 buildings down we were out of handouts so we headed back to the school. This way took more energy but it was much better than bribing kids and even more fun. The only downfall was the dashing down the stairs from floor to floor as most Koreans store stuff in stair wells like bikes, grills, couches, and lots of ashtrays all made for perfect tripping conditions.
Monday afternoon Ryan told me I would be doing a science presentation for some parents on Wednesday and that the science kits would be in on Tuesday so I could pick one. The information he had and I later got from Keven was all very vague and left me a little nervous. When the Fun Science kits came in on Tuesday Keven gave me one and told me to pick one of the four projects to present to the parents. Some of the projects were really cool. They had one that was magnet soccer and another that was a propeller car. I opened it up to find all the pieces I needed and some instructions but not much information about how the car worked or why it worked. Ryan told me to come up with my own things to say to teach the science part of the project freaking me out a little bit because the adults don't know much English and well I don't really know much science. I asked Keven what he wanted telling him the projects didn't really have much to do with science. He more or less told me it was kindergarten and left me even more confused.
I did the presentation yesterday and remembered to talk very slow, smile, and hold everything up and explain what each part was and what I was doing. I did some of the vocab/main words to show how their child would be learning English with the project. A few parents got into it and repeated after me nodding their head to show they understood how the flashcards worked and made me feel a little better. Most parents just looked board and unamused. Over all I don't know how it went and have yet to get any feedback however I feel it went pretty good and think it helped that once it was over I had some of the older kids who where there come running over yelling "Megan Teacher Megan Teacher" to play with it and ask me how it worked.
Over all I am looking forward to teaching some kindergarten classes but I am worried with my lack of Korean that it could be frustrating to have kids crying and screaming and I don't have the slightest clue why.
Wish me luck it is all kicking off in February 2011!
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