What's Next?

I learned a lot while I was in Korea. I learned about myself, about teaching, about cultural differences, and a lot about being not just independent but also self-sufficient. I feel like I have grown up so much. But as with everything, there is a beginning and an end. As my time in Korea has now ended, my next journey starts. 

I recently accepted a teaching position as a middle school special education teacher. I am so excited. I am back where I started. I am going to be teaching at the middle school that I went to. I'm a wildcat again. It's weird to think about the fact that the whole adventure in Korea is done, but I think I am ready to be a special education teacher again. It's strange. I still feel like I'm a kid. Even when I was teaching abroad, I never felt like a real teacher. I have no choice now. I am an adult. I bought my first car all on my own. I'm paying my own phone bill. And in a few months, I am going to be in charge of my very own classroom. 

Thank you for everyone who read my posts for the last two years. 

I've had so much fun writing about my time during the last two years, I wanted to find a way to continue. 

안녕!

The Craziest Weekend

Late one Friday night, I got the email that I had been dreading. The US had raised the travel advisory to Level 4: Do Not Travel. This translated to a full suspension of the Fulbright program and sending all grantees, who were still abroad and could leave, home. I was being sent home. The voluntary departure was becoming a mandatory one. This was so hard for me. I knew I wanted to stay, but I don't think I knew quite how much until I read those words. I started to cry immediately. I talked to my host mom, called my parents and I just sat with the news as I laid in bed most of the night trying to figure out what was next. 

24 hours later, my sadness turned into confusion. On Saturday, I was given something that I thought was gone. A chance to stay. They told us that because of the control that Korea had over the virus and how it was looking like it was getting better, the ETAs were getting special permission to go back to voluntary departure status. Now I am going crazy. I had just gotten it in my head that I was going home. I thought about it and wrestled with this decision for the next day. I barely slept. I knew I wanted to stay, but now with the travel ban, I wasn't sure if that meant I wouldn't be able to get home on my new grant ending date of June 30th. I also was trying to decide if it was even worth staying. We still hadn't started school yet. And with the projected school start date, I would only get a solid three months with my kids, provided the date doesn't get pushed again. 

As soon as I had come to the decision that I wanted to stay, another email came through. They told us they were sorry, they had made a mistake, they weren't able to give us the choice to stay. We all had to go home. If we wanted to stay, we would have to do it on our own. Meaning, get new visas and become a foreign teacher in Korea, without the protections and support that Fulbright provides. Now I had to decide if this new choice was worth it. I never planned to stay in Korea beyond my second year. I had already started the application process for a job back home. Is it worth all the trouble of getting a new visa, negotiating a new contract, and doing all the other requirements in order to say for only three more months, even though I had no idea when we were going back to school? After a long night with little sleep for the third night in a row, I had to decide.

I'm going home. 

I just hope I'm making the right decision....

Detective Kristy and the Case of the Winter English Camp

Just like last year, at the end of the school year in January, we had a winter camp. It was set up slightly different this year, in that there were four classes that rotated each day. So for five days, we each taught the day one lesson 4 times and on Friday, we would have the first class again and teach the day two lesson. The camp consisted of all of the EPIK teachers in our town and Gia (the other ETA at my school) and I. We were each in pairs teaching one of the four classrooms. Gia and I were paired together and made a Detective themed camp based on the board game CLUE.

Day one was the detective day. We played a bunch of games calling it "detective training." We played games where they had to remember the shapes on the board, spot all the differences in a set of pictures.

Then we learned "what am I?" poems. We called these clues, so the students would read three sentences like "I am red or green" "I am a fruit" and "I am crunchy" and they would come up with the answer apple. We read a few, wrote one as a class then the students had to write one for themselves (or pairs). I am so surprised at how well some of the students did. They were really good at coming up with them and when I had them read their clue aloud to the class, the class was able to figure it out as well. We then used this skill to complete a scavenger hunt around the room, using the clues to get them to the next object and ultimately to the winning sentence.

We did day one four times and each time was slightly different. Some classes went faster than others, some really enjoyed certain activities more than others, some just ended up not even getting to do some activities. But it was fun adjusting every day on the fly.

Day two had us actually playing the game CLUE. We made our own modified board with objects and rooms that they would better be able to learn.

After playing a few games to get the students familiar with the appearance and household vocabulary words, we set them to play the game (after 20 minutes of explanation in both English and Korean). Surprisingly, most of the groups really understood it. One group didn't even need any help, freeing Gia and me up to monitor the groups that need help playing. The strategy part of the game was a bit difficult as it was third graders we were playing with. Some groups really got into the game and some even finished before it was time to go. They were so invested, they didn't want to stop playing while they got their snack.

I'm really happy with the camp that we made this year and I hope the students enjoyed it as much as I did.

6th Grade Graduation

A few days ago, I taught my last class for the 2019 school year, and yesterday, I said goodbye to the students that I started with. My 6th graders are charming, and smart and enthusiastic. They are also brats and made me want to pull my hair out or duct tape their mouths... or both.

As I stood in the back of the gym, I thought about all of the days I've taught these kids in the past year and a half. Each student that walked across the stage is someone that I've talked to, worked with and that I care about. I am so proud to have seen these students reach the end of their time in elementary school.

After all the students did the walk, some fifth and sixth graders performed. Usually, it is just dancing, which is always so good. I'm amazed every time by the talent of these kids, but we also had some play instruments and had a few fifth-grade boys who decided they wanted to rap and sing. It was so cute. I had to put my hand over my mouth so that I wasn't laughing in the video I was taking. It was so cute.

After the performances, the students are dismissed and I tried my best to congratulate and give hugs to as many students as I could. When I hugged Siyeon (my old host sister), I couldn't help but start to cry. I was so proud of her. So proud of all of them.

My Student and Her Family Kidnapped Me!

Well, not really...

It all started on the Saturday before Christmas. I was heading to Chuncheon to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. Usually, on Saturdays, the buses are sold out for like an hour or two and I usually end up hanging out near the bus terminal for a bit because of that. I fully intended on doing just that.

When I arrived at the terminal, I went up to the ticket machine and waited behind a family getting their tickets. They then moved away from the machine. I noticed one of my 6th-grade girls. She was there with her mom and her sister. I noticed they didn't buy any tickets, so I tried to indicate that they weren't finished and ask if I could use it.

The mom started to ask me where I was going, and I told her, and suddenly my student grabbed my hand and they said let's go together. We went outside to her car and we headed to Chuncheon.

Thus far, everything that was said was in Korean, so it was a very quiet car ride to the city. Once we got there, I thought that I would thank them for the ride and then we would part ways, but they found out I wasn't meeting anyone and they insisted on me joining them for lunch. During the lunch the mom and I had a conversation (through Papago) about how she envied the freedom foreigners have and that Koreans can't just be on their own, especially not eating meals. This was why she wanted me to stay with them. She didn't want me to be on my own.

Then we went shopping together. While it felt restricting having them with me when I was shopping it was also really sweet that she wanted to take care of me. After a few hours, I found myself in the car again heading back to Hwacheon. I never expected something like this to happen but I will always remember this student and her mom and little sister for being so kind and welcoming me into their day.

Korean Folk Painting

My favorite co-teacher is leaving at the end of the school year and something she promised she would teach me is called Minhwa. This is a type of Korean fold painting. It's really beautiful and Songsil is really good at it. She has been painting it for years. So she decided to teach us how to paint it by making Christmas cards this year.

The first thing I find interesting is that it doesn't really use paint the way you might think. It more like watercolor in a way because it's just dried down loose pigment that is wet.

We first outlined the pattern we wanted to paint with a brush onto this paper that Songsil dyed herself.

After that, she showed us how to pick the colors and each step to painting each part.

I'm actually really shocked by how it all turned out. I would love to do it again. It was so relaxing for a Friday afternoon. I wanted to spend forever just painting, and I usually find painting tedious and get impatient with it after too long. I didn't even realize until it was time to go that we had actually spent two hours working on these things. One thing I know for sure. I am not giving this Christmas card to anyone. It is going to stay mine as a treasured memory and to remind me of my co-teacher.

Superhero Thematic Unit

This fall, I had the chance to teach a six-week class of advanced English for 9 fourth and fifth graders. I got complete control over the class's curriculum with no requirements. So I designed a "create your own superhero" unit. It's not the most original idea but it is definitely something I thought the students would enjoy.

So I first set out to divide them into three groups. I have four girls and five boys so I knew it wasn't going to be even. The students split up with a group of four girls, a group of three boys and a group of two boys.

My first few days were introducing the three characters they were making: hero, villain, and sidekick. They created their stories, alter-egos, powers, characteristics, and relationships. We spent a whole class on a completely English website creating their costumes.

In the last two classes, I had them create the comic. THey first made out a rough draft to plan the story, and then I gave them comic paper to draw out the whole story. Some went really in-depth with the drawings, others with the stories. They didn't all have a plot, but that is okay because they did it in English and they tried really hard.

In the last few minutes of the class, I had the student introduce their characters and stories to the rest of the class.

I'm really proud of them and their creations.

Question of The Week: How I Get My Students To Engage Outside of Class

During my first fall conference in 2018, I thought of a new way to get to know my students a little more and get them to engage in writing in English outside of class.

Question of the week.

I'm sure this sounds silly, but it works. Well...usually.

Every Friday, I post a question for the next week. They are never Yes or No questions. Sometimes they are really simple, like "What's your favorite color" or a little harder, like "What's your favorite part about winter?"

The easier questions tend to get more answers, but I always get some.

The reward for this is at the end of each week, I will put the names of all the students who participated in a digital roulette wheel (one for each class), and I spin it. The winner gets to pick a piece of candy out of my candy box. The candy box is something I pay for on my own. I stock it with M&M's, lollypops, gummies, etc. Bigger candies to make them excited.

Some of my students are really excited about this and will answer every week, some have never answered in the year and a half I've been doing this, but it is fun nonetheless. They get so excited to see their names on the wheel.

I have had trouble with the students not putting their names on the paper or their class numbers, so I've had some bummed kids who thought they were going to be on the wheel but weren't, but they learn, and they remember next week.

(Not So) Casual Hike With The School

As I said recently, I had an unusual Halloween this year.  Just like last year, I dressed up as a witch during school and gave out candy to my students, but I didn't do a Halloween themed lesson. Unlike last year, I had decided they wanted to go on a hike. But this hike was unlike any other hike I have been on.

Now I've been on "hikes" that were just walking around a path, and I've been on hikes that were going up a mountain, with a small climbing section.

I have never been on a "hike" like this.

This was not a hike. This was a climb.

I was told beforehand that we were going to the most famous (i.e. tallest) mountain in Hwacheon and to wear comfortable clothes and hiking boots. I was thinking, cool, this is an excuse to wear a sweatshirt and leggings. Which I did. And looking back, I am so thankful that I did because if I had worn jeans like I was originally planning, I would have been in trouble.

Literally, the beginning of this hike was knees-to-chest level hiking. There were stairs and at some points these orange bars that were fixed into the stone as a literal ladder up the mountain.

Now I am not the most athletic, and with a bad ankle, I knew I wasn't going to last too long, but I didn't want to give up. I ended up at the back of the pack, but I was going to keep going. Slow and steady right?

Well...I tried.

I will admit, I didn't make it all the way to the top. There were three summits, I was told afterward, and I did make it to the first one. It was actually a really nice view, but it would have been better if the air quality was better.  I think if I had a few hours and as many breaks, as I wanted, I could have made it all the way to the top, but I was with the school and felt like I should just move down the mountain before everyone else came back down and caught up with me.

After the hike, we drove to a quaint little restaurant that just barely fit all the staff members in it and ate. I was so tired and sore that night...

I'm glad I went, but I was not prepared for that. It will definitely be a memory that I have for a long time.

Halloween YR 2

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Last year, I was able to make the day special in school in my classes and afterschool classes. But this year, it wasn't possible because of my schedule. But thankfully, I still got the chance to celebrate. The weekend before the county decided to do a special Halloween event for the local kids. We all dressed up, did a mini tricker-treating and each of us ran a station that groups of kids rotated through.

The other teachers ran stations of different crafts and activity stations. Mine was a pizza-making station. It was such a mess.

My host mom was in charge of the event, so in the weeks leading up to it, I really got to see a lot of behind the scenes, as well as help, come up with ideas and how everything was going to work.

Day of, I got all dressed up in my Halloween costume, I was a witch, and entered the frantic flurry of preparation. Once the kids started to arrive, it was showtime. I did five rounds of helping 5-9-year-olds make pizza and trying not to get it all over their costumes. There was a bit of a learning curve, where the first two rounds I actually ran out of time and then I started finishing too fast.

The concept was that I gave each of them a piece of bread, they put sauce on, used cookie cutters to shape their cheese, then add toppings to make them more Halloweeny. Some of the designs were really cute.

After the kids went through all of the activities, we went outside for pictures, giving out candy and this thing that I can only describe as Korean Pinata.

On Sunday, we repeated the same thing, but in another town in the county. It was a really nice way to spend Halloween. I'm glad I got the chance to do this activity and share with the Korean children my love of the holiday. Especially because these kids were so young and so cute in their costumes!

Fall Conference in Gyeongju YR 2

Just like last year, in October, Fulbright gets the entire cohort together for Fall Conference in Gyeongju. Much of the conference was the same as last year, with a few exceptions. Thursday night, the other ETAs in Hwacheon and I decided to go to Chuncheon the night before and stay in an Airbnb, so we didn’t have to get up quite as early on Friday morning. It was actually a lot of fun hanging out with the girls.

Once we made it to Gyeongju, Friday and Saturday were mostly just various presentations and small group discussions where we could share what we have learned and bounce ideas off one another. As a first-year, this was so good, as I had been teaching at my placement for only two months. As a second year, however, this was mostly sharing knowledge and answering and questions if the first years had some. The experience was still very valuable, and it was really good to meet the first years since I really didn’t get a chance when I was at Yonsei for Departure Day.

Saturday was special to me though, because I was able to give a presentation this year. I gave a presentation on special education in the classroom. Since I believe most of the modifications and accommodations for students with special needs are just best practices that you can be doing with any student and that if you don’t know who to help, you can’t help, I spent most of my presentation on the different categories of disabilities and their identifying characteristics. I really do hope that people got something valuable out of it.

Sunday was when I really got to have fun. Last year, I went on the tour provided my Fulbright. The problem, however, is that the tour is the same every year. So this year, I elected not to go on it. I decided to just do my typical idea of just wandering around.

Although I didn’t make it everywhere I was intending on going to, I did have fun and it was actually really relaxing. The first place was the World Culture Expo. I wish I had gotten to go back at nighttime because they had a night walk that looked beautiful, but during the day was still pretty good. Afterward, I took a bus into the main area of town and went café hopping, found an awesome restaurant, a pop-up ice cream place, and little shops. It was exactly what I needed.

After our final conference dinner, I decided I didn’t want to stay at the hotel and decided to go to Anapji Pond. This is a beautiful pond right on the old palace that gives a mirror image of what’s above lang. It is breathtaking at night. I actually ran into another ETA there and we decided to walk over to the observatory and see it lit up before heading back to the hotel.

Monday morning, I got the bread that I pre-ordered and made the long 6-hour journey up the country back home. Tuesday, I returned to school, exhausted but grateful that I got to go back to Gyeongju for a second time.

Back to School Again

So I started school again about a week ago. But I haven't had any classes yet! I'm actually kind of bored. There is only so much that a person can do in a day to prep for classes. Just like with the semesters prior, I have a whole new schedule. But this year, I am teaching 5th and 6th grade! I get to keep my darling 5th graders that I have grown so close to in the past year, as well as get my 6th graders back. I taught them last fall when they were in 5th grade.
My schedule is jam-packed, though. I have 4 classes back to back every day and 5 on Fridays. This is because I have 7 classes total, and each class meets three times a week.  On the other end, I don't have any after-school classes this semester. I couldn't have any because it would have put me over my 22 contracted hours. I will be a little sad to see it go, but now I can put all my attention and energy into having really good classes. And because of this, I will have at least 2-3 hours every day of solid desk warming time. I can plan lessons, make games, and do whatever else I want! Which includes studying Korean, but you know how that goes.

My Student's Summer Bucket Lists

Before I left, I wanted to do something a bit special with my 5th-grade students. The last chapter in their textbook was "What will you do this summer?" so I wanted to do something that made them answer that question. So I did what any good teacher would do... I looked online for activities that someone else has made. Hey, my professors always told me not to reinvent the wheel.

This activity was a flap book in the shape of a bucket. Under each flap, they wrote and drew pictures about the people they wanted to see, the places they wanted to go and the things they wanted to do during their summer break. 

It was so fun learning all about their plans. Some of my students were going to camp, others to foreign countries and many were just planning on relaxing and hanging out with their friends.

Well....It's official. I'm Staying!

So I've been hinting at it in previous posts, but it wasn't official until a few days ago. Way back in February, I decided that I wanted to renew my Fulbright grant here in Korea. The Korean Fulbright ETA grant is renewable up to three years. Applications opened back in March and I quickly filled it out. I don't know if this was more or less nerve wracking then the first time I applied. It was a really tense few months of will I, won't I.

This week, after being told we were going to receive our notifications a month prior, I was finally told that I was accepted for a second year, and my school was very enthusiastic about me continuing in Hwacheon. So there you go anyone who has been interested in knowing.

I AM STAYING IN KOREA!!!

For another year, at least. I don't think, at this point, I will renew for a third year. I miss being home and I want to start my career. But at the same time, I feel like my journey here in Korea isn't over yet.

My host family won't be hosting me next year, but I'll still see them around and I am still so thankful for them for hosting me. Part of my homestay contract requires me to have my own room, and I took the oldest girl's room when I got here. She has been sharing with her two younger brothers and she's getting older. She needs her own room and her own space. I understand.

I don't know yet who will be hosting me, there are apparently three families that applied to host me or the other ETA at my school. So hopefully, I will know and be able to meet my family before I leave in July.

Now that I know I am staying, I finally have my flight information and can tell all my friends exactly when I am home, so I can see everyone. I have missed them so much over the past year. I spent the last four years around these people everyday, so it has been an adjustment. Some friends I have had even longer.

Well that's it. That's all I have. But on the bright side, there is another year of posts coming to all of you. Thank you so much for coming on this journey for the past year, and I look forward to another one.

선생님 이에요! (I am a teacher)

"Teacher, teacher, teacher!!!"

The word that I have always used to describe my future career now it's my whole identity.

Lets rewind.

I don't remember when I decided I would be a teacher when I grew up. I just always knew. I always had this love for teaching, for school, for helping others, and for kids.

One thing that I do love about the american education system, it that dispute being a teacher, you retain your identity. Here, it doesn't feel like you do.

I was explaining this to a friend back home when she asked about what my students call me. In Korean culture, your title is more important than your name. I don't know if this is because its so easy to have similar or the same name as others, or because of the need to have pride and save face by being successful, or some other reason I don't even know.

So if you are a teacher in Korea, you are often just called 선생님 (son-sang-nim) or if they need to be more specific then your name then 선생님. For example, in English my title is literally Kristy Teacher to the kids. To some students, I am just Teacher, others I am just Kristy, and some call me Kristy Teacher. Most of my students just call me teacher though. Especially if they are calling me over.

A few weeks ago another fulbrighter was teaching her students to say "My name is blah, his name is blah," etc. And she pointed to their homeroom teacher and said "her name is..." She was really surprised when none of her students could tell her their teacher's name. Some of them just said 선생님, because they didn't know. Now they are only third graders and I know the older students do know their student's names but it was just very surprising and really made me think about that.

In america, I know its a big deal if students know your first name, and some teachers try to keep it a secret, but it was even more surprising that 'teacher' becomes their entire identity.

And mine.

I walk through school, "hello teacher"

I walk through town, "Oh, Hi teacher!"

I'm in my house and host sibling's friends come over "Teacher!?!"

About a month into my stay with my homestay, I actually had to tell my host parents to tell the kids to just call me Kristy, because I felt weird about being called teacher at home. I love being a teacher but I don't want it to be my whole identity. But in a country where the biggest job market for foreigners is English teacher, my whole appearance makes people assume I am a teacher. I have literally been approached multiple times and within five minutes I would be offered a job as a private tutor or an academy teacher.

But it's who I am. I am a teacher. I can't change that. So as long as I am here, my name is teacher. Not Kristy. Not Ms. Sonberg. Just Teacher.

Wish me luck.

Science Day!

This is going to be short and sweet. Today was science day at my school. Every semester, my school hosts a science day where students go to different classrooms and do different activities. Last semester, our classroom was in charge of making little homes for cockroaches. I was praying that we weren't doing the same this year. We weren't. This time it was snails instead of cockroaches. You know what? Snails are significantly better. I think they are really cute.

Students are assigned to the classrooms and activities they are supposed to attend. We got 2nd grade, which is really interesting considering we don't even teach 2nd grade, but maybe that was the idea. Assign the classes to places where they don't go.

It was actually really fun to make these little houses for the snails and I also became the resident snail wrangler. I was the person that would get the snails out of the little cups that they came in and put them in the new homes if the students weren't able to get them out or were too scared. I had one girl who wouldn't even hold the cup. I had to carry it to her desk, take it out, put it in the container and close the lid before she got close to it.

Each of the kids got to put everything in the container and name it. Ping Ping was a frequent choice (Gary from Spongebob's Korean
name). It was actually really cute to see the different reactions each of the kids had, and how the snails adjusted to their new environments. By the time class was over, there were some that were climbing all over the walls and even investigating their food source. I am very happy I got to experience this with the students.

Newspaper Review Project

Since I am now teaching in the homeroom classrooms for my 5th grade, I have discovered that I now have a lot more control over the class and what we do. Now this lesson was in no way my idea. For 5th grade, as well as all the grades, we have a textbook to follow, but this year we have a new book to use. Just like with the old one, they have fun review like activities every few chapters. In the old books, this review would be in the form of a story time (which I did a post on last October).
But in this new book, it is a bunch of new activities. Now these reviews are supposed to take three days, but because of my trip to Jeju for the conference, I actually missed both the test for the previous unit and the first day of this review. The star of the review was a newspaper project that I made into much more than it needed to be. I just love creative activities like this and I will try and get my students to make things any time I get the opportunity. I hope the textbook allows for more days like this one in the coming reviews.

The final day of the three review days was a 'newspaper' of sorts. Since the first two chapters were on where you are from and what you like to do on the weekends, it was perfect for personal stories and interviews for a newspaper. Now in the book, it says we were supposed to spend more time on the actual reading of the example newspaper, but I was way too excited. I just wanted them to make their own news bulletin as it ended up being. Each class is made of about 22 or 23 students if everyone is there. I decided I wanted to put them in five groups. Each group was assigned one part of the project. They were so excited when I told them that they were going to get to choose their own groups. That rarely happens for them, just like in any elementary school, I suppose. Once they were in the groups I gave them their choices and each group picked one. If two groups wanted to do the same thing, they would rock, paper, scissors for who would get to do it. In Korea, rock, paper, scissors can solve world problems. Literally. I've seen grown men use it.

The project was split into five parts:
1) Welcome Friends- Students would write a profile of sorts introducing themselves. (two per class).
2) My Weekend Pictures- Students would draw a picture about what they do on the weekends and 'caption' it (two to three per class).
3) Teacher interview- Students would interview the teachers and write up the dialogue. (Two per class).
4) Comic Strip- Write and illustrate an amusing comic using the vocabulary. (One per class)
5)Designer- This group designed the poster and would layout all of the pieces the others created.

Now this wasn't the same for every class. Depending on what students ended up in each group determined where I spent most of my time and helped, but it was so fun and the students were so proud of what they created in English. It was also really nice to see all the really cute pictures. Korean kids are so artistic. I couldn't and still can't draw that well. Each class came out with something just a little bit different and it really was a testament to the different dynamics and personalities of each class.