Eviction, sort of.

For reasons which I shall sensibly not discuss here, we had to leave out staffroom for a new one.

Here is the old room looking quite desolate as the desks have been moved downstairs to our new room. Farewell, mildly draughty but roomy retreat.

Behold downstairs. (Karen, you look quite smug an comfortable there) Mine is the desk with the pink basket and red blanket on it.  Sure, it looks tidy and is a lot warmer but it is a great deal smaller.

The problem there is that there isn't room for everyone so a lot of the Korean teachers have been given desks in their homerooms. It's dreadfully unsociable and sometimes we hardly see some of the others. Boo.

On the bright side, it's a lot warmer which is pretty damn significant at this time of the year.

That Most Hated Of Seasonal Duties

I thought I'd be safe enough from being roped into it this year but, nay.

We were provided with company cards and I had to write them for my homerooms.

I'd like to point out that we only get Christmas Day off from work so this card thing seems just cruel.

New Year, New Calendar

Jealous?

I get a sweet Cartoon Network calendar from my employers. A cheerful way to remember tests, reports and bills.

Butterfly on a Flower

No, really.

Why is this on my timetable? This can't be encouraging their artistic sides. (Not with me in charge at any rate.)

Weekly Trivia

The area is simply teeming with foreigners like myself so it's not surprising we eventually congregate in some shape or form.

To lure these elusive creatures alcohol is essential to the baiting of traps. Free entry and booze for the winners, losers and in-betweeners

Every Thursday (Well, almost) we head to Liquor Burger for miniburgers and to do epic battle in Trivia.

It's tradition to change our team name every single week and get ridiculously competitive.

Since it is a table quiz it goes with many of the usual affairs such as when the answers are read out and you either go:

Or

Despite our fluctuating membership we have an excellent track record - better than anyone else actually - for ranking high and winning a prize.

It seems I did not inherit the Finn gene for table quizzes but I'm not too bad. The week the picture round was girlbands is embarrassing though. I was writing and Steph turned to me and goes "Okay Aoife, Number X is....Oh, I guess you got them all."
I did, I am ashamed (This is the education my parents paid for), we were the only team to do that but it's irrelevant because we didn't win anyway. (Got the minibeers though!)

Helen and Karen are just a tad too awesome so I was thrilled this week that although we were obliged to split our team of eight in two I so got the best deal out of anyone.

First place baby!

In the front from left to right Eugene, myself, Helen and Karen. Behind  with the mock(?) fury Stephanie, Seth (Goddamn he looks chipper) and Katherine. Lucy was bathroom-bound.
The bounty was Jaegerbombs (which Eugene and I promptly gave away)

Not the only photo of our team on facebook but I don't have my eyes shut here.

As for this weeks name? Well, we had been to Noraebang beforehand....

No Pictures Darling, No Pictures

It's no secret as to how I feel about having my photo taken.

A very public part of me wants to simply avoid it altogether, make them more flattering or at least make it more bearable on my large yet terribly fragile vanity...somehow.

Nevertheless, it happens and thankfully not all the photos are used.
(Although there is one of me sweating horribly in a wool jumper in a newsletter somewhere for the children to go: 'That's Aoife-teacher! She's always shouting.')
At least Helen and Seth got the benefit of airbrushing on their brochure shots. (Not that I am in any way implying that they are anything less than perfect.)

I hesitate to post pictures of the children on the internet, naturally enough, although other TEFL teachers have no problems but I just don't feel comfortable putting them on my facebook.
Maybe it's partially cultural where there is an element in current training where they tell you never to be completely alone with a kid, never so much as touch their shoulder and don't give too much eye-contact etc etc etc.

But these photos come from the website so they're already on the internet - ahahahahaha!

This is me with my 6 year old homeroom - Brown class. This was Science where 'the kids' had to make a rubber band powered school bus.
It's one of the classes otherwise known as 'Aoife-teacher makes eight school buses.'

Please note how there's always one kid taking the time to throw up gangsigns.

This is an hour later doing another Science class with my 7 year old homeroom - U.C. Berkeley.
I...can't really remember what it is that we were doing. I think it was an optical illusion and not a very good one IMHO.

 That's both classes with Alex and I at Everland. Note how high I apparantly look. Mostly, I'm just exhausted.

This is the entire group in Everland. It was after I was pulling several kids away from the fountain and a certain dip. At least it wasn't raining. This is also the day before I flew out to Kyoto and I hadn't packed at this point.

 Finally, Halloween. Lots of princesses, ninjas and plenty of Batman. We felt very safe there. As you see I did not dress up. How dare you accuse me of being a killjoy! I don't need ridiculously difficult to obtain Halloween props! I'm terrifying enough on my own!!
(Besides I had plenty of crying children hanging out of me all day.)

Everland

For the uninitated Everland is a theme park in South Korea.

It has a certain Disney-esque feel what with their ugly mascots and seasonal themes. Naturally these affairs are best enjoyed in a stress-free environment when you can relax and stroll about the different zones at your ease.

So, basically we spent a day herding small children from point to point. I had  sore throat from the end: "Let's stay together now", "Stay with your partner." "oh god I've lost one Where is XX? Let's catch up now." "That's not a giant hornet."

Giant hornet? Where did they even hear that term? They were just bees. -_-

Anyway, after getting everyone their badges we shuffled them onto the bus where it felt like 'mom-time' as I went around making sure seatbelts were buckled, bags were placed and we hadn't lost anyone. (I spent the rest of the day doing the same and helping everyone with their cardigans as well.)

After a bus trip where (miraculously) no one threw up (not even me) we were shuffled off the bus with no clue what to do next. Seriously, that was my biggest problem and it added an awful lot of unnecessary stress. We had no itinerary and were told nothing. I could write one now of course, but that's a bit late isn't it?

 

Nevertheless, I'll summarise. First we had lunch, then we took all the children to a safari ride and a seashow. Photo ops were interspersed along with a train ride before some 'free time' where we took the *children on a few rides. (*So, no rollercoasters for Aoife.)

Lunch was an unnecessarily stressful experience, I ended up not sitting down or eating  much of my kimbap. There were bees, lots of bees so I think there must have been a nest in the vicinity, and I had to keep shooing them away from the children because y'know.

Then we took the kids to this. It was actually quite fun. (Sad too, in a way looking at those animals.) But the kids loved it, and the tiger bus we rode. XD

They had a liger, which was pretty damn cool, but he was sleeping in a rock crevasse that shielded him from us. (Clever Beast)

They also had trained some of the bears. A couple came and walked on their hindlegs next to the bus which was admittedly freaky to see.

They had other animals too, trying to remember here, beaver, chameleon, goose etc.

After that we took them all to the sea show which I must admit to enjoying. Even though it was in korean I could understand how ridiculous the 'story' was but the animals were well-trained and it was impressive to see. I have absolutely no idea why there were randomly chickens though...

The best part of that was probably the little otter though. It skittered out, rode a swing and sailed a little boat and everyone there went asdfg!!

There were official pictures, *buries face in hands*, toilet trips, rehydrating of the kidlets and much much herding. Cats would have been easier. Them  I could have packed in a box and continued on my merry way.

We took our groups on a few rides in the latter half of the day. Let me wrack my elderly memory for it now. The Peter Pan, (Good fun actually. C:) The Magic Swing (Also, quite a good one, especially for the kids), Kingdom of Cars (Just for little kids), The Royal Jubilee Carousel (Completely with terrrifying impressively sneering steeds), The Festival Train (Lots of garden to see and who doesn't like trains?) and The Global Village.

In the Global Village I sat with two of the girls and we identified all of the countries. What I cannot possibly explain is how horrifically nightmarish I found the whole thing. A part of me wanted to leap out of the boat and wade to the exit. Not too bad you say?

Oh, the things I suffer. (Note my perfect seriousness)
After we got all the feral kittens children hoarded back onto the bus we headed back whereupon I discovered that all travel medication has the same effect on me when I fell asleep and hit my head against the window....multiple times.

Even more gifts...

 

After the misadventures  in Everland we returned to the school and collected our Chuseok gifts from the company.

 

You know what? I ahev no problems with this at all. I mean, I'm actually going to use this now! These were things on my shopping list that I was intending to buy and I can hardly fault practicality. :D Now I shall have cleaner and shinier teeth.

 

 

I will say this though. A part of my soul deeply feared we would have gotten the spam giftset instead.

 

 

Even Moar Science!!!

 

Once again, adventures with SCIENCE!!

 

I always seem to have ds.k vhlmv;esi/  water experiements which are horrible and awful and I despise them so. D:>

 

But seeing as I am a mean fascist that exerts and iron-clad will and control over these proceedings it generally goes alright.

 

More to the point, do I really sound like that? Ye gods - my eardrums are cruel indeed.

 

Messing with the digestion

 

So, as I may have mentioned before, every Wednesday I belabour to introduce some six and seven year olds to the wonders of SCIENCE!! I'm provided with convenient little books and plastic bags worth of goodies for doing so too.

 

Behold what U.C. Berkeley (seven years) and I got up to:

 

It's.................an unnecessarily detailed model of the digestive system. Wait, do they really need to recognise the duodenum?!

The colorful one is a puzzle (minutes of fun!) and the lower picture involves playing with a magnet and a paper-clipped picture of food.

Science everyone!!

Lunch

I generally have lunch at the school most days.

It's the same thing the kids have but as you see I generally forget to get the soup.

There is a much bigger plate for teachers but I only get that on Spaghetti days. There's always rice and everything else is a delightful(?) surprise. Generally aspiring to lukewarm, hardly the stuff of legends.

For Science

So, the bottle rocket. (No, not that kind)

 

I made this with Brown class and they loved it. I drew a big taget on the board and they aimed for that with MUCH enthusiasm. This way, no 'rockets' were lost down the back of the lockers or outside the window.

 

It was a lot like the water gun fiasco which I, of course, failed to take pictures of before I had to cannibalize it for parts.  >:3

 

These things got some surprising height. I wonder how many of thing were fired into irretrievable positions...............................probably all in the end.



 

 

Practical Education

Part of the curriculum at Ivy Kids involves Science!

The kids love it and it is a lot of fun but there is a large level of dubious content which shall no doubt show up here soon enough.

I have two science classes at the moment so I get both Brown and U.C. Berkeley for sciency fun.

I receive a giant pack per school session. A big plastic bag of  'experiments' for the kids and a teacher bag with one so I can demonstrate the process(/cannibalise it for spare parts.)

With Berkely recently we did this:

I'll be honest, when it comes to creating a refreshing breeze, it's kind of useless. However, the kids loved it. The plier- things were quite hard to operate though. Slippy and stiff.

Naturally, some of the motors didn't work so we had to tear up some of the spares. No on off button but the connected/not connected settings..

Still, although I doubt they actuallylearned anything it had a certain *Eeeeeeee* appeal to the kids. (and the teachers who have one sitting on their desks.)

Mad Skills

 One of the most important parts of an activity is modeling.

What this essentially means is leading by example. You do a half-assed example of the task for the kids to reference and hopefully they won't copy it word for word identikit. (...........)

Pictorial reference is also invaluable when teaching new vocabulary. (Although sometimes the children already know the strangest words and gestures...)

I frequently do this through the use of my clearly awesome art skills which are only slightly demonstrated here. Sadly I did not take pictures of such materpieces as my marker illustration of a parka coat (for a lesson on clothes - hey it was in the book) or my fabulous depiction of a ninja in the bushes (for 'action words').

Well, some people learn through images so it's all enforcement (or theatrical rhyme) in the end anyway.

Stickers, Stickers Oh-gods STICKERS

Children are distracted by stickers. FACT.

They will jump through hoops, skip dance and recite damn near anything for them. Thus, bribes reward systems! :D

You can laugh but gods it works so well on kids of all ages. The happy face stickers do well and they really like the shiny stars I have too. C:

Solution Involves a Bag and My Head

So this week amidst all the general malarkley that children evoke I had my picture taken and introduction taken for the website.

http://www.ybmivy.com/songdo

This is so the parents can check up on us and go "hmm, what crazy foreigner have they hired to teach my precious little dumpling?"

Unfortunately my photo is not very reassuring....in fact I kind of look like I've had a stroke. :C

I've had worse but that's not reassuring considering how often I've had to get pictures redone.

I've met parents though and they don't seem too worried so either they realise it's a terrible and pretty unfaithful photograph or they have faith in their childs Taekwondo skills.