2 Free Software programs to use in place of MS Word

Photo: Jeremy Brooks

These days, computer software costs a lot. Why buy them if you can find free alternatives online?

This is a video of my first day at my Korean Elementary School in Daegu.

This is a video of my first day at my Korean Elementary School in Daegu.

It's a lot of first impressions, look at the classroom and the initial welcome program that they have with teachers.

Happy Valentine's Day! ~ Love, Korea

They say it seldom snows in Daegu, but it's been snowing all day.

Only a few cars were out on the road this morning, driving real slow. Many teachers reverted to the subway to get to work, parents accompanied their children to school on foot and it's surmounted in a bit

The oddity of a 1.5 week of school

Sometimes, the Korean school system doesn't make sense. Not at all. Got back from winter vacation last Sunday to start school on Monday...

All 1.5 weeks of it. 

My poor students.

Do you really want to teach English in Korea? (Part I: Q & A)

The original article is posted on GRRRLTRAVELER.com

Apologies for the redirect once again. This series of articles will be posted in full form at GRRRLTRAVELER.com. Though My Crazy Kimchi is my ESL teaching site, the questions of taking a gap travel year and teaching English abroad arose from readers on that site. I will be posting update links to My Crazy Kimchi in the meanwhile.

Well deciding to teach English abroad can feel like ordering a mail order bride. You've got a description and a list of hopeful expectations; yet you can't see what you've got until the day arrives. How will you know what you asked for will be what you wanted? Honestly, sometimes even when you've crossed over to seeing your prize, things can still seem a bit veiled; but at least you've tackled the biggest hurdle... making it happen!

Recently friends and readers have asked me about my experiences in the ESL classroom and how they can teach English abroad too. I've decided to make it a three part series. This is general Q&A I've gotten...

1o (More) Surprising Facts about Korean Schools

 

Photo from Toiletpaperworld.com

Sometimes, the cultural differences of working in the Korean classroom can be a real trip for a westerner! Either you're left open-mouthed at every corner or you're still trying to understand the Korean logic...

Back in March when I first arrived here, I was just uncovering my new environment (Read"10 surprising facts about the  Korean school"). Today, it's become a  routine; yet as much as I live the daily idiosyncrasies and tics of my kimchi habitat, some of this stuff still boggles the mind a bit.

Though this does have to do with my school and class experiences in Korea, the following post is parked on my GRRRL TRAVELER blog where I thought the cultural differences interesting enough to be in my travel section. Click on the link below.


10 (More) Surprising Facts about the Korean Public School.

Model Schools in Korea: Classrooms on Steriods and Bred for Excellence

Daegu, South Korea. Kids chirp in unison after the teacher. Maybe they break into song as they break from their row and scurry along, moving their desks into their level groups. It reminds me of an elementary ROTC school.

They call them "model schools" and last month, I got to attend an open observation of one. What's a

Why You Shouldn't Teach English in Korea (Funny Video)

This is currently passing through the Facebook channels of NETs. It's pretty fun and for some not far from truth. Made by Todd8771 on xtranormal.com (click here to go to his link)

Why I Love Teaching English to my Korean Students

Christine Teacher! Buy from me!...
(My 4th and 5th grade boys with their own sale tent)

Sometimes life choices can make you feel like you're on The Price is Right game show. How do you know you've made the right choice? So you've opened door #1 to a brand new car! Do you still dare risk all for the mystery behind door#2?

There are times I reflect on whether I'm making the right choices for my life.
Last weekend after just having given notice I'd not be renewing my contract, I was on my way to meet friends for a weekend getaway! Our neighborhood park was having a library sale event and I got hijacked by some of my students into the festivities. Heart tugs. I then spent the rest of the afternoon wondering if I hadn't made a mistake... (read more here)

Sharing your Culture (a lesson on Halloween)

The following video clip above will not show from the home page but will appear when clicked on the actual page (click the More button or on the Blog's Title)

It's Halloween week!  As Americans, we all know it's a BIG day-- for a kid and as well as, an adult.  Korea doesn't celebrate Halloween, but some Korean students know about it and I hear, sometimes even get to celebrate it at hagwons.

But as it's Halloween season, this is the opportunity to share your culture. Depending on your classroom or school, not all Korean teachers want this part to take up much classroom time. For instance, I have only one co-teacher who wants us to do something for our class.

A Brief Lesson in Halloween:
For classes where you're not given class time for a Halloween activity.



This video clip from A Nightmare Before Christmas is perfect for introducing a fun Halloween spirit and is great for younger students. As a warmer, I can sneak it in before class starts. The duration of this video is 14.10 min but I only show approx. 3 minutes of it (from timecode 1:43 to 4:38).

 At the beginning of class, I make a short elevator pitch about Halloween-- kids dressing up in costumes and going door-to-doortrick or treating. I make them practice "Trick or Treat"; and at the end of class, I make them repeat the phrase, "Trick or Treat". Then I tell them if they want the candy I've gotten for them, they have to say it to me.

It's a magical feeling to hear your Korean students (especially the young ones) say this to you excitedly. You'd almost feel like you were back home passing out candy to the kids on the block!

A Presentation on Halloween:
For a class where I'm given time to present an overview of Halloween and what it's about.

I found this ppt on Waygook.org  (*my favorite lesson plan shopping spot). I modified it slightly but the person who did this, created a perfect plan for teaching. It gives examples of costumes, how to carve a pumpkin, the act of trick or treating and more. It's very simple but *brilliant*. You can download my version here or go to Waygook.org for the original one and more.

Growing Pains of Co-teaching: Why doesn't my co-teacher listen to my ideas? (Part 3)

Continued from (1:Co-teaching: A Ticking Time Bomb & Top 4 rants of NETs...).

Why doesn't my co-teacher listen to my ideas?

In my experience, this was a common rant amongst NET's in my group.

 So you're the new NET in a school which doesn't yet know how to implement you into their structure.... While Korean teachers may initially, ask you to lead certain activities or offer ideas on lesson plans,  they still want the "controlling hand". Wouldn't you if you'd been teaching your own class for years?

You may come out with very good ideas, brilliant even and wonder why they're continually getting

Top 4 rants of Native English Teachers in the Classroom (Part 2)

You just moved to Korea and you already feel like you're on shaky ground. A new work environment, new life, foreign language, culture and foods... your entire world is turned upside down and being a foreigner will feel like your largest wound! When Korean Teachers dole out punishment, your being an outsider and not knowing the Korean language will surface your vulnerability-- you feel helpless, as if you have no control. What are some Korean war tactics used against the NET's in the classroom?...

Top 4 Popular rants of New Native English Teachers:

The cold shoulder (aka Ice out)
Icing out is a manipulative tactic many of us learned to use in high school, when we

Growing Pains of Co-teaching Relationships: A Ticking Time Bomb? (Part 1)

I've been going back to some of my old posts in an effort clean up and revise information I posted earlier. Reading old posts, got me thinking-- things look a lot different after you've safely crossed the initial growing pains of working out your co-teaching role in the classroom. My relationship with my co-teachers, the school system,...; things begin to make sense and become more manageable. But initially, when my  Korean co-teachers and I were both, new to the co-teaching relationship the growing pains weren't simple.

One of my very first Crazy Kimchi blogrants back in April:

I felt like my co-teacher was doing a last-minute lesson plan ditch today; she had grand and creative schemes for lesson plans, but is now just concerned with following the

Notes from a Talking Recorder

I try to make it a point to talk to my students outside of class. Sometimes I can tell if it's working; sometimes, I can't. I hear Korean students were shy about talking and I know from experience that it takes a lot of courage to talk to your teachers- foreign teacher or not. Saying Hi to me in the hallways is one thing... it's automatic and an expression out of respect. But if they come up to me at lunch while I'm eating amongst the other teachers to say Hi, that's a different level entirely.


If they do initiate a greeting to me while I'm eating lunch, I do what's probably impolite to the teacher who's talking to me or the group at the moment; I turn around and tell the student Hi and answer their questions if they have any. I've not asked my co-teachers if this is rude or annoying to them, I probably should. But getting my kids familiar or confident with using English outside the classroom on a casual basis is one of my priorities.

... Even though it's been a little over 8 months, some of them are still shy.

What happens when the words run out?
Good question. Sometimes, I get tired of the monotonous Q & A routine-

Student: Hello Teacher.
Me: Hello,...Good Morning,... Morning,...

Student: How are you, teacher?
Me: I'm Fine, Great, Fantastic, So-So, Okay, Awesome, Tired, Not bad

...I've used them all. Now what? Anyone know of any more?...

I know my vocabulary is larger than that (I think,..) and I can't stand that I'm sounding like a broken record.

Solution: Why not ask them a question back?
Or maybe not... I've tried it. My students are great at initiating a question but responding to one is a different story.

Me: How are you?
Student: (deer caught in the headlights look, embarassed, shy... giggle and runs away)

Me: How's your lunch?
Student: (stunned, shy, looks around at other students, doesn't know what to do...)  Uh, mollayo. (aka: the Korean "I don't know")

I haven't found ways to deal with that yet, so I lead them with:

Me: Good? Delicious? Great?
Me again:... Chowayo? (Korean: You Like?) Mashisoyo? (Korean: Tasty?)

It's on the last two words, I get that  Ding! Idea is now registered. They laugh and nod, embarassed. But they still ...don't answer. We practice Hello, How are you today? (Lesson #1) at the beginning of each class, but outside of class they either don't know or are still too shy to apply it!  A bit frustrating and I'm not sure what to do to get them to feel more comfortable with using English outside the class in other situations.

Help! If anyone knows of any solutions or anymore responses I can give them, please let me know...

Teaching English to Teachers (Lesson Plan: Teaching Classroom English)...sorta

A video sample of my Powerpoint presentation (I did this a while back)

I love learning languages and nothing is more painful to me than watching a language teacher, who has no facial expression, speaks with flat delivery and no vocal intonation. Painful.

 Learning a language is learning about cultural expressions, intonation, vocal pitch, gestures, facial

Teaching Koreans: Common English Mistakes Made by Koreans

So I happened upon this blog and video, "Common English Mistakes Made By Koreans #1", by chance. I think it's just brilliant and very funny.  The video is done by On My Way to Korea. Enclosed is a link to the actual site with an English transcript of what Matt is saying (as he's speaking in Korean).

I used this video for my teachers as a warmup, but it easily ended up being the entire class when my teachers wanted to practice and to clarify other words!  These are also helpful for recognizing mistakes our Korean students make.

I wish he did more vids on the matter but this seems to be the only one. Enjoy and if you like it, feel free to leave a comment on his blog.

Lessons from a Superhero Factory (teaching Actions)

I WANT TO BE A SUPERHERO

SUPERHERO POWERPOINT LESSONS (downloads):
Advanced Class
(video links may or may not work)
Basic Class

SUPERHERO LESSON PLANS & GAMES (downloads):

Lesson Plan

Superhero High Worksheets

Superhero Action Cards
- Advanced
-Basic

Graduation Badges for Superhero High

(when they complete this lesson I paste a badge on their book)

For more about the results of my lesson at my Summer Camps,
click here to go to my blog on GRRRL TRAVELER
(Part I)
(Part II)

By the Way, You're Teaching Adult's English This Semester...

This semester I have to do a class on Teaching Parent's English. You've gotta be kidding, right? What do I know about teaching Adult's English when I'm only finally getting the hang of teaching/co-teaching elementary school students? I've taken language classes and I'd like to think there's a level of teaching qualification in the the teachers who teach them. But okay...

Sure, when this was dropped on me, I'd heard of it before. The Korean school system goes to arms with throwing NET's random programs like these, such as Teaching Teacher's English, Video Broadcast, Storytelling class...  What I just mentioned was my last semester add-on schedule. Now, a Parent's English class? A couple of fellow EPIKers had to run this kind of Parent's English class last semester and most of them felt it was pretty easy. They were told by their co-teachers that no one actually expected them to teach the parents. No, just conduct a class which opens up discussion where the parents can talk in English... assuming they had some kind of formal education of English beforehand.

A week and a half before my first Parents English class:
I was told I had to produce a semester-long schedule (from week #1-24) of subjects I'd be teaching in my class.  (Whuh?) 
- The schedule could be loose and flexible to change but I had to submit it by the end of the week...and it was already Wednesday.

Fine. Then I was also told that I needed to find a textbook to teach from. (Double-whuh?)
...and I had 2 days to find one so the school could order it for the parents. (Triple whuh?)

Level of the Parents?
-  No one knew. But it would range from Beginner to Intermediate. I'd have to find a way to teach multi-levels.

How many parents would attend my class?
-  No one knew. They had yet to send out a notice to the parents.

How long is my class?
- Once a week, 100 minutes/class!

All, a week and a half before my first class.


DYNAMIC KOREA!

What do you say to that other than ... "Uh, okay?" I ran to Kyobo books to the English Learning section and found textbooks galore-- student textbooks with accompanying teacher's guides to teaching the chapters. Yay and Oh my God, I could spend hours going through them and I did... to finally choose: First Choice by Ken Wilson & Genevieve Kocienda.

It had all the subjects which would be useful to learn for a survival command of English without a loss of modern applications and pop culture interest. Great, I was set. Fingers crossed.

Lessons from the Monster Factory (teaching Feelings)

MY PET MONSTER LESSONS:

Advanced class.ppt
Basic class.ppt

For more about the results and pictures of this lesson plan go here

PET MONSTER GAMES:
A. Warmup Game-- DRAWING MONSTERS
I love that I thought up this game! It's brilliant at getting a point silently across and the kids are entertained by it. I write the name of an emotion on the white board and then draw a circle. I ask for a volunteer as to who can fill in the circle and draw the emotion. I pick easy emotions they know like Happy, Sad, Angry.

Ss1 comes up, I give them a red pen and they draw a simple face. Say it's the emotion, Happy and they draw a Smiley. Then I ask for another volunteer, Ss2, to ADD to that drawing; make it MORE HAPPY. I give them a black or blue pen to do it in.  Main Rule: they can only ADD to the drawing, not subtract or erase.  I keep asking for students to come up and add  to the picture until it transforms into something intense.  When I'm done with the drawing, I point out the difference of what they started with in the RED pen to what the emotion transformed into.. with the BLUE or BLACK pen.  Usually it's a drastic difference.  I show them how at first the emotion was simple; now, it's a MONSTER! Then I'll perform the difference and really exaggerate it. Sad and Angry tend to draw the best results and the kids have fun. But it drives home the idea of how emotions can become monsters.

  An example of my 3rd grade class's board. Each single drawing is a compilation of at least 4-5 students' efforts.

B. Act or Draw Game:
-Emoticon Printouts.doc
- ACT DRAW.doc
Group game.  Ss send up a leader (everyone will get to have a turn). The game is similar to Charades. Ss play Ki-Bi-Bo and winner gets to pick from the bag. There are two bags that the Ss must pull from-- 1) holds ACT or DRAW pieces of paper; 2) holds Emoticons/Emotions. 

Winning Ss will pick one Emotion and one ACTION. The leaders must look at the emotion and either ACT it out or DRAW it on a piece of paper for their teams. When their team guesses, they must send up another Ss to write the name of the emotion on the whiteboard. The first correct answer (I count spelling too) wins the point.

C. Scavenger Hunt Game:Download Tools-
-Scavenger Hunt Worksheet
- Scavenger Hunt Emoticon Printout
Teams get a scavenger hunt worksheet listing clues to places where they must collect the answer. In each location, I placed an Emoticon marker (i.e. X marks the spot) to signal they have found the area and the Emoticon feeling is the one they must write in the blank. When they fill in the entire worksheet and get it correct, I give them a prize.

D. Make your own My Pet Monster Mini-Book

My accordian book sample.

ESL Summer Camp: from the Superhero Factory (Part II)

Last day at Joonang Elementary Summer English Camp and it's been an honor to work with such an organized school and brilliant students! Today is the big talent show, however. Will my little Superheroes be able to pull of their self-created Superhero show? Can they be as good on the stage as they are in the classroom? (Click on the title bar to see this original post on my GRRRL Traveler site)