So- I know it has been 10 days since I last posted, but it feels like 10 months to me. We successfully moved to camp on May 1, with a LOADED bus. It looked like the circus was coming to town with all of our loads of stuff. You can imagine what 11 women and 4 men would be toting along for one year. Anyway, we were all so excited to see the camp and our rooms and we were just blown away by the progress that had been made since we last visited the site in March. Our rooms were mostly in "move in condition". I couldn't have been more pleased with my room. The view out of my window is into the mountains. There is a desk, a table with two chairs, a wardrobe, a cabinet, a frig/freezer, a vanity and a TV. So we spent the day on Thursday getting settled and took a quick run into town for some groceries for the weekend.
The classroom facilities are amazing. Of course, everything is shiny and new. Each room is equipped to the max. It is like a wonderland for the kids. I will post a picture of the station I am working in each week so you can see them all. The rest of the weekend, we just hung around and tried to brace ourselves.
Monday came (a holiday here in Korea) and the reality kind of started to settle in. There started to be a lot of worried faces around here as to how things were actually going to work. It is great to see a beautiful facility and all- but then you remember that 100 students are coming in the morning with the ability to destroy the facility in record time. So- we had a lot of meetings and planning on Monday...
Tuesday arrived and we started really getting things together. The kids were to arrive at 11 am. We are all supposed to meet them as the bus pulls in with posters and smiles. The first bus came at 10:30 and we all panicked! But- the first bus was just one elementary school of the two- so just about 40 kids. We went back up and waited for the call again. They finally came and we were all given our homeroom class group. It became quite clear immediately that these kids were rowdy and ready to rule. My homeroom was really sweet though. I had 5 boys and 5 girls. We started the day with just some name posters and checked in at "immigration". The program is set up with each child getting a passport. When they arrive they go to immigration to get a stamp and then as they go to each class, we stamp their passport upon completion. It is really neat.
My lesson (drama) is the only 2 hour lesson and I thought I was mentally prepared. Not so much. Having 24 kids for 2 hours is really difficult. The ability level is so varied. Some of the kids can get the gist of what you are trying to say and other kids you might as well be speaking Russian to them. I think the classes with 12 students ran a little more smoothly. So, the first day- I felt really defeated because my lesson did not go even close to what I wanted to do. The next day- I had the 4 worst behaved homerooms for my 2 classes and cried by the end of the day. The last day of classes for me was Thursday and FINALLY I got the better behaved classes and actually ran through my 2 hours fairly well. I think next week will be much better as far as knowing what to expect.
This weekend I want to get some mental rest and then plan ahead for next week. After next week, I will switch stations to Computer and Western Culture class.
Teaching English to 12 year olds is a lot harder than I anticipated. I love the challenge though. I know it will get easier with time. I will post more tomorrow.
M
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