Summer Camp

It's hard for me to believe, but it's been half a year since I first came to South Korea.

How do I know this?

Because I just finished summer camp and will be starting the second semester next week.

Let's play Spot The Teacher, Morning Edition

and Afternoon Edition

Despite the relatively long hours (let's teach 4 hours in a row in the morning... then do it again this afternoon!) I found this to be the most enjoyable of my teaching experiences this year so far.

I can get pretty down on myself for being a mediocre teacher. (Which, well, as a first year teacher learning on the job, is about where anyone would expect me to be.) I've spent a good deal of the last six months racing against the clock to prepare for classes, learning how to discipline students without being too soft or too hard... and dealing with the chronic zombie-itis of Korean sixth graders.

But summer camp was a much more easy-going affair as I got gifted the middle level of students. They're mostly third graders or fourth graders whose English is good enough that I'm not reduced to miming every single thing while still being young enough that they're willing to enjoy most any activity set before them.

Doesn't it sound like fun to make alien monsters out of random English words?

We planned summer camp well in advance. I got to use a book I didn't hate and chose to make my life as simple as possible at every turn by only playing one (or two) review games during review class. The kids settled into a rhythm of textbook unit, textbook unit, crafts, and possibly a competitive game of Hot Seat to cap the day.

We had Movie Day (I cut the boring part out of the middle of The Incredibles), Sports Day (The kids seemed to enjoy Four Square... except for the part where they probably didn't understand why they kept getting out) and the Outdoor Activity turned Indoor Activity due to rain.

I'm off to Beijing on the morrow. Here's to a wonderful new semester to end the year!