meeting the mentor teachers

After fighting with the ethernet cable yesterday all evening, there's finally wi-fi available at Jeonju University. Today, we started off with a lecture on teaching through songs and chants. The lecture was quite helpful and I am definitely going to incorporate music in my activities/lessons to help my students learn the key phrases/vocab.

After class, I met my mentor teacher (Mr. Shin Hwa-sub). We both agreed on exchanging lessons to learn Korean (for me) and English (for him). Mr. Shin has been teaching math at the elementary school (Galdam Elementary) for 5 years and he wishes to work his way towards teaching English in school. I think it is great for him to pursue an advancement in the education system. Galdam Elementary has about 60 students total and I will be the first TaLK scholar that the school has had. So, the pressure is on for me to set the bar high and give the school a positive impression of how much fun it is to have a TaLK scholar.  I'm so glad I have a friend who is teaching in the same city and it looks like we won't be living far from each other. I went with my mentor teacher to the immigration office and filled out my application for my alien registration card. Then we headed back to Jeonju University and we'll meet again on Monday to go shopping for things I will need in my apartment. I actually have another mentor teacher (Jeung) who I can also contact in case I need help with anything. So it's good to know that one mentor teacher won't be too overwhelmed.

I won't be meeting the principal and vice principal of my school until Monday when my mentor teachers show me around. Imsil is quite far from Jeonju (about 1-1 1/2 hr) by car. There's many things I have to say to my mentor teacher and vice versa, but because of the language barrier I'm doing a lot of hand gestures and lip reading. It seems that when I write down what I am saying, Mr. Shin understands and then we can communicate better. I have a 600, 000 won settlement fee for my place since I am the first TaLK Scholar. So I will need to buy a bed, sheets, blankets, etc. Fun stuff. I look forward to Monday because that's when I will actually be able to visit the school and meet everyone. The only down side is that I don't have a co-teacher, which means I am going to be teaching all by myself. So there won't be a teacher in the classroom with me who can translate in Korean if the kids are acting up or such. However, that might be good because if the korean co-teacher uses Korean, the kids will have the tendency to listen and rely on the co-teacher's translation and ignore the English. So, the more English they are exposed to, the better:) Overall, I am happy with my mentor teacher and I look forward to my adventurous experiences in Korea.

Jeonju University-The place for Superstars

It's my first day at Jeonju University and the dorms are definitely bigger and much nicer, but I miss Jochiwon already. I'm still trying to get used to the wet floors in the bathroom since the bathroom floor is the shower floor. We are at Jeonju University with the 5th generation TaLK scholars and I'm looking forward to meeting new people. The TaLK scholars went crazy the last night of orientation. Group 6 won 2nd place in the talent show..WOOOOOTTT!!! GROUP 6!!! I'm going to miss everyone so much and I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world that are doing the TaLK Program. The ride to Jeonju from Jochiwon took about 2 hours but I slept most of the way cuz i was super tired. We had an early dinner at a restaurant and had Korean BBQ..MmmMMMm..it was delicious. However, I didn't have the bravery to try the bowl of silk worm that was sitting on our table.


Breakfast in Jeonju this morning was good..definitely a lot better than the cafeteria food we had in Jochiwon. It seemed more like a brunch to me though since there were food such as dumplings, fried rice, fried chicken, and beef stew included. The opening ceremony/orientation at Jeonju starts at 9:30 so I still have some time to relax and prepare. Some friends and I are thinking about going out to karaoke tonight. I had a ton of fun my first night of karaoke in Jochiwon and looking forward to my second time.


I'm about to head out and get ready for the opening ceremony..more later:)


Dina

So orientation week in Jochiwon is almost done and I'm sad that we'll all be going our separate ways to our provinces. We met our POE supervisor and I found out today that there are 84 students in my school (Galdam Elementary School) in Imsil-Gun. My method of transportation will be by bus and the time to get to my school is currently unknown because it depends on where I'm living. So I'm crossing my fingers that I'm not living too far.

This morning Mr. T (T for Terrific) showed us a few "simple but effective" magic tricks. Everyone got their own package of magic trick tools which was nice. I learned the secrets to a few tricks (the card flip, straw and string, color vision, and drop ring). I need to practice and get my story down for the drop ring.

Tonight, my group is getting together for rehearsal for our performance in the talent show. We'll be presenting our disney skit mixed in with some cha cha and the macarena. It's going to be great:);) I've been having so much fun in Jochiwon that I don't want to leave; yet at the same time, I would like to explore and see more of Korea. Can't wait! I'll do my best to keep updated with the posts if the jetlag isn't taking too much control. It's been 2 1/2 weeks and I'm still trying to adjust!