15 month update

It's cold..oooh soo terribly terribly cold.
I was starting to wonder how I would ever make it through this winter since the first flurries of snow have started falling already this week, but luckily somebody heard my calls for help and the heating has been turned on at school! granted, it doesn't get turned on all day everyday, but the highlight of my day now is when I hear the little ring that the system makes when It's turned on :)

My main co teacher is back now and things so far seem smoothly, we've only taught one day together so far but hopefully everything continues to stay calm. She is really good at class management, so hopefully she can reel the sixth grade students back in, since they're going a little mental with winter vacation and graduation approaching soon. Now that my main CT it's time to get serious about winter camp planning, so now I'll be more busy with that. I want to do a very good job since my summer camp didn't go that well. In teaching I've found that my weak point is teaching younger/lower level students. I really struggle with finding material that is fun, educational, but not too difficult for them, this winter camp we will have third and fourth grade students so my material needs to be the lowest possible and that will be a challenge -___-;.

Anyways, nowadays I'm keeping busy doing a lot of things and nothing at the same time. I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like I have very little time to myself, but when people ask me what I've been up to I feel like I haven't been doing anything.
I need to finalize where I will travel to for my winter/spring vacation, and soon.. yes, very soon I need to start thinking about what I will do when my contract is over. Stay for a third year? move onto a different country or go back to the States?
I'm so happy now with my life, that thinking that things have to change soon is scary. I've finally settled into my own space, made cuts and additions in order to better work towards improving myself, I think I need more time before making any drastic decisions. Even if I do stay in Korea a third year it doesn't mean I can keep the same lifestyle I have now. Most of my friends here are expats/transient so they'll be moving on, and even my co-workers will change next year. Staying a third year doesn't guarantee the same smooth sailing I've had this year, but it also leaves room for things to be better. decisions, decisions!

Halloween at school

 Korea doesn't really celebrate Halloween on the same scale as we do in the States, so I wanted to share a little bit of that tradition with my students and thus, all of last week was Halloween week at school. My substitute grade six co teacher is the sweetest lady ever, and she went out and bought all sorts of neat decorations for the classroom, and during class I showed a few scary videos that made some students jump, then so that they wouldn't hate me completely, I followed that up with some funny haunted house videos, and gave them a brief history of Halloween. At the end of the Halloween lesson there was a quiz to see who was paying attention, the team who answered the most questions got to stick their hand in my "mystery box" and fish for candy. My mystery box contained mashed up bananas, peanut butter and jelly so since students didn't really know what was inside they were apprehensive and a bit disgusted by the texture, but I think they really enjoyed it.

On the actual Halloween day I told my 6th & 5th grade students that if they came to my office wearing a costume and said "trick or treat" I would give them a candy. I expected most of them to forget, or not wear a costume, but I was really surprised when I saw how many showed up, and specially surprised when I saw how creative some students got with their costumes! It was a really fun time, and even though by the end of the week I was more tired than usual, I'm really glad I did this with them.

Enjoying snacks & watching a video

Class 6-5

This is a costume they said ;) fifth graders

Two of my funniest sixth graders

She dabbed sunscreen on her face and called it a costume, grade 6

Hulk hands, grade 5 

Pretty witches, grade 5 

I'm not sure, Frankenstein, and a Zombie with an arrow, grade 5

Some fifth graders

Happy Halloween!

Travel Videos

Below are two short videos from my most recent travels. First is a compilation of shots taken during my trip to Beijing in September, and second is from my trip to Jeju Island in October.