Korean Job Discussion Forums

[macaronique]

I must say maybe I am one of the few, but I had an awesome winter camp 8 students 2 45 minute sessions per day for 2 weeks. The rest of the day surfing the web listning to music. Maximum 2 Korean teachers in the teacher's room at any point. Got to leave for lunch everyday for an hour maybe longer. Co-teacher help me prepare the lessons, but is on vacation so I taught alone. I wish every schhol day could be winter camp!!! Just wanted to bring something positive to the board. Usually everybody has problems, I KNOW I do, however this worked out well. Oh I am in middle school.

Cheers

[esetters21]

My winter camp has been wonderful for me as well. I put together the curriculum that I wanted and teach it alone. Nothing but positives for me too.

[Rusty Shackleford]

+1.

Camps can be a pain in the bum, but they are by far the most rewarding times teaching wise. Mine was 3x45 for 7 days. All done and now I'm doing a TESOL cert to fill in time.

[I'm no Picasso]

I feel I owe it to all the bitching I did pre-camp to say that....

even though the time leading up to it, with the constant last minute changes and "miscommunications" and my classroom getting demolished without anyone warning me, etc. etc. was complete hell....

I really loved winter camp itself. Definitely, definitely the best time to be a teacher. If only we could have them ten at a time, all the time.

[yingwenlaoshi]

Not getting paid for it = Fail

[marlow]

[D.D.]

Wow seat warming is a postive experience? I am sure in jail they can listen to music and surf the net.

[esetters21]

[icnelly]

[Rusty Shackleford]

[sojourner1]

I second, "I'm no Picasso." It turned out to be a very enjoyable teaching experience for me too despite my being upset at the beginning over not being told about things correctly. Koreans are actually very flexible which is why they make all those last minute changes and never adhere to the schedule of activities they'll give you. They turned out to be very kind good people despite not seeming friendly at first. I taught 4X50 per day, ate 3 meals a day with students, and participated in 4 hours of traditional Korean activities each day and slept like a baby at night in a hotel. These were long days, but I felt a positive immersion into Korea doing this camp. The students were fantastic; no problems except low level English ability, but I had 2 English major college interns help a little with some translation to help communicate ideas of what I was saying. It helps when a Korean tells students to listen, expands on ideas in Korean, and tells them what our plan is so they feel more secure through knowing what I'm doing and for how long.

I've been quite unhappy many times before in Korea for not being included, appreciated, and told about anything and then told wrong info making me out to be a big retard, but for once, I actually was liked, picked up on speaking some Korean, and am better understanding them, because I was included and appreciated. Introductions and over coming the barrier is always hard at first, but if you're just frank at first to tell them you know they feel uncomfortable about you so they giggle at you, they'll open up, try and maybe even warm up to you and then you can actually communicate and be more appreciated in the end. It takes courage and effort on our part to do the right things.

[I'm no Picasso]

[nomad-ish]

the PS camp season are my favourite times of the year over here! i've finished one of my camps and now i'm vacation before i do another 2, but it's great being able to have small groups of kids (usually kids who want to be there) and being able to do cool activities/games that i can't normally do with large class sizes. also not having to deal with any co-teachers is a huge plus for me, and even though i have to seat-warm in the afternoon, i get to go back to an empty office afterwards, far away from where the nasty VP sits, and do whatever the hell i want

[K-in-C]

I too had a good experience with winter camp. There were no surprises. I did it on my own. The girls were fairly well behaved and they even wrote positive comments to me about their experience.

NOW come the boring part. SEAT WARMING! But hey, sure beats the hakwon life IMO.

Until next time,

K

[jonbowman88]

Winter camps are the worst time of year for me