The Long Wait is Over: Ceremony Reveals Our School Placements!

ETAs #1-40 waiting for the Placement Ceremony to begin at 7:00 p.m.

Taekwondo session was cancelled this evening. While some of us were initially upset with the announcement, the Chief OC was quick to tell us the reason why: our Placement Ceremony would be taking place at the same time!

The OCs leading a practice run-through.

PRACTICE PLACEMENT CEREMONY 

There were gasps of surprise, unexpected yelps of excitement, and anxious hand-wringing all over the Fish Bowl. This was the moment we had all been waiting for. The Placement Ceremony effectively lets the ETAs know where our school placements are (aka where we will be living and teaching in South Korea for the whole year!). If that's not exciting and anxiety-inducing, I don't know what is. The OCs led us on a practice run-through of the ceremony, including procedural instructions on dress, line-up, bowing, and expressing our gratitude to Mrs. Shim for our placements.  

Anticipating that not everyone is going to be happy with where they are placed, the OCs stressed that there is no "bad placement" only a "bad mindset." Mrs. Shim would later reiterate this at the ceremony. 

FILLING OUT THE PREFERENCE FORM

We filled out our placement preference forms just a week or so ago. I filled mine out not really believing that the Fulbright office in Seoul would take my "preferences" into consideration, but the OCs were adamant that the office does take our preferences into consideration when making their decisions. The OCs were backed up by Mrs. Shim in saying that the Fulbright office tries its hardest to place each ETA at the school where it believes we will thrive best. 

I was more of a believer by the time I filled out the form, but I was careful not to grow attached to any of my "preferences." The placement preference forms asked us about our school and location preferences with many subcategories. If the form had not been electronic, I would have written:

"Put me anywhere in Korea! I know I will thrive wherever I go." 

As it was, I ended up forming preferences on most things, and, with some research, even came up with a preferred location and a strong explanation for why they should send me to said location. 

The following is a breakdown of the form and the options it offered us. The preferences I indicated are in ALL CAPS. 

THE BREAKDOWN OF MY PREFERENCES: SCHOOL

• type of school (no preference, middle school, HIGH SCHOOL) <-- extremely important to me
• school gender (no preference, co-ed, ALL-MALE, all-female)
• school size (NO PREFERENCE, less than 100, 101-500, 501-1000, more than 1000)
• English ability (no preference, low-level, intermediate-level, HIGH-LEVEL) <--- also extremely important to me
• religious affiliation (I would be willing to work at a Buddhist-affiliated, Catholic-affiliated, PROTESTANT-AFFILIATED school, no preference)
• new school (no preference, yes, NO)

ETA friends after the ceremony

THE BREAKDOWN OF MY PREFERENCES: LOCATION

and about our location preferences: 

• location size (NO PREFERENCE, rural, suburban, urban)
• environment (NO PREFERENCE, inland (mainland), coastal (mainland), island, mountainous) 
• specific location (list any towns, provinces, specific geographic areas where you would like to be placed, and explain why)
• GWANGJU IN GYEONGGI PROVINCE - insert an essay of an explanation here, mostly about my interest in volunteering at The House of Sharing. 
• resource availability (rank order of preference (1-4): no preference, near other ETAs, not near other ETAs, ease of transportation, traditional/historical area)
• near other ETAs - NO PREFERENCE
• not near other ETAs - NO PREFERENCE
• ease of transportation - 1
• traditional/historical area - 2  
• accessibility to extracurriculars (list any extracurriculars that you seriously intend on pursuing during your grant year)
• TKD, THE HOUSE OF SHARING, SUPPORT CENTERS FOR MIGRANT WOMEN

RANKING MY PREFERENCES: MY TOP 4

Then we were asked to rank all of our preferences from 1-12. My top 4 were: 

• Specific location: Gwangju in Gyeonggi
• Accessibility to extracurriculars: especially The House of Sharing and support centers for migrant women
• School Type: High School
• English Ability: High-Level

AND THE ETAS ARE CALLED ONE BY ONE...

All 80 ETAs were lined up in a U-shape along the perimeters of the auditorium, more or less facing a seated Mrs. Shim and a small audience composed of our language instructors. One by one, the OCs called out a city and announced the number of ETAs that were assigned there. 

"The first city is Seoul. There is one ETA assigned there." 

Ray and I were assigned to Busan! Different
schools but same city. Apparently, I'm on
an island district!

Then they called out the name of one ETA, and so forth. They did this for all 80 of us so it took about an hour. As more names were called, the line of ETAs shrank towards the middle. All I could remember while standing there was the feeling that, at any moment, for any of the cities, my name could be called. It was hard to concentrate. 

"Next is Busan. 

There are two ETAs assigned there. 

Ray Sawyer at [school]..."

These shoes are starting to hurt. I wonder when Gwangju will be called. No, it doesn't matter where you're assigned! Everything has already been deci-

"...and Mimi Cagaitan at [school]." 

I heard my name, instinctively stepped forward, gave a 90-degree bow in Mrs. Shim's direction, and walked to the stage. At one point, I forgot how to walk but made it safely on to the stage without major incident. I grabbed a slip of paper with details about my assignment, and placed a sticky note with my name on it on a huge Korean map where my assignment was. 

Busan. Where the heck is Busan? It must be small since there are only two ETAs assigned there. Like rural small. Farms. Fields for miles and miles as far as the eye can see. No wi-fi. Busan...

Ray and I had our picture taken on stage. Besides the one ETA in Seoul, we were the next smallest number of first-year ETAs assigned in one location in Korea. I took my seat behind Mrs. Shim and the other ETAs and was immediately met with excited smiles and whispered congratulations that I got Busan. I had not done any research on any of the cities thinking this would enhance my ability to be genuinely ready and indiscriminate as far as my school placement. 

After the ceremony, I found out that Busan was no rural town. It is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, and boasts the many dis/advantages that comes with being in an urban setting. 

Ray, the other first-year ETA assigned to Busan.
This guy has an amazingly dynamic personality.
This year will be a treat with him nearby.

. 

ETA: Congratulations! I'm so jealous, you're right by the beach! 

Me: I am?

ETA: Yup. Prepare for me to come visit you often! 

Me: Yeah, of course! Wait - I am?!

ETA 2: Omg! You got Busan, right? 

Me: Yeah, apparently it's by the beach!

ETA 2: And it's also the second largest city in Korea...

Me: Ah! That's cool. What else is there in Busa- 

ETA 3: Woah! Busan, eh? Busan is my favorite city in Korea!

Me: Oh, that's good. [note to self: wikipedia Busan asap after ceremony]. 

ETA 4: How did you get Busan?! I thought there were no spots available this year?

Me: No idea

ETA 4: Like you didn't ask for it or anything? 

Me: Nope. 

ETA 4: ...wow. People fight over Busan. 

Me: Really? I had no idea it was in such high demand...

ETA 4: Yeah, most of the returning ETAs request Busan. That's probably why there's only two spots this year, but I heard that there were no spots available at all. Huh! What exactly did you put in your form??

Me: I put that I wanted Gwangju, but would be happy anywhere :D 

ETA 4: Oh. Well, good for you!

So basically all those comments made me really excited to learn more about Busan. I did a quick wikipedia search. 

QUICK FUN FACTS ABOUT BUSAN: 

• Second largest metropolis after Seoul
• Known as the summer capital of Korea for its 6 beaches
• Has Korea's largest beach and longest river
• Largest port city in the country
• Ranked fourth best city in Asia
• Fifth busiest seaport in the world
• Home to the world's largest department store
• Hosts one of the most popular international film festivals in Asia
• Its name means something along the lines of: a harbor located at the foot of a mountain resembling a cauldron
• Winters are cold and comparatively dry with high winds, but much milder than other parts of Korea (YESSSS, thank you!)
• A couple of relevant sister cities: LA, USA and Cebu, Philippines (doing it right, Busan. Doing it right)

LOGISTICS OF MY SCHOOL/LOCATION PLACEMENT

• high school
• all-female
• more than 1,000
• public
• urban
• island - yes, an island called Yeongdo. 

I didn't ask for Busan, and I didn't ask for Yeongdo Island but I believe that prayers have been answered. Regardless of whether I had been assigned to Gwangju, Busan, or another town/city in Korea, I would have still moved forward believing that, although this is not what I asked for, it is exactly what I need/what the school needs. 

I am very grateful for all the hard work the Fulbright office put into giving us the best placements possible. In two weeks' time, a representative from Yeongdo Girls' High School will come to pick me up at the end of Orientation. Two more weeks, folks! 

Thank you for being on this journey with me!

"Dare to Be Different" Day: Teaching My Second Lesson at Camp Fulbright!

Photo creds: Molly Lockwood, fellow South Korea Fulbright ETA

After Molly taught and right before my turn to teach, a student came up to me and said, "Teacher, you are Jasmine. You look like Jasmine, the Disney character." This is the second student who has compared me to Jasmine. 

Perfect for my topic today!

I was the second ETA to teach this afternoon, and I whiled the time I spent in the back of the classroom taking note of Molly's really creative incorporation of props in her lesson plan, getting ready to provide her written feedback, glancing over my own lesson plan, and generally just working myself up to a state of excitement and nervousness. 

 

LOOKING BEYOND FIRST IMPRESSIONS

My second lesson plan was centered around the idea of "Looking Beyond First Impressions"/ "Not Judging a Book By its Cover." My objective was for students to learn that first impressions are not always fair or accurate, and can often lead to misunderstandings and the unfair treatment of others. 

Using other random photographs of people I found online, I led the class in an exercise that involved showing them a series of images, and asking them to form quick first impressions. They then had to fill out worksheets I had handed out with questions asking for the "character attributes" of the person/people they saw on the photos, whether they would want to be friends with the person/people, and why. 

One of the ways I modeled this activity for the class was by taking taking a photo, showing it to the class, and asking them to answer the same questions as I would later have them fill out on their worksheets individually. 

MODELING A LESSON PLAN: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

This is the photo I used. And, when prompted, these are my students' first impressions of this man based solely on this photo: 

• Gentleman
• Kind to girls
• Yes, I would want to be his friend (said seven out of eight students)

Pause to form your own first impressions of the man in this photo

One student answered that he wouldn't want to be friends with this man because...because of something he couldn't explain. I prompted him to look deeper at the photo and give me the best explanation he could to justify not being friends with this man. 

Student: I don't know! It's intuition. My intuition tells me this is a bad man. 

Me: Ah, okay, so your intuition is also helping you form your first impression of this man? 

Student: Yes

Me: What makes you think he's a bad man? Tell me what it it is about this picture that tells you that. He doesn't look bad to me. 

Student: He looks okay in the picture. I just don't like him. I think he is a very bad man. 

Me: A bad man, huh? Thank you for explaining. We'll return to this photo in a little bit. 

And I went on with my lesson plan. 

High energy and very active in front of the classroom!

LESS IS MORE. LESS IS MORE. LESS IS MORE

Contrary to everything I knew and had been told about "Less is More," I still planned and executed a variety of activities for my class. This worked only because I only had eight students to deal with, and not a full class of 30-40 students in the classroom! I am extremely thorough when it comes to scaffolding and modeling my lessons and so, again, there were different components all leading to my main concept of looking beyond first impressions. Though I was able to incorporate most of these activities today, I was definitely very nervous about time and kept looking down at the clock to check our progress. 

Less is more, Mimi. Less is more! Seriously. 

The switch between student-teacher roles is still a strange one for me, but I am getting better with each lesson!

THE TWIST (OH, HOW I LOVE COMING FULL CIRCLE) 

I showed my students all of the images, and walked around the room checking up on each and every one of them as they filled out their worksheets and occasionally looked up to refer to the images on the board. After our activity was done, I concluded the lesson by revisiting our first image. 

Here it is again - but, this time, with the rest of the photo showing through the dark overlay, with information on who the man is in the photo, and, most importantly, whether or not the students' first impression was fair and/or accurate based on reality. 

Ted Bundy in custody in 1978. Photo courtesy of State Archives of Florida. Now you know why I had to cover up the left side of the photo!

The student who had expressed his dislike of this man based on his intuition yelled triumphantly as the rest of the class screamed in shock and settled back in their chairs groaning half in wonder, and half in dismay. 

Students: [Still in disbelief] Teacher, how could you do this to us?!

Me: Now you know not to rely on first impressions because they can be deceiving! 

Students: [Groaning] Teacher...

How I really ended class: Complimenting a student on his bright orange sneakers. It tied to the lesson, believe me.

Immediately after class, I met up with my CI again and received excellent feedback. He thought I did even better the second time around while I was still undecided whether this one topped the first. Overall, a great personal dilemma to have after teaching a lesson.

We exchanged a few comments about the Ted Bundy photo illustration, and how fortunate I was that the students gave me the answers/the impressions I needed to make the lesson really work. 

CI: That doesn't happen very often, but when it does - when students give you what you need for a lesson - it's awesome. Great job. 

Me: Thank you. It was a gamble, but it worked out! 

I have really enjoyed teaching this group of students for the past two lessons. They have been very engaged and expressive of their opinions in class. I know that I will have different challenges to overcome in my upcoming third practice teaching. 

My third and last practice teaching will be with a different teacher, in a different classroom, and with much-younger elementary students! I am both terrified and extremely curious and excited to see how I will do with this particular group of students. The last time I interacted with younger ones in this kind of capacity was six years ago when I was a YMCA summer camp counselor. Yikes. We will see soon enough! 

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU: 

In all honesty, what was your first impression of the man in the photo I used to model my lesson for today? Were your impressions similar to the ones my students gave me? Be honest! Share your impressions in the comment box below. 

Camp Fulbright Activity Weekend | Amazing Race: Welcome to Brazil!

This morning, my team prepared our "Amazing Race"-inspired weekend activity for the campers. I volunteered to plan for and coordinate a game that would involve campers "crossing the Amazon" in "Brazil." This was our version of an activity that the OCs had led earlier during Orientation to have each house compete against each other.

It was so much fun to create a "Brazil" in one of the classrooms, and search for appropriate soundtracks to play in the background!

COUNTRIES/CONTINENT IN THE RACE
I believe we also had an Ireland (where campers learned steps to a dance), a France (where they created portraits of each other and then hung them up on "galleries" (aka the hallways)), the U.S. (where campers navigated a subway in New York City), and Antarctica (where they had a snow clothes relay race, made snow flakes, and played freeze tag).

The campers had a lot of fun, especially with the face painting we had them do in Brazil before they could partake in the actual river-crossing activity. Danielle and I helped paint cute designs on the campers' faces and also demonstrated how the activity would look like, while Seijin held the mic and gave instructions. We led the activity for two hours and interacted with about a hundred young campers and Junior Counselors both from Korea and the U.S. This weekend activity took a lot of energy, but I somehow found a reservoir that helped me keep up with the campers' excitement.

At the end of the day, I couldn't tell which of us had had the most fun: the campers, or the ETAs!

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
If you were part of the "Amazing Race," which country/continent would you lead with your own campers and what activities would you do with them? Share your ideas in the comment box below.

Surprise Celebrations for the "Half Birthdays" of Our Language Instructors!

Our first instructor for the first two hours of language instruction. I love everyone's expression here!

LANGUAGE CLASS THIS PAST WEEK: THE GOOD AND THE BAD

It's been a good week in class because I got a 20/20 on the second quiz we took on Monday! It's been a not-so-good week because we've been covering a lot of grammar. Although one of my majors is in English Language & Literature, I have to admit that grammar has always been my weakest point. It is most evident in my speech, but I can usually catch it in my writing. 

Most of this week, our class has alternated between sliding back in our chairs in exhaustion and/or resignation, or straining forward on our desks to understand a grammar rule being scrawled on the board. 

THE INNER THESPIAN IN EVERY TEACHER

Our instructors write in Hangul but supplement their teaching with English words to help us understand. They also draw in the air, act out sentences, and sometimes dance - all in order to enhance student comprehension. 

They're pretty incredible! 

On certain days, and even through my exhaustion, I can still muster a weak, internal giggle when I see them perform in front of the class because that's what they do - they perform! 

I know that I will also be called to do the same in front of my Korean students, thus me giggling. I can only hope to look as cute and adorable as them when it comes my turn! 

One of two small cakes for the instructors

DISCOVERING THAT "HALF BIRTHDAYS" EXIST

However tough, this week ended on a very good note! Our class pooled enough money together to throw surprise "half birthday" parties for both of our instructors. Apparently half birthdays are a thing. 

Me: Are half birthdays a thing??

Another ETA: [Laughs] I think the other ETAs may just really want to have a class party. 

Me: Ah...more party, less grammar lessons. I get it now...

And so it was that on Friday, our sonsaengnims (teachers) walked into class and were each greeted by a party hat, a candle-laden cake, and a happy birthday song in Korean. They seemed very pleased by our efforts, but I could see their minds whirring in the background trying to maybe figure out how to show appreciation for the surprise half-birthday parties, but also transition smoothly into the day's lesson.

Both of them were very smooth about these transitions, so we actually didn't even cut off too much time from our grammar lessons. They are so darn efficient with class time! 

Instructor putting on his birthday hat

INSTRUCTOR APOLOGIZES FOR ENGLISH ABILITY

Yesterday though, our first instructor got side-tracked (for the first time ever) discussing fun games we could play to learn how to count in Korean. We were all laughing and having a great time, when, still smiling, he began to apologize to us.

Instructor [in English]: I'm so sorry. I cannot speak English very well.

Our class: Oh! No, no! You are great! Your English is very good, sonsaengnim!

Instructor [still in English]: When I was a student, I didn't study English. I regret." 

He then proceeds to make us all very sad. Meanwhile, I am scrawling this dialogue as quickly as I can on my notebook because it just broke my heart to hear him apologize to us over and over. Our instructor, who teaches graduate students at one of Korea's top universities, apologized to us (a group of American students stumbling through Korean) for not being fluent in English. There was something definitely heartbreaking and troubling about this but I couldn't pinpoint why. Maybe it was especially painful for me to hear because he was smiling the entire time that he was apologizing. 

QUICK THOUGHTS ON LANGUAGE HIERARCHY

Our second instructor for the third and fourth hour of
language instruction. Yes, our days are quite long.

Instead of learning English, he said that he studied Japanese and knows how to speak both Korean and Japanese - pretty darn impressive! There seems to be an hierarchy of languages (and identities) here that manage to create feelings of inadequacy in not only the American students (who are grappling with an "immense loss of power" in learning Korean), but also in the Korean instructors (who may feel extremely self-conscious about their fluency in English). There's a lot to unpack here, but I did say that we ended the week on a very good note, so...

...we partied! And it was definitely a welcome break from the usual order of things. 

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Have you ever apologized for not being able to communicate well in a different language? If you have never felt the need to, why is that? Who were you talking to and what was the language in question? If you have, what compelled you to apologize? Again, who were you talking to, and what was the language in question?

Do you think anyone should ever apologize for not being able to communicate (speak/read/write) well in a different language? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment box below.

Signing Up for Homework Help in My Camp Instructor's Classroom

The view of Eric's classroom from the back of the room, where the ETAs usually sit during observation

THE HOMEWORK HELP REQUIREMENT
We are required to participate in at least one "Homework Help" time during Camp Fulbright. I signed up to help out in my CI's class a day after I gave my lesson on "The Interpretation of Dreams" to have more time with the students and to get to know them better, especially since my second time teaching would also be in the same classroom, with the same students. Many of them remembered me as the teacher who gave the lesson on "interpretation of dreams."

In an email, Eric said that his students usually spend homework time catching up on assignments they hadn't finished from earlier on in the day or week. He said that, since the assignments were writing-based and require them to produce "polished" paragraphs summarizing articles and making up fictional stories, we could help by chatting with the students about these writing pieces. He warned us that they are self-motivated enough to sit in isolation and complete everything on their own, and that we might be bored because of this.

THE CHALLENGE OF PRODUCING ORIGINAL CONTENT
I went anyway and accomplished what I set out to do: talk each student individually and gauge their speaking and writing abilities by peaking over their shoulders as they wrote and, later, asking them questions about their content. The boys finished first, but it appeared that they had merely copied a few significant sentences from their assigned articles and stitched them together as their own "summary." I tried to explain that this was plagiarism, but the concept of plagiarizing seemed foreign to them.

I was forewarned about this during our teaching workshops! I will have a couple more weeks to figure out how to deal with this should it arise in my own classroom.

The girls worked slower but appeared to produce more original content as far as summarizing their articles.

ERIC'S CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Eric had given each of them a picture isolated from the news articles they came from. Their task was to observe the picture and, based on what was going on in them, write a fictional story. Later, they would receive the news articles that the pictures originally came with and see how "close" their fictional stories were to the actual news stories.

Eric: This is to give them a creative writing exercise. [In general, Korean students do a lot of memorization and do not have as much opportunity to exercise their imaginations].
Me: Wow, this is such a cool activity!
Eric: ...No, not really. 
Me: ...what?! I think it is. I would have never thought of something like this.
Eric: No, believe me, it's not that creative. You could easily come up with something better. 

He waved me off and instructed me do whatever I wanted in the classroom: study for my own classes, sit and chillax in a corner, or talk to the students. Seeing that I was unwilling to sit and chillax in a corner, he gave me the task of giving the students the articles after they were done writing their fictional stories. It was a small task, but there really wasn't much he needed help with.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
How would you go about explaining the concept of "plagiarism" to a young student? If you were giving a writing assignment, how would you ensure that the students create their own content instead of merely plucking a few sentences from the text they're working with? Any ideas would be welcome! Please share them in the comment box below.

"Dare to Dream" Day: Teaching My First Lesson at Camp Fulbright

My Camp Instructor (CI) is a two-year ETA named Eric. From our first meeting, he told the group of ETAs he is working with that he is frank and straightforward, and apologized in advance for basically any hurt feelings on our end when receiving his evaluations on our lesson planning and our teaching. He explained that he would be harder on us because he believes it would serve all of us better in the long run to receive honest, constructive feedback now, as opposed to crashing and burning in our assigned schools later on because we were coddled during Orientation and Camp Fulbright. 

Everyone nodded, agreeing that very honest feedback that could potentially hurt our feelings was indeed better than planning a whole lesson plan with no one to tell us that it might actually just flop. All over the place.  

It is in his class that I taught for the first time today! Before it was my turn, I observed and evaluated another ETA teach a lesson on the same theme of "Dare to Dream." He was to pretend that the CI and I were not present in the room and conduct class as if he were the only one there. After his 45-minute lesson ended, Eric called break time and I was able to begin setting up for my turn to teach. 

FIRST TIME TEACHING AT CAMP FULBRIGHT

I was a bit nervous at first but once I got up to the front of the room, a surge of excitement overtook me and a feeling of awesome familiarity came over me as I held my lesson plan in one hand and casually wrestled with the projector's remote control with the other. 

WHAT HELPED ME OVERCOME MY NERVES

Being up there suddenly reminded me that I had done this before. Many times. In college. I am extremely grateful for the three years I spent leading Freshman Interest Groups at the University of Washington. Although I had mentored nearly all my life, the UW's First Year Programs is where I first learned to create lesson plans and it is there where I began to really hone my skills in public speaking. I would not have been as confident teaching in Eric's classroom today without the years of practice and experience I have had with FYP and FIGs. 

I taught and facilitated General Studies 199 for three Autumn Quarters: FIG 67 during the 2010-2011 academic  year, FIG 20 during 2011-2012, and FIG 67 during 2012-2013.

ANOTHER EXPERIENCE THAT HELPED ME PREPARE FOR THIS MOMENT
This past year, I have also gained more confidence in front of the classroom by designing a class on the mail-order bride industry at the University, and leading two separate Focus Groups in the Comparative History of Ideas program on the topic. Instead of working with incoming freshmen and transfer students like I did as a FIG Peer Instructor, as a CHID Focus Group Peer Instructor/Faciltator, I had the opportunity to work with upperclassmen from different disciplines who, for one reason or another, wanted to learn more about the topic.

This was a discussion-based class, and conversations about the intersections of identity
definitely fueled each two-hour class session! The top photo was taken when my
students were presenting their Final Ethnographic Projects. I had invited a few peers
and my CHID mentor to sit in. The bottom photo is my first Focus Group class
at the end of our 10-week quarter.

 But I digress.

WHY I THINK CLASS WENT WELL
Besides the fact that I was actually fiddling with the wrong remote control, I was very pleased with how smoothly the class went today. I can't attribute this to my lesson planning alone, or even my execution. So much of what went right depended on how the students received the information and participated in the class activities I had set up. It went supremely well because I had students who shouted out answers as I wrote things up on the board, mustered up enough courage to not only share but also try and interpret their dreams, and gave me energy I didn't expect they would have at 3 p.m. right after lunch and right after another ETA's lesson.

This cute sign was posted on the door of Eric's classroom. Despite its cuteness, I actually didn't notice the design
or the words until after I came out of the classroom. I was that nervous and inattentive!

There are limitations on how much I can share about Camp Fulbright, but suffice it to say that my CI was likewise very pleased. He discussed his evaluation of my teaching performance, and then gave me the other ETA's written observations and evaluations, as well as the campers' anonymous class surveys on ETA performance. I was expecting to cringe a lot during my post-teaching one-on-one meeting with Eric, but this was not the case. 

I basically floated out of that room, greatly encouraged and reassured of my path in life. I didn't have enough sleep from a night of studying and lesson planning, but I left the class incredibly energized and ready to tackle more days of teaching! 

A couple of the student campers' evaluation of my 45-minutes of teaching on the topic of "The Interpretation
of Dreams"

Hopefully, my next two classes go just as well, if not better!

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Here in Korea, teaching is a highly-respected and sought-after profession. What are your views on teaching and teachers? As a student, were you ever aware of the fact that your teachers operated class based on a lesson plan? That each day had an objective, a series of activities, and a set time for each activity? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Discovered My Favorite Korean Snack Just in Time for My Study Session!

Mrs. Shim wasn't kidding. Our Donghae trip really was the only time we would get to relax before being hit by the two-week tidal wave that is Camp Fulbright. Camp Fulbright is described on the Fulbright website as "Korea's most comprehensive, dynamic, and exciting" English camp, bringing together young people from all over Korea who are interested in receiving deep immersion in the English language and in making friends from the United States. The campers attend classes and play in and around Jungwon, communicating with each other in nothing but English (or so they agreed to do when they signed their contracts). Meanwhile, the ETAs are given the opportunity to teach a total of three classes during these two weeks, giving us the chance to engage with and teach Korean students before being placed in our schools. The program is designed to be a win-win situation. 

With all that said, tomorrow is a very big day and I have to pick up a lot of work that I left unattended during the weekend. 

REASONS WHY TOMORROW IS A BIG DAY:

• My Lesson Plan #2 is due at 11:59 p.m. tonight.
• I am scheduled to observe someone else's class at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.
• My Korean language quiz #2 is immediately after at 11:00 a.m. and
• I teach my first class tomorrow at 2:25 p.m., right after observing and evaluating another ETA's teaching performance. 

No big deal. 

I wandered into the university mart and looked for something I could snack on while studying a hundred vocab words. This is what I found:

Round, chocolate-covered crackers!

I ate an entire box tonight and didn't even get through all of the vocab! I will have to avoid the mart for a few days to recuperate from all of this unhealthy goodness...

Weekend Trip to Donghae: Visiting Two Historical Sites & Eating Traditional Korean Food

We left the hotel at around 9:15 a.m. after eating a good breakfast. We were headed for a couple of historical sites that featured the living spaces of Korea's past leaders. 

Here are some photos of the first site: 

I wish I knew what this says

Inside the museum. I was surprised we were allowed to take photos!

The second historical site we visited was another bus ride away. Here it is:

Our tour guide, who spoke very well in English and even had a dramatic flair in his story-telling! 

How beautiful is this place?!

This site is right by the city. You can see the buildings peeking over the horizon just before the mountain silhouettes. 

This building had two entrances. This one was used by common folks while another door to the right of it was used by not-so-common folks.

According to our tour guide, the higher off the ground you were, the higher your rank was/the more power you had.

Trying to capture some of the details with my iPhone camera. 

ETAs buying souvenirs.

An ETA creepily hovering behind the glass window of a gift shop

We left the tour site and headed to lunch on our way back to Goesan.

A small room fit over 80 people. This is just one of the many long tables that were heaped
with plates of traditional Korean dishes.

People slowly filing up the room.

Ah, a feast! 

Mrs. Shim, Executive Director of KAEC briefly boarding our bus to say goodbye and to
wish us a safe trip back to the Marble Mansion.

MY QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Did you learn anything new about Korean history from the photos I posted here? According to some of the ETAs, you can actually come back to these historic sites and arrange to live in one of the houses in exchange for manual labor. Is this something you would consider doing? Why? For how long?