English Competition

On Wednesday we took the kids back to Hwaseong Fortress to take part in the English competition.  The kids were really excited, and it was fun to see them work together to do well.  There were about 15 or 16 different locations around the fortress for the competition, and luckily ours wasn't at the top of the "mountain."  One of our kids was on crutches, and wasn't looking forward to helping him up the hill if we got Seojangdae (command post at the highest point).  Maeyeoul, my school, was the first group to go in our fleet, and it was evident that they were nervous!  Luckily the native English judges were very helpful and clear.  The students walked away from the questions jumping and yelling as they answered every question with quality answers.  I'm proud of how hard they worked, but I'm also happy it's over.  I get my lunch break and passing time back.  Some other teachers took photos from the competition so I'll try to get some from them and post them on here.  I do have some photos from last week when we took them around the fortress for practice.  

this weekend is the yearly school festival, so the school has been in busybeaver-mode.  Today we managed to hang about 100 pictures and put out another 100 plants.  It's quite the show, and all the homerooms put on a skit or dance or song.  I'm looking forward to seeing all the different songs and dances, the kids did a great job last year. 

Also, I was just penciled in to teach 4 more classes starting in November.  I'm not exactly excited to teach more classes, especially because the kids are so young.  This will be 1st and 2nd graders who speak zero English.  Personally, I disagree w/ having someone taking care of 20 kids when the adult can't communicate with the little kids, but they want them to have the opportunity to learn a bit of English at that age.  It's when some students begin English academies, but these kids don't have that option.  I suppose the silver lining is the extra pay.  I also have absolutely zero experience with kids this young, so I don't know what I'll do.  It'll be a learning experience for both teacher and student...

time for bed, g'night

keith