P is for Pikachu!
So as my last post showed we’ve been studying letters and making a craft for each letter. We reached P and I didn’t like a lot of the other crafts out there. P is for pirate is cool but a bit lost on my Korean students. P is for Parrot, but I couldn’t get that many feathers in time. Pig and puzzle just bore me so what could really WOW my kids… and me…
Pikachu! Something they all know, love, and idolize! P is for Perfect! Well I know it says Pokemon, that’s a little mistake on my part printing out Pokemon instead of Pikachu, but I didn’t want to waste anymore paper and reprint the whole thing. Besides the only words my class can read is: I, a, can, is and, you.
No tutorials for P is for Pikachu so here is how I made mine.
First off, for those of you that live without Pokémon , Pikachu is a rodent like Pokémon that is the main mascot for the Pokémon franchise and also one of the main representative of Nintendo’s cast of characters.
First, you need a P. For all my letters I have been using the uppercase letters and use about.com’s list of letter coloring pages. You can also image search P letter coloring page.
Glue this to some thin cardboard (like a cereal box) and cut out for a reusable template. I also did the same with the tail and ear. I free handed both the tail and ear so sorry for no links for those. I guess you could find a picture of Pikachu and use those as a template.
I used a 1 inch hole punch for the red cheek circles and black eye circles. Just used a regular hole punch for the whites of the eyes.
Color ears and tail and add a sideways 3 for a mouth. Now you have a fun way to teach P!
Here are some of my kids and their Pikachu!
Things the Kids Made
Well it’s been 5 months since my teaching contract ended at Sungbuk ECC. Even longer since my last post. I guess to wrap up my time at Sungbuk ECC here are some pictures of some of the cool crafts my lovely students made.
Since the end of my 6 month vacation is coming to an end I’ll give you some pictures from all the fun I have! We’ll call it Flashback Friday and I’ll post one for each week this month! For now, enjoy these!
For a How-to for the Truffula Trees click HERE
For the printable for the rainbows click HERE
For a How-to for the Rainbow Rain click HERE
Truffula Tree Craft from Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
Dragonflies made with paper, pipe cleaners, and foam
After the rain goes, RAINBOWS!
U is for umbrella
My Rainy Day themed corner!
Mini-Carnival Day! +FREE Printable Signs
Had a fun day with our pre-elementary students. I was tasked to come up with some games that would be fun, but not rile the kids up too much so they could study during their second class. So I came up with some carnival games, ya know the usual: GO fish, ring toss, bean bag toss, duck-o-war, and a photo booth. 
The 7 year olds had fun but it seemed lost on some of the 6 year olds. Oh well can’t please everyone. There are tons of great websites that give tips to run a carnival for schools or for birthday parties.
Martha Stewart has some great ideas HERE
Catch My Party has a long list of great examples of a circus or carnival themed party HERE
A big list of carnival games HERE
I couldn’t find signs that I like that were free, so I made my own. Here are some FREE PRINTABLES for the signs I made (for personal use only of course) ENJOY!
Here are some of the highlights of our mini carnival:
Highlights For Kids: December 2011
Haven’t posted since Pepero Day! Had a little photography over-load when my mom was visiting. Dusted off the trust camera and took some picture during Christmas. Here are some highlights:
How to Sell An Education: Open Class
At my school and many other hagwons like it, we have this ‘neat little’ event called “OPEN CLASS.” From it’s name, I thought back to the days at my elementary school when Dads would come and have lunch or we’d have an evening of “Open House” and we could show our parents around the school. However, I am quickly shaken back to reality and discover that open class is no more than a little show we put on for the parents. Last year, I made the big mistake of not knowing what I was getting into, but I’m a year wiser now and knew what to do.
My co-teachers and I prepped the kids in song and dance. I worked on the best and flashiest flashcards that would WOW any kinder right off their feet! I made everything coordinate and match to satisfy my crazy need for… well… coordination! It was a sight to behold and would make any kindergarten teacher said, “OOooo” and even “Aaahh!”
One class was perfect and it was so fun, the other was… let’s just say, “too silly” and made it more difficult to finish the lesson in time.
Now maybe I can finish this cold and be well enough to enjoy Halloween!!
A Day in the Life: October 22
A day in the life of a currently over-worked English teacher. We had a “seminar day” which my school used as a field trip day with the kinder students and their families!
7am Getting on the subway, the station is dead on a Saturday morning…
After eating some breakfast and waiting for the bus, the teachers arrived at the park that is nearby the mountain. All the fall colors came out to greet us.
Now we play the waiting game. I wandered around in the woods and found this pretty tree blanketing the trail.
The kids finally show up and they play a game with their families. They had to stack a pile of rocks as high as they can without it falling. You see little rock piles along trails in Korea when you’re hiking. They say if you add a rock to the pile and make a wish it will come true if the pile doesn’t fall; however, if the pile falls your wish and the other wishes won’t come true.
I was impressed by this rock stacking.
Mommy helps daughter count her stickers that she has won over the course of the day.
Alright teacher it’s time to go, she leads the way with her balloon.
After lunch and a long bus and subway ride, my friend Jamie and I head to the crowded streets of the toy market to find Halloween costumes.
It’s only 5pm but I’m sick and exhausted so this is the end of my day…
My wonderful boyfriend brought home some sandwiches for dinner and after a cup of Theraflu, I try to reclaim the sleep that was taken from me. Goodnight. 
31 Photos in 31 Days: Day 19
Day 19: I’m teaching a story/musical to the youngest classes at ECC. The story is called Scary Dino. In an attempt to teach a fun lesson, we took little dinosaur erasers and put them in play dough. Then we had little dinosaur eggs and played a counting/number game. However, some little dinos didn’t make it through the egg hatching process. This was the result.
Teacher’s Day
Gifts from my students for Teacher's Day
Happy Teacher’s Day!! In Korea they celebrated Teacher’s Day on May 15. Since May 15 falls on a Sunday this year I got a lot of presents this last Thursday and Friday. I had many students say, “Teacher Monday, Monday I will give you a presents!!” So finally a reason to look forward to Monday. To all those teachers out there Happy Teacher’s Day and THANK YOU for your teaching!!
Neckties and Power Rangers
So as many know I’m the arts and craft teacher for 9 of the 10 kinder classes at my school. In what most here call “baby class” we made neckties. Which means they colored some paper and I taped it together. Just so you know, baby class isn’t a mean name because they are babies. They’re Korean age five so that mean they are actually three or four years old. They are a handful because they are babies and they don’t speak any English… yet. Some can say little phrases but before long they’ll be savvy little English speakers. Last year’s baby class really impressed me last week because they were talking to me in full sentences. I was like, “Wait! When did you learn English?!?!” So the hagown system really work. It’s just hoping they can keep the knowledge they learned. However, we made a friend here that actually went to the same ECC that my friend Jamie teaches at and his English is great and he’s 20-something. So I guess there is something to be said about English school.
Anyway these kiddos enjoyed the neckties especially once little Daniel noticed they look like swords. Then we had a class full of models and Power Rangers. Awesome.
You like the pictures? I’m learning more and more with my new awesome camera too! 😉
Don’t be Fooled
"Squeaky"
Don’t let him charm you, he’s trouble! 😉 I’m nick-naming this handsome little boy “Squeaky” cause he LOVES to make high pitched sounds. He’s funny but a little trouble maker, what can he do, he’s six!
This was during a parent presentation a few weeks ago. One of my students, Jennifer, in A class (which is “baby class” because they are the youngest class at 4 years old) anyway Jennifer’s mom is a musician. She came with her friends and preformed a mini Korean concert for the kids. It was so fun and the kids had a great time. One of my favorite sounds is the “AHA” I know sound! This happened a lot and it was so cute. I posted some videos on my Facebook.
Konglish: So this is why I’m here…
I feel a sand ness
The picture is a box of cookies with some awesome Konglish. Konglish keeps me laughing, everyday. What is Konglish you might ask? According to Wikipedia:
“is the use of English words (or words derived from English words) in a Korean context. The words, having initially been taken from English language, are either actual English words in Korean context, or are made from a combination of Korean and English words. It is considered a sublanguage. Common sentence structure or vocabulary mistakes made by Koreans have also been referred to as Konglish.”
Or according to Charlet “Konglish is hilarious.” Now I’m not posting this to be mean or malicious. My students laugh at me when I try to pronounce ANYTHING in Korean or if I try to write something in Hangul. So it goes both ways.
Most of the kids I teach won’t be perfect English speakers but hell I’ll never be a perfect Korean speaker. But at least we’re trying. You can’t say that about most people in America (yeah I’m talking to you Oklahoma! English as the official language, whatever….) You should try to broaden your horizons everyday and learn about something you don’t know about, understand, or are afraid of. You’ll be surprised at what you learn about yourself.
So I’m here to bridge the gap, to help a generation of young people understand a language and a culture that isn’t theirs. And I’m here to do the same thing, to learn, not just teach.
“When I think of you, I feel both a warmth & sadness at the same time.”
That’s what you’re trying to say cookie box.
My First Day
My Staff Photo
So Aug 2 was my first day. I got there super early so I could figure out what I’m doing. There are lots of books and curriculum I have to learn and figure out. Most of the classes I teach weren’t even covered in training. 😛 I’m not a main Kinder teacher I’m the “art teacher” hence the Understanding Art book I’m holding. I teach Arts and Crafts, Show and Tell, and Cartoon Network- which is the worst class. The students aren’t bad it’s the class, how am I suppose to teach and talk about ONE 15 minute cartoon episode each month!?!?! They’ve seen all the episodes and half the class loves it and the other half hates it.
I also have afternoon classes I teach mostly Post Kinder (meaning they went to Kindergarten at ECC) I also have Elementary age students and one class of Academy students (meaning they are in Middle school)
There are several levels of English books that YBM has:
The earliest are Happy Hearts and Wake Up (which I don’t teach)
English World(I also don’t teach)
Playground
Carnival
Odyssey (I also don’t teach)
I only teach the Playground and Carnival level to the Elementary kids. Which is pretty easy. I did have a hard time teaching holidays. The book used a ton of American holidays that my class wasn’t familiar with at all. Thanksgiving was easy to explain because Korea has a Harvest Festival called Chu-seok which is similar. BUT try explaining Easter Sunday and what the Easter Bunny, colored eggs, and Christianity have to do with each other. Yeah that was weird….
Still just getting use to everything and find the level of my students. I’m tying to gage their intelligence, maturity, abilities, and likes. That’s the most important part in working with them.
Work Visa- getting me where I want to be
Wind and Rain blowing all over us in Houston
This seemed to be the most difficult thing to do out of this whole process. But Chad, Jamie, and I finally got our E-2 work visas!! They look so awesome and official. They even have a little golden embossing on it! We had lots of trouble with communication problems with the secretaries at the Korean Consulate in Houston, TX. They would never talk to us for more than a few minutes, never fully answered our questions, hung up on Chad several times, and accused me of being rude, when I was nothing but polite. Then once we got there the secretary was texting and messing around, being completely unprofessional, and took her sweet time to help any of us.
Yet, the other employees there were nice and polite. And the man we all interviewed with was super nice and sweet. So in the end after jumping though hoops, dealing with that rude secretary on a power trip, and having to fly all the way to Houston AND back, we got our visas. We’re official, we’re going to Seoul, South Korea, departing Monday July 19th, from Will Rogers World Airport!
Luggage: The Great Move Begins!
This is all the luggage in my guest room
What to pack, what not to pack- that is the question. Chad and I bought some large suitcases a few weeks ago now to fill them. However, according to several airlines that I have researched not only is there a weight restriction but there is also a size restriction. Each piece that goes into cargo the sum of LxWxH must be less than 62 inches and to top that off the two checked bags together must be less than 107 inches! So 3 of the 6 suitcases we bought we have to exchange for a smaller size. So another trip to Ross…. Ross is awesome by the way (for those that don’t know it’s a department store that sell merchandise at clearance prices)
Anyway we got an approximate date of departure: July 20th! But that isn’t set in stone until we get our visas. But I really only have about 3 weeks to decide what to pack. Well deodorant is a must since I’ve heard and read deodorant is stupidly expensive in Korea. (Some Koreans only use deodorant like they would perfume only to smell nice.) And I should pack some work clothes, a pair of shoes, a month’s worth of toiletries and a towel. Once I get paid I’m gonna buy lots of clothes, it won’t be hard for my since I’m half Filipino and build small like most Asians, so I probably won’t bring any winter clothes since it will be hot for my first few months there. I keep reading on other people’s blogs that it’s super hard to find C or D cup bras in Korea and when you do they are stupidly expensive. This is the first time in my life having small bosom has come as an advantage, I’ll be able to buy so many bras I’ll have one of every shade and color, haha I win. Since I’ll be in Seoul I’m sure I’ll be about to find all the comforts of home. I keep asking Chad “will they have _____ in Korea?” It’s become a little game and is getting a little crazy but I do wonder about some things. It seems the more I read stuff online the more confused I get. I guess I’ll just find out. Once I do I’m going to write the ultimate “What to Bring to Korea” List EVER! Well for sure I’m going to bring some clothes, toiletries (especially deodorant!!), stuff for Pepper cat, and my video games.
Other than that I’m not to sure yet, anyone out there have any suggestions??
Documents
Papers papers, oh these poor trees! Well it’s no lie it’s a long process to get a job teaching English in South Korea. For those that are interested in teaching make sure you have your paperwork before you start sending out your resume. It will make things move faster if you already have your paperwork! Before you can work in a foreign country you need a work visa. For me I need a E-2 work visa (E-2 is for English teachers)
But the thing is before you make money you have to have money. (Thank God for my mom, she’s been so supportive and helpful to me and Chad.) Here is the run down of the documents, how to get them and most importantly THE COST!
1.) Diploma– no cost but you have to pay off your final Bursar bill which can be a lot if you’re not careful. If you don’t want to send them you original diploma you can get it copied, notarized and apostilled which can cost over $25 so we just send our originals, you do get the originals back)
2.) 3 sealed and stamped transcripts– at OSU it didn’t cost and I got 5 just in case. You need 2 to send to your company and 1 to send to the Korea Embassy/Consulate (for those that don’t know a consulate is like a mini embassy that deals with smaller matters like visas, my closest one is in Houston)
3.) Passport– if you have one that’s great, some companies won’t even talk to you if you don’t have a passport. If you don’t have a passport you need to go to your local passport agency (usually the post office or city hall) it cost about $7 to get passport photos at Wal-Mart, $75 for the passport fee and some place charge a processing fee which we had to pay $25.
4.) Criminal Background Check- In Oklahoma it cost $15 to get the background check, this you have to get at the OSBI, then we had to go to the capitol building and get it apostilled by the Secretary of State’s office. (Apostille a way of legalizing a document for international use) Apostilling documents in Oklahoma cost $25 per document! That’s one of the most expensive in the US (yeah… thanks a lot Oklahoma…)
5.) 7 passport photos– We had to send 5 to the company we’re working for and have 2 for the Korean Consulate. (We got ours at Wal-Mart they only charged $7 for the passport photo fee and only charged per photo sheet about the price of a photo greeting card) That totaled about $9
6.) Contract with School and E-2 visa Health Statement– both were emailed to us and you just have to print out and sign. Just the cost of paper
7.) You Resume– make sure it’s good and looks nice, I’m sure somewhere in college someone taught you about resumes. (If you want resume help, I’m a total pro!)
Thus far with the paperwork above it may run you close to 200 bucks! Plus mailing these documents to your school can cost over 100 buck. So far it’s been about $300 each to get this paperwork done and sent. Not to mention the $45 visa application fee. (but the school reimburses you for that)
Chad and I are very excited to go, the company is great and they even worked out things so I can bring my cat Pepper!! Well that’s just a basic run down of the documents we had to get so we can go. But FedEx has them now and we’re on our way!!
A Photo A Day When You're Far Away 