Abundance Works: Lesson Ideas 1

As the Chuseok holiday pulls in to its final hours, teachers should be thinking about heading back to the classroom. The rest of the Fall semester is upon us and for me that means a chunk of time dedicated to training my students for the drama festival. Otherwise it would be back to the chalkboard. I think what is great about this job, in most positions here, is the freedom to teach whatever you want. If you just put on some videos and crank out a coloring sheet, that's fun the first few weeks. But then you might want to do some actual teaching. Today I'm going to present some bloggers who have shared their lessons for us in case you need a refreshing idea for the classroom.

1. My Life! Teaching in a Korean University: Here we hear the results of students doing individual projects and whether they meet certain goals. She expresses the differences of doing this project individually or in groups.

2. The Seoul Patch: Imagine doing a lesson on movies. Well here for you are a list of several lessons one can do related to movies and many examples of how to get those kids working. At the end of it all students get to create their own DVD cover, something they seemed to enjoy.

3. A Geek in Korea: I think for making most of our lesson plans successful there has to be good organization going on behind the scenes. In this post we hear about his organization for getting through the week and shows you that productivity is possible.

4. Coco in Korea: A pretty typical assignment we give to students to talk about their favorite things, but more often the best part is seeing the results. Here she got some amusing answers.

source

I hope everyone had a great and relaxing break from the classroom and now has some cool new ideas for when coming back. :)

Abundance Works: Sports Day

With spring here now it is time to face the events calendar at your school. For those who work in public sector it is customary to have a Sports day during the spring or early summer. This is when the kiddos get out on the field and compete in various athletic events. In my experience of this here in Korea, I have seen games ranging from the strange to ridiculous. Usually schools start off the event with a warm up exercise to the tune of music. All right, today I will show you various accounts of bloggers encounters with Sports day in Korea.

1. The Harrington Times: What's fun is not just seeing the students participate but often parents will get involved. They usually compete for prizes, but these aren't fabulous things. Rather usually the prizes are household goods or in some cases bottles of soju. A good post with some nice pictures too, that show this day mostly allows kids to take it easy.

2. I'm No Picasso: As someone who has only stayed in the Elementary level of teaching I've often wondered what Sports Day is like at Middle or High school in Korea. Here we can get a glimpse of the fun these older kids get to have. Mostly looks like kids being kids and teacher getting to hang out with them.

4. The Seoul Patch: Back in 2009 Mr. Seoul Patch enjoyed Sports Day at his high school. His school had the typical fair of games but as basketball championships. Looks like a lot of fun.

5. A Search for Happiness: Most of the time you aren't really aware this event is going to take place until your coteacher comes to you and tells you. In this case it can ruin the fun because you aren't prepared to take in what is about to happen. In her case the day was really hot so it was a bit tough to enjoy. But I like this post as the Sports that happened were somewhat traditional.

Have you enjoyed Sports day at your school? Please, do share.

Abundance Buzz: Halloween Fun

Even though this holiday has passed I think some folks are still looking back at the good times they had. Or maybe thinking just how much candy they gave out to their students. Since living in Korea for 3 years now I can definitely say this holiday has picked up steam here. On the academic side schools tend to have some kind of event for their students. And on the "free time" side many bars and clubs host events for people to take part in. Costumes, both in the kid and adult department, have come along way too.

I for one don't really do something special for this holiday, but have seen other people do it. I thought I would share with you guys what happens in Korea around this time of year.

1. Annie Around the World: In this post you can see how during the day one gives Korean children a dose of what this holiday is about, and at night how one celebrates. Some cute costumes!

2. Stupid Ugly Foreigner: Here he hits the point that holidays abroad aren't really the same as they are back home. But you try to make the most of it. You get to hear about how he developed into a Zombie and spent the night away as such.


3. Elyse Marie: Another fun mix of work and play in this post. It makes you wonder how this holiday will develop in years to come.

4. Kiwi Wonju: Just a nice post here about how work is affected by Halloween, drawn up in 2008. Maybe looking at this post and then comparing it to earlier ones you can see some changes. For sure many schools like teachers to decorate the rooms for the festivities.

How was your Halloween this year? Anything special happen at work or outside of it?

Abundance Works: Notes from Students

As a teacher in South Korea getting notes from you students is often fun and charming. Other times just noticing what they wrote or produced on worksheets can also be quite amusing. It's not that their English is poor, rather it is the way their creativity goes. In this new addition of a topic I am calling, "Abundance Works" we take a look at notes or other creative pencil creations from students.

1. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat: In some extra class she was teaching her students sent signals of wanting to go, via handmade signs. The humor is there but the reality is also prevalent.

2. Coco in Busan: Sometimes kids creativity is very amusing and here her students made up a drawing of love.  It points to how even the youngest of children can have feelings for each other.

3. Plate Full of Onions: One of the best day's to get Teacher's notes is on Teacher's Day. Usually they are cute and hand-made. Here she displays some of her treasures from this occasion.

4. The Seoul Patch: You don't always have to see the creative stuff from the youngsters. Here his teenage group went to town on creating apps for an iPhone worksheet. The results were amusing.

As always teaching in Korea brings us lots of happy times and fond memories. These kinds of notes and creative responses help us remember why we are here.