Reflection Time

This post may be a bit too teachery and self-referential for it to be interesting to most of you (except maybe the other teachers), but I'll try to paint some pictures so you don't feel left out. You can skip to the last two paragraphs if you want.

Camp is over! And as soon as it was, I felt like it had barely begun.

Working with kids is pretty fun, and I did learn a lot about it during the camp. I had one class that was easy to work with from the start--the smallest group (three boys and a girl), very smart, fun kids, who usually spoke English in class. They were my last class, so I always enjoyed finishing the day with them. These were kids who quickly caught on to how to do activities, who cracked jokes, and when they did speak Korean to each other, one of them would always translate to me what they said. They loved to play games, but also understood when it was time to work. Consequently, I loved to provide them with games to play.

My other three classes required a bit more experimentation with what worked. The two lower levels, I quickly discovered, had high energy levels that required lots of different activities, including physical. That was exhausting to plan, and to carry out, but the payoff was worth it, because it meant that all of the students were involved more of the time. I especially saw a change in my biggest class (eight students), who ranged from about age 9 to 11. Although that might have been Korean age, because to me they all looked 8 or 9. These kids were tiny, and still really cute. And for 11-year-olds, they were pretty squirrelly. I don't remember squirrelly when I was 11, but I do remember kids being annoying and bratty. That's not really important. The point is, I learned the importance of variety and energy with them. They also had a wide range of abilities, which I tried to balance by giving extra challenges to the kids at higher English levels. That worked to a short extent, but I'll probably have to keep working on that in the future. Any ideas, other teachers?

My highest-level class probably had the biggest range of abilities, and was also the toughest one to get through to. These were older kids, about 11 to 14 years old. Middle schoolers. Not really willing to do games or activities, hesitant to participate. And I think I finally started to figure them out in the last week, when I had them talk about Korean holidays. It was so simple, and it was what I had been taught to do, I can't believe I didn't do it in the first place. Basically, I had them teach me about themselves. Or talk to me about themselves. Gosh, they opened up so much more when it was about them! And I really mean that in a good way, haha. Man, I was following these textbook plans, and they had their value, but I just needed to tailor those plans so that the students led them.

Overall, I felt the camp was successful for me, and I especially felt this when we went on our field trip on Friday to the English Village. I could probably do a whole post about the English Village, but I'll do the skinny version, and the highlights of the day instead. The English Village is a sort of theme park set up like a country village in England, where Korean students go to do activities and play games and see presentations and plays all in English. I think a lot of the activities were a bit low for lots of our students' levels, but they all seemed to be having fun. The best part about it, though, was the bus ride over. I sat in a short bus with almost all of my students, and it was so much fun. It was like, the pressure was off, and the kids just wanted to talk to me in English for fun. If I could just duplicate that in the classroom, that would be golden. I also revealed the few Korean phrases I had learned, including "This is a _____," which opened the floodgate for, "Teacher! This (pointing) in Korean: haendu pon!" 

My favorite part of the whole day, though, was when we were getting on the buses to go back home. This little boy from my biggest class was rather shy and sensitive through the whole camp. He was resistant to talk, and would only answer questions when I asked him quietly and not in front of the class. Which is fine, but the whole day at the English Village, while he was walking around silently, he kept walking up to me, standing for a second with his mouth open, and walking away. Finally, as we were walking to the bus, I asked him how he was doing. He didn't say anything, and kept walking. A couple seconds later, he said softly (but loudly for him), "Hot. Happy." Best moment of the entire camp.