Do you like the taste of our Curriculum?

Winter vacation is officially over. We all ended up getting more time off than we originally thought and for now its back to work - well barely. From February 9th to the 20th the kids are back at school even though most teachers have already finished thier lessons for the year. It seems a bit strange that the kids come back for a two week period after all grades have been reported and before spring break begins (we get another week off!). I guess its a good time for teachers to wrap up any loose ends and take a breather before the new school year begins in March. I havent had much to do because I'm finished with all of the set curriculum for the year an d many of my classes have been cancelled.

Speaking of lesson planning - the school system makes the life of an english teacher incredibly easy (in theory) by providing a daily lesson plan for every class and every grade. Unfortunately I've found that the students are typically bored to death by it. I've found that putting forth a little extra work and making/finding additional materials makes for a much more enjoyable experience for the students as well as myself. The material provided by the school system consists of a series of songs, chants, role-plays and sample dialogues that go along with a textbook. Today I stumbled across a blog called gallery of stupidity that showcases many of the videos that we are supposed to use in class. The website is very critical, but the author does raise a few good points and I think most of you will find it hilarious. The majority of the videos feature Korean kid actors with horrible out of sync dubbing done by 40 year old unskilled voice actors. It's hard not to laugh out loud in class sometimes. I'm especially fond of one character; a typical Korean kid that, with the use of a sharpie, is magically transformed into Joon - a happy go lucky freckle faced westerner. In the featured video below we learn how easy it can be to pick up chicks using english.


Brian