School Website - English Reporters

With all the talk of COVID-19, I thought I'd take a break and show you one of the extra-curricular activities that students interested in English participate in. The school website has a section for "English Reporters" to file reports on various topics as a way to practice their English writing skills. My role is to read their entries and offer encouragements, comments, and corrections on their writing. 

These students demonstrate a fairly high level of English communication for middle school as those most interested in and skilled at English are attracted to the English Reporters program. Still, there is plenty of room for improvement and some humourous errors. What I like best is getting an insight into the students' minds, what they like, how they are feeling, and what they like to do. There isn't enough one-on-one communication in school these days, so I appreciate these written reports.

A popular theme is online classes, naturally, as much of the school year has been conducted via the internet. Students have commented on the pros and cons of this style of learning:

Covid-19 is having trouble these days.
If Covid-19 comes in contact, it's a trans infectious disease.
So we do online class.
Online classes are comfortable.
Because you can do it at home.
But there are shortcomings.
I can't be bothered with online classes.
Because there are so many things to do.

Another student wrote about online classes and the benefit of not needing clothes:

Hello, I will tell you the pros and cons of today's online class. First of all, the advantage is that you don't have to wash and wear clothes. This is the only good thing. The downside is that there are many students who are late for work. And there is a disadvantage that I have to take the book with me when I go to school. And because it is an online class I don't know if you take the class or not and it is hard to proceed with the class because I just let it pass without understanding. So I think it is important to keep distance from each other and I want to take classes at school.

My favourite entry on the school website is a kind letter from a student expressing thanks for my teaching. Really, this is what makes teaching worthwhile and I'm so excited that at least one student appreciates the work that I do:

Dear Native teacher,
Hello, I am Ryu in 3rd-grade class.
I've always been grateful to you, and I'm so happy to be able to write a letter like this.
First of all, thank you for always preparing fun English classes for a year.
There are many friends who feel too far away from English.
I think they have become interested in English thanks to the teacher.
And our class participation is much lower than in other classes.
However, I was very respectful because you encouraged the students to answer and conducted the class in a comfortable atmosphere.
It's only been a year since we met, and I'm so sad that we're already graduating.
I think I'll always remember you as the best native English teacher in my heart. I love you.

We had a shortened summer holiday this year and many of the normal activities that students take part in were unavailable. This student wrote about his typical day during summer vacation, which consisted mostly of doing homework for his after-school academy:

I was very busy during summer vacation.
I'm going to introduce my daily schedule.
First, get up.

And then, I'll do my Academcy homework.
And I go to the academy.

Fourthly, I come home.
And then I do my academy homework again.
It's the last time I sleep.
The same day.
I was just spending the same day, and summer vacation is over!!

Another interesting way to learn about students is to read about who they admire. The first admires an ancient Korean king for inventing the Korean writing system and the alphabet while the other appreciates the work of modern fashion designers:

Hello, I'll talk about today is the type of person who I respect.
I respect King Sejong is the great man. King Sejong is a very good for people. And Because made Hangul for poor people to the respect King Sejong. because now we're comfortable Hangeul can be used. For these reasons I respect King Sejong. Thank you for listening about the people I respect. Good-bye. Thank you!!!

The people I respect are fashion designers. Whenever I see them as my dream. I can't keep my mouth shut. When I see them, I want to be like them and learn from them. For my dream, I watch videos about fashion and often realize new things. I also want to know more about fashion designers. Watching a little bit of the video about fashion makes me feel better and I can imagine it. Whenever I imagine that I feel good. I want to be a fashion designer and make others feel good.

Most of the students put in a quality effort into their writing, but others simply take a news story from an online source and paste it directly onto the school site, like the student who copied the "Don't take brakes off" article from the BBC website. I've been instructed to scold these students for taking material from elsewhere, but I simply state that their writing seems oddly professional and ask them questions about the article.

The English Reporters program is a cool example of how English education is taken seriously in South Korea and provides an excellent outlet for interested students to improve their writing ability outside of the classroom. For me, it's a way to get to know my students, especially since in-person classroom activities have been so limited this year.

COVID-19 Level 2.5 in Busan

On Monday morning of this week, a teacher leaned over and showed me the COVID-19 statistics and guessed that the government would soon make an announcement that further restricted social interaction in Korea.

Later that day, I got a text message from my gym which I put through Google Translate:  "We are pleased to inform you that the operation of the gym will be suspended for two weeks..." I'm sure the tone of the message is a little different in Korean, but I got the point. The city government of Busan had strengthened social distancing restrictions to level 2.5 (the second-highest level) for the next two weeks.

Shortly after I received the message from my gym, there was a flurry of activity in the teachers' office. People were buzzing around, announcements were made, lamentations were sighed, and I sat in confusion waiting for someone to explain what it all meant.

To help stop the spread of COVID-19, teachers were to work from home on a rotational basis. This week, grade 2 students were at school and needed to complete their one-on-one speaking tests with me on Wednesday and Thursday. So, I reported to school on Wednesday and Thursday but worked from home on Tuesday and Friday. 

The Grade 2 students did well on their speaking test. They had to explain in English the process of making or doing something. Most students explained how to make their favourite item of food. In all honestly, I was pretty tired of hearing about how to make ramen after listening to those instructions at least 40 times. I'll include a photo of the grading criteria here. You'll notice that students are graded on context and fluency, 50 points each, and the lowest possible score is 60/100. I'm just glad we were able to complete the test after several delays due to schedule changes, and I hope this isn't the last time I see my students in-person before the end of the year.

After the test, I worked from home, which is usually great, but these days there are several downsides. First, with the new restriction level, there isn't much to do outside of my home except take-out coffee and grocery shopping. Second, it is absolutely freezing in Busan. Negative 3 degrees and feels like -10 with the windchill. My apartment building has poor insulation, and the floor heating is expensive to run and doesn't do much against this level of cold. I spent much of my working from home days under my blankets. At least at school, the faculty office is heated.

Cases continue to rise and there are reports from Seoul that hospitals are overwhelmed and there is a long wait for patients needing treatment. A patient died from COVID-19 in Seoul while waiting for treatment.

While countries like Canada and America have begun to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to some frontline health workers and political leaders, South Korea seems to be lagging behind in this area. Projections have the vaccine arriving in Korea sometime around March, as they have made various deals with vaccine-makers for large quantities of the vaccine.

Much of my remaining teaching schedule is online until the end of the year. I wonder if the few in-person classes still on the schedule will be switched to the online format. I'll probably be told at the last minute. I'm also scheduled for a 3 half-day winter English camp with both of my schools. As of now, these camps are set to be in-person, but I expect they'll get switched to an online format like my summer English camp in August. I sincerely hope that, unlike my summer English camps, that I'll be informed of the switch more than one day in advance.

The current number of cases and the social distancing restrictions are similar to when I first arrived in Korea back in February. However, now, there seems to be a better understanding of the virus so we know precisely how serious it is, without wild speculation. That, plus that fact that we were able to reduce the numbers in the spring gives me hope that we can reduce the COVID-19 cases again this winter. We shall see.

Level 2 Restrictions in Busan

As I write, there are 950 new cases of COVID-19 in South Korea. To stop the spread of the virus, the government has issued restrictions for public and daily interactions. They established a social distancing chart, with level 3 being the most severe. As the average number of daily infections increases, we move up a level on the chart and further restrictions are applied.

Level 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3

For about a week, Busan has been at level 2 which has implications for my daily life. Specifically, all cafes in the city are prohibited from hosting customers and must only supply take-out. This is unfortunate because I regularly like to frequent cafes after work and on the weekends. Thankfully, there are several cafes nearby that offer takeout through a window. I needn't enter the store to order and receive my latte. This gives me the opportunity to try new cafes in the area as I had become entrenched in my routine, going to the same cafes over and over again.

Restaurants are permitted to stay open in Busan and have in-person dining until 9pm after which they can only serve take-out. Restaurants need to ensure that customers are safely distanced, but I'm not sure how strict they are on this. Yet, I was at a restaurant ordering take-out when another customer came into the shop with his mask below his nose. The staff immediately asked him to fix his mask. He complied.

As I wrote last week, restrictions at level 2 mandate that schools only have 1/3 of their students in the building at any given time. As it turns out, most of my classes are online this week. I only had two in-person classes on Tuesday and that's all for the week. I have lots of free time to write this blog at work. There have been additional staff meetings to discuss our response to COVID-19 in level 2, but otherwise, we continue on with online lessons, which we are very accustomed to now.

Some of the other restrictions at this level include the requirement to wear a face mask in all public facilities, and restricted attendance at certain types of businesses. Any sporting events that take place must be reduced to 10% capacity and I believe this includes amateur sports as well since my students' soccer team is no longer allowing spectators.

The Board of Education in Busan has asked the foreign teachers to be extra-cautious during the Christmas and New Year season and to avoid all unnecessary events and gatherings. With this caution, I wonder how long they expect these restrictions to be in place.

These restrictions are coupled with the news that South Korea is in the process of securing large quantities of the vaccine. Optimistically, deliveries of the vaccine are expected to arrive in the spring, leaving us to fight the virus through social distancing for at least another 3 months. We will persevere.

3rd Wave COVID-19

After a comfortable period with relatively few corona-virus cases in Korea, the third wave of infections has firmly hit the country. We've had several days in a row of approximately 600 new cases each day, a 9-month high. As I write today, there are 580 new cases in the country.

There was a gradual increase from our typical 100 cases per day until we had about 300 new cases per day for a full week. Then the numbers jumped to 600. Busan is still relatively low with only 29 new cases per day.

With this latest rise and realization of a third wave, the school board recommended a shift to (partial) online classes.

My boys' school had been fully in-person and my main school had only 1/3 of students studying online each week. Now both schools have 2/3 of students at home on any given week, while only a single grade comes to school for in-person lessons. We haven't operated this way since earlier in the summer. While it seems like a big change, December is the only full month of classes remaining. January and February are mostly holidays with a few classes mixed in.

As far as work goes, I'm happy that we've switched back to primarily online classes. Recording a single lesson that can be used repeatedly for my many class sections is so much easier than teaching the same lesson in-person, multiple times. Plus, I can really use a break from my boisterous boys classes. Some of the other teachers have expressed similar relief, although it is now clear that we are ending the year as it started - away from our students.

Coincidentally, the national standardized test for high school seniors took place this week. It's the test high schoolers write to determine which university they will attend, and it is of utmost importance in Korea. In normal times, the country implements certain measures to ensure that students can successfully travel to and write the test. For instance, during a certain hour, airplanes are not allowed to take off or land, to prevent the sound from interfering with the test. This year, because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases, extra measures were employed. Schools around the country, including my middle school, were closed for 3 days - partially because of the corona-virus and partially to ease the travel for test-takers. I worked from home on Thursday and Friday; the first time since my very first week in Busan back in late February.

Korea gets a lot of credit internationally for how well it has handled the corona-virus. Certainly, the numbers are much lower than in many other countries. However, it is disappointing to learn that while the government has established a system of staged restrictions depending on a set of criteria, it has repeatedly ignored its own system in order to keep businesses open and the economy going. I think it's clear that that effort has backfired. Declining the opportunity to restrict social interaction a week or two ago has contributed to the current outbreak. 

After this wave hit, several cafes and restaurants were closed in Busan during this three-day period. We'll see if they re-open after the exam or remain close to help ward off the new wave of COVID-19 infections. Stricter restrictions are now being enforced in Seoul where many businesses must close by 9pm and public transit is also being scaled back.

I expect the next few months to be filled with surprises. Will we continue with online classes until graduation, or can I expect to see my students again before the end of the year? As the schedule is currently formed, I won't be face-to-face with my grade 3 students until the last few days of the school year. In fact, I wouldn't even teach some sections, which is disappointing because I would like to see them before they leave middle school and move on to their respective high schools. However it works out, I can't help but marvel at the fact that we have spent the entire year in masks and I won't recognize some of my students should I run into them someday in the future when this pandemic is safely behind us.