Speaking and Writing Tests

This is the time of the semester, in-between midterm and end of term exams, when students are assigned their English speaking tests and writing tests. It's a very intense period for me because the native English teacher is responsible for the bulk of the evaluations. In fact, I'm doing 100% of the evaluations at both of my schools. At the boys' school, the grade 3 boys had a speaking test, and at my main school, the grade 2 and 3 students had both writing and speaking tasks spread out over two weeks. 

Generally, I appreciate having one on one speaking time with the students, but it is a lot of pressure to be responsible for the grades, and it's exhausting to read their papers. This week alone (W, Th, Fri), I graded 150 one-page assignments.

I'll take you through what the students were asked to do:

So far with my grade 3 students at the boys' school, we've read Jack and the Beanstalk and three of Aesop's Fables - The Hare and the Tortoise, The Bear and the Travelers, and The Lion and the Mouse. I was asked to create about 10 questions, ranging from easy to mildly difficult, to test the speaking abilities of the students. I also included one question to cover our most basic grammar lesson this year - How are you feeling? I'm feeling fine, happy, excited, etc.

With this test, the students were given the questions in advance. The week before the test, I prepared a review lesson to help the students form their answers and better understand how to score high marks on the test.

On test day, all of the questions were typed out on strips of paper, and hidden in an envelope. the students randomly drew their three questions. It was funny to watch the students stress over their picks. They'd reach for a question, then back off, switch, and then finally pull their question, only to realize that they picked one of the harder questions.

The better students had their responses memorized for each question, so it didn't matter which ones they randomly picked. The weaker students didn't know the answers to most questions. I let them pick a new question until they found one they could handle. For some students, it was pointless as they hadn't studied at all.

Since I had to assign each student a grade, I asked about the expectations of the Korean teachers beforehand. Did they expect me to strictly stick to the grading rubric? How many As, Bs, Cs, Ds, and Fs did they anticipate in their classes? One teacher said just to grade them however I wanted. The other teacher told me to be lenient, and most of the class should get As and Bs.

So, I gave most of the students As and Bs, and for the students who couldn't do much of anything, I gave them Cs. I didn't give any Ds or Fs.  Later, the teacher mentioned that I should give Ds or Fs if the students didn't answer any questions, but of course, that directive was given, not when I asked for guidance, but after the test was already finished.

The next week, I had to administer the test with any students who were absent the week before. As it turned out, there was a big taekwondo tournament, so quite a few students needed to take the test on the secondary date. They gathered in the teachers' room at the end of the day for their test, and the Korean teacher tried to find an available room. She brought me to the female teachers' lounge. She peaked her head into the room, didn't see anyone, and told me I could use the room for the test. I entered and flipped on the light then heard a "huuuh???" sound. I looked beyond the little barrier that was set up, there were two full beds on the floor, and a female teacher was in there having a snooze. She was completely wrapped up in blankets and looked like I woke her up from a deep sleep. Her hair was dishevelled. She put herself together and vacated the room. It was awkward but I did the English speaking tests in the female teachers' lounge. The taekwondo boys mostly scored poorly on the test, so it was kind of a waste of time.

There was one boy who was pressuring me for a good grade a few days before the test. He straight-up asked me to give him a high score. With the help of his friend who was actually really good at English, he explained that the test was important in determining which high school he could attend next year, and he needed to do well on the test so he could go to his high school of choice. Even during the test, he would stop after every question and ask me, "Was that right? Did I make any mistakes?" It was hilarious to see. Most of the kids were quiet or nervous, while he was working the judge from the start. He randomly pulled the three most difficult questions in the test and did well considering the difficulty of the questions. I gave him an A.

Over at my main school, I was working with the grade 2s this week. Earlier in the week, they each wrote about a place in the world they would recommend visiting. They had to write about the tourist attractions, available food, transportation options to the location, fun things to do, etc. If they wrote 12 lines or more, they would be eligible for an A provided that they made fewer than 6 spelling or grammatical errors. Interestingly, the lowest possible score for those students who didn't write a single thing was 30/50 or 60%. Fairly generous I would say.

Students wrote about various locations in Korea such as Jeju Island, Seoul, and tourist spots in Busan. Internationally, several students recommended France. One student each recommended China, Japan, and Canada. I'll share a few of the best and you'll see that some of the second graders are really impressive. They recommended Bolivia, Antarctica, and Korea respectively.

For their speaking tests, essentially the students needed to memorize what they wrote for their writing test and regurgitate it to me. I evaluated them on the number of sentences they could speak and the fluency in which they spoke. Of course, I didn't get the grading criteria for the speaking test until 5 seconds before the test, but that's not unusual here at my school.

The speaking test was simply an exercise in memorization. The students struggled when they couldn't remember what they were supposed to say. Students with the best memory got the best scores. There were only two students who approached me without a script and simply spoke about their recommended travel destination. Their speech wasn't as polished but it was more natural and took more courage. They were rewarded with high scores. I gave the weakest students some marks if they could simply say one sentence. With this approach, almost all students avoided the lowest score.

As I said, having one on one time with the students is fun but very exhausting trying to focus on what they are saying through their mask. Across the two schools, I will complete about 400 speaking tests and grade about 275 writing tests. I'm tired.

Teachers' Day 2021

May 15th is Teachers' Day in South Korea, a time for honouring and appreciating the educators of society. The day was full of nice little surprises which help to make up for being over-worked and underappreciated the rest of the year. Seriously, there are a lot of expectations put on teachers and efforts are often thankless, so having a special day is very welcomed.

Often, former students who have graduated from the school come back to visit their favourite teachers on Teachers' Day. They arrive at school looking a little older, proudly wearing their high school uniforms. It was nice to see some familiar faces return to the school. My Korean co-teacher has a long-standing tradition of visiting her old teacher, from over 25 years ago, on Teachers' day. She prepares food and gifts and spends time with her former mentor.

Traditionally, students present carnations to their teachers. However, South Korea is hyper-concerned with corruption and favouritism (see the arrest and imprisonment of former political leaders) that laws have been enacted to maintain transparency and fairness. Public employees are not permitted to receive gifts or favours, and this includes teachers. A class representative may give a flower or write a thank you banner on behalf of the class, but personal notes, cakes, flowers or hand-made origami are some of the things prohibited as gifts by individual students. There is some leeway for gift-giving after students have graduated and left the school.

My 5th-period students had a nice surprise for me when I walked into the classroom. They had decorated the chalkboard, and also made a sweet poster for me with messages written in English. The better students wrote several sentences, and the weaker students wrote things like, "thank you" and "I love you." I was very grateful for the effort and hung the poster on my wall at home. I noticed a little whiteout on one of the messages. The message says, "Your class is very fun" but another word was whited out and replaced with "fun". I held the poster up to the light and saw that the original word was "exciting". The student decided that my class wasn't "exciting" but "fun". I'll take it. It's school we're talking about after all - rarely exciting but hopefully fun.

The day ended with a pizza and chicken party in the staff room of my main school. Each department (about 5 or 6 people) shared the food and a bottle of coca-cola while cautiously removing our facemasks. I still can't get used to the pizza here: ham, pineapple, and shrimp. The fried chicken was good and came with a couple of hard-boiled eggs, a side dish of pickles, and hot sauce. Some teachers ate while wearing plastic gloves, which I think is a pre-pandemic tradition for finger foods. It keeps your hands clean, but it's another thing that feels weird to me. The meal was served at 4pm and was short-lived since most teachers leave the school at 4:30pm, myself included. I was able to take a hard-boiled egg home for later.

Teachers' day is over. This weekend I need to prepare my lessons for next week because at 3pm on Friday, we were informed that classes would be in-person next week even though we had made our preparations for online classes, as per the original schedule. Such is the life of a teacher in these times.

Radio Interview

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed by three students from my school. We mainly spoke about online lessons and my advice for students. As with most things in Korea, especially at my job, I was given very few details and I just went with the flow.

These students had applied and were selected to participate in a radio broadcast in the city of Busan. I believe at least some of the students were members of the broadcast club at school, so this may have been part of their responsibilities. I was told that my interview with the students would be played on a local radio station at some point, but I basically put it out of my mind, and several weeks had passed.

The students provided me with a shortlist of questions that they had prepared in advance, and I was given some time to type out my answers for them. I believe that they were supposed to transcribe my responses from the recording, but the Korean English teacher rightly decided that that would be too difficult for the students. So, I typed up my answers and gave a copy to the students, who were relieved that they wouldn't have to do the extra work.

We recorded the interview on a cellphone in an empty classroom during the lunch break. On our first try, the students held the cellphone too far away, so the sound quality was poor. We tried it again, and I held the cellphone close to my face. I was given a time limit to complete my portion of the interview, and my answers were a little long, so I think I spoke too fast. I simply read my responses and I had the feeling that my students didn't understand what I was saying. 

They asked me about my advice for students regarding online lessons, and my advice on how to approach these lessons while being at home. As it turned out, much of my interview was cut for time, but I think that was fine given that I was too wordy anyway.

Today, out of the blue, the Korean English teacher sent me a copy of the radio broadcast of my interview with the students. Actually, it was a 20-minute segment with a radio host in Busan. The students were interviewed on various topics concerning their school, and they even made song recommendations that the disc jockey played on air. I believe the original plan was for the students to visit the radio station and complete the interview in person. Instead, the students' responses were all pre-recorded and spliced together to form a conversation. Of course, my interview recording was inserted into the conversation as well.

Take a listen. My interview begins at 12:29 but I recommend listening to the full interview if you have the time. You'll get a sense of modern Korean pop music, but more importantly, I think my students did a really great job describing the various activities at the school and their goals for the future. It provides a glimpse into Korean school life.

Normally, I hate the sound of my own voice on recordings, but this one wasn't too bad. Actually, I'm very, very proud of the students and the final product. They spoke really well and it's obvious that they put a lot of time into their preparations. I'm sure they got a thrill listening to themselves on the radio. Remember, they are middle school students speaking in their second language. I hope it gives them the motivation to continue studying and seeking out interesting opportunities to use the English that they learn at school.

Children's Day in South Korea

May 5th was Children's Day in South Korea. It is a national holiday so schools and many businesses were closed for the day, and I didn't have to work. Besides a nice, random Wednesday holiday in early May, what is Children's Day?

It's a day for busy families to spend time together and appreciate the youngest members of society. Typically, families go to amusement parks, zoos, beaches, and restaurants. The weather in May is really nice, making the outdoors a great option for Children's Day activities. "Red days" are marked on the Korean calendar as national holidays and are always eagerly anticipated by the over-worked employees and students of South Korean society. While Children's Day is celebrated in other countries, Korea and Japan are among the few that designate it as a national holiday and a day off from work.

This year was the 99th Children's Day in South Korea, but the holiday was first officially recognized in 1970. Originally, Children's Day was designed to change the perception of children from young workers to a vulnerable population in need of protection. While the holiday and festival were suppressed under Japanese occupation, they started again after World War 2 and have been celebrated ever since.

In the spirit of Children's Day, here is a photo of the South Korean President and his wife hosting a video call with a group of elementary school students.

 

"It is my biggest wish to enable you to play with friends, with masks off, as early as possible," he added. "Let's make efforts together, while abiding by virus control and prevention rules, so that such a day can come as soon as possible." (Korean Prime Minister Moon Jae-In).

I teach at two schools and unfortunately, the schedules didn't work to my advantage this time. While Wednesday was the official holiday and I had that day off from work, my main school also had Monday and Tuesday off for a super long holiday. They combined the school's birthday and Children's Day, plus an extra day off for some reason. Painfully for me, I was scheduled to be at my boys' school on Monday and Tuesday because they didn't schedule those days off. So, I had to work and settle for a single holiday on Wednesday. That was more than a little annoying, but still, a random holiday in the middle of the week is better than nothing.

At my boys' school, one teacher promised ice cream to her last-period class on Monday. I thought, at least that would be a nice way to end an otherwise exhausting day that could have been a holiday if the schedule had cooperated. I taught the class for 30 minutes while the teacher ran downstairs to grab the ice cream. When she returned, she said I could go take a rest in the teachers' room. There was no ice cream for me. It was an early Children's Day treat for the kids, not for me.

I had a nice Children's Day moment when I was walking along the road, towards Dadaepo Beach. There were lots of people on the sidewalk. Two young girls were walking behind me and they actually annoyed me at first with a scream (as only young girls can do). I think they saw a dog or something, and they pierced my eardrum from a few feet away. We stopped at the crosswalk, and they decided to talk to me. Very brave, I thought. They said "Hello". I asked them about their school and they said "Elementary school." I guess they were about 6th grade. I explained that I was a middle school teacher and I was from Canada. I think they understood. After each statement, they would check between the two of them to confirm their understanding. They asked where I was going? I pointed and said, "to the beach". They giggled and stammered then said, "too, too, uh, me too." The light changed, they waved and said goodbye and scampered off across the street.

After walking around the beach, I went to the cafe and the staff remembered my order from last time. I ordered a hot cafe latte, then paused. During my pause, the barista said, "and a blueberry muffin?" Hahaha. "Yes, okay, I'll have that too." I hadn't been to that cafe in weeks, but she remembered what I ate during my last visit.

The day was coming to an end so I walked home. I saw a bunch of my students running through the streets around my apartment in the evening. Boys travel in packs. For some reason, each pack of boys wanted to know where I lived. They wanted detailed directions. Should I be worried?

I bought a bunch of fried chicken for dinner and ate too much. That is how Children's Day ended for me. I'm going to work tomorrow to finish off the second half of this week. Because of online classes, I only have one class tomorrow at 3:10pm. I have a lot of sitting around to do until then. Hopefully, I can get my lesson prep finished for next week, so I can do something fun this weekend.

Traditional Korean Games

COVID-19 has disrupted the regular flow of school activities, and unfortunately, the students have to do without certain extras like field trips and festivals. However, every month or two on a Friday afternoon, students can participate in their various club activities at school. This year, there is a volleyball/basketball club, soccer club, dance club, music club, and a few others. I decided to invite myself to the Traditional Korean Games Club.

"geol" - advance three spaces

Last year, I was a semi-regular member of the school 4H Club and I enjoyed several nature-based activities with the students, such as eating bugs, planting potted plants, and baking onion-flavoured cookies. Sadly, the teacher in charge of the 4H Club transferred to another school. This put me in the market for a new club.

Club activities are a fun break for the students, although some have told me that they'd rather go home and sleep than have to stay at school for an extra 90 minutes of playing volleyball. That aside, I really enjoy watching the students play with their friends away from the classroom. I occasionally stop by the volleyball club and watch a few matches. The students seem happy to have me as a spectator. They shout, "watch this teacher!" as they proceed to serve the ball into the net.

As I had so much fun with the 4H Club, I decided that I wanted to join a club again this year. One day, I noticed a new teacher was leading a club, but I wasn't sure what sort of club it was. It looked fun though. 

A couple of weeks later, this teacher struck up a conversation with me, asking where I was from and such, the usual questions. I took the opportunity to ask about her club and if it was possible for me to join. She was enthusiastic about the idea, and I was excited as well.

I eagerly awaited the next club day, but it was delayed several times because of COVID-19. Finally, the day arrived, and the teacher informed the club members that I would be joining that day.

When I arrived, the club was called into session and I sat down with the students at a desk. There was a PowerPoint presentation loaded up on screen describing the history and rules of the game we would be playing: Yunnori. These formalities are standard with any activity at school. I don't know if this was for my benefit but a student read the presentation in English. The student struggled through, but I was touched that he made the effort.

Apparently, this club learns about and plays a different traditional Korean game at each session. It's a nice way to connect to their culture and for me to learn more about Korean life. As it turned out, Yunnori was actually a lot of fun once I learned how to play.

Apparently, the game of Yunnori can be traced as far back as the Three Kingdoms era in Korea (56 BCE - 668 CE) and is traditionally played on New Year's Day.

The object of the game is to move your pieces around the game board, and once you've completed the course with four pieces you or your team have won. You can have multiple game pieces moving through the course at the same time, and if you land on a space already occupied by your colour, you just stack the pieces. However, if the opposition lands on a space occupied by one or more of your pieces, then your pieces are removed and the opponent occupies the space.

Instead of using dice, four sticks called "yut" are tossed into the air. The sticks are marked with Xs on one side and blank on the other. The configuration of sticks when they land (the number of Xs and blanks) determines how many spaces you can move your piece on the gameboard. If any of your sticks fall off the table during a toss, you lose your turn and don't get to advance. I really like that rule because it keeps the kids from getting too crazy with their "yut" toss.

The combination of the four sticks in the toss has a certain name and value:

"do"   O X X X = 1

"gae"   O O X X = 2

"geol" O O O X = 3

"yut"  O O O O = 4 and a free turn

"mo" X X X X = 5 and a free turn

"do" - advance one space

The students got really excited for the game and would call out which roll they hoped for. It reminded me of casino craps, and also checkers. Chance is involved with the "yut" toss, but strategy is required because you have to decide which of your pieces to move based on your toss. 

We played a few games of Yunnori while switching up the teams. Rock, paper scissors, as is custom in Korean middle school, always determined who was the one to go first.

Later, we rotated to a different game station along with the rest of the club, and played a more modern game called "DaVinci Code". Essentially, it is a guessing game based on the numbered tiles you have, and the tiles your opponents are displaying. This game was also quite fun, but not connected to traditional Korean culture. I think the teacher included it for variety and to keep the students engaged. It worked. Everyone appeared to be having a great time, and the players were getting demonstrative in their enthusiasm and competitiveness. The teacher actually had to pull one student out of the room to remind him of proper sportsmanship.

I'm delighted that I joined the Traditional Korean Games Club because it was really gratifying to play and have fun with the students. Most of the club members were first-grade students and I don't normally have classes with them. So, this was one of the few opportunities we have to spend quality time together. They welcomed me to the club and took time to explain the games. They were patient and problem-solved as a team when they needed to search for the proper English words needed to help me understand. I can't wait for the next club day, and I wonder what traditional Korean games I'll learn about next time.