So in January, I was teaching NIE3, the newspaper writing class, for the second time. But of course, it would have made too much sense for the files from the first time I taught it to have been saved… and the vast majority of them weren’t. Out of three levels, what I still had from the level 3 class I designed and a few of the files the level 1 teacher kept were all we had going into the Winter Intensives… Not good. It basically meant I spent December designing not one but three classes. And that is why my blog has been dead for a while.
However that did allow me to go back and make them fit together nicely. Before, the three teachers kind of did their own thing but this time around, the classes followed a much more similar structure. The material was at different levels of difficulty though.
And I will not allow these files to be lost again. That’s two months of hard work (although if you count the other teachers and my triple-time work – that’s six months of hard work). I’m not planning on being here to teach the class a third time but I’m definitely planning on updating these files for a new term and making some kind of quick handbook so it can continue to be taught. I don’t want this class to die. Not just because I’ve worked hard on it but also because the students really have fun reading articles and writing their own and it’s clearly helpful for them to get that extra practical practice instead of reading canned articles that are written with a certain skill set in mind (not that canned articles don’t have their place…).
Teaching this class a second time has made me realize one thing though – the internet is wonderful! There are a lot of resources on the web for designing projects like this. The first time around us teachers were having a hard time finding level appropriate articles and about halfway through December I found a whole bunch of websites that not only have articles for kids (and sometimes written by kids) but also there are actually resources out there to teach kids how to read and write newspaper articles.
Serious, this kind of class is so much cooler for kids than a standard English/language arts class. I really think more schools should adopt programs where kids can actually apply the skills they are learning in a way that mimics the more ‘adult world’. Science Fairs are basically awesome. Why not have a fair for other subjects too, not just the ones that are inherently awesome like Science. Try-Math-A-Lons are okay too.
I guess what I’m trying to say is let’s have a culture of innovation and exploration, rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty, learning by doing. Take chances, make mistakes, get messy! The United States kind of has that. Korea… not so much. But that is for another post.
As a final thought for this post, after teaching the class, I worked my butt off again to get the newspaper ready. Last time around, a “marketing guy” (as he was called) designed the newspaper and it… was okay. But there were lots of stupid errors that shouldn’t have been there. And the newspaper was honestly nothing amazing in the design department considering it was made by a “market guy”. This time around, I was determined to make it awesome. Or as close to awesome as I could. Unfortunately, the original template was not saved so again I had to make it from scratch. After being told the dimensions of the newspaper AFTER I designed it (and having to go back and expand everything), I was also told I could only have one sheet of paper instead of the three that I needed (the last newspaper was only one sheet). Which was ridiculous because I had more students than last time and they wrote much longer articles. I was able to negotiate up to two sheets… although even that was still too little. But I had to work with what I got.
And when it’s finally printed, I post it.
* Editing Note After The Fact: YAY! MY 100th POST!*
Alisa Williams is from the Washington DC area, but right now she's living and teaching at the Chungdahm Institute in Suwon, just south of Seoul. While teaching her students English, she's also trying to teach herself Korean (an awesome challenge) and generally exploring everything Korea has to offer!
Read Alisa's blog here.
If you’ve ever had Korean BBQ in the states (or in Korea), there’s a good chance you’ve had 
I've seen some questions lately in Korea forums about getting directions.
If you don't know already, there is a FREE
travel helpline for foreigners in 
So today while I share what a Korean market is like, I will add in a funny experience I had while walking through the market. As you can see above, in a Korea market you can find lots of seafood, as well as different fruits and vegetables. This story highlights the lovely silver fish that you can see in the middle of the picture. While my family was here, actually, we were walking through the market one day, showing them the delicacies of Korea. All of a sudden, we got stopped by this gentleman:
He was a VERY friendly guy who was extremely excited to tell me that he was in the army and worked with different Americans while he served his country. In mostly Korean, and in a little broken English, I got the gist that he LOVES America and anyone who has to do with anything American...which is how I ended up with 2 of those silver fish in a bag. He liked me soooo much that he insisted that he buy me 2 fish (which is actually a really nice gift for a stranger being that the fist cost almost $10 a piece). I tried to tell him that I really didn't need the fish, but he wouldn't take no for an answer...which is why I later had to call my co-teacher to help me figure out what to do with the fish.
Mrs. Byeon came straight over and proceeded to gut and behead the fish right in my kitchen sink. I called her really hoping that she would actually take the fish OFF my hands, but she also insisted with a lot of garlic, these fish would turn into a delicious meal.
As you can see I had the treat of watching fish guts spill into my sink as the fish watched me back, and I was still wondering how in the world I was going to cook these fish. Even though Korea is surrounded by a lot of water, most of Korea is not really known for having great or really fresh seafood. So there we have my funny market experience which will guide us into the real focus of this post: what a Korean market is really like.
I know there is no method to their madness, but really it seems like as the style of combining different patterns became more popular, older Korean ladies took it a little too far ; )
I feel like even though it takes a little more time to walk from stall to stall to buy my weekly fruits and vegetables, I love to see all the different things available and the colors of the whole scene are fantastic.
Things are truly seasonal in a "real" market so it seems like every week something has disappeared and a new, exciting food has replaced it. These
Like I said before, the fish isn't something that I am keen to buy because it isn't the freshest thing around. There are tons of stalls displaying their piles of fish, and let's just say the smell coming from them isn't always so appetizing.
You can see shark,
Another interesting site in a Korean market is the 
