Teacher Bootcamp

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EPIK Orientation Day 2

The day arrived for our little medical check-ups to find all EPIK teacher's irrationally nervous about failing the drug test by some fluke accident or finding out they have some sort of serious disease they were unaware of. The thing most people were not concerned about turned out to be my own personal disaster! They told us to stop drinking anything after dinner before the drug test so I stopped drinking water around 7pm...then the urine test wasn't until 8 am. When I went to "perform" there was just nothing. I kept going back to see if what I'd manage to put int the little dixie cup they gave me (yes, a little paper cup!) was enough and the poor guy just kept saying "no, I'm so sorry". I drank 1 bottle of orange juice and 5 little bottles of water and bounced up and down in a frigid bathroom for over half an hour before I could go. Lol. It was slightly humiliating. I failed the drug test...before I could even take it, haha.

After that we had a lecture on "Life as an EPIK Teacher" lecture. Our lecturer spoke very well and was interseting, but just didn't understand being organized and not rambling on and on, lol. And we were all still pretty jet lagged. Then they had us sign a bunch of forms to open our bank account, and we talked about some group stuff, like picking a group leader, ect.

Later my roommate and I went out with some of the other teachers to try "Soju," the Korean national drink. The stuff is lethal! It's a lot like vodka, but its common to drink it straight. It goes down really smooth until the very end. I drank 1 bottle of it shot by shot, but over like 3 hours. Don't get the wrong idea.I'm not setting a bad example or anything, believe me. I'm so tame compared to a lot of the people here. I just went out to make some friends. It worked... I think. I hope.

EPIK Orientation Day 3

The first big lecture day! It was REALLY long, but also incredible. We had four 1 and 1/2 hour lectures.

They were on:

Making our English comprehensible to our students. Understanding how they see the language and how we can help make it easier for them to learn. Our lecturer was great. So cute! He loved the way we try to speak Korean.

Technology in the Classroom. He showed us all these websites we can use to create games to play in the classroom! Basically, it was a class on games which rocks!

Lesson Planning. She gave us some really cool ideas, and showed us some lesson templates. Also, she discussed what aspect of the lesson should be new material and what should be some sort of interactive learning.

After School groups and Vacation Camps. He talked about how it is different to teach a camp than it is to teach a class. I felt kind of bad because we all started to get tired in his class. But he showed us some videos which REALLY helped.

Then we had Korean Lessons, which haven't been going well at all. I feel so bad for our Teacher! He's very cute and very sweet, but an awful Korean teacher. Some of the people in our group were letting their frustration show a little too much though, so I thought I'd write him a little card for the last lesson that says "Thank you" in the Korean characters. I Think that'd mean a lot to him. I hate to see him feel sad or discouraged. And, that's just kind of how I roll.

Basically, we are learning so, so much. And the people here are really taking care of us. They always have snacks and water for us after our first morning class, and show a big interest in us. It's a great feeling to come here and not only get a good salary and good benefits, but also see that people actually want us here, and they want to help us in any way that they can. I love my group leader!

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Photos

Korea Orientation 019
EPIK schedule.

Korea Orientation 001
Just a sign in the Tokyo airport that I thought was funny.

Comments

[Jess]

failing drug tests and already a korean alchy!!! bahahaaa ;) love u! can't wait for u to teach me some korean! hehe