Monday is Wolya Elementary, Tuesday is Singwang Elementary, and Wednesday is...Sonbul Elementary! Sonbul is a "myeon," which is kind of a township or autonomous part of the county here; it's not particularly recognizable or populated, but it has precisely one big bug stop at which I get off and walk to my school, and here it is:
It's pretty cool to get off the bus right in the middle of the country like this--there are some great mountains all around, and everything is wide open and green. So here's some vital statistics on Sonbul: it's about 10 miles northwest of Hampyeong-eup, my stomping grounds. The bus ride takes about 25 minutes, and makes many stops in the countryside en route to Sonbul. It's a pretty uphill bus ride, as Sonbul is nestled into some beautiful mountains, as this photo alludes to a little bit. It's probably my most scenic bus ride of the week; there are plenty of nice lakes that sit between these mountains, and I even get a view of the ocean on my way to school! Sonbul Elementary and its area is only a mile or two from the ocean, and at the highest point of my bus ride, I can see Hampyeong's fishing harbor and mud beaches in the distance. Sometimes, if I have time to kill, I'll walk down to the ocean. How cool is that?
Anyway, Sonbul has about 120 students, if I had to estimate, in grades K-6. I teach the usual 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades as I do at other schools, with the addition of some 1st and 2nd graders. I teach these especially young ones after lunch, alternating weeks; every other week is 1st grade, every other week is 2nd grade, etc. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classes are the smallest, with anywhere between 12 and 15 kids per class, whereas 4th through 6th grades average about 20 per class.
Here's a view of Sonbul Elementary from the front gate:
I usually take a 7:40 bus to Sonbul from Hampyeong-eup, which puts my arrival at about 8:05 am, or about an hour before school starts. I'm usually one of 2 teachers there at that time, and I try to speak what little Korean I have with the woman who opens the school--she's so sweet, but speaks little to no English. One word she does know, and she uses it in the form of a question, is "coffee?" So we have coffee together, albeit a little quietly, and I greet students as they come in. My co-teacher rolls in a little bit later, and we go hang out in the English Center and prepare for classes. Classes start with 3rd and go in order through 6th grade until lunch, and then one afternoon class of 1st or 2nd grade. Here are the 3rd graders!
Well, just a few of them, but they teach me dances and games! These are 4 particularly cute 3rd grade girls. They're loud, but all really excited to learn and really smart.
One of my mainest men in the school. Just one of the many 4th graders, but this guy is an absolute stud--one of the happiest students I have. I give him piggy back rides everywhere and we even have a secret handshake. Here he is with some finger puppets, with which he and some other students performed a short skit in the "virtual studio" of Sonbul Elementary. One really cool aspect of classes at Sonbul is the "virtual studio," complete with camera and lights--when my co-teacher, Jui Hui, flips a switch on the wall, students tend to think they're being filmed, and love it!
Here's a picture my co-teacher took of me in action. If you're especially familiar with my quirks, you can notice the blue Nalgene water bottle has indeed made the trip to Korea with me. Another interesting thing you might notice is my lack of shoes. As it turns out, all Korean schools require slippers, sandals, or just plain socks; anything but shoes inside. I had yet to find a pair of slippers in my size (and still struggle with it at times!), so I settled for some nice ones the school had to offer. They got the job done, but it was definitely time for my own classroom swag.
This one's for you, university-age friends and family. These 6th graders are, in fact, playing flip cup, a popular drinking game we often played with friends on many a Madison evening or gameday morning. The first student, when I said "go," would spill their words from their cup, organize them into a sentence, read it for me correctly, and flip their cup, and the next student would do the same, and so on, and so forth. Kids freak out and scream at their classmates if they're not doing things quickly enough! It makes for a fun relay, the whole teams starts to help and shout things out.
These are a handful of mostly 6th graders studying for the PELT tests, a national test administered to students to check their English progress. Top students who score well on the test even have a chance to visit Australia, Canada, or the U.S.A. for a few weeks during vacation, so students get very competitive about their chances of going abroad at such a young age. I sat in on a few of these extra-curricular prep classes organized by my co-teacher, and it really became the best way to get to know the students. They're so happy to try to speak English and even teach me some Korean when there is no pressure of being put on the spot in class. Hanging out with students after classes is easily the best way to get to know things about them--their family, their interests, their lives. As shy as they can be in class, they really open up when the pressure is off.
Nicest kid ever. He's usually terrified to speak English, but is always telling me my neckties and glasses are very handsome.
I just realized I forgot to talk about my co-teacher! She is a lovely woman of 24 years old (possibly 23, very, very young and easy to relate to!), and her name is Kim Ju Hui. Her parents gave her a more or less English nickname, Esther, so that's what I tend to call her. She lives in Gwangju, and commutes to school every day with the vice principal, also a very kind lady. Her English is very good and she always has a warm smile on her face. We sometimes meet in Gwangju on the weekends to have dinner or coffee together.
Sonbul Elementary has been her first teaching job since graduating from University--this is her 2nd semester as a teacher, so we are still learning new things about our jobs together every time we work with these kids. She's very sweet and the kids really seem to like her--she lets me organize lots of activities and play lots of games with the kids, so I definitely appreciate that. Here she is!
This picture was taken on a school field trip to Jindo Island, one of the most fun days of my entire experience in Korea thus far...but I'll get to that soon enough in a later post!
Last but not least, here is a much anticipated look at my cute-as-a-button 1st and 2nd graders:
They had been given balloons at lunch, and were eager to blow them up and watch them fly all around the room. They especially liked it when they popped right in front of my face. If you look closely, you can see one boy covering his ears in anticipation of these balloons blowing up--the two kids in the foreground couldn't care less. They're so happy! These kids all called me "Pinocchio" on our first day together, because apparently my nose is huge compared to their noses! To this day, I am no longer "Sam Sam" or "Sam Teacher," but "Pinocchio!"
Doing one of our favorite things...watching Lion King clips at the end of class! We typically start with ABC review, sometimes animals or colors, move on to a song that I try to teach them (animal sounds, the Hokey Pokey, Old McDonald, all that good stuff), and finish with some nice videos they can relax and take in. They're pretty glued to the screen, but I'm just too happy about everything going on in this picture to understand what's happening in the movie. As such, these 1st graders often ask Ju Hui, "why is Pinocchio's face so red?"
I really love Sonbul Elementary; the students are warm and smiley, my co-teacher is an absolute sweetheart, and the staff is always very friendly and accommodating for their new foreign co-worker. We sometimes go hiking together or have staff dinners together, but, as mentioned earlier, I promise to get to that in a later post.
I should also mention, one really cool thing about Sonbul is that most students are finished with classes by 2:00pm or so on Wednesdays, so I get to do cool things like dance and sing songs, play soccer, and have races in the school yard with all the kids. I'm allowed to leave after my afternoon class, much earlier than the usual 5:00pm that most teachers are required to stay until, but I end up spending at least an hour or two hanging out with these kids after class. Sometimes the principal will walk by, and I'll feel guilty having so much fun with these kids, even though my work day is over, but I just bow to him and he just smiles and waves to me, and I remember why I like working here so much.
So that's an introduction to Sonbul Elementary...tomorrow I'll write a huge post about my Thursday and Friday schools, just to get this segment of my blog over with. Then I'll start with all the good traveling stuff, because getting to play in Korea is just as much fun as getting to work in Korea. Thanks to everyone for reading! Love to all, and all the best,
Sam Teacher
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