NEAT-o

Last winter break my coteachers began teaching a test prep class during camp. It's called NEAT (National English Ability Test) and the kids will take it when they're going from high school to university. This semester we're teaching NEAT prep classes to the advanced students, and so once a week I teach speaking or writing. I'll do five weeks with the third grade, five with second, and five with first. It's only 45 minutes a week, and let me tell you, that is not enough. This stuff is incredibly difficult, and there's just too much to do. Honestly, I'm pretty sure this is close to the stuff that I was actually learning in middle school as a native English speaker. In the writing unit we just covered, it was all about recommending and suggesting things. The kids were learning the target phrases, "I'd recommend... I'd recommend you... If I were you, I would... I'd suggest..." They had to unscramble sentences like, "If I were you, I would apologize to my friend right away." "Why don't you drop by the party later?" Because they'll be taking this test as ESL students, they might not know the meaning of all the sentences and words, so I'm trying to teach them test-taking strategies, like identifying parts of speech and putting them in the appropriate order. For example, they had to fill in the blanks of this sentence:

I _______________________. They will help you _______ what you should do with your _______.

There was a picture of a boy reading a book with the caption "self-help books," and the key vocabulary for the unit included "figure out" and "life." The students weren't familiar with the term "self-help" and couldn't fill in the blanks, so I told them to break down the words. They knew "self" meant me, myself and they know the word "help" so I had them put the words together to realize it meant a book to help yourself do something. Then I had them read "They will help you ____" and told them to ask themselves the question, help you do what? Do is a verb, so you're probably looking for a verb. And then "your" what? It has to be a noun of some kind. Figure out is a verb and life is a noun, and if you're trying to help yourself with these books, you're probably trying to do something with your life. I certainly hope those are correct assumptions, and that I didn't steer them wrong. The kids are really well-behaved and pay attention and take lots of notes, but I'm always worried that I'm making sense to myself but not to them. Naturally, whenever I ask if they understand, they say yes, but I remember being a student... you almost never admit when you don't understand. After class got out I specifically asked some of my girls (whom I know pretty well due to camp) if they could really understand me. They said they understand me, but the subject material is difficult. Then I asked, Do the other students really understand? Yes, Teacher, we all understand. People in this class are very smart! Well, I wasn't doubting you, kids, I was doubting myself, haha.

Dongjun gave me a piece of chocolate before NEAT class started. It looked homemade so I asked if he made it and he said no, his friend did, but he wanted to give one to me. How adorable.

The Korean teacher who sits across from me is very kind and always wants to talk to me, but it's definitely a) all in Korean b) very fast and c) too polite for me to understand. I learned how to say the phrase, "Could you say that one more time, slowly please?" and it definitely worked, but no matter how slowly she said it, I just don't know enough words.

Last night I went out for dinner with two of my foreign friends and one of their coteachers. Her parents are from the area, but she's just moved back here and started teaching at a new school, so she doesn't know a lot of people. She wants us to hang out, which is fine by me. She's 29, single, and apparently the only teacher at the whole school that's unmarried, and now that my friend is leaving (in 10 days), he'll be replaced by a married foreigner, so she will literally be the only unmarried person in the school. That might not be a huge deal in America, but to be a 29 year old unmarried female is a big deal here and I feel especially sympathetic towards her because she's the only one in her school. I was thinking, and I might be out of line here, BUT there is a 30 (or 31 year old? I don't remember exactly) year old informatics teacher at my school whom I'm almost certain is single. He's super nice as well and speaks a little bit of English, which is how I know he's a very nice man. He's recently been put in charge of scheduling, and he knows I can't read the Korean messages he sends, so if it's something important, he'll usually try and send me a little English message to let me know. It's very cute, like "Hello! Today we have a special movie for the students. There is no class in the 5th and 6th periods. Sorry my English is bad. Have a nice day!~~ J.K. Kwak"

I give him coffee (the universal teacher gift) to say thank you sometimes. Regardless, awhile back he told me we should get some kimbap together sometime (my favorite food), but nothing's ever come of it. Now that I have this new Korean friend, I'm considering seeing if the informatics teacher would be interested in getting some dinner or drinks and casually invite her along. Matchmaker? Possibly. To be fair I barely know either of them.

I've recently realized that my school is about 70%-30% boys to girls. It never really occurred to me, but as I was making seating charts, I realized that in six groups of 6-7 students, two were girls and 4-5 were boys. I even have some classes with two groups of 6 boys each. I bring this up because I've tallied the third grade questionnaires, and the results are like this.

1. Movies
I think they think I'll show them movies if they choose this. Wrong.

2. Food
Again, sorry kids. We're not going to just eat food in class.

3. Pop songs
Are you sensing a theme here? Though to be fair it's nothing less than I expected when I gave them these three as options.

4. Sports
Ah, sports. Something I know very little about and care even less about. But in my effort to teach them things they're interested in, I stayed at school on Friday for an extra hour and a half learning about football, cricket, rugby, and baseball. We're going to do a sports unit whether I like it or not. I'm trying to make it cool though. It'll be in several parts.

Part 1: Sports from Around the World
Learn about the previous four sports I listed above, watch some .gifs, get some knowledge.

Part 2: Language and Culture
Learn about how baseball words get worked in American conversations at an alarming rate, i.e. step up to the plate, take a swing at it, out of your league, hit it out of the park, etc.

Part 3: Vocabulary
Learn basic sports vocab; team, league, series, event, professional, etc


Play Jeopardy using parts 1 and 2


Part 4: Reading
Read about the history of baseball, reading comprehension questions, true or false, and writing

Part 5: Movie and Song
Watch High School Musical 2 "I Don't Dance" and fill in the blanks in the lyrics (hint: it's on a baseball field)

I've really only ironed out Parts 1-3 and Jeopardy since I can't fit it all into one class. I'm trying to make it fun and educational, which is why I've stuck in Jeopardy. As for HSM, hopefully that will satisfy them with their desire for movies and pop songs, though to be fair it's not what they're hoping for I'm sure. Anyway, I've certainly learned a lot about cricket! It's actually interesting as well. Don't worry though, I'm not going to start watching it.Also, I can't take most of the credit for the sports lesson... I got a bunch of the info and prep work from foreign teaching websites. Must give credit where credit is due.