Thursday, October 7, 2010

My Classroom - Buan Elementary School

We've been back from Seoul about a week and we've FINALLY got the net at home. This has coincided with the tragic death of Tom's laptop meaning I lord over the internet, muahaha. The internet here is unlimited and super speedy, and for 36,000 won per month it's not too expensive either. I have more things to watch online than there are hours in the day.

I still need to organise my thoughts about Seoul so here's a few pictures of my classroom. I spend 4 out of 5 days here - tomorrow I'm teaching 4 hours of 6th grade and then I'll be tutoring some of the teachers.


This is a tiny view of the outside - the school has around 1000 students and it's huge! Four stories, two main buildings and a soccer turf out the back. The schools here are mostly brick and seem pretty intimidating when you're used to pre-fabs and two stories at most. I teach at 3 different schools and this is the largest - the other two have 12 and 23 students respectively, but they're still huge. I have to remind myself that this is considered rural in Korea.They put Glenbervie Primary to shame.


That's my co-teacher's desk and the board - including a huge, touch-screen plasma which is the focal point of most of our lessons. It wasn't working last week and lessons were chaotic.

More often than not there's something offensive written on that puzzle board. So far: 'sex,' 'fuck,' and 'sun of beach' have made the cut. My students are charming, bless 'em.

The blue screen in the corner of the classroom - note the camera at the top left.
One nation under CCTV!

Not pictured - to the right of this image is a webcam so I might get some of you to Skype my classes, and a row of PC's where my 'desk' is located.

4 comments:

  1. OMG Anna, that touchscreen is the sexiest teaching apparatus I have ever seen! Did it come from the same place as Japanese toilets: outerspace?

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  2. Outer is the sexiest of all spaces... I love my touch screen so hard it's a little bit wrong.

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  3. Hey there! I now work here! Were you in EPiK or talk? How did you like your time at the school?

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    1. Hey! I was the EPIK teacher almost 2 years ago. I mostly enjoyed my time, some parts were difficult because the students had very low comprehension. If you'd like to keep in touch, comment with your email address here and I'll send you a message.

      Anna

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