I realize we haven't updated in a long time, but I thought it was high time we finally did. A lot has happened in the 10 months since our last update, so here it goes:
Aaron and I came back from Korea at the very end of February. At this point, we miss a lot of things about Korea (namely our friends, going out with them every weekend and having cool people to hang out with, cheap alcohol, galbi...okay, the galbi is just me but I do miss it a lot!) but I think overall we're glad to be back in the States for now. We don't miss our jobs though I do miss my students sometimes. I miss some of the ease of living there, though to be honest it was hard a lot of the time too. I think we miss living abroad more that Korea itself, though that should be taken care of with my next bullet point...
I've joined the Navy! I'm set to leave for boot camp in January, 2011. Boot Camp is for 2 months, and then I'm going to Monterey, CA where I'll be studying a foreign language for 50+ weeks. My job is CTI, which means I'll basically be a translator/linguist/awesome-person for the Navy. I aced my ASVAB and DLAB and qualified for that job; it was the only job I really wanted since I like languages so much. Aaron is going to pack up our house and follow me out to CA and then to wherever I get sent. There are a few reasons we decided to go down this route. They pay off the majority of my student loans, which is like a 50k signing bonus, and that's the major reason. Another reason is that we liked living overseas so much that we would really like to do it again, and we think that doing it as part of the military will be that much better. We were jealous of our military friends in Korea because they got to live on/near the bases, and had access to all the American stuff they wanted...groceries, restaurants, libraries, etc. and then they got to go "out" into Korea whenever they wanted. Kind of the best of both worlds. And we want that! No guarantee that we'll get it of course, but we can always hope. Plus we don't really have job security at this point and really need to get it.
So I'm really excited for the Navy; not really looking forward to boot camp of course (who ever does?) but after that, it should be a good time. For now we just need to start packing up our house and getting rid of all the extra stuff we have and don't need. The less we have, the less we have to move (and move, and move, and move...)!!!
Anyway that's pretty much it for now. Hopefully we can get this blog up and running again (mostly through Aaron) as we join the Navy family and have many wonderful/interesting/awful/tooth-gnashing-ly things happen to us! ;)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I Sure Do Have a Ton of Pics to Post
Hi again! I just realized I have an absolute mammoth mound of photos to post. I'm going to have to work my bum of or else I'll still be posting them once we get back to the states!
I may have previously mentioned that I occasionally end up with the school camera hooked to my computer. During such times, I usually glance through the photos on the camera to see if there's anything I'd like to snag. I have recently grabbed another round of entertaining photos. These were mostly all taken in December. Please note that none of these photos were taken by me. Most of them were taken by my coteacher. A handful were taken by some students for an exercise.
Looks like a generic shot of my school. The date on the photo says this was taken in September.
HA!!! Isn't that awesome? I have no idea why my co prompted for this pic. Well, I do have an idea. I've used that bathroom quite a bit and it's likely the nose plugging was justified.
Before the next set, let me set them up. In Top Class, we decided to have them make videos for a contest. They were UCC videos (which is User Created Content) and were meant to be something of public awareness films. Like 'Watch out for H1N1!' or 'Don't waste water!' The groups typically took a lot of pictures and then made slide shows with captions and music. I can probably get a hold of them if there's some interest. However, it'll probably be just as fun to look at all the pics, not just the ones they deemed good enough to make the UCC. Oh, and don't tell the girls, they'd probably be mortified that these pictures were out there :D
"Hello, today we'll talk about something very important."
"Water!!!!! YAY!!!!!! It's delicious!!!"
"Yuk! This is camel piss!"
"Don't drink camel piss!"
"But why not?!'
"Oh, it spoils in the sun. I see! No camel piss for me!"
And now you know!
That obviously wasn't the actual dialog. They were on about wasting water, but there was more pics and such and my way is just funnier :D
Without further delay, here's another UCC set!
Yeah, sorry, no captions. I just couldn't think of anything. The pictures seemed funny enough on their own. This was about H1N1. I think someone got sick and then they called a super-nurse or something to tell them how to keep the flu away.
Recently, I was informed we had extra money in the English budget. This happens at most schools at the end of the year. They use as little of the English budget as possible and then at the end of the year they try and use everything that is left so they'll be justified in asking for the exact same amount the next year.
I made suggestions. I thought I was over suggesting. I did so so that there was many options and we could whittle it down. That did not happen.
This is our puzzle horde. Please note the unconventional 2,000 and 3,000 piece puzzles. I think the 2,000 was around $45 and the 3,000 was around $60 (both in local currency). I'd like to work one of those behemoths, but it would likely take weeks. The kids and I have worked most of the smaller ones. We haven't hit any of the 1,000 piece ones as of yet as I've been keeping it so that only one grade was working on a puzzle at a time and then only for a period or two. I figured they get bored if we worked on them for a week straight.
We also got a lot of English books. That's like the first $1,000 of the $2k worth we got. At least we got lots of good stuff. Many of my advicements were taken and we have wonderful things like 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' and 'The Boxcar Children' :D
During the time we were taking pictures of all our new stuff, it was also time to take pics of all the goodies we already have. Apparently the schools all take inventory of everything at the end of the year and report on it.
These are the English room movies. We have like every Magic Schoolbus ever. We have a ton of Spongebob and a few other odds and ends.
We also have a lot of fake food. It's in the 'restaurant' area that I've detailed in previous posts. Most of it has been broken because the kids like to play with it. We've actually only used it in a couple of classes, but it looks nice at year end report time!
We bought a bunch of DVDs with the year end English surplus. These aren't actually in the English room. They're in a secret cupboard in the library. Why? Well, most of them "aren't for children". Yeah, they're mostly all movies the teachers requested. Silence of the Lambs, Gangs of New York, The Godfather, good movies, but surely not for the wee ones.
Now the games are for the English room. This is just a tiny sampling. This was the actual case where I made a huge list waiting to be whittled down, yet instead they were all ordered. We ordered like $500 in games. I have Settlers of Catan in Korean. I may just try to teach it to the 5th graders one day. All the kids have learned (and love) Uno. I personally love Blokus and the very similar (yet different in important ways) Gemblo. We've had a lot of fun with the games and they're very popular with the kids. They help reinforce a lot of the English they've already learned.
Back to report stuff. We have some more books. Most have song CDs.
We used these in the afternoon first semester. Never use any of them, they're not very good books. Well, the Backpack books might be, but the kids only had the workbooks instead of the Book and Workbook set as was required.
We have a TV.
This was a staged photo for something or other. I think some report on how I rock. Note, that is not my work on the screen. My work of a much higher graphical concentration.
We spent some time making snowflakes whilst listening to Christmas music (in English!!). I let the kids practice a few times on white paper and then they got to get a piece of oragami paper to make a flake with. The origami paper was really cool because each side had a different color.
After they'd all made one in oragami paper, we laminated one for each kid. Some kids picked one of their white ones as their best.
This is another staged photo. He didn't help with that tree. You wouldn't of known if I hadn't told you, would you?
The first few flakes are up.
I think we staged this photo too. I think they're being attentive for the photo. Those snowflakes look nice though, right?
Yeah, it was definitely staged. Here's the same kids watching Elf in the same class.
They loved it! I didn't mind watching the movie another 3 or so times! :D
Back a while ago, we had an auction lesson. My co got a bit gung-ho
He printed out all this fake money and then laminated it.
We even had fake registers!
Well, they're not that fake. They have actual coms and keys and such.
Well, look at that. That's a neat place there somewhere in, what is that? Indiana? Totally legit. We so definitely had a big lesson on Indiana. Be excited Hoosiers.
Another fun activity. Color a background page and then make your own snowman. I included some options for hats and winter garb. I bought googley eyes to glue on the snowmen and some weird, crafty, accordion cardboard for arms.
These are 2nd graders. They seemed to enjoy snowman time.
More snowflake shots. I believe we had everyone except the kindergarten (who I do not teach) make snowflakes.
We closed out our last class of the semester with some Spongebob Christmas special. It was loved by all (in spite of not having those handy subtitles). We've since moved on to Winter Camp.
There's a lot more pictures as our days have been a bit more exciting lately. I'll try to get on posting them sooner rather than later.
-A
I may have previously mentioned that I occasionally end up with the school camera hooked to my computer. During such times, I usually glance through the photos on the camera to see if there's anything I'd like to snag. I have recently grabbed another round of entertaining photos. These were mostly all taken in December. Please note that none of these photos were taken by me. Most of them were taken by my coteacher. A handful were taken by some students for an exercise.
Looks like a generic shot of my school. The date on the photo says this was taken in September.
HA!!! Isn't that awesome? I have no idea why my co prompted for this pic. Well, I do have an idea. I've used that bathroom quite a bit and it's likely the nose plugging was justified.Before the next set, let me set them up. In Top Class, we decided to have them make videos for a contest. They were UCC videos (which is User Created Content) and were meant to be something of public awareness films. Like 'Watch out for H1N1!' or 'Don't waste water!' The groups typically took a lot of pictures and then made slide shows with captions and music. I can probably get a hold of them if there's some interest. However, it'll probably be just as fun to look at all the pics, not just the ones they deemed good enough to make the UCC. Oh, and don't tell the girls, they'd probably be mortified that these pictures were out there :D
"Hello, today we'll talk about something very important."
"Water!!!!! YAY!!!!!! It's delicious!!!"
"Yuk! This is camel piss!"
"Don't drink camel piss!"
"But why not?!'
"Oh, it spoils in the sun. I see! No camel piss for me!"
And now you know!That obviously wasn't the actual dialog. They were on about wasting water, but there was more pics and such and my way is just funnier :D
Without further delay, here's another UCC set!
Yeah, sorry, no captions. I just couldn't think of anything. The pictures seemed funny enough on their own. This was about H1N1. I think someone got sick and then they called a super-nurse or something to tell them how to keep the flu away.Recently, I was informed we had extra money in the English budget. This happens at most schools at the end of the year. They use as little of the English budget as possible and then at the end of the year they try and use everything that is left so they'll be justified in asking for the exact same amount the next year.
I made suggestions. I thought I was over suggesting. I did so so that there was many options and we could whittle it down. That did not happen.
This is our puzzle horde. Please note the unconventional 2,000 and 3,000 piece puzzles. I think the 2,000 was around $45 and the 3,000 was around $60 (both in local currency). I'd like to work one of those behemoths, but it would likely take weeks. The kids and I have worked most of the smaller ones. We haven't hit any of the 1,000 piece ones as of yet as I've been keeping it so that only one grade was working on a puzzle at a time and then only for a period or two. I figured they get bored if we worked on them for a week straight.
We also got a lot of English books. That's like the first $1,000 of the $2k worth we got. At least we got lots of good stuff. Many of my advicements were taken and we have wonderful things like 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' and 'The Boxcar Children' :DDuring the time we were taking pictures of all our new stuff, it was also time to take pics of all the goodies we already have. Apparently the schools all take inventory of everything at the end of the year and report on it.
These are the English room movies. We have like every Magic Schoolbus ever. We have a ton of Spongebob and a few other odds and ends.
We also have a lot of fake food. It's in the 'restaurant' area that I've detailed in previous posts. Most of it has been broken because the kids like to play with it. We've actually only used it in a couple of classes, but it looks nice at year end report time!
We bought a bunch of DVDs with the year end English surplus. These aren't actually in the English room. They're in a secret cupboard in the library. Why? Well, most of them "aren't for children". Yeah, they're mostly all movies the teachers requested. Silence of the Lambs, Gangs of New York, The Godfather, good movies, but surely not for the wee ones.
Now the games are for the English room. This is just a tiny sampling. This was the actual case where I made a huge list waiting to be whittled down, yet instead they were all ordered. We ordered like $500 in games. I have Settlers of Catan in Korean. I may just try to teach it to the 5th graders one day. All the kids have learned (and love) Uno. I personally love Blokus and the very similar (yet different in important ways) Gemblo. We've had a lot of fun with the games and they're very popular with the kids. They help reinforce a lot of the English they've already learned.
Back to report stuff. We have some more books. Most have song CDs.
We used these in the afternoon first semester. Never use any of them, they're not very good books. Well, the Backpack books might be, but the kids only had the workbooks instead of the Book and Workbook set as was required.
We have a TV.
This was a staged photo for something or other. I think some report on how I rock. Note, that is not my work on the screen. My work of a much higher graphical concentration.We spent some time making snowflakes whilst listening to Christmas music (in English!!). I let the kids practice a few times on white paper and then they got to get a piece of oragami paper to make a flake with. The origami paper was really cool because each side had a different color.
After they'd all made one in oragami paper, we laminated one for each kid. Some kids picked one of their white ones as their best.
This is another staged photo. He didn't help with that tree. You wouldn't of known if I hadn't told you, would you?
The first few flakes are up.
I think we staged this photo too. I think they're being attentive for the photo. Those snowflakes look nice though, right?
Yeah, it was definitely staged. Here's the same kids watching Elf in the same class.
They loved it! I didn't mind watching the movie another 3 or so times! :DBack a while ago, we had an auction lesson. My co got a bit gung-ho
He printed out all this fake money and then laminated it.
We even had fake registers!
Well, they're not that fake. They have actual coms and keys and such.
Well, look at that. That's a neat place there somewhere in, what is that? Indiana? Totally legit. We so definitely had a big lesson on Indiana. Be excited Hoosiers.
Another fun activity. Color a background page and then make your own snowman. I included some options for hats and winter garb. I bought googley eyes to glue on the snowmen and some weird, crafty, accordion cardboard for arms.
These are 2nd graders. They seemed to enjoy snowman time.
More snowflake shots. I believe we had everyone except the kindergarten (who I do not teach) make snowflakes.
We closed out our last class of the semester with some Spongebob Christmas special. It was loved by all (in spite of not having those handy subtitles). We've since moved on to Winter Camp.There's a lot more pictures as our days have been a bit more exciting lately. I'll try to get on posting them sooner rather than later.
-A
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