A Bit About My School

My school is located in South Korea, on the southern coast in the City of Busan. Busan is a very large city so there are a lot of different areas. My school is located in the Sasang area between Deokpoe (sounds like duck-po) and Modeok (Moe-duck) on what I would call a mountain, but it could just seem like a mountain because I came from flat Saskatchewan. Some call it a hill, some call it a mountain, whatever it is, it is a steep walk up. There are railings on the side to help you drag yourself up, at least that’s what I use the railings for.

I am very fortunate to be in what is called an English Village.  The goal of the school is to have an English immersion experience for students while they are here, so the classes taught in this building are all in English. There is a Korean teacher that speaks English and a Foreign teacher paired up with each other so that creates a great support system and allows for great communication about students and possible strategies that may work with some groups or individual students.

My school.

Another interesting aspect of my school that I love is called Active Zones. We have classes in my classroom Monday and Tuesday, but on Wednesday the Monday students come to the Active Zone and on Thursday the Tuesday students come to Active Zone. Friday is reserved for extra classes and more advanced students. Right now I have been fortunate enough to teach a promotional class in the Cooking Active Zone on Fridays, which means every Friday I get to make or bake something with my students. Last Friday we made Brownies in a Microwave and they tasted surprisingly good. The purpose of active zones is to provide lived experiences for students to be able to apply the English they have learned in the classroom while in a different learning environment. So far I have done the Non-fiction Reading Active Zone, the Sounds Active Zone, Words, Science and Cooking.

Preparing for Words active zone- tongue twisters for the more advanced students