Starting Year Three I'm back in Korea, back at my desk in the grade three teachers office at my school on top of the hill I have to climb every morning. Back to daily alerts from the government that is air quality is so bad you shouldn't go outside, and back to my tiny…
Helping Your Students Feel Comfortable Speaking English One of the biggest barriers we face as native English teachers in Korea is that it can be really hard to feel like you connect with the students in the same way that the other teachers do. Not only is there the obvious language barrier but also…
Continue reading ➞ Helping Your Students Feel Comfortable Speaking English
An Open Letter To My Students (Because that's never been done before...) To any of my students past or present, Should any of you ever find this by accident, hello! I hope life is treating you okay. I am writing this to you because there are some things that I want you to know.…
What Korean Middle School Students Are Worried About (Or: What my kids wanted to tell me when they had 2 minutes of my undivided attention.) I'm just about finished with all of the speaking tests for this semester and as always it's been the most fun I've had with my students so far this…
Continue reading ➞ What Korean Middle School Students Are Worried About
When you're living in a country that's so homogeneous it's people took note when the foreign population jumped from 1% to 3% it's easy to feel like you're fighting a losing battle in terms of "fitting in" with the country and culture around you. In a bizarre turn of events, one of the hardest things…
Continue reading ➞ Ways to Get Connected While Living Abroad
I arrived back in Korea to start my second year here on February 27th. We had our first day of the new school year on March 2nd, and it's now been about 7 weeks back at school. And those seven weeks have, unfortunately, seen some of loneliest most anxious moments while living in Korea. I…
Understanding Your Student's English When you first get to Korea there will be a lot of things that you don't understand. Unfortunately some of those things will be what your students are saying, in English, in an attempt to talk to you. I always always try to at least pretend like I know what…
I have been in Korea for a year. Today is the last day of school and I'm writing this from my desk as the office is descending into utter chaos while the grade three students storm in and out with questions for their home room teachers about if they're having a snack party later, what…
Tips for Surviving Your First Day as an EPIK Teacher If walking up to my school on the first day amid a literal sea of students staring and gawking at me wasn't enough to make me nervous, then standing in front of my first class of 30 something 15-year-old boys was. Your first few…
Continue reading ➞ Tips for Surviving Your First Day as an EPIK Teacher
One of the major perks of teaching middle school are the multitude of ridiculous things that I get to hear on a daily basis. Whether it's something clever and witty from a high level student, something bold from a kid who's inflated ego has managed to disregard the fact that they can't put together a…
Continue reading ➞ Things My Students Have Said to Me: Part 2
Hours and Miles 