English Camp!

In Korean school systems, the end of the semester is the last day of December and begins again on March 1st. So Kayleigh and I have been on "winter break" for the past 2 months. However, this does not mean we weren't teaching and/or that Korean students do not attend classes. There is very little break time involved. For the first 3 weeks of January, I was teaching supplimentary classes to incoming freshman students and the nice part about that was that it was only for half days. Then the last week of January, our school combined Kayleigh and I to help each other out with English camp.

I never taught English camp in Japan and my school had never had English camp before but it is apparently becoming the "in" thing to do during winter and summer break. What it means is that Kayleigh and I had to plan intensive, yet fun and engaging lessons for a group of 25 girls for 8 hours a day for a straight week. This was a lot of work for us but it was also wearing on the students as well to communicate in English for such long periods of time. Despite how drained we felt at the end of each day, English camp was definitely a highlight for me. I had a great group of girls that were very motivated. I mean, they choose to be there during their winter vacation time.

Our theme for the week was dating which included internet dating, pros and cons, blind dates, first dates etc. Since I'm such an expert in this area, I thought it would be a fun topic for my high school girls. haha :) They loved it! We had other activities besides our dating theme like baking, scavenger hunts and a field trip to a cultural theme park. I felt like I had a great opportunity to really get to know the girls better and bond with them. Seeing them everyday instead of just once a week allowed for that to happen. Kayleigh enjoyed teaching girls for a change and it made the week so much more bearable to have her help everyday. At the end of the week to celebrate, Mr. Kim treated everyone to a Pizza Hut party and the girls gave us sweet notes thanking us and also little gifts to take on our trip to Malaysia. It was so much fun and very thoughtful. We felt so appreciated and that doesn't happen a lot. Hope you enjoy seeing them in action!