After a long journey yesterday we finally arrived at the Kyunghwa Girls' High School! The greeting we received was unlike anything I have ever experienced. We were greeted by the founder of the campus, the president and vice presidents of all three schools (the girls' high school, the middle school, and the English business school), and other faculty members with a warm welcoming. We sat in the founder's office and drank tea while they told us about their wonderful school and how it was founded. The founder of the school then took us on a tour of the school and the campus is the most beautiful high school campus I have ever seen. There is a garden the founder created to commemorate the man who inspired him to start the school. The garden overlooks the city from a birdseye view with the mountains and the skyline in the background. We met the native English teachers and they told us their stories that brought them here. Their passion is inspiring. After we moved into our dorm room we walked into town with my mentor native teacher to eMart to shop for dorm room necessities. We settled into our room with lights out at 11pm like the students in our dorm and woke up at 6am to the wake up call.
My first day teaching in the classroom was a memory I will never forget. The students excitement and enthusiasm for learning from us is something I could never put into words. When walking on campus girls will run up to you barely able to contain their excitement enough to say hello and squeal after meeting us. When we entered the classroom the class erupted in cheers and couldn't wait to learn from us. For our first day we gave personal introductions while showing pictures of our family, friends, hometown, and hobbies. Students were sitting on desks eager to see every picture that was on the projector. When each picture was shown the girls would squeal and listened intently to hear everything we had to say about them. After our introductions the students were free to ask any questions that came to mind and their curiousity was endearing. I will never experience such passion and excitement in the classroom again and I can't wait to get to know more about the students in the next 5 weeks and learn from them everyday.
Pictures are to come! There is no wifi on campus so we are relying on the school computers with ethernet cords so communication is more difficult and slower.
My first day teaching in the classroom was a memory I will never forget. The students excitement and enthusiasm for learning from us is something I could never put into words. When walking on campus girls will run up to you barely able to contain their excitement enough to say hello and squeal after meeting us. When we entered the classroom the class erupted in cheers and couldn't wait to learn from us. For our first day we gave personal introductions while showing pictures of our family, friends, hometown, and hobbies. Students were sitting on desks eager to see every picture that was on the projector. When each picture was shown the girls would squeal and listened intently to hear everything we had to say about them. After our introductions the students were free to ask any questions that came to mind and their curiousity was endearing. I will never experience such passion and excitement in the classroom again and I can't wait to get to know more about the students in the next 5 weeks and learn from them everyday.
Pictures are to come! There is no wifi on campus so we are relying on the school computers with ethernet cords so communication is more difficult and slower.