When I first got to Gwangju, in April, I was inclined to describe it as the "Des Moines" of South Korea. But having lived in glorious, hillbilliac Yeonggwang for the last 4 months, and returning there to spend the afternoon today, I thought, "jeez, it's like coming to Paris."
I hung out in a cafe (Yeonggwang doesn't really have cafes). I had a scone. I bought some real "imported from US" cheese (for about a dollar an ounce), took it home, and now I'm watching NCIS and eating cheese and crackers. Call it a break from Korea.
After one week of teaching summer classes, here are my thoughts on the curriculum I developed and rolled out for myself.
For first grade: medium-to-OK; about what I expected; it could be more organized, but those first graders are hard to manage, especially on my own, so I figure it could be worse; the best material is when I have them moving around playing (role-playing, vaguely), acting out story-lines from stories we've been reading.
For third grade: not going well; they were really into the role-play last month, but I think I got too serious about it, and showing them videos (i.e. Spongebob) to give them ideas actually distracts them and they lose their focus; I'm going to have to rethink, and change something.
For sixth grade: I've never had a more successful self-developed curriculum! They love it; they come in early and demand that we start immediately, and they refuse to leave the class after the time is up; mwahahaha – I win ^_^. They've named our simulation bulletin-board town: Washington, SK (cf. Washington, DC, I guess, but in South Korea).