Introducing, Liz Teacher

(Dave, Jennifer, Rosella and Jamie from Dino class)


(Dave and Jamie from Dino class)

I work for a kindergarten/preschool named, Bambini English School. There are two other Bambini branches in Seoul, but the one where I work is just one year old and located in a bustling part of Dongtan.

The first night I arrived in Dongtan, our director, Sophia, picked us up and took us out to dinner. It was a great welcome meal to Korea. The first week at school, Barry and I observed classes and really tried to get the hang of teaching, making lesson plans, and really introducing ourselves to the kids.

Bambini is composed of around 30 children. There are four classes in the school, the 4 year olds which are named Penguin, the 5 year olds named Koala and there are two classes of 6 year olds named Panda and Dino. They call me “Liz Teacher” but when they say “teacher” is usually comes out “teachah.”

I am the homeroom teacher for Dino (there arr 8 of them), the most excelled English speakers in Bambini. I spend a majority of my time with Dino teaching them reading, science, grammar, writing and not to mention lunchtime and homeroom periods as well. I have come to have a real bond with these children; their English skills floor me for 6 year olds.

I work with two other foreign teachers, Barry and Janine. Janine has been there since November and she is from Toronto. It has been great having her there showing us the ropes. The teacher we took over for Cody, was there our first week and really helped out us out too! He is currently laying in a beach in Bali (awesome, right) There are also 5 Korean teachers in the classrooms with us, they are all very sweet but their English is not so good, so it’s a little difficult to communicate with them.

My typical day starts with Dino in the morning for snack and then a 30 minute free “conversation” period. A couple things I have done with them are word games such as hangman and sparkle. I have also created discussion questions such as “if you could be any animal what would you be?” My next task is to teach them songs, like the Journey one on youtube. If you have any suggestions for any songs, please let me know! I really enjoy this time with them; it’s a good way to start my day.

The next period, I have a 40 minute break to prepare for my day. The next period I have Barry’s homeroom class, Panda for reading. Panda (7 year olds) and Koala (6 year olds) are on the same level in reading class. Every week there is a new book that we read together and do different activities to go along with the book including a song, a writing activity and discussions.

The next period I have 3rd period Dino reading. I really enjoy this class because they take two weeks to read a story. It’s a lot more discussion and activities that I enjoy too. For example, we’re discussing migration and hibernation for these two weeks and tomorrow we’re putting on a play-equipped with costumes! I hope to record it and put it on the blog.

During lunch, I eat with Dino in our homeroom classroom. You would think that this would be a little too much time with the kids, but it’s actually a nice break for me. I don’t plan anything, the Korean teachers serve the kids (and me) and we just sit and talk. For example, last week we had conversations about the world cup, vampires and places to go in Korea. Lunch is around an hour, so when they are finished early I either let them go run around in the gym or give them a word search to do. This week they are watching Sound of Music in the gym, so it’s been great! In their speaking class they’ve learned all the songs from Sound of Music, so it’s so fun to watch them get so excited singing along to the movie.

The next period I have the little babies for a theme class. This week for example, is space; their English is VERY limited so it’s a lot of coloring in planets, making shooting stars and astronauts. They are sponges though, I have been going over the order of the planets and most of them on Friday remembered them in order. I was TRULY impressed. They deserved those high-fives I gave them.

My next period is Koala reading, which is the same as Panda. The last period of the day I usually have Dino again and we either have grammar and writing or science. The grammar and writing class is very simple, it’s literally out of a work book and then the science is very easy too. For example, the first week I was here we made a hand cream to take off dirt and this past week we made rice krispie treats (talking about popped corn, etc.) and then class gets out at 2:50!

During the afternoons, I have time to create lesson plans and prepare for my classes. Overall, I have really enjoyed my time at Bambini!

*Some funny things that have happened:
-When I asked Andy (in Dino) his favorite food he said, my favorite food is lobster with butter on top of it and biscuits and LIZ TEACHAH!!!!!!!!!
-Cody, the foreign teacher taught the kids the word nipple. Everything is nipple in Dino class, they love the word and I have a hard time telling them not to say that word because I giggle every time someone mentions it.
-In my Panda class, Yoobin, a cute girl held up her hand in class and after I called on her, she opened her hand and I saw a tooth. Yes, she had lost her tooth in my class. I gladly got a Korean teacher to help her out.