Memories and Proctoring.

Yesterday I met up with a grad school friend and we had the chance to catch up over dinner and coffee~ it was weird to think that a year has already passed since the last time we had met up in Cambridge and graduated from HGSE. Catching up with A gave me a chance to reflect on all the blessings and memories from my year in Boston-especially the people God had placed in my life during my time there. And, as I was sitting on the train heading back home last night...I was reminded of the things I had learned about teaching and learning through colleagues, classes, professors. It made me more determined to not become complacent with my teaching pedagogy, curriculum, etc just because things are "working." It is true that everything I learned in grad school was very theoretical at the time--and at certain points, idealistic. But, I'm trying to figure out how I can bridge my practice more with all of the THEORY. Yesterday, I said to A, "I totally agree with the educational philosophy and aims of IB...but it's so hard to put it into practice, especially as a first-year teacher" I think it's a constant battle: bridging and connecting what we believe and expect of our students and about the school environment in general AND realistically what is happening day to day. Anywhoooo, I'm really excited that there are more HGSE alums in Korea now!!

On a completely different note, it's finals week and I spent 2 hours this morning proctoring the English Final exam. It wasn't as bad as I anticipated, but STILL...proctoring has to be one of the most painful and boring tasks on the face of this earth. Because we're not allowed to do anything except watch the students and walk around from time to time, I've become an expert at creatively keeping myself occupied. First, I made a mental list of all the things I need to buy when I go home for 2 weeks in August. That didn't take too long, so I then started counting how many students were: right-handed, wearing glasses, had slippers, wearing socks, falling asleep. Tomorrow, I'm proctoring another exam, but it's shorter so I think it will be a bit more bearable..and then Thursday is my exam--2 hours of Bio/Chem..good luck students!

End of the semester

WOW~ we're already nearing the end of the semester! I know I've done a terrible job at posting about my first year teaching here in Korea....but, I'm determined that I will be more intentional about updating!

This past weekend, I spent 12 straight hours making final exams for my Chemistry and Biology classes. I didn't anticipate that it would take me so long to make the exams, but it did--maybe it was because each of my exams have a multiple choice section and short answer part. Anyways, because of that, I got really bad sleep over the weekend, which is when I usually try to catch up on sleep. I kept dreaming about which types of questions I should include in the final...so glad that's over. The point of all this is that my lack of sleep has snowballed all throughout this week. Every night, I got such little sleep that I finally crashed yesterday after school and took a LONG LONG nap from 5-10pm. It was only when my mom called me that it woke me up from dream-land. BIG MISTAKE...because I slept so much in the afternoon, I ended up not being able to fall back asleep and finally knocked out around 3am...so now, I'm tired again...and the cycle continues.

Whatever. Back to school life...I'm really happy that it's almost the end of the semester. All that's really left is for my students to take their finals, finish up some end-of-semester stuff...and then summer break! I'm going to the States for 2 weeks--1 week in Philly and another in North Carolina for vacation with the family! I'm really excited because we've booked a beach house, which means a full week of sun, rest, and relaxation! Something to definitely look forward to--especially since we've now hit 장마 (rainy) season in Korea..and it's humid and rainy and gross. Apparently it's supposed to rain continually until next Monday...good grief!

Here's a pic of some of my Chem students and lab assistant back when we did a flame test lab!

Elizabeth Edwards

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets through.

What is our major goal?

"What is our major goal as parents?"

Still another woman glibly said, “To produce children who are, among other things, brilliant, polite, charming, neat and well-adjusted, of course.”

Dr. Ginott looked solemn. It was obvious that this last comment had not amused him. He leaned forward and said, “This is how I see it. It seems to me that our large goal is to find the ways to help our children become humane and strong. For what does it profit us if we have a neat, polite, charming youngster who could watch people suffer and not be moved to action? What have we accomplished if we have reared a child who is brilliant – at the top of his class – but who uses his intellect to manipulate others? And do we really want children so well-adjusted that they adjust to an unjust situation? Too many Germans adjusted only too well to the orders of the Nazis to exterminate millions of their fellow men. Understand me: I’m not opposed to a child being polite or neat or learned. The crucial question for me is 'What methods have been used to accomplish these ends?' If the methods used are insults, attacks, and threats, then we can be very sure that we have also taught this child to insult, attack, to threaten, and to comply when threatened. If, on the other hand, we use methods that are humane, then we’ve taught something much more important than a series of isolated virtues. We’ve shown the child how to be a person – a mensch, a human being who can conduct his life with strength and dignity.”

-Liberated Children, Liberated Parents

Teachers :)

Improving something as complex and culturally embedded as
teaching requires the efforts of all the players, including students,
parents, and politicians. But teachers must be the primary driving
force behind change. They are best positioned to understand
the problems that students face and to generate possible solutions.

—James Stigler and James Hiebert (1999)


my teacher leadership class taught me so much this semester~ as hard as teaching is..i'm so excited to go back into the classroom next year :)
here's to continual growth/learning~ and changing the world..one student, one classroom, one school, one district at a time.

공부 and 꿈

"바보처럼 공부하고, 천재처럼 꿈꿔라..."

I make lists in my sleep

Who can guess what musical this song is from? without googling it :P

It won't work, I look before I leap.
I love margins and discipline
I make lists in my sleep
Baby, what's my sin?

Never quit, I follow through
I hate mess, but I love you
What to do with my impromptu baby