Daegu, South KoreaThe last time I taught camp at another school was Jan 2011. Last summer I had too many vacation days so was travelling, last winter nobody asked me to come to their school. So I have only ever taught camps at my school aside from the one time visiting in the winter of 2011.
This time I was getting some camp requests so I thought it might be a good idea to get some extra cash and experience working in other schools.
The first camp I taught at was at another school. They had a strange schedule. The school term ended Thursday at lunch. However, their camp started wednesday after school, then thursday afternoon, and both friday and saturday mornings.
Had I not agreed to this camp I would have had friday off for a long weekend. However, I would have spent money, its rainy season or too hot to do anything, and I'm coming home for the summer so saving my cash.
After agreeing to the camp and giving up a friday and saturday I was told it was a "themed camp". I had planned on reusing old lessons from my school but as it was now themed to holidays I had to come up with lessons for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentines, etc. I salvaged some of my old lessons and modified some to come up with the required material.
The school had a nice mountain view and the kids were nice. The A/C and fans werent on each day so we had to find people to turn the on, otherwise things ran smoothly. The school ordered lots of masks and clay so the kids used that to make halloween masks.
Also my old Vice Principal had moved to this school one term ago so was very happy to see me. She wouldnt let go of my hand and was introducing me to the Principal excitedly and yelling to everyone in the staffroom that I had come to their school to teach
The first week of school holidays I taught at my school in the mornings and another school in the afternoon. This only gave me from 12.30-1.30 to run home, have lunch, and bike over to the other school.
The other school had a nice mountain view and close to a local temple I didnt know about (see two entries back). Kids were fun and everything went ok except for their big screen tv died so I had to use my PC monitor and have everyone sit close
My school camp I taught three mornings (mon, tues, thurs). Wed they were going on a field trip to a US army base but because I had to teach at the other school at 1.30 I couldnt go
My kids are a bit rowdy and have a bit of a behaviour problem so I have to keep on top of them. There is a first grade class I named "monkey class" as they are all animals and two boys from that class were in camp but behaved ok.
Another boy who was not part of camp showed up on tuesday just to be with his friends. I didnt know he was using a fake name of a student that was absent. He was being very disruptive so I had to make him sit on a table by himself.
Kids were rewarded with a yellow sticker if they were good or a red sticker if they were bad, and would get a prize at the end. I threatened to give one boy a red sticker so he stormed out of the class and was going home so I had to follow him out and firmly tell him to come back
This is my last week of teaching at my school as August when I return from vacation I am changing schools. You know your school is bad when even your VP says the kids at the new school are very nice!
After the closing ceremonies the teachers went to a local restaurant for lunch. This was a stone pot restaurant which I'm not a fan of. The rice comes in a stone pot and you scrape it all out. Then you pour water into the pot for the leftover rice stuck on the sides and put the lid back home. The steam softens the stuck rice and you later scrape it off and eat the softened rice.
2025-05-23