Technically I had two weeks of Winter camp but the first week they designated as "extra conversation classes" whereas the second week was officially called winter camp. Winter camp is a bit of a misleading name as well, it really just means the kids come to school each morning to have extra lessons, its not like they get to go anywhere. I was very lucky in that I was given free reign to do whatever i wanted to do in terms of lessons and activities, they just asked for a rough plan of what I wanted a few weeks before, so they could work out a budget f
or resources etc. I have friends who were allocated up to 4 weeks of winter camp and were only allowed to work directly from the text on theory - Rosie I feel for you! Either way below is a brief description of the activities I ran for my "official" winter camp!
Monday:
I had a last minute change of plans for Monday's lesson - based largely on the fact that I bought a video camera on the weekend - and I could inally put into action something I had been thinking about for a while - provided that I had enough students! I had seen this thing on youtube where an English teacher over here had done the Daft Punk song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" with his students by writing words and parts of words on sheets of cardboard and holding them up in time to the music. An absolutely brilliant idea...so in the spirit of sharing I decided to immitate (imitation being the highest form of flattery) and I ran the same activity with my class. I had two groups on the monday, so the first group made the cards and then we practiced for a bit and with the second group we just practiced and had a test run - with a few words missing. The next Day I asked all the students to come at the one time so that we could video it and get it right.
Tuesday:
All the students arrived early and we had a few practice runs and then video'd - twice to be on the sa
fe side. I told the students I would take it home and edit it and then show them the finished product the next day. After that we ran what the Korean teachers referred to as a cooking class - which was really just making sandwhiches. I did teach them a bit of vocabualry before they started eating and they seemed to really enjoy the whole activity. I was stunned to discover that half of them had never had nutella! It is easily available at E-mart but some of the kids had never tried it! As a reward at the end of the class I let them watch a bit of a movie while they ate their sandwhiches - they bounced out of the class at the end seeming to have really enjoyed themselves. (I have included some footage in the video at the bottom of this post of this performance and below that you can also find the youtube link to the full performance)
Wednesday:
I ran a sewing class - I knew this would be more for the girls than the boys but I figured I was doing a sports day on the Thursday so I had to balance it out a little. I taught them basic backstitch and then printed pictures off the internet for them to trace onto the fabric so they could stitch them with pretty colours. The girls seemed to pick it up really quickly and I was surprised to see that even the boys were giving it a go and were really focused. They all achieved quite a lot within the class and by the end they were all stitching away happily - even the instructions hadnt seemed to hard to get across but I guess thats because it was really more "show" than "tell". It also happened to be Australia Day... so I wore a pink Kangaroo costume to school, wrote a whole lot of facts about Australia on the board and bombarded the kids with Australian music - everything from Slim Dusty's "Waltzing Mathilda" to the National Anthem to "We are Australian", "I still call Australia home", and "Land Down Under"...hehe - it was pretty fun actually!
Thursday:
Sports day - I taught the students how to play netball. For the American's among my friends Netball is kind of like basketball except that once the ball is in your possession you cannot move your feet - no stepping - if you want to bounce the ball you may only do so once and when you are passing to someone else - and there are defined areas that each player is allowed to go in. Similar concept though and the kids were all very familiar with basketball so they picked it up pretty quickly. Again they seemed so keen to learna nd get stuck into it. I ran a bit of a skills class in the morning that the girls really seemed to enjoy but when it came to actually playing a game (I had enough students) the girls werent too keen...possibly because the boys play hard! They had so much fun with the lesson it was obvious and at points they had me laughing till I was in tears. I was a bit concerned when one of the boys had his glasses broken when an errant ball hit him in the face - but he really didnt seem to concerned... and kept playing without the glasses!
Friday:
This was the final day so I had put together a video the night before which had clips of 
the things they had done and photo's that I had taken throughout the week which I intended to show them before they left. But the lesson I had planned was probably the best of the week - special mention goes to Meresa who gave me the idea after running it with her class! I checked with my co-teacher the day before that it would be alright if they left school grounds, which it was, the rules are a little different here in Korea! I sent them on a "photo scavenger hunt" the basic idea being that I gave them a list of things they had to find
or do and they had to take photos. Each item on the list was allocated a certain number of points and the team with the most points when they came back at 11:30am won the game and got a prize. (I will attach the list below!) At 11:30am all the teams came back and were eagerly showing me their hilarious photos and working out how many points they had earned. I awarded prizes and then the vice-principal came in to give a little speech.
I decided to show the students the video I had made so the vice-principal could see 
it too and gave them all a chocolate biscuit cake thing to munch on while they were watching it. The vice-principal seemed very impressed and after a very short speech he departed. My favourite co-teacher was still there to help out because I told her that I wanted to give the students a quick survey to do before they left for the week. It just had basic questions like what did you like, what didnt you like, what would you have liked to have done etc. But I wanted to students to be clear on what I was asking - or to write in Korean if they had something they really wanted to say. That done I asked them all to thank my co-teacher (in english) for all the hard work she had done behind the scenes of organising and getting the resources I needed etc. which made her smile! Then the two of us went through the survey responses - overall they seemed really happy with the camp (there were no names so they could say anything they wanted!) and about half of them, without talking to each other, said they would like summer camp to be 1 night and 2 days - they want to sleep at the school! I told my co-teacher I was happy with that instead of doing 5 mornings... It will exceed my teaching hours for the week I'm sure but I think it could make summer camp loads of fun!
Over-all it was a great week - I had a lot of fun - the kids seemed to have a lot of fun - and the school was really happy with me...so happy they gave me an extra day and a half of as "self study time" at home over lunar new year!
The Great Photo Scavenger Hunt
Take a photo of:
or resources etc. I have friends who were allocated up to 4 weeks of winter camp and were only allowed to work directly from the text on theory - Rosie I feel for you! Either way below is a brief description of the activities I ran for my "official" winter camp!
Monday:
I had a last minute change of plans for Monday's lesson - based largely on the fact that I bought a video camera on the weekend - and I could inally put into action something I had been thinking about for a while - provided that I had enough students! I had seen this thing on youtube where an English teacher over here had done the Daft Punk song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" with his students by writing words and parts of words on sheets of cardboard and holding them up in time to the music. An absolutely brilliant idea...so in the spirit of sharing I decided to immitate (imitation being the highest form of flattery) and I ran the same activity with my class. I had two groups on the monday, so the first group made the cards and then we practiced for a bit and with the second group we just practiced and had a test run - with a few words missing. The next Day I asked all the students to come at the one time so that we could video it and get it right.
Tuesday:
All the students arrived early and we had a few practice runs and then video'd - twice to be on the sa
fe side. I told the students I would take it home and edit it and then show them the finished product the next day. After that we ran what the Korean teachers referred to as a cooking class - which was really just making sandwhiches. I did teach them a bit of vocabualry before they started eating and they seemed to really enjoy the whole activity. I was stunned to discover that half of them had never had nutella! It is easily available at E-mart but some of the kids had never tried it! As a reward at the end of the class I let them watch a bit of a movie while they ate their sandwhiches - they bounced out of the class at the end seeming to have really enjoyed themselves. (I have included some footage in the video at the bottom of this post of this performance and below that you can also find the youtube link to the full performance)
Wednesday:
I ran a sewing class - I knew this would be more for the girls than the boys but I figured I was doing a sports day on the Thursday so I had to balance it out a little. I taught them basic backstitch and then printed pictures off the internet for them to trace onto the fabric so they could stitch them with pretty colours. The girls seemed to pick it up really quickly and I was surprised to see that even the boys were giving it a go and were really focused. They all achieved quite a lot within the class and by the end they were all stitching away happily - even the instructions hadnt seemed to hard to get across but I guess thats because it was really more "show" than "tell". It also happened to be Australia Day... so I wore a pink Kangaroo costume to school, wrote a whole lot of facts about Australia on the board and bombarded the kids with Australian music - everything from Slim Dusty's "Waltzing Mathilda" to the National Anthem to "We are Australian", "I still call Australia home", and "Land Down Under"...hehe - it was pretty fun actually!
Thursday:
Sports day - I taught the students how to play netball. For the American's among my friends Netball is kind of like basketball except that once the ball is in your possession you cannot move your feet - no stepping - if you want to bounce the ball you may only do so once and when you are passing to someone else - and there are defined areas that each player is allowed to go in. Similar concept though and the kids were all very familiar with basketball so they picked it up pretty quickly. Again they seemed so keen to learna nd get stuck into it. I ran a bit of a skills class in the morning that the girls really seemed to enjoy but when it came to actually playing a game (I had enough students) the girls werent too keen...possibly because the boys play hard! They had so much fun with the lesson it was obvious and at points they had me laughing till I was in tears. I was a bit concerned when one of the boys had his glasses broken when an errant ball hit him in the face - but he really didnt seem to concerned... and kept playing without the glasses!
Friday:
This was the final day so I had put together a video the night before which had clips of 
the things they had done and photo's that I had taken throughout the week which I intended to show them before they left. But the lesson I had planned was probably the best of the week - special mention goes to Meresa who gave me the idea after running it with her class! I checked with my co-teacher the day before that it would be alright if they left school grounds, which it was, the rules are a little different here in Korea! I sent them on a "photo scavenger hunt" the basic idea being that I gave them a list of things they had to find
or do and they had to take photos. Each item on the list was allocated a certain number of points and the team with the most points when they came back at 11:30am won the game and got a prize. (I will attach the list below!) At 11:30am all the teams came back and were eagerly showing me their hilarious photos and working out how many points they had earned. I awarded prizes and then the vice-principal came in to give a little speech.
I decided to show the students the video I had made so the vice-principal could see 
it too and gave them all a chocolate biscuit cake thing to munch on while they were watching it. The vice-principal seemed very impressed and after a very short speech he departed. My favourite co-teacher was still there to help out because I told her that I wanted to give the students a quick survey to do before they left for the week. It just had basic questions like what did you like, what didnt you like, what would you have liked to have done etc. But I wanted to students to be clear on what I was asking - or to write in Korean if they had something they really wanted to say. That done I asked them all to thank my co-teacher (in english) for all the hard work she had done behind the scenes of organising and getting the resources I needed etc. which made her smile! Then the two of us went through the survey responses - overall they seemed really happy with the camp (there were no names so they could say anything they wanted!) and about half of them, without talking to each other, said they would like summer camp to be 1 night and 2 days - they want to sleep at the school! I told my co-teacher I was happy with that instead of doing 5 mornings... It will exceed my teaching hours for the week I'm sure but I think it could make summer camp loads of fun!
Over-all it was a great week - I had a lot of fun - the kids seemed to have a lot of fun - and the school was really happy with me...so happy they gave me an extra day and a half of as "self study time" at home over lunar new year!
The Great Photo Scavenger Hunt
Take a photo of:A group photo (more than 3 people)
A very relaxing place
The biggest tree
The funniest thing you can find
Something that begins with the letter “M”
Do exactly what the sign says (any sign can work)
An unusual perspective -- could be everyone's shoes, or the just top of their heads
Make yourselves appear really small
Picture with an animal (the more unusual the better)
Catalog pose
Can you find us?
Having fun on a Swing Set
Harry Potter
Imitate the Beatles crossing a crosswalk (I had a photo here)
Jumping in the air (must be off ground)
making fire by rubbing sticks together
Footprint in the snow
A pizza sign
Teammate doing a limbo
Teammate dancing
A teacher (not Teacher Mia)
The vice-principal
You & the vice principal together
Someone who works at McDonalds
A bus
Take a picture with a mannequin
A bicycle
A sports ball
Someone younger than you
An English sign (not at school)
A taxi
A mop
Making an English word with your bodies
Take a picture of another team’s member taking a picture of you
Acting 3 different emotions
Take a picture with one of the tester ladies at E-mart
Take a picture of a Hagwon
A high-school student
A chocolate bar
A phone
An icicle
Something pink
Green grass
Someone drinking coffee
If you would like to see the students full performance of the Daft Punk Song "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" please click here too be taken to the youtube video.
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