I guess I should start with the fascination. Yesterday on the way to school, I noticed a bus in the other lane. On the front of the bus, written in Korean, were the words "Seoul Women's University". I later learned that the building that SABIS is using for their PPP (Private Public Partnership) school was provided by the Korean government. Apparently there is also a Korean run university here as well. At least that is what someone said; I have no idea if this is actually true or not.
Last night was also a night for pinata making. The primary school that SABIS runs is having their fun day on Saturday. The teachers decided that it would be a good idea to have a pinata, so they came over to my apartment to make them (one of my housemates is a primary school teacher). Of course this meant that I had to get involved, because I just can't keep my nose out of other peoples' business. I guess I am just too nosey for my own good!
Either way it was a fun time. I am not sure if they are going to turn out or not, but we will see. Unfortunately, I won't be able to watch the kids enjoying the fruits of my labor.
Though tomorrow I may be going to a book fair that Oxford University Press is putting on in the town center. The dean has already arranged to go out there and has invited us teachers to go along on this outing. I am going to take him up on it because I think it could be beneficial. I do have my money now too, so I may even buy some materials so I won't be totally without if I decide to take private students somewhere in the future.
I also found out today that I may finally be getting my residency card on Sunday. It is a good thing too because my visa ran out on the 27th: 5 days ago! I can't afford to be picked up by the police or getting stopped at a checkpoint. I just hope there won't be any on the way to the book fair!
Tomorrow is going to be rather stressful. Today at the end of the day, I was called into the dean's office to discuss the test we are going to be giving the students tomorrow. The other teacher and I have decided to give the same basic test but on her version she would include more detailed questions on antonyms and spelling, and on my version the students would be doing a dictation.
The dean did not like this idea because "we can't test them on different things, because before they enter into the college program they all have to get at least 60% on the same test. It will not be a different test then." This is a rather rediculous statement in my mind. I told him that they are at different levels, reguardless of whether we want to admit it or not. If we are going to give them the most benefit of the class, we need to give them comprehensible input. We need to teach to their level. If the first class needs 5 minutes and the 2nd needs 20 minutes to get the same information, you are able to do more with the first class. Since we cannot move forward in the book, this means they get the opportunity to do outside things. In order to make it seem worthwhile to the students (they haven't quite got the intrinsic value of education yet), my coworked feels that we should test on this extra info as well....and this is what the dean is objecting to. In addition, he stated that we need to be giving the same dictation if we do dictation for the test...this is also crazy!
We are supposed to be doing a skills based program in which we are trying to get the students to reach a certain level. If we can get the students to learn to listen and right what they hear by using small words and sentences, this is what we should do. It is obvious that the students who have had more exposure to the English language are going to be able to accomplish this skill with more difficult words because they actually know the words. I do not want the students so focused on what it words could mean that they are unable to actually write things down, nor do I want them punished by putting things on the test that we didn't cover in my class that they did in the other. I really have to stand up for this. I hope to be able to talk with him in greater detail either tomorrow or on Saturday. Perhaps I will also be able to talk with the president of SABIS when he comes on April 8th. Somehow I doubt it, but I will still keep it in mind.
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