My next topic that I want to work on is Baseball. Here's the idea. I will draw a baseball diamond on the board and get them to tell me the positions like 1st base, 2nd, 3rd, shortstop etc.

I should get some images of Korean Baseball players. Maybe a song? Take me out to the ballgame?

I think it would work (but, I have to get it to work by next class...).

The idea is to teach Abbott and Costello's Who's on first. Time for this exercise should be about 20 minutes but it could stretch to 30 minutes. I think I could get half the class to read for Abbott and the other half to read for Costello.

Would they get the jokes? I think they would as long as I explain them. I could throw a ball and get them to yell out what positions people are at.

I think this project would work for the my 5/6th grade classes, but my 3rd will be a problem. I don't know what to do for them....I could do sports, but I need to make something simplier for them.

I think I can do baseball and do the pronounciation game that David was telling me about. I should focus on phonetics with them and vocabulary and get them to play a game or two based on baseball.

Let's hope my plans work.

Dan

My Cops and Robbers class was kinda effective. I mean it was effective, but it could have been tweaked a little. Today, I brought in pictures of wanted posters and then asked them to make up a name, size, height, crime, etc. Their responses were all kinda boring though- Murder, bank robber, nothing really fun, but they did laugh.

The paper from Exploring English was somewhat interesting, but getting them to read it was like pulling teeth. I don't like the energy drain when I try to get them to read or to try and participate in things.

Oh, any my last class teacher 5th Na Ri didn't seem too happy with my teaching style. Just something to keep in mind. The students enjoyed it though. Oh, and in Na Ri I have a very...hmmmm...how to say this nicely....he is a very sensitive and hyperactive child. He threw a fit today, slamming his desk and crying. The other students just said, "He's a little crazy." They just seemed to accept it.

So...the game worked like a charm with 16 matches. 20 and 24 were too much.

My topic for my class today was cops and robbers. I had a page out of Exploring English that has a picture of a hold up. Sorry, let me restart (I'm sorry, if I'm a bit off today, but I've been sick since I ate some Turkish dip of doom on Saturday night.)

I had three 6th grade classes and 1 3rd grade class. I started with a dialogue:

A: So did you hear what happened to teacher Daniel?
B: No. What happened?
A: He got busted yesterday!
B: Busted! You mean arrested? For what?
A: He was tried to rob a bank yesterday.
B: Really? How?
A: He put a banana in a bag and told people it was a gun.
B: Oh, that's not very smart. So I guess he won't be teaching for a while.
A: Yeah. For real.

Then I went into discussing the picture and reading the passages on the bank robbery. I asked them questions about the robbery on the back.

On the opposite side of the paper was a picture with a courtroom. Well the courtroom was a bit...askew. Let me see if I can find it.

I asked my students to tell me all the things that were a bit strange and they found it really funny.

After that I asked them about crimes. For example, what is the worst crime and stuff. I should have asked them serious crimes and petty crimes. Maybe did an exercise about punishments for random things like someone stealing a cookie to feed a hungry squirrel or something.

I can try that next class.

After that I did a game. A matching game. I put numbers 1-16 on the board and told them they have to match up the enemies like dogs/cats etc. However, they were more interesting like mosquitos and dragonflies. Ladybugs and whiteflies, Harry Potter and Voldemort.

The game was effective.

My third graders didn't respond as well. The level was obviously too high. I need to change the class to their level.

I'll think about it later, however, I really need to go to the doctors now.

Dan

Christian asked what it was like to be a gyopo in Korea, so here's my response:

On 9/27/05, christian gonzález-rivera wrote: hey gyopo TEPers:

i want to talk about gyopos this afternoon in my teacher's class. i
collected some quotes by gyopos that i found in online newspapers,
mostly related to the experience gyopo men and women have in finding
romance here. do you (personally) have one or more quotes i can add
to the collection? i can identify you as the author if you want, or
you can choose to remain anonymous.

my teacher's class is at 2:30 this afternoon, so if you're interested,
please send me an email before then.

thanks!

cgr


Christian and Gyopos and others...

I was initially going to make this a private post, but I would like to know other people's experiences as a Korean/foreigner. Also, for those that know Korean, what does Jaemigyopo literally translate to.

If I travel with a foreigner, the Koreans automatically assume that I speak Korean, even though often the white foreigner will speak better Korean than I. I get several sorts of reactions when people learn I don't know Korean these range from a blank apology to anger. Yes, people have gotten angry with me because I don't speak Korean.

This is because they feel that my upbringing is lacking because if I had "real" Korean parent they would have taught me Korean. When I tell them I am adopted, they wonder why I would want to come back to Korea. These questions I've had posed to me by very forward strangers and by "earnest" Korean friends, now these are the same people who will say to me, "Oh, you look fat today." or "Are you Christian (not a pun in your name, but Jesus Christ Christian)?" Koreans can be quite blunt.

With my students, I think I have to work harder because I don't have the stamp of "foreigner" on my head. I have to initially gain their trust and belief that I DON'T SPEAK KOREAN. After that, I tend to build closer relationships or so it seems from talking with my other foreigner friends. I've had Koreans claim me as their best friend after 2 weeks, which is kinda like a girl telling you she loves you over an innocent cup of coffee.

Now work and the hagwon situation is completely different. Hagwon owners are not in the business to educate. Let me rephrase that, most hagwon owners are not in the business to educate. They want to make money. If you haven't noticed, money is ever so important in Korea. There is a hierarchy of those hired, I believe. The creme de la creme is a pretty blonde girl, next the handsome blonde man, oh, on nationality, it's Canadian first, then American, English, Scottish, Irish, Kiwi, and then Austrailian (this is the preference order that my hagwon boss had given me when I hired my replacement.) After the blondes, it's those that are considered beautiful or handsome. If desperation arises, the gyopos are considered. I was a desperate choice (a teacher confided in me.) Now you would think qualifications would be the upmost requirement. But hagwon owners have a free trial period and they've found that handsome or beautiful teachers tend to keep students longer.

This has changed a bit since the whole, "Foreigner men are lecherous, perverted players" scare about 8 months ago. An internet site posted a forum on how to pick up Korean girls. It was like something out of Maxim or some other men's magazine. This caused an uproar and the Korean "Netizens (Internet Citizens)" were on the warpath with scythes deporting and ostracizing as many foreigner men as possible. I was not considered one of these foreigner men, thank go. Appearance is ever so important in this country and so I went under the radar. My red haired, blue-eyed friend, Stefan, was not so lucky.

Now there are corporation hagwons like CDI that try to hire gyopo's exclusively. The money is great but they expect the gyopos to work like Koreans. This means constant evaluations, cameras in the classrooms, 6 to 7 day workweeks, including Saturdays and Sundays, and the first vacation coming after a 6 month evaluation.

Also, the most coveted jobs in Korea- the University jobs- are often out of reach of gyopos. Universities would lose their esteem if they don't hire a "foreigner" teacher (this I know because the HR manager of a University confided to his associate, who later confided in me.)

Dating, I haven't had much of a problem. A lot of my friends who date Koreans tend to think that their most attractive feature is their green card. I tend to get girls that like me for me and then for a green card (plus I cook for them and wash dishes.)

Those are my rambling thoughts on my day off from school. (My students have field day today.)

I hope that helps,

Dan

Very interesting article on the Deconstruction of a iPod Nano

Read the full article at http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/1

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Stress testing

What does it take to destroy an iPod nano, and what's inside this tiny package? We wanted to answer both questions and strangely enough answering the first allowed us to answer the second. We could take our turns at purposely rendering the iPod nano broken, and then when it had endured more damage than it could handle we'd end its misery with a respectful autopsy. Now, we know that destroying the iPod nano makes some (strange) grown men want to cry. Rest assured, you can still buy one yourself, and the local priest said all iPod nanos go to heaven.

Because of our initial apprehension about the breakability of our tiny new friend as well as reading about similar apprehension from many potential iPod nano buyers online, we decided to abuse our precious little nano for the sake of science. We wanted to stress test the nano in various real-life situations where iPod users have proven themselves to be a little less than genius in the past to see how the nano could handle the abuse. To break the nano in the most scientific manner possible, we would need 5 or 6 nanos and a high-tech laboratory built for this purpose. Unfortunately, all we had was a single 2GB black iPod nano and a giant parking lot, so we had to make do. What we get is a great idea of how much abuse this little guy can take.

To simulate everyday accidents that could result in a broken iPod, we came up with a few situations that we felt would ultimately leave the nano lifeless:

1. Sitting on the iPod nano
2. Dropping it while jogging (4-6mph),
3. Dropping at various speeds: 8-10mph (slow bicycle), 15-20mph (fast bicycle), 30mph (slow car), and 50mph (fast car)
4. Dropping the nano from various heights.

Our first test consisted of placing the iPod nano on a solid wood chair and sitting on it, as people are prone to do from time to time. As you can guess, this "test" yielded basically zero damage results—so little, in fact, that we didn't even take pictures.

For our second test, one of us held on to the iPod, jogged about 20 feet and dropped the nano onto a sidewalk. This proved pretty uneventful as well and the nano didn't even skip a beat:

Then, one of us jumped in the car and we started on the higher-speed tests. We drove a slow 10mph around a tiny roundabout and released the nano out of the driver's side window. The nano didn't really slide that much and just fell the to ground. The results for the "slow bicycle" test were duplicated for the "fast bicycle" test. The nano didn't slide much and again, just fell to the ground with some slight scratches.

The nano was still working fine, so we took it up to 30mph and performed the same drop. This time it slid pretty far and surprisingly endured only cosmetic scratches, mostly on the front of the player:

Because of the distinct lack of expected damage from the first two car drops, we sped up to 50mph and launched the nano on an impressive slide and tumble that, again, really only scratched the surface:

Next we tried dropping it from a "considerable" height. The height we dropped it from was approximately 9ft (ie. one of us standing on a stone bench at the park). This was the first point where the iPod started to operate abnormally. The display was seriously bugged out, but the music continued to play and navigating via the scroll wheel still worked as expected:

At this point we were astounded that the iPod nano was still working properly, albeit with a broken display. Because we had honestly expected the iPod nano to break by this time, we were forced to depart from our planned schedule of destruction and try and run over it with the car. Surely, we thought, it could never withstand the crushing power of German automotive engineering.

We placed the nano in the path of the car and drove over it with both front and rear tires. Driving over the nano produced sickening crunching noises which coincidentally sounded a lot like an LCD being crushed. After the first hit and run, the iPod's display was not cracked but was showing some nasty vertical lines. Shockingly, the nano was still playing music and the controls still operated as expected, as we were still able to skip ahead, go back, pause, and play music!

What were we to do now? Baffled, we did the only thing we could think of at the time: we ran over the nano again! This time the screen went totally blank, but the band played on.

In a final act of desperation, we decided to expose the iPod to a catastrophic event that would certainly destroy it. Lacking a really high place to drop the nano from, we decided the throw the nano as high as we could, say 40 feet into the air, and let it land—hard—on the concrete.

Alas, the iPod nano finally gave up the ghost. In addition to the display showing nothing and the backlight being perpetually stuck on, the music finally subsided. The nano had journeyed to the Land Where Consumer Electronics Are Eternally Blessed.

Since it was dead, we thought we'd open it up and see what made it tick...

On Friday September 23rd. I went to the Apple store in the COEX at 3pm to get a slip with a number on it. They said that they would start selling them in order. My number was 135.



We were asked to line up by number and I was lucky enough to be near another gyopo and his wife. I forget the guy's name, but his wife's name is Jamie (I only remember that because my ex-girlfriend's name was the same.) So we talked the whole time about my ourselves and complained about how long the process was taking.

Oh, and there was something that happened that defied logic.

So...we were all standing in line according to the numbers on our tickets when an employee came around with a bag and asked us to put the slips into the bag. This made no sense what-so-ever because people who weren't waiting in line could have easy jumped the line or said that their number was a lower number like 50 or something.

It just didn't make any sense to take the slips while we were waiting. But I guess it makes sense in "The Land of the Not Quite Right." There was a bit of a revolt about this decision and many Koreans started to complain about how illogical this was. The man had already taken about 130 something slips at this point. Discouraged, the man ceased taking the slips and then attempted to hand the slips BACK to the people he had originally taken them from.

So this poor guy is rifling through this bag trying to find the numbers in reverse. (I think he eventually gave up and I hope he will question his senior's request in the future.)

Anyway I got in the line at 5:15 and the line inched (centimetered...is more likely) towards the store. The line went down the COEX towards the Burger King and then wrapped back towards the Apple Store. There must have been at least 400 people in line, but possibly more, because I had learned that there were only about 400 nanos in stock. But as you know in Korea, if there is a line other Koreans tend to jump right in without knowing what they are getting in line for.

About 2 hours into the ordeal a girl started serving cups of coke, or powerade, or pineapple juice, or another beverage which looked liked cups of radioactive waste under the strange green lights in the shape of trees in which I stood.



At 8:15 I finally made it to the front and I was able to buy my 4GB Black Nano. It came in a time little bag and I was so happy. IT REALLY IS SOOOO SMALL. Good luck getting one.

The Apple Store in Coex was the first to get it and I bet their stock is gone. You might be able to order it online.

Dan
________

I am changing my teaching objectives. I'm not going to be a piecemeal English teacher. What I mean is, I'm not going to go into a classroom and expect to teach 40 kids to speak English in 40 minutes. There are simply too many of them and it causes a very stressful atmosphere. Especially since they are all at such different levels. I always have a group of kids that gloat about their English and constantly interrupt my class. It's hard to keep focus and to the lesson. Trying to stick to rigid structures causes confusion in the class and ultimately I lose their attention.

I've decided that I'm abandoning the book entirely. The book is boring and too easy. The CD's are in Korean and so are the books. I tried the books and I found them ineffective, so I'm going to put them aside and wait until someone says something. If they do ask I will them, "the books are ineffective as teaching material for a foreign teacher. They are designed for Korean teachers. The manuals are not in English, the lesson plans are designed for those with elementary knowledge of English and therefore simply bores them all. The computers don't aways work in the classes and their unpredictability causes classes to be stagent."

Plus, I'm taking my time to develop my own lessons from stratch. They should respect that. I'm trying to tailor my classes to the student's ability and receptiveness.

Also, I'm focusing more on cultural awareness. I would like to show them a different side of thinking and show them how other people in the world live. If I possibly engage them into seeking a look into an English speaking culture, then they will motivate themselves to learn by themselves. Teachers are only so effective afterall, ultimately it is the individual that must learn.

I'm going to focus on what I am good at and try to make them enjoyable for the bell curve of the student body. I can't get them all, but I think I can reach a good mass of them.

I have 14 weeks of lessons to plan. I should group them into 3/4th grade and 5th/6th grade. Basically I would have to make one lesson and modify it for the groups. Today we did Mad Libs in class and everyone got a big kick out of it, when we read it together. I think this week of lessons was the best so far.

I started with phonics L/R Lyle licks lollipops like a lizard and
Around the rugged rocks the rugged rascal ran.

Then I did a word scramble RESTAURANT

Then I switched between the dialogue and the Mad Lib. I think the Mad Lib was the better option and then we did the picture game.

It used up all the minutes of the class and it was interesting for them. I could feel the energy in the room.

TOPICS

I would like to design classes with these topics in similar fashion to this week's theme, which was Restaurant.

Instead of phonics every week I think I could do idioms and funny words and phrases.

*Cops and Robbers
The law- Signs - crimes, what happens...I would like to do the game where we make a criminal and then try to convict him of the crime.

*Holidays X2
The first would be during the week of October 24-28. This would have to deal with Halloween, maybe a scary story, the history of Jack of Lantern (the turnip) and then about the Day of the Dead. Pin the tail on the donkey for candy game? I think it would have to be a ghost or something.

The second would be the week of December 19-23. This would have to do with Christmas around the world. Kwanza, Ramadan and boxing day. I would do some kind of Christmas themed game. Ponderosa?

I thought that the last week, the week of December 26-29 we could do games because it's the final week before vacation.

*Friends/Enemies Who is your best friend? Who is your nemesis?

*Cultural differences between Koreans and other nations. I want to come with different ways of thinking, living, beliefs, etc.

I think I can spend two weeks on that lesson.

*Telephone and communications. E-mail, SMS, letters, etc.

*The family.

*Work/Jobs. What do you want to be?

*Superstitions

*Money/shopping

*Roommates/living with others.

I love Shakira...I'm watching her video on repeat at school. It's my guilty pleasure like eating fried eggs off of asphalt. The tar is better than pepper and the broken glass has less sodium.

Anyway....Stocks...I am way up because of Apple right now, but the constant hardware problems are getting me down. I'm hoping they will keep their upward trend until 2006, but they need to get their QA up. Jobs has a job to do.

Google is back up to 311.00. I'm a little bitter that I sold. I should have bought again at 280, but I thought it was going to drop to 250. It would have only saved me a little money.

I want to buy stock in Shakira's derriere.

RUTH is still hovering around 18 and ADBE is not moving at all. My bluechips are basically staying the same.

I should buy petro stocks, but I feel bad doing it - I shouldn't capitalize on other's misery.

I am looking at Nintendo, but I said that I'm not going to buy any new tech stocks for a while. Sony is dropping like crazy, but who knows when their stock will go back up.

TIME is thinking of selling off AOL to MSFT. If that happens, it is possible that GOOG will be hurt, but honestly, I think AOL is a waste of cash. I should buy TIME because they are starting to concentrate on what they are good at again. Let MSFT crash with AOL on it. I don't feel the buzz with MSFT's vista nor with the X-box 360. They're giving them away, but I think most people are waiting for the PS3. Plus the PSP has taken a bit of thunder away from X-box.

Anyway. Heinz, I think will do well in the future. It will become more global as it sold off a bunch of businesses and recentered. I'm going to buy Honda or Toyota. I want the company that is venturing faster into the hybrid car or possible the electric car. Oil is killing everyone right now and when oil hits $4.00 a gallon, the hybrids will start to sell and then the prices will go down on the cars.

I'm thinking the recession will be over when Bush leaves office. It's all about perspective. I believe people are highly affected by the atmosphere and it has been a lean couple of years. They need hope and they will start to invest in something interesting. I forsee a bubble happening. I think it's going to happen in Biotech. Well, if it's not the next bubble it will be soon. It might be clean fuels or something.

Ok. That 's enough about my financial ramblings.

Dan

An Hikari is a Japanese style bathrobe, that they wear all the time...kinda like loungewear.

Today my project is to develope new lesson plans for my classes.

These are some hints from another teacher...Andrea...

1. Activities

- Listen and do

- Mime

- Raise your hand/ clap to practice

a) comparative

b) Likes and dislikes

c) general knowledge

Simon says

- for classroom language/instructions: (i.e. getting book and pen ready, get them to be quiet etc)

- for general instructions/imperatives

- to revise body vocabulary

- to revise prepositions

- to revise action verbs

2. Word games

- hangman or hang the teacher (categories: food, famous people, cities, clothing, animals)

- pictionary

- chain stories- oral or written

- first and last alphabet chains

- back to the board - 2 teams

- tongue twisters

- drama/ soap operas (bring props so they can role plan and make their own drama/ soap operas)

- bingo

3. Songs chants and opens

- action songs like Head and shoulders, knees and toes...

- counting songs like One man and his dog

- songs for special occasions

4. craft activities

- tasks which involve coloring, cutting, and sticking

- which encourage them to use their imagination

- projects

- making books

- bringing in photos

and some websites.

helpful websites: yahooligans.com or kidsclick.org GOOＤ LUCK!

Next week I need to plan for
3 6th grade classes
a 3rd grade class
all 5 5th grade classes
3 4th grade classes

My 5th grade is supposed to still do things on houses and bedrooms. I should do a quick review and game and then move into a dialogue or something. I need to fill up the time. I am supposed to go to the doctors on 9/22nd. I am supposed to reschedule my classes maybe my 2 4th grade classes on thursday 4백화 and 4장미 I have to talk to the teachers on Wednesday....Or I should do it right now. I tried to, but they are closed. I need to do it on Wednesday. 4th grade is working on who are you and family structures. I can talk about uncles, aunts, grandfathers and stuff and then other jobs.

My 6th Grade class is supposed to be working on I'm stronger than you. Big Bigger Biggest concepts. I think I can do something with that.
3rd Grade is still doing

6th grade is supposed to be on I'm stronger than you

Part of the problem I'm having in class is that the books I am using are not effective. For the majority of the class the book is too easy. The second part is the resources that I rely on, my tools - i.e. computers, televisions - are unreliable. Therefore, my mise en plac (a chef term for preparations like cut vegetables, cooked stock, etc.) are generally FUBAR (Fucked up beyond all Recognition) hence, I'm not relying on that stuff anymore. I am finished with it.

Therefore, I'm going to first assess the situation and do what I feel is correct. I spend half my time in class not knowing if something is going to work or not, so I'm going to not use those resources. The Korean English study books are out! (I've lost quite a few of them, so I have to do that.) Lost isn't the correct word...I've misplaced them. It's a shame I have to do that, but the books are in Korean and I waste my time trying to figure out how to use them and they SUCK BIG MONKEY TURDS!

alrighty...back to work.

dan

keep my students interested. I have four levels to teach, so what works at one grade often fails at another. I feel like I'm just guinea pigging it right now. Davesesl had some fun ideas under general discussion. I'm hoping that I'll motivate myself enough to do some actual lesson planning this vacation break.

Happy Chusok.

Dan

It's Friday before Chusak
and all through the school,
little rugrats are screaming
thinking of all that special food.
Eggplant and bean sprouts,
dried fish and tofu,
pumpkin and mushrooms,
dried squid and some brown stuff
and green stuff and other stuff
I've never seen before.

There are rice cakes with red bean or
rice cakes with sweet seeds or
rice cakes filled with an even more
obscure goo.
There are apples swelled like
Anna Nicole's...eyes
and grapes like punched bruises
and a plethora of tempura that is left
for feasting ancestors.

When the meal is ready,
Their ancestors leave their hovels in Soul
and come to indulge in the indulgences offered.
Being dead these great grandfathers and
grandmothers smirk garlic and hot peppers.
Kim Chi is left out of the Chusak supper!

Everything is served in brass dishes with care
and each passed on gets special chopsticks
so they don't have to share.
Incense are burned and a spoon stuck in the rice.
Then, in hanboks, the father and sons bow thrice.
In aprons, mothers and daughters, they
take much needed time.
So they sit their arms weary and legs worn
while their husbands and sons honor the passed on.

Like ghetto terrific,
a cup of wine is poured for fallen homies.
Then father moves the chopsticks to
more delicious delicacies.
They wait for the dead to eat their spirit fill
then three times chime the chopsticks
to echo the air.
Again the father and son bow and they repeat the process.
And the womenfolk continue to enjoy their well earned recess.

And so that's Chusak.
A ceremony for the dead. If the food is tasty
the ancestors continue to bless.
But if dishonor is felt, a scourge is then sent.

Mothers are now angry
because now they serve and then clean
while fathers and children watch
the Rock, or Gladiator 2 or maybe the Mummy on TV
and the children cause chaos by
running around
because there is no school
No School
NO School!
On Chusak Day!

If iRiver made a good offer, I think Apple would
concede.  If not, iRiver could at least make the
player compatible with audible.com.  If they did that,
I would buy one.

I'm going to go ahead and buy an iPod nano from
America and ship it over. 

They still haven't set a release date for the nano.
They say on the website that it will be shipped in the
middle of September.  The Apple Store says at the end
of this month or next month.  If I wanted to, I could
possible order a bunch of them and sell them at a much
higher price on the black market - which Korea has
many of, but I'm just a simple teacher that likes
iPods. 

Thanks for reading the blog,

Dan



--- Will <will.mon@gmail.com> wrote:


---------------------------------
iRiver will never be iTunes compatible because Apple
will not let it happen.

BTW, interesting commentary about the Korean market.

--
Posted by Will to Philosophy of Go! at 9/14/2005
06:52:15 PM



  
__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com

5th grade and 4th grade classes.

5th grade first...I am teaching about rooms. This is a bedroom. I am going to draw a picture of a big house and ask them what furniture belongs in each room. Then I will ask them about houses in the past.

Actually, lets try that. Old style house, new style house, and future house. The problem I am frequently having is that all the computers just don't work. I could spend my entire time planning something only to find out that the lessons won't work because the computers are unreliable. It's a bit frustrating. I could bring in my computer to every class and plug it in, but I don't know how safe that is. Not that anyone wants an Apple computer.

The Alphabet game doesn't work in a big group. There are too many students and they can't hear each other. I need to think of other games. The Dice of Fortune game works well because they work together and because there is the element of chance.

The Witch's Brew Story worked well last class. I think next week for the 4th grade I am going to talk about extended families cousins, uncles, nieces, grandfathers and stuff. I think it would work well. A game...I don't know yet. It's too early to do repeats. I have to do something interesting in each class. I should change the 5th grade game to the Dice of Fortune game. It will work well I believe.

The 5th grade activity with the ABC's doesn't work. I'm giving it up. I need to think of something new for tomorrow.

Dan

I am going to keep a daily journal of what is happening at my school because I want to figure out the most effective way to teach students in Korea. I will do my best to keep you informed of stuff that is going on.

My first class today was wonderful. They were attentive and nice. They listened to the lesson well and they participated with answers. Overall, the class had a very positive attitude towards learning and teachers in general. This is a complete contrast to my 2nd class, which was disruptive and utterly chaotic.

I could place the blame on myself, but I think it goes much deeper than that. The teacher maintains order in the class with a bell that he must ring insistently - like the students were dogs. I simply couldn't get the class to settle down until a student told me to ring the bell. After I rang the bell they listened for a second and then I they started up again.

My third 6th grade class was much better. The teacher stayed in the classroom, so there was more order. The class participation was minimal. I think the teacher had a double whammy effect. First she did maintain order, but she also embarrassed the students because they were too shy to speak in front of her. What is the perfect balance? I don't know, but I would like to find out.

I have one student in my Na Ri class that is very smart, but he is a smart aleck, show off smart. Kinda like David, but with a lot more confidence. He purposely speaks fast and he wants to impress me, but he is simply alienating himself from the rest of the class. He is a little asshole. Hopefully, he won't grow into a big one in the future. I think he will be humbled before he reaches university.

Well back to class now. 3rd Grade Nan Cho. Hopefully it will go well.

It went well. I have some very intelligent students in the class and they are very excited to learn. I played a game about what they like and they don't like and they were engrossed in the project - which is exactly what I was hoping for. However, I don't know what I'm supposed to do next week because the teacher actually wants the class to use the book. This is class Nan Cho.

I start teaching the adults today. I'm going to just do freetalking and not much teaching. I have articles for them to read, but I don't think it'll be too necessary. I think I can talk about myself and get them to tell me about themselves for 50 minutes. I'm only going to teach for 50 minutes. I don't have the energy to do an hour.

That's it for now. I have lesson plans to do. I haven't even thought about 5th grade yet.

Tomorrow I have all fifth and fourth grades. The same is on Friday.

Dan

I checked out the online Apple store and I checked every international online store and every country on the site EXCEPT for South Korea is currently selling the iPod nano. What's up with that!

I was really looking forward to buying one today. I called the Apple store today and they said they don't know when they will have them in inventory. I think this is all a crock of dung because EVERY country has them including Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, even Ireland. (I'm just throwing Ireland out there because it's a remote island. I have nothing against those crazy Guiness guzzling, potato munching, log tossers.)

I think Apple is trying to move inventory, so they are bundling ipod shuffles with the G4 ibooks. Which doesn't sound like such a bad idea but the rest of the world has been bundling the ipod mini with the laptops. I know that Koreans are mac fearful, but I think it is for other reasons other than reliability. I really think many Koreans don't like Apple because they can't pirate the software. Software piracy is a major problem and it really hinders the development of new products.

I understand that Korea wants to move their inventory but they should have done it before Apple made this new release because it's killing my impulsive buying drive.

For those wondering if this is a new conspiracy set up by Samsung and iRiver, I would like to say it is unlikely. Apple is buying about 40% of Samsung's flash memory output, so it would be in their favor to start selling the new nano mp3 players.

iRiver...that's a whole another issue. They should simply stop trying to fight Apple and partner up and enjoy the ride. iRiver mp3 players are probably the second best on the whole market. They are well made, the quality is impeccable and the features tilt the balance in their favor. The voice recorder is like 4 times better than the ipod berkin accessory and there is even one with a nice camera attached to it. iRiver also had the innovative lanyard fusion first - one of my favorite features. Honestly, I think the Apple designers took quite a few "hints" from the iRiver designers.

The only problem is the software and the fact that the iRiver is primarly for music. The software is horrible. It is drag and drop. And if you're trying to organize it, you might as give up. It's like having winamp back in 1999. However, most of the hard drives maxed out at like 10 gigs back then, so you couldn't have as much music. I currently have 18 gigs worth of music, so if I didn't have playlists and a fast search it would be impossible to find what I want to listen to. Also, I'm really into audiobooks right now and iRiver doesn't play the Apple formats or Audible.com formats.

What's so great about these audiobook formats? Well they are compressed for one, so you don't eat up as much memory on your mp3 players and they bookmark. So if, iRiver wants to compete, they should make their players itunes compatible. itunes has become the global standard for a reason.

So...my rant is going to end here. Apple Korea, you should start selling the Apple nano...NOW. Because if iRiver makes their players itunes compatible, I might end up buying it instead. (that's a hollow threat actually, because then I'd have to change my name.)

ipoddan