As you know, I just returned home from a six-day training session for EPIK teachers that was held at the KT Center in Daejeon. I had heard a few things about these training sessions, but I still felt pretty 'blind' going into it.
On Saturday morning, bright and early, I boarded a bus with a few other teachers from Tongyeong and surrounding towns, Goseong and Geoje. We drove for about an hour and picked up another group of teachers in Jinju and after that, it was on to a small town to get the final group of teachers from our area. Once we got to Daejeon, we had a bit of a delay because the other bus that was coming from our province, Gyeongsangnam-do, broke down, so we went to their rescue. When we finally reached the KT training center in Daejeon, we were all hungry and grumpy...but in my eyes, the week only got better from there!
I was a part of Class 2, which contained mostly all teachers from Gyeongsangnam-do. Our class quickly gained a reputation for being an experienced group of teachers, and we were...in comparison to the classes that had mostly teachers that just arrived in Korea for the first time. After our class meeting, we headed to the opening ceremony and it was quite nice. There were a few introductions, 3 different traditional Korean performances, and a wonderful and informational speech by Hyunwoo Sun (who is most famous for his website Talk to Me in Korean...I might just have to start using that!). Here are a few pictures from the opening ceremony:
The bulk of the days were full of informational classes...starting at 8:40am and going until 8:10pm, the days were long and packed, but personally, I found all of the lectures to be very informative and relevant to my life as a teacher in Korea. I think all classes were presented really well and I really enjoyed all of them! On our final day of classes, we had to present a lesson that we had prepared through the week. I was partnered with 2 other elementary school teachers in my class and we had the topic of "Where are you from?". This was good news for all of us, since the first chapter of the 6th grade English book in Korea is this exact same topic...so we had all taught this just weeks before. The three of us pooled our ideas together and I think our presentation turned out well. We got good feedback from our peers, so I think it was a great success!
On the final full day of our training session, we headed to a nearby farm village to learn a little bit about Korean culture. I love going to these type of things, so it was a great time for me! I'll describe the experience with the pictures:
My group's first stop was this old house. The guide told us that this is the oldest house in the town...about 80 years old. I was surprised there weren't any older houses there...that number seemed a little low for me.
Then, it was off to a lesson in brick making. Our guide is going to be building a Korean treasure, so the bricks our group made will hopefully make it into his structure.
Next, we made some flower rice cakes with edible flowers and leaves. After pan frying them, they take a little dip in some honey and then they're ready to be eaten!
Next, we learned how rice is harvested...starting with cutting our own rice stalks (?) from a field, then stripping the stalks, crushing them to remove the outer husks, and lastly, sending them through a wooden mechanism to separate the rice from the junk!
Our last project was making this ostrich out of a pine cone and some pieces of wood. Mine looks nice in the picture, but in reality, it didn't make it home in one piece. I need to get some super glue so I can reassemble it!
After our full day, lots of the teachers headed out for a night in Daejeon. It was fun getting to hang out with everyone for one last hoorah. I really loved getting to know all of my classmates and building friendships with fellow teachers from around Korea. Here are a few pics from the night:
And on Thursday, it was time to say good-bye and head back to Tongyeong. I had a good time but I was happy to get back into my daily routine and 'normalcy'. I snapped one last picture with our class leader, Juyoung, who was really amazing! She was so helpful and willing to help in any way she could! And I'm excited to see her again in Seoul someday!
Overall, it was a great week and I am really glad that I got to meet some other teachers from around the country. It was so nice to talk with people that are going through similar experience and make some new friends!
So now I'm back in Tongyeong, and spring has sprung and I couldn't be happier! I love spring and all of the beautiful flowers! Hopefully I'll have some pictures of beautiful Tongyeong for you soon!
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