After School Classes with Gogo

As part of academic school year 2011, Melissa Harrington has the great pleasure of teaching 4 (soon to be 6) after school classes. The most successful of these is for 3rd and 4th graders at Bongam Elementary School. Within the first couple of classes, Melissa Teacher discovered her students deep love and appreciation for Gogo - a dinosaur who is conquering the English language. The videos are presented in an order reflective of the Korean curriculum (which is to be expected considering Korea's EBS broadcasting company developed Gogo) so it is easy to find supplemental materials on websites such as www.waygook.org. The best source for Gogo's Videos is from this blog post which lists and links them in order.

In Melissa Teacher's after school classes, students had the opportunity to make and decorate their own dinosaur mask. They have since been laminated and are used in conjunction with the 5 minute Gogo clips as part of each class. Students listen and watch the cartoon which is conveniently paused by Melissa Teacher after Gogo speaks - students then raise their dinosaur faces to cover their own and repeat the 'target language' as stated by Gogo. The videos are then easily supplemented by various songs, activities and worksheets gleamed from the internet or Melissa Teacher's own creative energies.

Should you find yourself teaching in an after school class and have enough freedom to design your own curriculum, don't hesitate to check out Gogo's Adventures With English!

Students making a hand family following Gogo's and the Hand Family Song

A recent outcome of the students learning classroom objects with the help of a Karaoke Classroom objects song and cut-out pictures of various items such as an eraser, pen, chair, table, etc.

A Class Full of Camels

From 5 Little Monkey's to a Camel with 5 Humps, the students at Bongam Elementary school are mastering their numbers and their dance skills as is evidenced in the latest video from Melissa Harrington's 2nd grade class.



If you're looking to teach some youngsters in your ELL classrooms feel free to check out this PPT. These students also enjoyed a camel dot-to-dot followed by a "Camel Hump Quiz" where students were given a worksheet showing three 'elongated' horses then listened to Melissa Teacher make statements such as: "Alice the camel has 2 humps. Camel A - 2 humps" and drew accordingly.

Story Time: Doggy Poo

Some days in the English language classroom/career provide more chuckles than others. Having received the request to assist both her elementary schools with their Reading Contest this Spring, Melissa Harrington sat down to read a number of stories ranging from Alice in Wonderland to The Little Prince. One title however, caught Melissa Teacher's attention and the story was far from disappointing. Even better than the story, were the accompanying pictures of the stories main character: Doggy Poo.

Doggy Poo

Once upon a time, there lived little Doggy Poo. He felt all alone. He felt no one wanted him. A bird poked Doggy Poo. "What’s this? Poo! Poo! This is Doggy Poo! Dirty!" said the bird. "What? I am dirty?" asked Doggy Poo. He was bitter, and he cried.

A lump of clay laughed at Doggy Poo. "What’s so funny?" asked Doggy Poo. "You. You are a doggy poo, the worst kind!" said the clay. Doggy Poo was hurt and cried aloud. "I am really sorry," said the clay. The lump of clay paused. "I may be more of out luck," said the clay. "I am from far away. In summer, I used to grow white potato flowers there," said the clay. "Why are you here?" asked Doggy Poo. "In my homeland, rain had not come for a long time. Everything dried out so fast. I was growing chillies, but I let them die. Now I am being punished," said the clay.

"Oh! Isn’t this from my land? I guess I dropped it along the way. I will take it back home," said a farmer. The
farmer put the lump of clay in his cart. The lump of clay was happy.
"
What am I good for?" asked Doggy Poo. "I’m just Doggy Poo," he wept alone. Winter passed and spring came. A hen and her chicks passed by and looked at Doggy Poo. "This is nothing. You can’t eat it," said the hen. "I’m not even good to eat," said Doggy Poo.

It was raining. In front of Doggy Poo, there was a sprout. "Hello star, what are you?" asked Doggy Poo. "Hello, I'm a sprout. I will become a beautiful dandelion flower one day," said the sprout. "Will you be beautiful like the stars in the sky?" asked Doggy Poo. "Yes, I will shine like them too," said the sprout. "How will you become like those stars?" asked Doggy Poo. "I will use rain from the sky and the warm sun," said the sprout. "I see," sighed Doggy Poo.

"But I need one more thing," said the sprout. "What’s that?" asked Doggy Poo. "I need you!" said the sprout.
"Me? How can that be?" asked Doggy Poo. "I need you to join me. Together we can become a
beautiful dandelion flower," said the sprout. "Really? Wow!" said Doggy Poo. "You need me to become a beautiful dandelion flower," said Doggy Poo.

Doggy Poo was full of joy. "I will join you!" said Doggy Poo. The Doggy Poo squeezed the sprout and gave it a big hug. "I am good for something!" said Doggy Poo. Everyone is always needed for something.

Thriller

On October 22nd, Mr. Harrington's middle school, Namseon, held it's fall festival. This is a time for the student's to showcase their talents and skills, much like an American school's talent show. And these kids ARE talented! There were magicians, violin players, singers, harmonica players, K pop dancers, ballet dancers and none other than Mr. Harrington himself up on stage.

Many readers of the Harrington Times will be wondering why in the world was Mr. Harrington up on stage? It's so against his grain. And it is. When his coteacher asked him to perform at the festival, Mr. Harrington felt like he couldn't say no, like he usually would. He at first agreed to sing, thinking that some of his coteachers would join him, but as more and more declined his offer, he decided he had to change his act. He decided to perform Michael Jackson's Thriller with about 20 of his students. They practiced everyday at lunch for about two weeks, and even pulling a few two-a-days in the week preceding the festival. And it all paid off! Watch the video for proof.

Thriller was definitely one of the hits of the festival. So much that parents and teachers all congratualted Mr. Harrington afterwards. Even the principal, whom Mr. Harrington had hardly spoken a word, came and poured a shot of SoJu for Mr. Harrington at the teacher dinner later (which was HUGE). Up until that point, Mr. Harrington had assumed that the people congratulating him were just being the overly kind Koreans he has began to know. It wasn't until he watched the video later that night that he realized how well it turned out. He was pleasantly surprised! But, there were many other stars at the festival. Mr. Harrington's school is just loaded with talent. Check it out:

By far one of Mr. Harrington's favorite acts. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Harrington loves the sound of a harmonica. This act had three, of different shapes and sizes, the likes of which Mr. Harrington had never seen before. He wishes he could have filmed the whole thing!


Wondergirls never fail to get the crowd cheering.

One of the other hits. Clap.

Ballerina. One girl in front of about a thousand people. Gutsy!

The mothers did a dance too. This is their warm up.

What I assume is Jpop warmup.

Professional Development with a Korean Twist

Engaging with the Korean population and culture is never short of an adventure. More often than not, there is not only an adventure to enjoy but said adventure provides much entertainment, laughter and a constant reflection of ‘this would never happen where I’m from.’


One such example can be gleaned from the Harrington’s recent professional development on Wednesday October, 27th 2010. Before the official end of the school day, the Harrington’s alongside their head Korean co-teachers, made their way to Yuesong Spa Hotel for a five hour professional development (or as it is often called by Korean Teachers a ‘business trip’). Upon arrival teachers were encouraged to grab a cup of coffee or tea and a few snacks. Korean co-teachers then helped each wayward Guest English Teacher find the appropriate seat for Elementary School and Secondary School. A little time to chat then the show began, and we do mean show!



The training was aimed at communication with ones co-teacher. The first 30 minutes of the training were dedicated to a few important introductions followed by ice-breakers. Unlike typical ice breakers in the western world that may amount to a small time of stretching to introducing yourself to all who are sitting at the same table, these ice breakers were real show-stoppers! To begin the event a series of magic tricks were performed showing us the importance and beauty of…working together and loving each other. Following the magic trick attendees were taught 7 dance moves, each corresponding to a number 1-7. Together attendees then danced to Mama Mia’s …. Dancing lead to a massage conducted in a similar fashion and was promptly followed by a game of “stand-back-to-back-and-try-to-look-the-same-way-as-your-co-teacher-GO!” And, just in case attendees were not yet in an agreeable mood the ice breaker session ended with a group sing-a-long of ‘You are my Sunshine’ in which the word sunshine was replaced with co-teacher’s names. Ice breakers completed it was time to take a 15 minute break to refuel on the new snacks available and prepare for the first lecture.



The training continued in the usual manner with two presenters presenting on materials relating to the co-teaching relationship in Korea. Between the lecturers, attendees were again offered a break to grab new snacks and use the restroom before continuing through the training. As the training was wrapped up, attendees were separated into the native tongue before heading to the buffet tables were they were offered numerous traditional Korean foods to enjoy with one another.

The Making of a 'Big' Decision

Generally when people take on the task of making a 'big' decision they will spend months mulling it over, researching options, drawing up pros and cons, etc.

The Harrington's tend to get a nudging gut-instinct that says 'GO!' With a bit of caution they examine the gut feelings, attempt to discern what's really going on and move forward. Consider for example their dating relationship which lasted 2.5 months prior to an extraordinary mountain top engagement which lasted the total of 3 months before the "Big Day."  Or consider the manner in which they placed all their eggs in the Daejeon, South Korea basket (however, in reality the couple did do a little more research and preperation on opportunites for living and working abroad, but Daejeon won with hardly any fight when the decision making came down to it).

Needless to say, living in a foreign land hasn't drastically changed this characteristic and much to even their own surpise, a big decision has been made.  Starting this week, Wednesday Korea time, Tuesday USA time Melissa Harrington will begin posting online discussions, reading uncanny amounts of technical/textbook writing and preparing weekly papers in pursuit of a Masters of Art in Education focusing on English Language Learners.

When asked as to how this decision was made Mrs. Harrington simply replies "I'm not quite sure." She continues by explaining her own shock at the ease and speed of making this decision. "Just a month ago, as I listened to two friends discuss their participation and plans of entering the program I thought 'I could never/would never do that!' Now, here I am." A few more questions from THT reveals that for the Harrington's an online Masters degree just made sense.  Although there is much to do in teaching while in Korea there is a fair amount of free time particularly while sitting at a computer, so time is more or less in abundance.  The Harrington's also took into consideration their current income, savings goals and cost of the program and felt all were easily managed - saving money as well as paying for the courses and even having a good deal of fun while living in the Republic of Korea.

If any of our readers are also finding themselves wanting to pursue higher education or simply grasp a better understanding of what Mrs. Harrington is about to undertake we encourage you to explore Ashford University and/or specifically the Masters of Arts in Education section.

(Many thanks to Jennifer Mullen for her effort in searching out programs and encouraging Melissa Harrington to move forward in this 'big decision').