Wednesday, August 26, 2009

SMOE August Orientation 2009: a brief description of Day 3, and preview of the SMOE orientation series coming soon

I just realized tonight that my new roomie in the four cell unit we're in at SMOE's 2009 August Orientation is a fellow K-blogger. His name is Matt and he writes a blog called, Matthew's eThoughts.

Roboseyo posted about him at The Hub of Sparkle in a post called,

How Koreans Do It (a blog you should have already been reading)

Matt also has a site called, KoreanClass101.com, which I haven't had time to look at but based on Roboseyo's recommendation I'd suggest checking it out.

Matt, apparently, likes to put up massive numbers of posts . . . lol.
Matt has a post up about the SMOE 2009 Orientation where we both are right now called, SMOE orientation. I'm hoping he'll write more about his experiences and observations as there doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there yet online from public school foreign teachers who attend orientations in Korea--Matt: wink wink, nudge nudge, sledge hammer over head HINT! I hope maybe later after the orientation (we're all busy and tired right now) he'll write some more . . .

As for me, well, I've edited and uploaded all the pics I took from Day 1 at SMOE's orientation, and am editing little 1 minute vids I made too. I then need to do some more writing and editing of the Day 1 post and then I'll put it up. Day 2 is also slowly getting put together, but likely won't happen for a few days.

Today was Day 3 of the 2009 August SMOE Orientation . . . and for Group D, the high school teachers, we had medical checks done. This meant doing the following 'fun' events . . .

1. We could eat breakfast but no fluids or foods after 9am.
2. We couldn't eat lunch.
3. At 12pm the 1st of 3 sub-groups in our class went for their checks. I was in group 2.
4. Go to coordinator's office and get med check form.
5. Speech about checking spelling of name, gender is correct, and birth date are correct on form.
6. After speech and picking up form we all got ear-thermometered by a Korean nurse (or doctor? donno).
7. Then head outside to an X-ray Truck--yes, I said an X-ray Truck (I have pictures! You'll see, lol)
8. The female foreign teachers had to remove, ahem, undergarments and wear a funky pink top for the X-ray event (some were not too happy about this).
9. After X-ray truck we headed back to area next to coordinator's office and inside a very large room were stations with about ten feet of space between each area.
10. Station 1: pick up pee cup, 2 test tubes for pee, 3 ampules for blood
11. Station 2: height and weight measurements
12. Station 3: vision test
13. Station 4: blood pressure
14. Station 5: blood drawn
15. Station 6: go to bathroom, do what you gotta do, then put in two vials and give to poor dude sitting at table with big ass grid of vials . . .
16. Station 7: recover after blood is drawn for five minutes
17. Station 8: doctor looks at everything written on form from all preceding stations, and then asks you questions: 1) any major surgeries?, 2) medical conditions? 3) taking any medicaitons? 4) and something I can't remember cause I'm tired right now

I took pics of pretty much everything--it was hilarious when I held my camera in my left hand while a nurse was sticking me with a needle (and missed, fished for a second and found the vein-argh) cause she got all flustered and smiley and semi-whiny "opa!" until I reassured her that I wasn't taking shots of her face . . . and I think she was actually disappointed, lol.

Anyways, I plan to do posts on each day of the orientation but need time and energy to get them finished . . .

Tomorrow is micro-teaching demonstrations for the high school group (originally scheduled for Friday). We found out just after lunch that we had to prep to do them tomorrow when we thought we had till Friday--in a way this is great cause it's pretty typical for a teacher in Korea to have times and dates changed without much notice. Newbies getting this kind of experience at orientation, while it's not the most ideal, helps them to get a quick sense of what they're in store for at their schools . . .

Well, I'm pretty wiped out and it's only 10:30pm . . . so I think I'll call it a night.

J
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4 comments:

  1. Matthew SmithAugust 26, 2009 at 7:02 AM

    I suppose I should post a bit more about the orientation -_-;;;

    ReplyDelete
  2. JasonAugust 26, 2009 at 12:53 PM

    Hello cell mate,

    Hmmmm . . . YEAH!

    Let da newbies know whatchya think, mon!

    And inquiring minds want to know too.

    See ya,
    J

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matthew SmithAugust 26, 2009 at 8:42 PM

    hey, here's a blog from someone who incidentally went to the same university. she just also happens to be here at SMOE, too: http://stacyisawesome.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. JasonAugust 26, 2009 at 9:15 PM

    Hey Matt,

    Thanks for the link. I did a Google search and looked at about 5 pages of results but thought I only saw you and I for 2009 August orientation stuff.

    I'll check it out later.

    Right now I'm deliberating coming up with a non-Swine Flu thing to get out of this afternoon's teaching presentations . . . any suggestions that won't get me sent to the hospital/quarantined?

    J

    ReplyDelete