EFL/ESL Native English Teacher Speaking Tests in a Korean Public High School — Planning and giving speaking tests Part 1

At the beginning of the spring/summer semester at my high school I found out that I was going to be allowed to give speaking tests for my 12 ‘second’ grade classes. Last semester I dropped several comments every once and a while about how student motivation and classroom behavior are heavily influenced by whether or not there are test points assigned to the lesson content they are learning in my co-teachers ears . . . and apparently during a pre-semester meeting it was decided that I could have 10% of the English grade. For my 10 ‘first’ grade classes, though, at first I was told there weren’t any test points that I could get assigned to my classes . . . and then later, about six weeks or so, I was told I could write 3 questions of the 33 questions on the mid-term and final exams for the English section of the test . . . this just goes to show one of many examples of how hard it is for native English teachers to design a semester syllabus, choose the curriculum, and how testing points are all too often not assigned to their classes and/or they’re told about the testing points weeks after they have already prepared and designed their lessons . . . but I digress, and should get back to writing about the process I went through designing my speaking tests.

I have a lot of experience designing speaking tests and administering them with different kinds of EFL language learners (from middle school and high school to pre-service student teachers and in-service Korean English teachers). But I decided to do some research and re-read materials I have in my EFL/ESL library (see the list of relevant books at the bottom of this post) cause I hadn’t looked at them in a long time. While doing my research and writing up my speaking test design I thought to myself, “What do you do when researching “EFL/ESL speaking test +Korea +public school +high school” and your own writing is the only thing you find that is relevant? HAS NOBODY who teaches high school in Korea designed speaking tests, and then written about it online? Wow.”

Actually, there are bloggers who have written about speaking tests in Korean public high schools but they are a minority. Also, due to the nature of blogging as an informal genre most of them haven’t really gone into much detail about their test design process, why they chose the test format they did, and other details that I would have really liked to read about the experiences of other native teachers in Korean public schools doing speaking tests . . .

One teacher I did find, and I posted about, wrote this series by Supplanter‘s blog which I found pretty interesting–and which reinforced my decision to record all the speaking tests with my mp3 player (something I usually do anyways–Korean university students are notorious for trying to get their test scores raised if they don’t like them, so when they do come to ask for an increase I suggest we review their recordings and look at my notes for their test . . . this usually dissuades most of the complainers, lol).

The Grade Changing Fiasco Part 1

The Grade Changing Fiasco Part 2

The Grade Changing Fiasco – part 3

Finally, I come across something related to my search parameters, Evaluation of The Foreign Language High School Programme in South Koreaby Yvvette Denise Murdoch, a master’s dissertation submitted to the School of Humanities, University of Birmingham to fulfill requirements in the Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language”, 2002. Unfortunately, while it’s an interesting read, Murdoch doesn’t really provide much in the way of how she tested and what process she went through while designing her tests. But that being said it’s still a good read.

Anyways, I decided to give myself a research and writing project to kill time when I had no classes at school. I loosely based my writing goals on Chapter Six: Developing Test Specifications of “Assessing Speaking” by Sari Luoma, Cambridge Language Assessment Series, Cambridge University Press 2004.

Here is a list of things a teacher should be considering, at least some of them anyways, when designing a language test,

“the test’s purpose; description of the examinees; test level; definition of construct (theoretical framework for the test); description of suitable language course or textbook; number of sections/papers; time for each section of paper; target language situation; text-types; text length; language skills to be tested; test tasks; test methods; rubrics; criteria for marking; descriptions of typical performances at each level; description of what candidates at each level can do in the real world; sample papers; samples of students’ performances on task” from “Assessing Speaking,” Chapter 6, page 114.

The problem is the logistics (I’m going to use this word a lot) of designing and giving speakings tests in Korean public school English native speaker classes is that there are so many unforeseeable, unplannable, and unbelievable (from a native teacher’s perspective anyways) issues and challenges that come up throughout the whole process that trying to do a truly professional EFL/ESL speaking test is nearly impossible–in my opinion . . . but I’ll get into that in more detail in part 2 of this post.

I also found “Chapter Eight: Ensuring a reliable and valid speaking assessment” to be an extremely helpful unit to help me refresh on what I needed to be thinking about as I designed the speaking tests for the high school boys.

While reading Chapter 6 I came across three examples of how to do test specification write-ups: Example 1: An end-of-course classroom test, Example 2: A language test at university entrance, and Example 3: A general purpose proficiency test . . . after reading this chapter I decided to do my own test specifications write up . . . although I was unable to follow the models exactly due to the realities of planning lessons and tests that Korean public schools present.

Alright, that’s enough about why I decided to write this blog post . . . time to wade into the nitty-gritty of what I did while going the process of making speaking tests for a Korean public high school.

Before class/semester begins language learner assessment: There were no opportunities for me to assess the actual language learner levels of the students in each class. The only thing available was the students test scores from the previous semester which in terms of communicative ability and fluency really had no validity or relevance. The only thing I found useful about the test scores that I asked my Korean English co-teachers to show me was being able to see which classes might have a majority of low level students, or average to higher level students so that I could alter my teaching methods accordingly (or ‘differentiate’ them).

Test #1 format (of 4 over the course of the school year, 2 in the spring semester, 2 in the fall/winter semester) : one on one interview, teacher and student

Test #2: one on one interview, teacher and student

Test #3: Unfortunately I won’t be teaching as my contract finishes August 24th, 2010. I am, however, leaving all testing and lesson materials from the book I was using for the next native teacher. I hope that they will continue to teach from the same book . . . my original plans for the four tests were that in speaking tests 3 and 4 that the tests would shift from focusing on accuracy with a low degree of fluency to a higher focus on fluency in balance with the test point values for accuracy. The book I was using focuses on developing fluency and learning, practicing, and mastering speaking strategies so it will be interesting to hear from the new native teacher how the students progress throughout the fall/winter semester.

Test #4: fluency and accuracy have equal values on the rubric.

Class hours before Test #1: two fifty-minute classes.

NOTE: The logistical realities of teaching EFL speaking and conversation in a Korean public high school often necessitate the instructor exhibiting a degree of “flexibility” when it comes to following EFL methodology the way it “should” be practiced versus adapting to and dealing with the chaotic and extremely unstable school schedule and teaching/learning conditions. I scheduled the first speaking test with only 2 weeks of instruction due to several reasons: 1) My classes were not assigned time slots during the school’s official midterm exam and final exam periods (thus necessitating me having to schedule testing during regular classes). 2) The students do not understand fully (perhaps even not at all) how they will be tested (my test will be the first ever speaking test done at the school in its entire history), and this diminishes their ability to develop effective learning styles and habits specific to my classes (I made a “How to” study guide for speaking tests handout (look at the bottom of this post) and gave tips and strategies during my classes). 3) I fully expect motivation and attention levels to dramatically spike after Test #1 has been completed as students will have a much clearer idea based on first-hand speaking test experience with a native speaker/teacher in a public school setting.

Test #1 focus: pronunciation, intonation, grammar, and demonstrating/performing cultural rules for speaking and interactions during the test (for example, how to shake hands)

Test Duration: 2 minutes

Type of school: 2nd grade classes at an all boys trade/sports school transitioning into an academic high school, Seoul–the 2nd grade students were enrolled during the trade school standards for acceptance. The overall English abilities are lower. On average each class has 25% false-beginner, 50% low-intermediate to intermediate, and 25% high-intermediate to advanced levels of English language ability.

Class size: 30-40 multi-level high school boys

Language learners: mixed levels, on average each class has 25% false-beginner, 50% low-intermediate to intermediate, and 25% high-intermediate to advanced levels of English language ability.

Test location: in the native English teacher’s classroom, no other students are permitted to be in the room; also, no Korean English co-teachers (they’re presence would inhibit student speaking performance and test conditions), all other students will be waiting in their homeroom, and in groups of 5 come to the hallway outside, line up and wait for their turn.

General Conditions: each class of 30-40 boys will be divided into two groups, A and B. Boys will do a lottery that places them in one of the two groups, and also determine order of testing. This is to avoid the ‘not fair’ criticism that is a very big concern for Korean students in testing situations (whether or not what they’re saying has anything to do with ‘fairness’).

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Click on the link below to read more at Kimchi Icecream: The Second Serving . . . . I've moved over to wordpress.com and will be blogging there from now on.

EFL/ESL Native English Teacher Speaking Tests in a Korean Public High School — Planning and giving speaking tests Part 1

J

EFL/ESL speaking tests in an all boys high school in Seoul, South Korea -- More of my favorite answers . . .

Last week on Wednesday my high school had practice exams all day so my classes were canceled--actually, my speaking tests were canceled. They were postponed to today . . . oh god, the day after the 3:30am Korea vs. Nigeria game is NOT A GOOD DAY TO HAVE ANY KIND OF TESTS--or classes for that matter.

Anyways, the guys came into the classroom, one by one, for their speaking tests looking pretty ragged. Baggy eyes, low energy, and a general lack of memory and concentration plagued nearly all of them.

Some of them, however, had some pretty funny and original answers.

I have four questions that I always ask as warm-ups for the guys. The first question is "How are you today?" ("I'm fine, thank you, and you" is banned as an answer because I want to retain some semblance of sanity, and I'm sure if I had to endure 250 "I'm fine, thank you, and you?" responses I'd lose my mind!) One kid replied, "I'm serious." Lol . . .

Another guy, in response to "What's your favorite book or movie?" said, "My favorite book is The "Prince of Machiavelli"" Wow . . . lol. This guy is already prepping to become a politician or CEO (actually, is there a difference in Korea?).

And later on a kid said his favorite book was "Playboy" . . . ha.

One thing I noticed during this second series of speaking tests was that I failed to anticipate that some guys would remember and use "How about you?" and/or "And you?" during the test instead of saying the full question that was being tested. Before the testing I give the guys a handout, and next to some of the listed questions and expressions that will be tested I give warnings and sometimes even outright ban certain types of responses or actions during the test (as you can see I did above with the "I'm fine, thank you, and you?" response).

A few of the lower language ability guys actually remembered this speaking strategy that I had taught them during a lesson that happened in the earlier part of the semester, and they tried using "And you?" any and every time they had to say something that I had already asked them (the test is an interview format) . . . I couldn't let them get away with that because it would have screwed up my rubric and then totally messed up the proficiency test curve at the school. Fortunately, the students doing this knew they were pretty much 'pseudo-cheating' by trying to avoid speaking the English content from the lessons that I was testing, and didn't protest when I asked them to not use the two expressions.

Getting back to the funny stuff, another student had me nearly burst out laughing because he pretty much speaks English like this guy . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Click on the link below to see pictures and read more at Kimchi Icecream: The Second Serving . . . . I've moved over to wordpress.com and will be blogging there from now on.

EFL/ESL speaking tests in an all boys high school in Seoul, South Korea -- More of my favorite answers . . .

J

What's it like to teach English in a high school in Seoul, South Korea?

Preface

Below is a description of the general conditions a native English teacher will have while teaching at a high school in South Korea.

The descriptions are based on my experience teaching elementary after school programs and camps, 1 full year of teaching at 3 different middle schools (all girls, and co-ed), 1 year at an all girls academic high school, 1 year at a foreign language training center (English immersion camp programs for middle school and high school students, and the 6 month Teach English in English training program for Korean English teachers), nearly 2 years at a national university of education (training future Korean English elementary teachers in a full time English education program, and a second 6 month Teach English in English training program), and my current experiences teaching at an all boys trade high school that then transitioned into an academic school in the middle of the contract. Add to all of this summer and winter English camps during the entire five years, with varying levels of public school students, university students, and Korean English teacher trainees, and you’ll see that I’ve accumulated quite a bit of time and experience teaching in Korea.

I tend to focus on the issues, problems, and things that native teachers need to be warned about before they begin teaching, and also things that may (or may not) happen throughout the course of one's contract. Native teachers do NOT get to choose the level of school (you can request it, but bear in mind that even after being told you're going teach _ level of school this can change, and I've personally seen it happen DURING orientation), its location, or the type (trade vs academic), and in general the quality of the school and co-teachers you find yourself with basically is like winning a lottery. Some native teachers get fantastic schools with awesome co-teachers, some get mediocre situations that are good and bad, and some get poor to nightmarish schools and co-teachers . . . you truly will not know what you are walking into until you are already in the school and in the thick of it.

With that in mind I have written this post with some new content giving a general description of teaching high school (though a lot of it can be applied to middle school too), and also linked to other things I've written in the past that are relevant.

The first section (First Week in Korea -- Checklists) is taken from The Kimchi Icecream Guide for New EFL/ESL Foreign English Teachers/Instructors in South Korea, 2010 Edition – Public Schools, Hogwans, Universities, and Training Center/Institutes. This is a cumulative blog post that I turned into an online blog format orientation guide. Check it out.

First Week in Korea — Checklists

After orientation you will likely meet your 'primary co-teacher.' This co-teacher will be assigned to you to help you with your general teaching and living conditions in Korea. This relationship is the most critical one you will have in Korea, and you should try to maintain it in a positive manner to the best of your ability. It is a good idea to print off the checklists below and give a copy to your co-teacher because it may be possible that they've never been a co-teacher before, and never been assigned to helping a native English teacher with their teaching and living conditions in Korea.

***Introduction For New Foreign English Teachers To The Korean Public School Environment

***New Foreign English Instructors/Teachers in Korea: Bring pictures with you for an introduction lesson during the first week at your school***

***First Day At School For New Native English Teachers in Korean Public Schools — Checklist***

***New Foreign English Instructors — First Day In Your New Apartment Checklist***

2005 New Foreign English Instructor Arrives at Korean Public School — A look back at my first week in Korea . . . wow, it’s been a long time . . .

Sample Schedule

Each period is fifty minutes long for high schools in Korea (middle school is 45 minutes, and elementary is 40 minutes). All native teachers, regardless of school level, have 22 classes per week. That being said schools often struggle to fill your schedule completely and you may end up teaching less than 22.

7:45am - arrive at school, greet other teachers in the office, eat breakfast at my desk

7:50am - teachers go to take attendance and do morning announcements in their homerooms

8:10am - first period

9:10 - second period

10:10 - third period

11:10 - fourth period

12:00 - lunch, go to eat with other teachers in cafeteria

1:00 - fifth period

2:00 - sixth period

3:00 - seventh period

3:50 - clean and lock up classroom, return to desk, do any tasks I need to do to finish up day and/or prep for the next day, go home

NOTE: Other high school teachers begin their 8 hour day at 8:30am and leave at 4:30pm, or 9am and leave at 5pm.

This is my schedule for the spring/summer semester. (The reason I am using elementary grade levels to describe the class grades on the schedule is because that's how they describe them in Korea--it's incorrect, but still in common usage.)

NOTE: There's no such thing as a 'typical' schedule in Korea, and your schedule could be radically different.

Class	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1 (8:10-9:00)		Grade 1 Miss B	Grade 1 Miss B	Grade 2 Mr. G
2 (9:10-10:00)		Grade 2 Mr. G		Grade 1 Miss B	Grade 1 Mr. D
3 (10:10-11:00)	Grade 1 Mrs. A			Grade 1 Mr. D	Grade 1 Mr. D
4 (11:10-12:00)	Grade 2 Mr. F	Grade 1 Miss B	Grade 1 Mr. D		Grade 2 Mr. F
Lunch (12:00-1:00)
5 (1:00-1:50)				2Grade 2 Mr. G	Grade 1 Mrs. A
6 (2:00-2:50)		Grade 2 Mr. G	Grade 2 Mr. F	Grade 2 Mr. F	Grade 2 Mr. G
7 (3:00-3:50)	Grade 1 Mrs. A	Grade 1 Mrs. A			Grade 2 Mr. G
After school program 118:30-19:30	Jason + Mr. D		Jason + Mr. D
After school program 219:40-20:40	Mr. D		Mr. D
	Total classes =3 +1	Total classes =5	Total classes =3+1	Total classes =5	Total classes =6

When your schedule is being made try to make the suggestion that your co-teacher does not schedule you for more than 5 classes on one day. Sometimes co-teachers will just plug your name and class into any blank slot on the school class schedule without giving any thought whatsoever to how exhausting it can be to teach 6 classes, or even 7 which is insane! Each native teacher has to decide for themselves how much they'll speak up about saying there's a problem with the schedule they're given, but if you're going to say something say it when it's being made--don't try to say something later, or take a 'let's wait and see how it goes approach' cause the odds of it being changed later because you suddenly realized that 6 classes in one day is too much for you are practically nil--no, they're nil, period.

Also, if you're going to agree to teaching after school program classes you should consider how many classes that adds up to including your regular contract classes. I actually made the above schedule table with the times and titles so that I could point out to my co-teacher that she should add up how many classes I teach each day INCLUDING the after school program classes. Doing this helped me avoid being given a regular class schedule that failed to consider that on Mondays and Wednesdays I was also doing after school teaching.

You'll also probably want to read this post below so that if you're new to Korea you won't freak out when your schedule gets changed 10 times over the course of two weeks at the start of a semester.

EFL/ESL Native Teacher Schedules in Korean Public Schools — Day 9 of the semester and I still don’t have a ‘permanent’ class schedule…nice.

And if you want to know what your first day might be like here's a blow by blow account of the first day of the second semester at my school. Some native teachers start their contracts in the MIDDLE of the school year (in Korea it starts in March), and others begin in March. The first week to two weeks of a new school year are generally chaotic, especially if you compare them to back home (which you shouldn't) . . . so be prepared for ANYTHING to happen.

Foreign/Native English teacher first day of spring/summer semester back at school — a detailed account

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Click on the link below to read more at Kimchi Icecream: The Second Serving . . . . I've moved over to wordpress.com and will be blogging there from now on.

What's it like to teach English in a high school in Seoul, South Korea?

J

Vampires buses and loudspeakers on a Friday . . . how could teaching in Korea get any more fun than that?

Last Friday was the final day of my speaking test preparation and review classes. I'd only had one snag throughout the course of the week in terms of anything going wrong. Specifically, the Tuesday classes missed the lesson because Wednesday's classes got moved to Tuesday due to the elections voting national holiday and "too many missed Wednesdays" of classes throughout the semester. I ended up photocopying the handouts and giving them to my co-teacher who assured me he'd tell the guys everything they needed to know about the upcoming speaking test, and that he'd review everything too--though how he was going to do that during the 10 minutes every morning where homeroom teachers take attendance I don't know, as that was when he was planning on doing it.

Thinking that I'd made it to Friday with nothing else happening to make doing the review classes difficult I noticed two things outside the building where my classes are held: hundreds of kids from the adjoining middle school out on the playing field with loudspeakers, and blood donation buses . . . and I felt a sinking feeling.

The loudspeakers were really 'special' cause they made this fantastic echoey reverberation effect that bounced off the other buildings surrounding the playing field and then smacked right into the windows of my classroom. It's amazing how much power these things have . . .

Click on the link below to see pictures and read more at Kimchi Icecream: The Second Serving . . . . I've moved over to wordpress.com and will be blogging there from now on.

Vampires buses and loudspeakers on a Friday . . . how could teaching in Korea get any more fun than that?

J

New evaluations for Korean teachers and open demonstration classes for high school parents--oops, I mean moms . . .

Today at the boys high school it was open demonstration class during two periods of the afternoon where parents of the boys, oops, I mean moms of the boys came to observe Korean teachers for the new teacher evaluations the government has introduced. I found out about this day 2 weeks ago, and find the whole thing kind of bizarre. Let me explain.

When I found out that my class would be observed by parents, oops I mean moms, for the new government teacher evaluations the first question out of my mouth was "What is being evaluated? Can I see a copy of the evaluation?" My primary co-teacher thought this was an extremely bizarre question, I don't know why, and immediately went to the evaluation papers that are used for native teachers near the end of their contracts.

I already knew that native teachers are evaluated by their co-teachers, primary co-teacher, and students near the end of their contracts, but I had never seen a translated copy of the forms with the content. I took a moment to point out that my primary co-teacher should have told me that (don't worry, I was nice about it) when I first arrived at the school (NINE MONTHS AGO), and that she should have gone over translated copies of the forms that would be used to evaluate me . . . she didn't look very happy about that. I imagine the reason being that she knows I'm right, felt a bit embarrassed, and also didn't want to have to do the work of translating the forms (which, in fairness to her, should really be done by the education office and the forms should be given to new native teachers at orientation and save Korean English teachers the hassle).

Moving past that particular gem of native teachers working in public schools I returned to asking about the government's new evaluation process and how could my co-teacher find a copy of the evaluation paper the parents, oops I mean moms, would be using to evaluate myself and the Korean English co-teachers I'd be teaching with. My co-teacher then began trying to say I didn't have to worry about any of this because it was 'only for Korean teachers' . . . but earlier she had said it was 'for my classes' . . . uhm, which was it really?

I'd also read in the Korean English news online, somewhere sorry can't remember the article, that the evaluation results of schools and teachers would be published online--THAT little tidbit had me VERY curious to find out everything I could about this . . . and I was getting nowhere fast.

The nearly 25 minute conversation about one simple question, "What will I, and my co-teacher, be evaluated on?", never really got answered. My co-teacher ended digging up an email with an attached set of evaluation forms but after showing them to me and with me asking several questions about them we both realized, sigh, that they were the forms for the native teacher evaluations that happen near the end of each contract . . . so, I was no closer to finding out anything then when I started asking questions, and I had lost 25 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. Blah . . .

For the next couple of days after that futile inquiry with my co-teacher, I asked each of my the other co-teachers I work with if they had been shown any evaluation papers, or had received memos with the evaluation criteria listed--all of them said no, and their general attitudes were of 'why are you asking me these silly questions?' Okay, message received, and I gave up my search for answers.

Over the course of the two weeks leading up to the open demo class day I tried assessing how much my co-teachers were concerned about what we'd be doing, and again received disinterested and unconcerned responses, so I just let it go. This past Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I tried to make a small effort to meet with the co-teachers who would be doing the open demo class with me but they kept saying they were busy, and while we did finally meet on Friday for a few minutes to discuss the lesson plan and content for my class (I say "my" class because I'm the one who makes the lesson plans alone, and I'm the one who does the majority of teaching when we 'co-teach') but again ran into a lack of concern.

Today, however, was the day of the open demo class and in typical Korean cultural fashion my co-teachers suddenly found their motivation and concern about the demo classes--probably because several hundred parents, oops I mean moms, descended on the school in the early afternoon to observe the open classes, lol.

At lunch time my co-teachers finally got around to helping me clean and tidy the classroom for the visit. In general, however, my co-teachers don't see the classroom we teach all my English classes in as 'their' classroom because in spite of the class being 'co-taught' the reality is that Korean English teachers see it as "Jason's class"; this general attitude usually results in a hands-off approach which places all responsibility for the classroom, lesson planning, and general teaching conditions on me.

Considering the fact that 22 classes worth of high school boys walk through the classroom each week it goes without saying that it gets dirty fast, and frequently. Ordinarily I try to get some students to help me tidy up the classroom, empty the garbage, sweep, and mop the floors about every 2-3 weeks, but for the demo class I wanted my co-teachers to take SOME responsibility for the conditions of the class . . . so with the imminent arrival of the horde of ajumma I suddenly witnessed high motivation levels on the part of ONE of my co-teachers that I'd be doing the demo classes with. The other, an older male teacher, did what most older male teachers do: pointed out the younger female teacher and suggested that she 'knows how to do the preparation' and avoided all responsibilities having to do with getting the classroom clean and organized.

The devil inside me kept whispering that I should have told my co-teachers that for this week they needed to make the lesson plans, prepare all teaching materials and photocopies of worksheets, and in general organize the classroom conditions and teaching tasks that needed to be done . . . but I really didn't feel like having the open demo class turn into a textbook lesson 7, workbook lesson 7 exercises 1-4, and Jason as 'human CD' speaking robot boy with the rest of the time in the class having me standing around waiting for my co-teacher to remember I exist as a teacher that can do other things besides drill pronunciation with the class as a chorus. I also think if I'd suggested that my co-teachers make the lesson that there would have been some resentment--which pisses me off just a 'little' bit considering I make 100% of the lessons, prep everything needed for each class, and do 70% or more of the teaching in every class, so why not have ONE LESSON in which the Korean teacher does most of the work?!--so I kept the status quo in order to maintain the peace and my relationships with my co-teachers.

The first demo class of the afternoon went pretty well. Six parents, err moms, came into the classroom all wide-eyed and a little apprehensive to see the big chubby shaved head white Canadian teacher at the front of the room who was smiling at them and waving them towards the chairs I'd finally gotten my co-teachers to find and move to the classroom. I walked to the back while the boys were entering the room, greeted them in Korean, and handed them copies of the lesson handouts. They all smiled and took the handouts, and then laughed a little when I offered them pens in case they didn't have any in their purses; thinking about this now I understand their laughter because I think it must be 'standard ajumma kit' to have several pens in one's purse at all times (you never know when you'll hear about some magical hogwan that can raise your son's test scores by 0.1% and need to write down that info!).

I then began the class with some trepidation because in my head I kept asking myself this question: if the open demo class is for the moms to evaluate the Korean teacher's teaching how much should I do, and can I safely hand the reins over to my co-teacher for different parts of the lesson that they ordinarily don't do . . . ? To be honest, I began to sweat a little because I didn't want to embarrass or somehow harm my co-teacher's evaluation (though who the hell knows what might do that as we were never told what the moms were evaluating about the class) . . .

Click on the link below to see pictures and read more at Kimchi Icecream: The Second Serving . . . . I've moved over to wordpress.com and will be blogging there from now on.

New evaluations for Korean teachers and open demonstration classes for high school parents--oops, I mean moms . . .

J