Seoul,
Korea Rep.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Monday morning found myself and about 30 other new teachers boarding the bus to our first day of training for Chung Dahm (CDI). We didn't know exactly what to expect, but we were definitely excited to begin the journey. When we got into the CDI building they directed those of us who were a part of the April program to go to the left and those who were a part of the Chung Dahm program to go to the room on the right. I had to get out my contract to double check which i was with because I had absolutely no idea what the difference was. It turns out there is a huge difference. CDI April is a program for students that haven't been able to pass the proficiency exam to get into the regular CDI school program. It is very competitive and students must have a high level of proficiency to get into the school. My students will be anywhere from 6-12 years old. There may be a few older students that just started learning english late. There are four levels of students in my school: Seedbed, Seed, Sprout, and Sapling. There are also two levels in each. My classes are primarily conducted using the computer and programs created by the CDI r&d team specifically for their teaching philosophy. It begins with a short narrative which I ask the students questions about. Then they practice the dialogue and we take change some of it so that they have to think through what they are actually saying. Then they look at pictures or phrases and describe them or fill in the missing parts. Students are called to the front to "present" the sentences or pictures. Finally they do a section called "script" where they get to act in front of a blue screen. Right now we are in the information phase so the script is a newscast. They have to memorize their parts and then they perform in front of the screen. I can put different backgrounds in and then I upload the video to their homepages so their parents can watch. My instructor said that a lot of the kids, especially the older ones are in 5 or 6 schools. Their regular school, language school, maybe piano or violin, math or science, etc... Its pretty intense for them, but I've seen them having plenty of fun anyway. I'm really looking forward to meeting my students.
I made it through training though and they must have thought I won't mess the kids up too much so I start teaching my classes on Monday. Pictures will be forthcoming
