New Classroom

Over the winter break most of the public schools here on Jeju received an enormous English budget to make "improvements" for the English influence in each school. Most schools built new classrooms all together with top of the line technology. My school was one of these schools.

I received a brand new English Classroom. The classroom size itself is amazing. I don't feel cramped for once. The students have room between groups and plenty of space for games and role-plays. I have a "Virtual Studio" as well. This is an area that has yet to be used by me, but I plan to use it in the near future. Each window has a special English shade. Some of the shades have: world maps, body parts, family trees, directions, etc.

The best part of my classroom by far is my Smart Board. If you are not familiar with these, they are nothing short of amazing. It is a computerized white board. No markers or erasers needed. It has its own set of fake markers and erasers and the markers come in all the basic colors. It is completely touch screen as well. The down side to that part is that the kids walk by and touch it. It can confuse the Smart Board if too many things are going on at one time. To recalibrate these Smart Boards is very expensive and I have a feeling that my board will need that pretty soon they way things are going. You all know how kids are, if you tell them that they cannot touch the Smart Board, they do it MORE! Ha ha ha.

I also have two computers at my desk (one just for the Smart Board), a small row of 6 computers for the students to use, a laser printer and surround sound. My classroom makes me smile every morning when I walk in. It is frustrating however that everything is in Korean. Why would they spend all this money on English equipment and then put Korean versions of all the programs? It is VERY annoying as the Native English teachers at every school are the only ones for the most part using these computers and programs. I guess some things will never change!

One interesting thing about my classroom is that the students are responsible for cleaning it. Twice a day students come in with their little brooms and dust pans and proceed to sweep the entire classroom, and empty the trash. I LOVE this idea. Since the students are the ones that make the mess I see that it is only fair that they be the ones to clean it up. The classes each rotate cleaning the English room.