Our School

     A little bit about our school.  Our school is called the Sogang Language Program, or SLP.  It is a branch of Sogang Universtiy, one of the leading research and liberal arts universities in Seoul.  It is essentially a Korean Ivy league school (I heard a guy say that a week ago and it stuck with me).  Anyway, several years ago, Sogang University created a language program for little ones.  The SLP school, where we teach, is one of many English teaching schools around Seoul.  We just happened to be located in Ilsan, a 20 year old city in the greater Seoul area.  There are many, many young students at the school and it can get very loud.

Here Kelly poses for us at the entrance of the library.  Including us, there were 4 new hires at this school and there was/is no room for us in the Teacher's room.  They set up a table for us to work on in the library for an immediate fix to this problem.  Hopefully, however, they will be able to find some space for us in the Teacher's room when the teachers who have ended their contracts in March go home. It would be nice to have more work space.

Our work station set up in the library.

A look down one of the hallways.  The colors are vibrant in this school, making it a pleasant place to work.  Just recently after Christmas break the school did an entire remodeling job (painted/wallpapered the walls) to make it even more vibrant!  The pictures taken here are pre-Christmas break.  The school looks much different now.

This is the main entrance of our school.  Yes, it is an elevator.  This school is not what you think of a typical school back in the states.  There is no playground or fancy climbing gyms where kids chip their teeth on.  This school is located on the 4th and 6th floor of an office building.  It is pretty cool, actually, to be able to look down at the bustling city below while you are teaching.  Quite a different environment from what I was expecting. 

Right when we came to the school for training, they were about a week away from Christmas break (awesome timing for us!).  Once a year, typically before Christmas break, the school has a "Market Day".  Essentially, throughout the school year, students are rewarded stickers for excellent behavior in class, and a job well done (no more than 3 stickers per class period).  At the end of the year, those stickers are tallied up and converted into USD's.  The students then use the dollars to buy really cheap crap that the school orders for them.  It is a great reward system that helps control the students' behavior and promote strong study tactics.

All of the pictures are accessible on our PicasaWeb Album, the link located on the side of the blog, but I thought I'd put a face to the children.  These kids are very energetic, willing to learn, and happy to be in school.  You can tell some of the students are drained (some go to school 10+ hours a day!), but they hold high respect for their teachers.  In the ancient days, teachers ranked just under royalty in Korea.  While I do not think that respect has transferred through the ages, students typically hold high respect for their elders and their teachers.  Makes the job a lot easier.