It’s winter and that means one thing…winter camp. Public school teachers often have several weeks off from classes during the winter. These breaks are divided into vacation time and winter camp time. Nicole and I have 4 weeks of vacation starting at the end of January. However, before sweet sweet vacation we have 3 weeks of winter camp at the Gwangyang Foreign Language Experience Center where we work. It sounds like a lot but it’s pretty manageable. [divider_flat]
A Winter’s Camp Day
Our winter camp is broken up into 4 different classes. Nicole and I, and our two Korea co-teachers, each teach a 40 minute class. Just like at English Town, our groups of students rotate from one class to the next, so we each teach the same class four times.
My class is Space Camp. My students and I are making our own solar system mobiles and constellation guides. Nicole is teaching Harry Potter Camp. Her students are making their own wands out of pipe cleaners and made “potions” with vinegar and baking soda. Our Korean coworkers are teaching “American’s Big Holidays” and “DoDo English” (pronounced doo doo). In the holiday class, the students are making mashed potatoes and Jack-o-Lanterns. [divider_flat]
Group Events
The rest of the day we do group activities with the campers. One day we have a field day with wheelbarrow races, three legged races, and crab soccer. Another day we are teaching a dance to the Pharrell song “Happy”. Thursday we play “Running Man”, a word scavenger hunt.
“Running Man” is the name of a Korean TV show where contestants must complete challenges in groups. Our version of “Running Man” has students running around English Town looking for words on little scraps of paper. After the students collect the paper they must assemble them into sentences. The team with the most sentences wins. My team, green team, won the first week of camp.
On the last day of camp our students compete in a Jeopardy review game. All the questions come from the different teachers and their respective camps. At the end of the game the team with the most points wins. My team, green team, won again the first week. It was pretty awesome to win twice in the first week of camp. I was really proud of my team. They worked hard and they succeeded. I just hope I can keep the winning streak going for the next two weeks of winter camp.
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