Every year, Fulbright hosts a prestigious English camp. Originally, the camp was created to prepare bright young ETAs for the world of teaching in Korea. Now, it is a pretty big deal in Korea. It is recognized as being one of the top English camps. Basically, on their summer break, kids can choose to live in Goesan with us. They have classes run by Camp Instructors in the morning and by ETAs in the afternoon. They sign a contract to speak English the entire time they are here.
The Camp Fulbright staff consists of mainly former ETAs. All the CIs, the director, and the activity director are former or current ETAs. Some completed their term years ago, some are renewing for next year. Vinny, the director, was an ETA over 10 years ago. Noelle, one of the CIs, has been teaching the advanced class for 7 years.
The Counselors are Korean university students, I believe. Some might be high schoolers. The Junior Counselors are American high school students. I believe there are also Korean high school students who are JCs. Basically, this seems like the coolest opportunity for both Americans and Koreans. The Koreans get intensive English classes, the Americans get intensive Korean classes. Everyone learns something.
Each year, Camp Fulbright has a theme. This year's theme was DARE. No, it was not drug related. The days were "Dare to be Different, Dare to be a Hero, Dare to be Green, ect." Yeah. Inspirational, fun, repetitive, and a little cliched, but it got the job done. Also, as ETAs, we had to incorporate the theme but not live by it.
For our teaching, we had to plan 45 minute lessons. Then, we'd work with our CIs. We each taught three times. We were with our first CI (and class) twice and changed for the third one. We also took part in Homework help...because this camp requires homework, and Night Fun.
My 3 days to teach were Dare to Dream, Dare to be Brave, and Dare to Speak Out. My first lesson focused on wishing rituals in the US. In the end, we played a sentence construction game that was the English lesson. Students were given a noun, verb, and adjective and had to form sentences like "the student smashed the red balloon, and then he made a wish." It was pretty funny and they seemed content.
For Dare to be Brave, we did a choose your own adventure. I wrote one. It was a zombie apocalypse. Oooh yeah. Together, we made it to one ending. Then the kids had to find the other endings. Then, they got to make their own. Also a blast.
My third one was on Daily Affirmations. I took the focus on Dare to Speak Out for yourself, because most Dare to Speak Out lessons are fairly similar. My CI did debate, my co-ETA did Dare to be an advocate. I didn't really want to focus on speaking out for or against an issue. So each kid made their own Daily Affirmation and one for a friend. Also, I got the benefit of showing this video in class.
For my Mock Trialers, I had to stop myself from saying I LOVE MY WHOLE TEAM so many times. Yeah, it may have happened once or twice.
Another thing we had to plan as ETAs was activity weekend. There were 4 sessions total. I, because I am me and I hate myself, volunteered to run one. It was Dare to be Adventurous. I wanted to do a scavenger hunt, but we ended up with an Amazing Race theme. There were 5 rooms, and each room had a different country/continent/city theme. NYC had to navigate the subway system to different tourist sites. In Brazil, they had to play a cross the river game and paint their faces. In Paris, they had to create a portrait of their friends. In Antarctica, they had to make snowflakes and play a clothing relay race. In Ireland, they danced.
The day was such a success. Here are pictures/videos.
The Camp Fulbright staff consists of mainly former ETAs. All the CIs, the director, and the activity director are former or current ETAs. Some completed their term years ago, some are renewing for next year. Vinny, the director, was an ETA over 10 years ago. Noelle, one of the CIs, has been teaching the advanced class for 7 years.
The Counselors are Korean university students, I believe. Some might be high schoolers. The Junior Counselors are American high school students. I believe there are also Korean high school students who are JCs. Basically, this seems like the coolest opportunity for both Americans and Koreans. The Koreans get intensive English classes, the Americans get intensive Korean classes. Everyone learns something.
Each year, Camp Fulbright has a theme. This year's theme was DARE. No, it was not drug related. The days were "Dare to be Different, Dare to be a Hero, Dare to be Green, ect." Yeah. Inspirational, fun, repetitive, and a little cliched, but it got the job done. Also, as ETAs, we had to incorporate the theme but not live by it.
For our teaching, we had to plan 45 minute lessons. Then, we'd work with our CIs. We each taught three times. We were with our first CI (and class) twice and changed for the third one. We also took part in Homework help...because this camp requires homework, and Night Fun.
My 3 days to teach were Dare to Dream, Dare to be Brave, and Dare to Speak Out. My first lesson focused on wishing rituals in the US. In the end, we played a sentence construction game that was the English lesson. Students were given a noun, verb, and adjective and had to form sentences like "the student smashed the red balloon, and then he made a wish." It was pretty funny and they seemed content.
For Dare to be Brave, we did a choose your own adventure. I wrote one. It was a zombie apocalypse. Oooh yeah. Together, we made it to one ending. Then the kids had to find the other endings. Then, they got to make their own. Also a blast.
My third one was on Daily Affirmations. I took the focus on Dare to Speak Out for yourself, because most Dare to Speak Out lessons are fairly similar. My CI did debate, my co-ETA did Dare to be an advocate. I didn't really want to focus on speaking out for or against an issue. So each kid made their own Daily Affirmation and one for a friend. Also, I got the benefit of showing this video in class.
Another thing we had to plan as ETAs was activity weekend. There were 4 sessions total. I, because I am me and I hate myself, volunteered to run one. It was Dare to be Adventurous. I wanted to do a scavenger hunt, but we ended up with an Amazing Race theme. There were 5 rooms, and each room had a different country/continent/city theme. NYC had to navigate the subway system to different tourist sites. In Brazil, they had to play a cross the river game and paint their faces. In Paris, they had to create a portrait of their friends. In Antarctica, they had to make snowflakes and play a clothing relay race. In Ireland, they danced.
The day was such a success. Here are pictures/videos.
France. Some decorations.
The kids dutifully making their portraits.
Irish Dancing in the Taekwondo Room.
The portrait room was a hit. Of course, funeral pics were also popular. Apparently if you put a black x on the top of the picture, then it means the person is dead.
Quickly putting on clothes for Antarctica
Crossing the river on the construction paper rafts
New York, New York
Snowflake making.
The portrait wall
One of the JCs
Facepaint was a must
How the relay race worked.
Oh yeah.
And the irish dancing.
Some other Activity weekend documentation:
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