It's the end of summer break as second semester starts
tomorrow. I’m not ready to go back so
soon, but it is nice that it’s already second semester in August! Summer break in Korea is only one month long
and unfortunately for us EPIK teachers, we can only take about eight days off of work. For two weeks of the month long
break, we have to run an English camp.
We’ll do this for winter break as well.
It took me a while to think of a theme for my camp, but once I got the
idea going, I was really excited for it. The theme being “American Summer Camp.” The
point of camp is for the kids to learn / practice English, but I think it’s also important
to change it up from regular class to give them a bit of a break. Even though they are on summer break, many of
the students attend camps of some sort and still go to their academies. I just want them to have some fun once in a
while!
I was a counselor at a summer camp a few years ago, so I was
excited to take some of those activities and adapt them to this English
camp. As long as they were learning
English or using English in one way or another while enjoying what they were doing, that’s all that mattered.
Here are some pictures showing the main activities of what we did each day. We also watched bits of Finding Nemo, along with writing in their journals every day before it was time to leave.
Day 1: Introduction
Cabin Fantastic
Cabin Insect
Cabin Freedom
Cabin 38 Line (Dividing North & South Korea)
Day 2: Arts & Crafts
Journals!
Day 3: Scary Stories
I don't have any pictures from this day, but we did some activities after watching a clip from Full House when Steve tells a scary story to the girls at camp and an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark. Almost forgot about that show!
Day 4: Creative Writing
Six Word Memoirs
I really liked this one and asked Soo bin if that was her trying to make a decision. This was before she had the angel and devil on there. She said she wants to be a radio DJ, but she can't because her mom wants her to be a lawyer. Makes me sad. :(
Day 5: Miscellaneous
There wasn't a specific theme for this day. It gave us time to finish other activities and have a laid back Friday.
Day 6: Rainy Day
If it's raining at summer camp, sometimes you need to stay inside, right? Basically this was just my excuse to play games all day and watch some more Finding Nemo!
Charades
Scattergories (They all ran to the map for some help.)
Day 7: Skits
We watched some camp skits on YouTube and then it was their turn to perform a skit for us. I typed out two scripts and gave one to each group. The group sitting on the floor was super into it. The other group, not so much. You can kind of tell by their faces!
Day 8: Postcard Writing
They wrote postcards to their parents telling them about camp. I wish I would have actually sent these in the mail.
By far my favorite day! We got together with the English camp at Myeongjin Middle School and had one giant water fight. Basically we went on a field trip and I walked the students there by myself. There weren't any papers that needed signed or anything. It was only about a 10-15 minute walk, but I was constantly counting to make sure they were all there. It was strange being able to just leave like that.
About 400 water balloons!
Balloon Toss
All getting ready to hit their target!
Dodgeball with water balloons.
Free for all!
Day 10: Party
The last day of camp we ordered pizza and watched a movie. We were going to watch Camp Rock to go along with the camp theme, but it wasn't working so we watched Bolt instead.
I really enjoyed camp because it gave me a chance to get to know my students. It was a nice change from the regular semester because it's much harder to do that when I only see each class once a week. That's one thing I miss about teaching at home. I also didn't have to worry about co-teachers and had freedom to plan what I wanted. I did have a co-teacher at camp with me, but she was there just to help if it was needed. I'm not at all sure what the theme will be for winter camp, but I know I'll be looking forward to it. As for second semester that starts tomorrow, I still don't have my schedule. Oh Korea.
