My Academy

A little background information to better understand my academy students and what a Korean academy really is:

The Academy

Korean Academies are set up to help students learn English. Why this is so important is because students have to take the TOEFL exam when they are nineteen years old. The TOEFL is strictly an English exam and if they do not pass the reading, writing and speaking sections, their choices for colleges drop drastically. You have to pass, with a good score, to get into any Korean University or any foreign University. 

A Day in the Life of my Students

First, my students go to public school from 8:30am - 4:30pm. From there, they are picked up by an academy van and rushed to their academy. Students will complete either one or two, fifty minute classes at that said academy and then will be picked up by another van and taken to their next academy. This is usually repeated two or three times through out the night. Hence my odd working hours (3pm-7pm).

By the time I  see my advanced students, they have already been to two or three different academies and had 12+ hours of school....... and are still willing to learn and participate in my class. 

With everything that I have learned in my first week about my students and their hectic schedule, I have so much respect for them. If I would have put forth even 1/5 of the dedication they show toward my schooling, I would have been on the Dean's List a lot more!! 

With that being said, my students rarely have a free minute to themselves where they are not dedicated to school, being a kid is taken up by schooling. 

A Day in the Life of Ms. Carrie or "Teacher, Teacher"

Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I have a full day of classes with a twenty minute supper break. I start my first class at 3:30pm. I begin with teaching lower level student until about 8:30pm. From there I teach the students from a textbook about American History and our political system (right up my alley) from 8:40-10pm. 

Tuesday and Thursdays are more relaxed. At 3:30pm, I have a one-on-one grammer class and at 6pm Scott and I co-teach debate. (I have a very intelligent bunch, I look forward to our upcoming debates.) At 8:40pm, I teach four, fourteen year old students critical lessons for the TOEFL exam they take at nineteen!! That's correct, these students are studying for their exam five years before!! 

So, that is what I am doing over here. Keeping busy and saying out of trouble!

-C