Best Class Trip - Part Deux

Today was the second installment of the "Best Class" Contest. This month we based our criteria on their daily spelling/meaning test scores. The class chosen was our top elementary school class. I am quite fond of this class so I was thrilled we were going to be spending a day together.

This time it was just me and the kids, no Korean teacher to assist. I was a little nervous but all was fine. We started by meeting at the school and walking to the bus stop together. Unfortunately some of the students were late so we had to wait 25 minutes for the bus and the students who were on time were not impressed. We eventually made it to Seongnam-dong and started by having lunch. Again we went the Lotteria and I was impressed at how inexpensive it was. For thirteen hamburger sets, it was a mere $45. You would never see that back home. After lunch, the students were given some money to spend downtown and so we did some shopping. Today is my director's birthday and her son is in this class so I helped him buy a gift for his momma. It was really cute. He got her some jewelry.

After shopping, they really wanted to go on this ride called "Nori Zone". I wasn't sure what it was but once we got there and had a look I knew I was NOT going on it hahaha. It was really scary! I found a mediocre video of one on Youtube: Nori Zone  It seems a lot scarier in person. I opted to go on a 4D ride that was also quite scary. It was a 4 person ride in a "Car" and you basically are driving around on the most terrifying car ride of your life, where if it were real life you would have been dead twenty times over. I was amazed at how real it actually felt. We also played some air hockey, which seems to be a favorite with the students.

After this we did some additional shopping and stopped for smoothies. I treated the kids to the smoothies and it was really nice how appreciative they were. By the time we got home I was ready for a nap haha but the students went on to a trampoline place in town.

Overall it was a great day :)

Best Class Field Trip!

For the New Year, we decided to make things a little interesting at our school and incorporate a "Best Class" contest among the classes to get the students motivated to do their homework and prepare for their spelling tests. For the month of January, we based our criteria on homework completion. The class that won is one of our more advanced classes at the elementary level. The way it works is that once the best class has been selected, the class is informed and they choose what they want to do and then I take them out for the day as a gift from the director.

For this particular class, they chose to go to Lotteria, which is similar to McDonalds, but a little better in my opinion. We had lunch and then headed for downtown on the bus. Once downtown, we spent a good chunk of time in an arcade and played some games. All the kids wanted to play air hockey against me so I spent a great deal of time playing that haha. After the arcade, we hit up a couple stationary stores. The students we given a 3,000 won spending limit (around $3), so they took their time deciding on what they wanted. One of the students bought me a notebook and pen! It  was very sweet of him, and feels like a parting gift now, as he is no longer a student at our school. Overall the students had a really great time and so did I. The day is also set up so that the students try to use as much of their english skills as they can. I would conclude that is was a success!

We have already chosen our "Best Class" for February and will head downtown again for a new class in a couple weeks. I am really looking for ward to it!