What would you do to develop professionally if your school “gave” you 1 day per week to pursue your goal(s).

Korean elementary school teachers should have many strings to their bow. Homeroom teachers teach almost every subject except a few subjects. There are special teachers for specific subject like English, Physical, Music and Fine art education. They teach only one subject to whole graders. But it depends on individual schools that they have special teachers or not. So there is a case that homeroom teachers have to teach every subject including physical, music, and fine art education. Also subject teachers can be homeroom teachers and vise versa. Every the end of the year we, teachers can decide whether they want to be homeroom teachers or subject teachers during next year. And we can the grades as well.
That’s why Korean elementary school teachers should know the entire curriculum from 1st grade to 6th grade about all subjects. And often teachers choose one subject that they’re interested in or good at and keep studying in graduate schools. Teachers are required to be men of accomplishments so if my school gave me 1 day per week for my profession development, I would like to do many things.
First of all I’d like to learn how to play the piano more. If I played the piano well I could teach songs playing the piano. I can do now but it needs to be practiced for quite a long time so if I could do that without much practice, I could do that with confidence and focus to my students not my playing. Furthermore classic music and the beautiful sound of piano give me metal relaxation and energy. It will definitely helpful to my school life.
Secondly I’d like to study Japanese. Other days I study English and just one day per week I want to invest my time in learning Japanese. I am interested in Language itself and knowing some languages can be a powerful tool for understanding their culture and people. In a globalized society we should understand about other countries, so many Korean students are studying Japanese as their second foreign language. Maybe I could teach Japanese to my students in an after school or extra curricular activity.
At last I want to go to swimming. I know how to swim but I’m not good at. I need to practice more especially the butterfly stroke and backstroke. It’s good for my health and I can teach how to swim to my students in an after school or extra curricular activity. And when I teach about swimming in Physical education I could teach in a practical, interesting way if I were good at.
The more I teach the students, the more I need to improve myself. It is one of important duties as a teacher that I give the chance to experience various things to my students. To do that, I should have more time for self-improvement. If I could have 1 day per week it would be awesome. I hope I can be a mature adult and a teacher.

http://www.colorincolorado.org

The name “"Colorín Colorado" comes from a playful phrase that is often said at the end of stories in Spanish-speaking countries. There's no literal translation, but the phrase is similar to "…and that's the end of the story!" or "…and they lived happily ever after."


This website is really good for reading skills. In an EFL situation, reading books can be a really powerful tool to learn English. In books for kids there are lots of useful expressions in a real life. So we can get some real, natural English from them. Reading skills enhance the other language skills as well. Teachers are aware of the importance of reading in learning other language, but it’s not hard to choose effective, suitable books for kids and even for myself. I need that kinds of information.
And finally through this site I can look through some lists of books for kids and for adults.
There is ‘Book & Authors’ section in this site. Under this category there are ‘Books for kids’, ‘Books for Teens’, ‘Books for Adults’ and ‘Meet the Author’. There are not only lists of books but age level and reading level so it helps to choose books by levels.
Also there are many articles which give the teachers lots of useful ideas for creating an environment that is supportive for my students and encourages and facilitates learning such as ‘Activities’, ‘Bilingualism & English language acquisition’, ‘Assessment & Evaluation’, ‘Learning disabilities’, ‘Teaching & Instruction’ and ‘Writing’.
At last there is ‘Free Guides & Toolkits’ section which gives reading tip sheets for teachers. It’s definitely helpful for teachers to teach reading skills.

freelanguage.org/learn-english/bbc-learning-english

After looking through this website I wish I knew this site earlier. There are so many things I can use in my class. In the News English category we can see much short news about science, society, culture, art, etc. We can hear that news by native speaker’s pronunciation and also new words are explained separately which is good for English learners. There are also Business English, Watch & Listen, Quizzes and Exams, For teachers categories and so on. In ‘For Teachers’ category there are hundreds Lesson plans and worksheets which we can use in our class. And in ‘Quizzes and Exams’ category here are many quiz nets and crosswords. Also we can check the answers immediately. As a teacher I can use the short news in my class. They can know what’s going on around the world and learn English as well. It can be quite authentic texts so I assume that that’s good for my students.

www. rosettastone.com

I did the demo lesson from the
roseettastone program. It was made to learn other languages in dynamic immersed environment. They show images and words together so I can match the pictures and the words together. The images are all about real life so I can understand the meaning of the words immediately even though I’ve never heard that language before. And I can hear native pronunciation so it makes me easy to follow the pronunciation.
It’s good thing that I can understand the meaning of the words without direct translation with my first language. And as level goes up words became sentences but there are patterns so it’s not too difficult to catch up. I can say the instruction is well organized for learners.
I can use some ideas from this site to my class. When I teach some new vocabulary I can show some real life images with words so they can ‘acquire’ the meaning of words without direct explanation or translation. I think the most important thing in English class is immersion environment, real situation. Make the students interested in target language, motivate them to ‘use’ the target language, not ‘learning’ or ‘studying’.

How to use the website as a teacher and a learner

1. As a learner
There are many tutors I find easily through this website. All I have to do is just search the right person. And even I can’t meat in person, I can get online tutoring as well, and it’s really good for me as a English learner. I need someone who can teach me not in a group but personal guide.

2. As a teacher
There are many lesson plans with pictures and videos and there are also questions to ask related to them. There are students’ book and teachers’ book in different section so teachers can use these materials easily. Also they’re divided into levels, so I can modify them for my students. There are lots of daily lesson plans with worksheet, puzzles and so on. I can create many kinds of puzzle, so I can have my own worksheets whenever I need them.
There are not just about language section like reading & writing. We can see math, social studies, science as well. So I can teach English in a integrated way using other subjects.

I can use ‘Reading and Color books’ for my 3rd grade students. They are not good at read in English and actually they don’t like to read something even in Korean. But they love to color something. So if I use the ‘Reading and Color books’, they might have interesting about it. And during color the book they can learn English as well. Once they’re done with reading and coloring books they have their own books which means they can carry all the time and review the words.

Well begun is half done.

I'd like to travel all around the world and I want to grow up..be a bigger, better person.
That's why I'm here in the U.S.A right now,,and so far, so good.^^

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I'll try to keep the balance of my life.