What did you learn?

Although we have recently returned to the U.S., we will continue to post thoughts and stories from #AgEd2Korea participants to reflect on the breadth, depth and diversity of our experiences in Korea.  This blog showcases some of the answers to the question, "What did you learn through this experience?"

Deanna teaches at Suwon H.S. for the Agriculture Sciences

"I learned that international travel develops more awareness that I had ever thought it could or would." - Deanna

"I learned that students can get excited about learning all across the world if you just show them that you care and take time to try to understand them and help them, no matter what barriers you are faced with."  - Jason

"I learned that the Republic of Korea is a very open welcoming society that has a lot of advancements and are on the road to keeping their country green and sustainable. I also learned that the relationship between the North and South is far more complicated then I could ever imagine." - Rachel

"Through my experience in Korea, I learned that students will be students no matter where they are from. I have also learned that even with language barriers, that deeper level learning can occur if the teacher is passionate and uses hands-on skills to teach the lesson. I also learned that non-verbal communication is sometimes more understanding and clearer than verbal communication." - Jess

Abby interacts with elementary school students

"I learned that just because there is a language barrier, does not mean you cannot interact with others." - Abby

"I’ve learned why we have to be aware and we have to encourage our students to be aware of what is going on in the world around them because they never know how something or someone from their home can somehow influence the world." - Amanda

How has this experience helped you grow professionally?

Although we have recently returned to the U.S., we will continue to post thoughts and stories from #AgEd2Korea participants to reflect on the breadth, depth and diversity of our experiences in Korea.  This blog showcases some of the answers to the question, "How has this experience helped you grow professionally?"

"I believe this experience has helped me grow professionally in many ways. I think one of the biggest thing was the relationship that I developed with my fellow travelers. I have hugely enlarged my network of professional agriculture teachers that are specialists and I would feel comfortable contacting them for help or advice if needed." - Abby

Cassidy and her teaching partner at Suwon High School

"The chance to microteach was very beneficial.  Co-teaching, except during workshops, was something I had never done before. During the actual lesson, we ran into problems that might occur in any classroom-lack of time, cultural/language barriers. I think this experience was a good practice for later on. Since we had more people helping us, the support system was there as well." - Cassidy

"I feel like I am much more comfortable in meeting new people and most importantly, my ability to command the attention of a group. Through the few lessons I taught at Suwon and at Yeoju I have felt like I have improved greatly in my confidence level in teaching. If I can teach a class of Korean students who can’t understand much of what I am saying and they still learn, I think I will feel very confident teaching an English speaking class!" - Stacia

"As a professional educator I am walking away from this experience with an arsenal of ideas to implement directly into my agricultural education program as well as a greater sense of social responsibility to develop my students into global citizens through agricultural education. These professional growth takeaways would not have been acquired domestically." - David

Tyler interacts with peers from Seoul National University

"I think I have developed a great deal professionally by adding a large portion of global competency to my skills tool belt. Before this trip, I had little to no experience with other cultures. Now, if I were to work with someone professionally who is from a different culture I believe I would be able to have a much more positive experience. Not only do I believe this would apply to people of different cultures, it would also apply to people of different backgrounds or thought patterns, of which I may be unfamiliar." - Tyler

"This experience has changed me several ways. As a teacher, it has changed me by having me see that I need to be incorporating more global concepts into my lesson plans." - Jess

Janae, Kelli and Sarah taking a Korean quiz

"As a professional teacher, I have become more empathetic towards my English Language Learners. After going through the language course here, where I was the language learner, I had all those frustrations, struggles, let downs, and high points that my students experience as they are learning English." - Kelli

"I feel I am more prepared to teach after this experience. If I can teach a group of Korean students in a different language, I can teach a group of American students." - Rachel 

"As an agriscience teacher, traveling to another country and immersing myself into their culture and studying the agriculture education system has opened my eyes to the global agriculture world. I plan to use this knowledge to share with my students, alumni, community and other agriscience teachers. I know that my students will benefit from this experience as well because it has made me a better teacher." - Jason








 

Meaningful Interactions

Although we have recently returned to the U.S., we will continue to post thoughts and stories from #AgEd2Korea participants to reflect on the breadth, depth and diversity of our experiences in Korea.  This blog showcases some of the answers to the question, "What was your most meaningful interaction with a Korean person?"

Deanna and her SNU Teaching Partner

"My most meaningful interaction was with my SNU teaching partner. Not only did he help us with translations and logistics, but he helped us to structure our lesson and make it more impactful for the students in the classroom. He could have sat back and watched as we prepared a lesson but he was engaged and inqusitive the entire time. It makes me wonder how I would have responded in his situation." – Deanna

"My most impactful interaction was when we got to meet the Vice Minister of Education, Dr. Na. I am always excited to meet another OSU Alumni, and one who has made such an impact on the education system, just makes it that much more exciting. He had some very insightful words about finding your passion and dedicating yourself to it. If you are not building your passions, you will not have a very rewarding life." - Kelli

Lesson Planning: Kelli, Hee Song and Janae

"I loved working with my SNU teaching partner, Hee Song. She was absolutely awesome! She really had a presence in the classroom and I really enjoyed being able to team-teach with her. What really surprised me though was the note she left me on our last day together. She wrote that my passion for teaching helped to ensure that she was in the right profession as well. It was an incredible complement and she has impacted me in just the same way."
– Janae


"When I went to Insadong for the second time, as I was shopping I had a group of 13 year-olds and their teacher run up to me and speed quiz me on camera as an English project in order to help them learn to better speak English. They were a great group and they were so excited to talk to me and enjoyed talking to me in English & Korean and it was great to see students that excited to learn new languages." - Amanda

"At Buseong Elementary in Gwangju, I asked a 6th grade student how she was doing and she responded in English by saying, “I am happy!” This was evidence of the successful implementation of the school’s mission statement, which included 'Happy Students'.” - David

Jeremy's class at Yeoju High School

"My most meaningful interaction with a Korean has been with the students at Yeoju High School. They were so excited to have us in their classroom and learn about agricultural education in America. They were the friendliest, most respectful students I had ever met and they made me want to come to Korea and teach here for a while!" - Jeremy

"My most meaningful interaction with a Korean was when Jason and I were coming home from a late night out on the town and we met Jim, a Korean student from SNU. Jim was very kind, patient and engaging. We met Jim on the subway, we all three walked home even stopping long enough to grab a bite to eat and drink, just like we had known him for years. He even answered his phone to his girlfriend saying he had met some new friends and would be home late." - Chris

Jessica, Cassidy and Abby having lunch with a Suwon Teacher

"My most meaningful personal interaction with a Korean was probably the day that we went to lunch with the Suwon teachers for bugolgi. It was meaningful because although there was a language barrier, we had a normal conversation, just like I would have with my friends. We talked about our school day, what we love about our jobs, and about our family. It was neat to share those things, and I didn’t feel pressure to make sure I was speaking perfectly. They were just happy to interact with us, like we were with them. I wish I would have exchanged contact information with them, a lesson learned, but I really enjoyed lunch that day, and wish we could have had more one on one time with just the teachers. " - Abby

Teaching Team: Stacia, NeungSu and Jessica

"My most meaningful interaction with a Korean is my work with my SNU teaching partner NeungSu. Through teaching together I really had to rely on him to translate to our class. We also had to work on our own communication together for him to be able to help translate. It has definitely helped me realize how to speak more clearly and how to work with a partner in the classroom. Out of the classroom he has also given me a lot of insight into Korean culture. I have had the opportunity to ask him all about his traditions which was
a lot of fun to learn about." - Stacia

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

Happy Independence Day to the United States of America! Thank you to all who have given of themselves to serve our nation and those who continue to serve as part of our armed forces to allow the United States to be the beautiful land of the free and home of the brave. We honor you!

While today marks our 238th birthday as an independent nation, we obviously weren't able to celebrate the traditional way at home with parades, barbecues, fireworks, and other family festivities. Good thing we had each other!

We all spent our fourth of July evening with a traditional American past and present time activity....watching baseball! It was a lot of fun, and made us feel a bit like home. We attended a Korean professional baseball league game where we witnessed the Doosan Bears beat the Samsung Lions, 5-4.


While the stadium wasn't quite as big, and there was no announcer, I have to say, it was very interesting. Korean fans are quite coordinated and persistent about chanting out a variety of cheers for their team. Cheerleaders get the crowd going for each team, as well as a male "team spirit leader" and two drummers. Many chants had tunes that sounded familiar to our own tunes, so we even got into it and cheered on the game! It was a neat experience. It was neat to be in one of the sports complex facilities that was utilized for the Summer Olympics in 1988.

Another difference in the professional baseball atmosphere were the food choices. While there were no hotdogs or french fries or popcorn or other traditional ball game foods we have in the United States, we had to settle for Burger King, KFC, or dried squid!

All in all, this was an awesome experience. As a sports fan, I am glad we got to part-take in the game, especially on our nation's special day of celebration.

Happy July 4th Everyone!

The Programmatic View - Experiences at Suwon High School for Agriculture Sciences

The past two days have been inviting, exciting, challenging, and mind altering. We have finally reached the point in our trip in which is one of the main reasons for traveling here. 

We have enjoyed two full days touring and teaching at one of the most prestigious agricultural high schools in the Republic of Korea, Suwon High School for Agriculture Sciences. Suwon High School is one of three major types of high schools found in the Republic of Korea. It is considered a technical high school, similar the career and technical high school programs that can be found in the United States. Throughout today’s post, I would like to give you a little insight as to the student life at Suwon, as well as define some major highlights that all of us were able to take away from this extraordinary program.

Student Life

Student life is somewhat different from what some of us envisioned going into this program. Some students at Suwon High School reside in the on campus dormitories, while others live at home and commute. 

The high school has three grades at the high school level, known as grades one, two, and three. Obviously this differs from the United States because we are used to labeling grades from first to twelve. Students in Korea complete grades one through six at the elementary level. They complete grades seven through nine at the middle school level. (These grades start over and are known as grades one, two, and three.) They finish their schooling with grades ten through twelve at a high school which is chosen based upon their grades and review of a submitted application. (These grades also are known as grades one, two and three.). 

Students in Korea, upon completion of primary school, apply for and choose whether they want to or are able to attend a Meister school, technical high school, or common high school. All schools are different, based upon the students within them and their future career paths.

A typical school day for students at Suwon is as follows: Begin the school day at 8am. End the school day at 4pm. Participate in mandatory club activities until 6pm. Eat dinner. Attend free study sessions at school from 7pm to 9pm. If desired, attend dormitory study sessions from 9pm until 11pm. 

You are probably thinking…WOW, what a rough day! That is exactly what I was thinking. Students and teachers as well are putting in countless hours to make education their number one priority at this stage of life. 

Students are allowed to choose two areas of education to “major” in, but all are required to take certain general courses. 

Beyond differences of structure of the school day, I would like to introduce you to some of the very powerful concepts that Suwon High School has implemented and mastered, which is allowing their students to be ultimately successful.

Connections to U.S. School Based Agriculture Education

As our agriculture education programs in the United States follow similar models and concepts of why agriculture education is important and how it can be effective, both nations carry these ideas out quite differently. Below are a few examples.

1.       Many facilities such as greenhouses, animal research labs, and mechanical shops are available and utilized as lab space for students to work as groups to develop and complete research and other viable projects, where each student has a direct role but gets to learn hands on as a group. This relates to our Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) projects, in which most U.S. students complete individually.

2.       Alumni are an irreplaceable part of student learning at Suwon High School. Creating relationships with former students allows Suwon to bring in these alumni and have them share real world work experiences with the students on a daily basis. This not only allows the students to determine what it is they really wish to do after high school, but also helps create relevance to the labs and classroom instruction they are receiving in school. Like Suwon, we strive to bring professionals into our classrooms and create long lasting relationships with alumni in order to benefit our current students, but most likely, few programs in the grand scheme of things, have mastered this task because it takes time, reputation, and organization.

3.       Suwon is set up so that grade one (10^th grade) students receive hands on laboratory instruction most of their school year, while grade two students (11^th grade) receive a combination of laboratory and classroom instruction. In grade three (grade 12) much more emphasis is placed on taking the practical knowledge acquired throughout labs in previous grades and focusing on the application of that acquired knowledge through classroom instruction. In the United States, we often see this approach being completed in just the opposite manner, with the thought process that older students who have gained trust and have proved a specific maturity level, get to take advantage of participating in more lab-based classes.

We obviously can relate these concepts to our own agricultural education programs in the United States. Are there similarities? Yes! Are there differences? Of course! However, I believe a lot of benefits can be reaped from observation of successful programs, such as the one we have Suwon High School for Agriculture Sciences.   

Regardless of similarities and differences, all of us teachers will take new ideas back to our own programs to make them better. This was an absolute positive experience, teaching in, and observing the amazing teachers, students, and facilities at Suwon High School for Agriculture Science, a place where students accept responsibility for their learning, known their expectations, are creative, and express excitement, enthusiasm, and pride at their school.

Chopstick Challenges and So Much More...

Our first few days in Seoul have been interesting to say the least. We have been introduced to new cuisine, tampered with many new and unusual looking gadgets, met some fantastic students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Seoul National University, had brain overload with learning Hanguel (the Korean alphabet), exchanged and examined Korean currency, and learned to maneuver buses, subway systems and maps that have very little English.

Sounds like a lot huh? I think so, but I feel very accomplished. Our days have been packed with excitement so far. In my opinion, lots of bonding time with new fellow agriculture educator friends has led to a successful first few days on this adventure.

Teamwork is a must on a trip like this, and although our goal is to collaborate with Korean students in the Agriculture and Vocational Education Program at SNU to learn and share thoughts about school based agriculture education, there are a lot of other necessary items we've had to pick up fairly quickly to make the transition to life in the Republic of Korea for a month as normal as possible. I would like to share just a few of these things with you.

 First, I will mention what has been MOST challenging to me....and that is learning to eat with chopsticks. I sort of got the hang of using chopsticks at home before leaving for out trip, come to find out I became somewhat proficient in the use of wooden chopsticks only.

You may ask...What is the problem then? Well, all chopsticks used in Korean restaurants and cafes are metal, which believe it or not, are slippery and a bit harder to maneuver. After three days, I still feel like a little kids that just cannot learn to pee on the potty. A good outcome of this is that I have been eating a lot slower, due to challenging myself and forcing myself to use chopsticks successfully and with ease, which has caused me to eat less.....because I can actually feel when I am full. If you know me, eating slow has never been an ability I had, much less I'd like to say I have bad habit of eating very fast.

Speaking of the potty, many older buildings in Korea have a septic system that can not handle flushing toilet paper. Therefore, there are trash cans located in each bathroom stall in which you are supposed to put all your used waste. Seems pretty weird and gross when you're not used to it, but you wouldn't want to be the unlucky one to take the chance of flushing paper and creating a clog. Additionally, many of the toilets seen are called bidets. A bidet is a fancy toilet with a remote controller on the side that has many different buttons. If you so choose, it will wash you upon completion of using the restroom.

The electrical outlets have also been something very different from what we see in the United States. As we rely on these to charge our phones, tablets, computers, cameras and other handy gadgets, we have had to learn to utilize the proper adaptor in order to use the two prong AC power plugs found on all of our small devices that require electricity. Not only do we need to be able to plug our devices in, but we need to make sure that the voltage being transferred is set to the correct compatibility mode so we don't fry our appliances.

Hanguel....does that mean anything to you? Well, it didn't mean much to me until three days ago. Now I can say I know basics of a new language. It's pretty darn cool. Our language teachers have made learning how to write and read Hanguel very fun! Yesterday I even got to learn how to write my own name.

Last but not least, the currency. Korean currency is called the Won. Currency is in paper bills and in coins, just like in the U.S. However, the exchange rate for U.S. currency to Korean Won, to keep it simple, is one United States dollar equals one thousand Korean Won. Every time we look at the price of something, it seems so expensive, until we do the quick math in moving the decimal point to determine the equivalent price in U.S. dollars. Exchanging currency has been a neat opportunity, one I believe everyone should do at least once in their lifetime.

I hope you enjoyed my post on some unique encounters I have had in Korea thus far. It has definitely started off as a unique, dynamic, and interesting experience. Until next time, annyeonghi gaseyo, 안녕히가세요, good-bye!

Abby: Observations and experiences....there is so much to learn!

As I reflect on the past few weeks of our class sessions in preparation for our journey to South Korea, I have learned so much, and yet, in the grand scheme of things, have learned so very little that there is to know. I look forward to most of my learning taking place as we journey through our various stops in the great Republic of Korea.

As I go forward with this blog post, I would like to just highlight one area of interest that I find fascinating which will tie into the realm of information I plan to gather through my DIY project...EDUCATION. Though we have not spoken intensely about education in South Korea in our class sessions, I have learned quite a bit about education in South Korea through readings of our assigned texts and reading on my own. Below I will share with you some of what I have found and some questions that I have pondered through this unique educational process, as well as depict what my plan is for my DIY project. 

As we have all learned through our readings, education seems very different in the United States as compared to that in South Korea. The suicide rate in South Korea is substantially high in young generations due to pressure they feel to perform at school and make a successful entrance into college. While educational systems vary throughout the world, below are some basic facts that show how the educational system in the United States compares with that of South Korea.

Parameters/Big Ideas	United States	South Korea
School Year Length	About 9 months School months vary depending on state.	11 months March – February 2 Semesters:       March to July       September to February
School Year – Days	180 days Monday - Friday	220 days Monday- Friday Some Saturday classes
Hours per school day	6.7 hrs.	8 hrs. (not including study sessions or private tutoring)
Standardized Tests	YES	YES
Entrance Exams	YES – for college	YES – for high school and college
Areas of Study	English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education and other Fine and Practical Arts as electives -Students rotate from class to class.	Korean Language, Math, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, Moral Education, Music, Fine and Practical Arts, English -Students stay in same class. Teachers rotate from room to room.
Additional Hours of Study with Tutor	-About 22% of students take part in free tutoring annually	-About 75% of students take part in after school tutoring. -From 5pm to 10pm, most students study non stop
Pupil to Teacher Ratio (Primary School)	13.6	20.9
Graduation Rate	76.8%	94%
Opportunities to Students	-More room for independence -Part time jobs. -Extra activities like sports, band, drama, volunteering	-Rules strictly enforced by teachers -High parental involvement in education -Learn manners in school

I know through my reading, I have generated a substantial amount of questions about education in both our country...as I live it day in and day out, as compared to that of what it is like in South Korea. I am anxious to get into the classroom in South Korea to see what a typical school day is like. Through readings, it sounds exhausting, but looking at statistics, it looks powerful.

For my DIY project, I plan to gather some data through surveys of my own students on how they view and value education. I will gather some statistics on how they utilize their time outside of school, whether it be participating in sports or other leisure activities, working at part time jobs, studying for school, spending time with friends, etc. I hope to do a similar survey with South Korean students for comparison. I think it will be interesting and fascinating to see the results. 

So my question is....what does a truly impactful, positive, efficient and effective world-class modern education system look like? Within our schools and within our homes, how have we taken advantage of the growing power we have, what inputs have we used, to generate stable, strong, progressive thinking leaders, which were once just seedlings, to ensure a reliable and positive future to carry on for future generations to come? Do we really start with the end in mind....and if so, do we start with the end in mind soon enough?