Seoul UPenn Dental Clinic
서울 유펜 치과
Creating Beautiful Smiles Providing Gentle Dental Care Do-shik Kim D.M.D. University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine Periodontics(Gum disease) American Academy of Periodontics Periodontal Prosthesis American Academy of Osseointegration Dental Implant American Dental Association
Steve Lemlek is the handsome (and beautifully bearded) half of “Hal & Steve English,” an English education startup trying to change how English is taught in Korea.
Dental Implant Crowns (caps) & Fixed Bridges Teeth Whitening Esthetic dentistry (Veneers & Bonding) Periodontal Scaling & Surgery
116 Yanghwa-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul 02-324-2525 seoulpenn5901@gmail.com Weekdays 10am-6pm / Sat 10am-1pm Evening hours available by appointment
Hapjung Station Subway Line 2&6
3
9
Seoul Upenn Dental Clinic
Hongik Univ.
Hongdae Station Subway Line 2
25 www.groovekorea.com March 2017
were a disaster. At first I thought, Well, if they can’t speak, at least they can read. After all, that’s what the Korean teacher’s claimed. “We know they can’t speak well, but we teach them grammar.” So I switched my lessons up. The next week, I focused on writing and storytelling, with lower level speaking tasks snuck in so that they’d learn the basics. They couldn’t read. At least, they couldn’t read at the level their Korean English teacher’s curriculum indicated. I don’t know how they learned in their Korean teacher’s class, or how they managed to pass any of their English tests, but my students were three years lower than their curriculum. And my meager twice-a-week class wasn’t going to be able to rectify that problem. So I decided, after a month of failures, to change my expectations for the class. Instead of creating great speakers, or writers, or listeners, I would create confident kids. Kids that could use whatever amount of English they knew to their advantage. I turned to Waygook.org, Dave’s ESL, Genki English… the whole lot of ESL gurus on the internet. I used their lessons for inspiration. I saved about 10 games from each of them, so that I would always have a perfect roster of up-beat activities. You know, just in case any of my lesson plans fell short. I took their ideas, customized them, butchered them, or frankensteined them into anything I needed. It saved my career as an ESL teacher. I could never become Robin Williams in the Dead Poets Society. That just wasn’t going to work out. So I became me. And I used the tools that I gathered from experienced teachers to help become a damn good version of me. If you’re still trying to figure out what to do in your curriculum-less school, then I recommend you do the same. Turn to outside resources, especially the ones I mentioned. Create a back catalogue of activities so that you’re always prepared. And never rely on a book, because you’re far better off without one.