The month of May has brought an onslaught of special events to Moontae High School.
Moontae Festival
Directly after midterms, Moontae hosted its school festival. This seemed to be a much bigger version of the one that was held in November. While that one lasted only the morning, this one was an entire day of student performances from each class. Tujia (a new teacher at my school from China) and I had the joy of joining a second grade class in something of a fashion show. The Korean teacher wore a student uniform, I wore a traditional hanbok, and Tujia wore a traditional Chinese dress. Aside from our brilliant performance, we spent the entire day in the gym watching the performances.
As was the case at the last festival, there was a whole bunch of cross-dressing. These are some third grade (Canada's 12th grade) students who I taught last semester.
Moontae Sports Day
The day after the school festival, was Sports Day! Each class competed as teams against each other in their own coloured uniform.
Girls primarily played dodgeball. Boys played soccer.
There were races, both regular and three-legged.
School's Birthday
Something unique to Korea is the recognition of the school's birthday. My school's 71st birthday was on May 12th, a Saturday, so I really have nothing to report on the celebration. Usually the school closes for the day but with it being on a Saturday, we were cheated!
Teachers' Day
On May 15th, schools all over Korea celebrated Teachers' Day. For elementary and middle schools (at least in Mokpo), students and teachers had the day off. As for high school, I taught for the first two periods and then had an assembly. From what I could gather, one teacher received a special award, the students sang a special teacher song, and a small group of 3rd graders performed a rap/dance combo. It was thoroughly entertaining. After that, a large group of students came over to the seated group of teachers to hand off a gift and flower. It was really sweet, and a sentiment I'm sure would cause Canadian students to cringe. After the assembly, all teachers headed to a suave restaurant where we had a shabu shabu/buffet lunch and enjoyed an afternoon of freedom!
Teachers' Day gifts!
Moontae Festival
Directly after midterms, Moontae hosted its school festival. This seemed to be a much bigger version of the one that was held in November. While that one lasted only the morning, this one was an entire day of student performances from each class. Tujia (a new teacher at my school from China) and I had the joy of joining a second grade class in something of a fashion show. The Korean teacher wore a student uniform, I wore a traditional hanbok, and Tujia wore a traditional Chinese dress. Aside from our brilliant performance, we spent the entire day in the gym watching the performances.
Moontae Sports Day
The day after the school festival, was Sports Day! Each class competed as teams against each other in their own coloured uniform.
Girls primarily played dodgeball. Boys played soccer.
Tujia, second grade girls, and myself.
Something unique to Korea is the recognition of the school's birthday. My school's 71st birthday was on May 12th, a Saturday, so I really have nothing to report on the celebration. Usually the school closes for the day but with it being on a Saturday, we were cheated!
Teachers' Day
On May 15th, schools all over Korea celebrated Teachers' Day. For elementary and middle schools (at least in Mokpo), students and teachers had the day off. As for high school, I taught for the first two periods and then had an assembly. From what I could gather, one teacher received a special award, the students sang a special teacher song, and a small group of 3rd graders performed a rap/dance combo. It was thoroughly entertaining. After that, a large group of students came over to the seated group of teachers to hand off a gift and flower. It was really sweet, and a sentiment I'm sure would cause Canadian students to cringe. After the assembly, all teachers headed to a suave restaurant where we had a shabu shabu/buffet lunch and enjoyed an afternoon of freedom!
Teachers' Day gifts!
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