Lunchtime Opportunities

This week started a new school year in Korea.  I was really looking forward to the start of this semester because I would be coming in at the beginning of a new school year instead of at the beginning of the 2nd semester.  I implemented a new rule/opportunity regarding my classroom at lunchtime.  I told the students that if they want to come to my classroom during lunch, they must either do homework or read a book in English.  If they read books, they could do worksheets for prizes that I would distribute at the end of the semester.

Last year, I had a group of about 4 boys who would come up to my classroom and just hang.  They didn't bother anyone and were no trouble at all.  Sometimes they would talk to me and sometimes they would ask if I would play a song (in English).  They were a lot of fun, actually.  One was a phenomenal singer and a fantastic English speaker.  This year, they are 3rd years in middle school.  They were not excited when I told them about the new rule.

However, today they came up to my classroom at lunch and picked up a book to read (together).  The boy who was weaker in English read while his friends helped him.  These boys are 14 years old and voluntarily helped each other read in English during their lunchtime when they could be doing ANYTHING else.  I couldn't help but smile the entire time.

The video is cut down to about 2 minutes.  The same number of pages covered in the video actually took about 9 minutes.  I was able to cut it down because 7 minutes is them discussing the book in Korean so the weaker student could understand.