Also watch EGG Drop here.

It’s 8 pm and we’re currently on a train to Gyeong-ju, the ancient capital of Korea. It’s incredible to think that we’ve finished camp and it’s surreal that I’ve spent my last day at Yeomyung.

We began the day with finishing up student final projects. Somehow all the projects came together today and looked pretty cool. After lunch, we spent an hour working on posters and then presented on our own projects and ourselves. We also played EGG Drop, the video I compiled of our crazy two weeks.

During final presentations, almost all of the teachers showed up. It was really rewarding seeing the students faces light up as the teachers audibly ohhed and ahhed over their projects. Grace’s house that lit up when the lights turned on, Jarvis’s Bluetooth car, Bill’s Arduino piano, and the Scratch games were particularly big hits. After we handed out materials to the students to take home, we went out for a class buffet dinner before rushing to Seoul Station for our train out.

I can’t believe that my time at Yeomyung is over. To be honest, I didn’t want to come back this year. I contemplated applying to a different GTL and actually requested to be placed in a different school. After two years of the program, I was a bit jaded on how much impact the program really brought. Students fell asleep in class, we heard of the brightest alumni failing out of college. I was wondering what value our hectic two weeks and months of planning really brought.

This year, I came in with the mindset that I wanted to just have a great lesson plan and wanted my team to have a good time. Throughout the two weeks, I was surprised by many old students who walked in to say hi. Lucy is now a chemistry student at Seoul National University and comes back to mentor younger students in chemistry. Rachel is a student from my first two years who really was interested in machine learning. She came by today to watch the final presentations and when I asked her about machine learning she told me that she “knew that now!”

I tend to make decisions based on fear of missed opportunities. A lot of the beginning of last year was spent trying to figuring out what really mattered to me and coming up empty handed. I tend to be pretty skeptical of life changing experiences. I came into this year thinking that so long as each student at least had a fun two weeks I’d be satisfied.

And to be fair, I’m sure most of my students do think this was a fun two week camp. But I’d like to share a story about one student in particular.

Jennifer told me earlier last week that she joined camp cause it was better than being home being yelled at by her mom. She did all the activities that we had planned but she told us that everything was OK, that she was pretty ambivalent about everything. This week, we worked on the electric car together and she finished faster than anyone else. For her final project, she built a car that worked with photo-resistors and understood the code. Today at dinner, she told us that she found coding fascinating and that she really enjoyed camp.

She accompanied us halfway on the way back because she was heading home and when we hugged goodbye, she started crying.

Yeomyung has taught me the most about teaching. I’ve always held the belief that teaching at its essence could be distilled into the imparting of information. The school has showed me that teaching is multi-dimensional. Yeomyung has taught me about the importance of the teaching of joy and the teaching of confidence.

A student my very first year told me that she dreamed to fix all the problems of the world. Jennifer this year told me that she used to have dreams but then she just figured that they’d never come true. During lunchtimes we talked for hours about the possibility of studying for grad school in America, as my parents had done. Today, she told me that it was her plan to do just that.

I’m not naive enough to believe that our camp has a long or life altering impact on all students lives. But this year and these little moments remind me why I love teaching. And I think Yeomyung has given me a little key into what makes things meaningful: those things that make your heart hurt to leave.

Saturday

We started this Saturday with a late morning at Paris Baguette. After a slow breakfast, joined by Slava!, Laura, Jordan, and I headed out to start our day excursion to Suwon, a city around 40 minutes south of Seoul. Sheila split off to visit her old neighborhood for the day.

We made it to Seoul Station and successfully purchased tickets with our dwindling supply of cash. We then boarded the train. We were all sitting separately, but Laura and I sat next to two adorable kids who offered us each candy. After disembarking, we vetoed a taxi and decided to walk to the fortress walls instead. The old city of Suwon in enclosed in a massive wall, situated on a hill.

After walking along the wall for a bit and visiting some pagodas and gates, we headed into the city to check out the old palace. Although the palace was destroyed by the Japanese during the occupation, it had been refurbished. We wandered around the palace for a bit and also climbed up to the adjoining pagoda. The forest looked like it was out of a movie. Unfortunately, the zipper on my boot popped along our walk so I spent the rest of the day with my boot held together by two hair ties. Hair ties are resilient.

A bit hungry after our hike, we headed to Suwon chicken street but only found one chicken place open. Using much gesturing, some Google translate and pointing, we managed to order three bowls of jiajiangmian and some traditional fried chicken. Success!

Full, we headed to the archery court that Laura had read about online. Each person was able to shoot 10 arrows for 2000 won! I was quite bad at it but Jordan excelled. At this point, the sun had disappeared and it was getting quite cold. We headed back into the city to check out the mural village before heading to dinner. The murals were beautiful and whimsical but the entire area was eerily deserted.

Finally, we headed to the main gate for dinner at the food trailers. We ducked into a local bakery and bought some bread before dinner. Although we didn’t eat the bread we bought, we definitely cleaned out the bakery’s free samples. Wandering through the night market, we decided upon galbi and sundae (Korean sausage) soups. We ordered by pointing and much gesturing until we realized the waitress spoke Chinese.

Stuffed and warm, we started the long journey home. Laura and I both fell asleep on the train. We headed to bed soon after.

Mural village

Selfie in front of the river

Chicken

Palace

Palace

Fortress walls

Sunday

We woke up early to grab some breakfast at a local restaurant before heading out for our walk along the Han River. Laura and I split a omurice and mandu, Sheila had kimbap, and Jordan tried spicy chicken rice. We then met up with Sheila’s friend Aron and started our walk. This walk was more like a hike. The riverfront was beautiful if smoggy because of the pollution.

Around noon, I split off in order to purchase shoes (because mine had split the day before). Jordan, Sheila, Aron, and Laura headed for the Korean War Memorial. On my way to the subway station, I chanced upon the Korean National Museum which turned out to be free! The building was beautiful and had a pond outside.

After wandering through the museum, I headed to Dongdaemun to buy a pair of shoes. Doota Mall was a bit out of my price range but I had a great ice cream there. I ended up heading to Migliore, an indoor marketplace, and bought a pair of boots, that, as Laura mentioned, looked almost exactly the same as my original.

After coming home and resting for a bit, Laura, Jordan and I headed for a jjimjilbang, or a traditional Korean spa. It was Laura and Jordan’s first time at a nude spa and we met up to explore the rest of Siloam Sauna complex after we bathed. It was five floors and had restaurants, ping-pong tables, nap rooms, and movie rooms. As Laura mentioned, you could really live there. Rejuvenated, we met up with Sheila to have a dinner of noodles and dumplings.

We then headed home with the intention of sleeping but instead watched some Pixar short films, Thai Life Insurance commercials, and comedy skits before actually heading to bed.

River walk views

River walk views

Gone fishing

Museum views

Museum views

Seoul National Museum

Today was probably the most polluted day we’ve had so far in Korea. On our way to school, I mistook the sun for the moon. The students and we were very tired the entire day as well.

We started these two weeks with a roster of sixteen students. Two left–Daniel is getting surgery this week and Emma is starting her animal husbandry internship. Three more were sick today and one didn’t show up, so we began the day with a grand total of ten students. We started the day with turtle. We programmed for an hour with blocks and then with Python. During this point in the day, most students were actually pretty engaged with Python and some even worked through the break!

After lunch, we learned about the Internet. Bill also left for math camp and so we only had nine students in the afternoon and I spent the end of lunch frantically editing lesson plans. We started by playing three rounds of battleship. During the first round, the students played one another normally in a tournament style. During the second round, the students couldn’t speak to one another and could only exchange slips of paper. In the third, we passed around these slips of paper. This game was used to get students used to the idea of routers to pass information.

We then headed down to the computer lab to do some Scratch. This was probably the low of the day and many students were pretty tired and some fell right asleep. Steve, who had spent all of last night up gaming, started snoring at his computer. We headed back upstairs and played a round of ninja as a morale booster. We then ended the day by simulating the Internet with a candy passing game where students acted as both clients and routers. At least Jarvis was wowed by the concept of the Internet, which, honestly, made the entire rest of the day better.

Our initial plan had been to order in pizza and collapse. Instead, we stopped at a halal restaurant on our way down the mountain. Honestly, the pizza was too cheesy but the chocolate milk was great. We then headed home, bought some face masks for the pollution and collapsed.

Turtle

Turtle

Turtle

Internet Jr.

Happy birthday Laura!

It’s a bit 10 pm the night after our first day of teaching. Jordan and Sheila are currently testing a cake by conduction lab in our Airbnb kitchen. Our floor is littered with electronic parts and a lone soldering iron stands guard next to a pile of microscope slides.

I’ve spent the past three winters teaching at Yeomyung school, a high school for North Korean defectors in Seoul.

Each winter, MIT sends hundreds of students to teach around the world through the Global Teaching Labs program. As a sophomore, I initially applied to Korea because it was one of the few programs that allowed students to completely design their own curriculum as a team and was notoriously intense. I liked teaching, novel experiences, and traveling and had never been to Korea before and so seemed like a fit.

By now, I’ve visited almost every location listed under “Where to go in Seoul?” results on Google search, but I don’t feel exactly like the average tourist. I’ve spent many many more hours visiting the top floors of Daiso than the viewing plaza of North Seoul Tower; I’ve been more excited seeing rows of stalls at Digital World and Yongsam Electronics Market than sightseeing Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Each year brings new challenges and new faces. But each year, we have a better idea of curriculum that might work well. The first two years of the program, the team flew through material, uncertain about what type of material might work well. In 2017, we made module style lessons where every two days focused on a different topic. Last year, we made the curriculum heavily project-based, setting up Raspberry Pis and monitors to construct a makerspace-style environment.

This year, we’re trying to bring the best of the last two years. We’re increasing the breadth of the program in terms of subjects covered but keeping the final project aspect to allow students to dive into a subject of their choosing. Today, after introductions and a basic English lesson, we covered optics, working through a laser lab and building our own film cameras.

My mom asked me the other day why I kept coming back to Korea. I’ve seen all the sights. Why don’t I want to try going somewhere new? After seeing my students, some of whom came back for the second or third time, I realized that they keep me returning.

I’ve taught in many different situations. I’ve TA-ed computer science classes and camps at MIT and around the world. I’ve helped run summer science camps for kids. I’ve tutored. But teaching at Yeomyung is a uniquely challenging experience. Several of the students have little to no English capability and some are more comfortable speaking Chinese. Students range in age from 14-30 and their experiences in science are also across the board. This variation is explained by the differences in the students’ backgrounds. Some were born in North Korea under a variation of circumstances. Some spent time or were born to refugees in China. Their varied experiences, ages, languages, and interests make for a challenging classroom environment.

Although it is impossible to perfectly match the interest of every student, it is our job to develop a curriculum that is engaging and thoughtful and flexible and to make sure that our students feel cared for. And I’m hoping that this year is the best one yet.

One of the biggest lessons that Yeomyung has taught me is the importance on seeing and teaching the individual student amongst the class. I’ve had many students over the last three years who I remember well. Bill, the class clown, who shouted “OK, Google” at his Raspberry Pi at the top of his lungs. Rachel, who just entered university for machine learning. Lucy, whose dream it was to teach chemistry at her own college in North Korea after reunification.

But I’d like to end this blog post by talking about one student in particular. In 2017, in my first email update to my friends, I told them about Grace, the youngest student in our class. I wrote, “As one of the youngest students, she was also probably one of the students who had been one of the most impacted by our program. On our third day of teaching and the first day of my module, she started crying from joy, saying, ‘my mother says we are born alone and die alone, but right now I feel so loved I cannot truly be alone.’”

This year marks Grace’s third year back in my classroom. She’s not as young anymore and is now one of the role models for the other students. She’s graduating next year and planning on going into hospitality. She’s now confident, speaks first, translates for others, and definitely doesn’t cry. But she’s still gracious, engaged, and kind.

We’re now both older, soon-to-be-graduating, and definitely more jaded. Upon seeing me today, she gave me a hug and thanked me for coming back. Really, I’m grateful for her. Her enthusiasm and optimism during the weeks we share each year remind me why I teach.

I’m excited for the rest of these two weeks with this wonderful team. It’s now nearing 11:30 so I should probably head to bed.

Thanks for reading!

Em