6/11/2009 - Friday

Yeongshin
Class 1-1, 1-3, 2-2, 2-4

Material
Video response (Piano, Kiwi, Twinkle Twinkle)

So, what can I say. Today was extremely unexpected. 1-1 and 1-3 were fairly decent, even comparable to the godlike standard of 1-4 last week. Not quite as good, but still within ballpark range. 1-1 had a significantly more standard level compared to 1-3, which had some of the highest highs, but also a bigger number of lows. 1-4 still comes out on top, but it seems that 1-2 was more the exception rather than the standard.

Grade 2 on the other hand was an entirely different story. 2-2 had 5 out of 30 responses that were decent. 2-4 had a few more, however the level was much much lower. It seems I've overestimated the grade 2s, either on maturity level or English level. Mr Kim suggests that their emotions are quite deadened compared to the grade 1s, but I'm not so sure. I'm still working out whether it is an age thing or whether it is the students within the classes themselves. The gap between the 1 year is astronomical, to the point where I cannot believe that the current grade 2s were as good as the current grade 1s last year.

With class 2-2, Mr Kim had to dish out some corporal punishment to a student. I have a feeling that this negatively affected the class response to the videos, as the first play through was quite silent. The second time through got a bit of laughter, so I assume the shock had worn off by then. Either way, that was the first time I'd seen that type of punishment used before, and I have no desire to see it repeated again.

On that note, I'm not sure if I like Mr Kim's teaching style, as he seems to spoon feed the students rather than letting them think for themselves. I believe that that is the reason the classes today weren't as good as the grade 1 classes.

Furthermore, I found out that Mr Kim teaches all of grade 2, but only 1-1 and 1-3 in grade 1. Ms Cheon is the opposite, teaching all of grade 1 and only 2-1 and 2-3.

Overall, extremely disappointing for the grade 2 level, though grade 1 seems to have potential.