1. I had heard a lot of it was a waste of time.
2. I would rather be at my school because we have half days this week.
3. I didn't have to teach any classes this week.
4. The seminar ran into my vacation time for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving).After attending the session, I realized that the seminar has a couple benefits.
1. I made some great new friends, and met some inspiring people.
2. I learned some interesting and new ideas on how to be more engaging to my students.
3. I learned some more Korean culture.
4. I got to share my teaching experiences with my fellow foreigners.
For anyone who must go to this in the future, I would say that even though you may think it is a complete waste of time, it really is not, as the benefits outweigh the inconveniences to your personal schedule.
I do believe the whole thing could have been pushed comfortably into only one and a half, to two days, rather than three, as some of the sessions seemed like complete time wasters, plus at moments we were given an absurd amount of free time, that I would be willing to miss out on to leave a day sooner. Yet, it does give you time to mingle and meet more people from the province.
The highlight of the entire seminar was the presentation on how to make more effective lesson plans that keep your students interested. This is the core reason for attending if nothing else. It was given by a Canadian couple named Simon and Martina Stawskii from Bucheon. Their presentation was amazing and gave many people (including myself) some interesting ways to keep your students engaged. And most of all, they provide all the materials free - at their awesome website EatYourKimchi. These two deserve a huge salary increase if you ask me, as I'm sure most people would agree who attend their lecture.
Other than that, there isn't much to dwell on, but instead, I'll provide you with some videos of the traditional musician/dancers that were so interesting to watch - as well as some photos that you can find HERE.
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