Golden Bell

Golden Bell is a very popular game here in Korea. It's a big quiz game with the last man standing theme. the students sit in rows with enough space on each side to curb any cheating. They all must listen to questions and quietly write the answers in short answer form. They are written in dry erase marker on mini white boards. So why do they use NETs for this? To test the students listening ability of course...in theory.

First, you are to read the entire riddle clearly.
Then read off the answers A-D.
The students usually will have 30 secs or less to answer.
After you count to three, all students must raise their boards above their heads with the answer facing you.
You (and faculty) must check that they wrote the correct answer including spelling.
Give a few seconds for them to erase the boards and continue.

Any students that write the wrong answer are automatically out. Sometimes if too many students are "out" too fast, there will be a chance round. You do the question process and if the "out" students get it right, they can come back "in".


Hilariously at YCE, the students were basically all out after five or six questions. We did a chance round and most were let back in. Luckily, they did much better after that. In that school, many students were out simply because they chose the wrong answer. I was a bit sad because the questions were all up on a powerpoint behind me. In the end, we were able to choose a top three with one of them being from the fifth grade and the other two from the sixth.

I could see my coteacher was nervous and even scared when all the kids were basically out. The principal had come by to see the show and ended up leaving soon after. I felt bad too because I didn't want our Golden Bell to be a Dusty Cracked Bronze Bell. Nevertheless, if you insist on teaching without speaking English and demanding creativity, this is the result.



At SPE, the game was fairly rigged. Everyone studied the exact questions that I was to read for a full week and a half. It was terribly boring and most kids studied so much that they knew what the answers were by the time I read the second hint. The only reason students got out was because they missed the spelling due to letters like "r" "l" "d" "b", etc. Oh well. In the end they decided to give a first through third prize to both fifth and sixth grade. Tomorrow we'll be doing third and fourth with the same riddles.

When coTs skip Out

At YCM and SPE I never have to worry about my coteachers not coming to class. In fact there was only one time the SPE teacher didn't show up, but she'd warned me the previous week. Once my YCM coT plum forgot what time it was. She was clickin away at the computer after telling me, "We have afternoon class." But engrossed in her work she didn't notice me leaving haha I was ok with it, but she was a bit embarrassed. Anyway they are always there or they give me good notice.

Let's hop over to YCE. -___- If she's late or not going to be doing class, she will let the school know but not me. Or at the beginning of class she'll walk me to the room and say,"Uh today I'm busy, so sorry." -__- This is without ever letting me know what will be covered in class before hand so I'm never prepared. Like I said before, the 3&4th grade are going at an ok-slow pace, but 5&6th have different books from SPE.

Again today she didn't tell me she had to go to a different school far out. So at hot near class time the (good enough to be an English) 4th grade teacher told me that I'd have to teach with the random teachers.

I told him I didn't know what they were supposed to do because Kim never gives me info. He asked the kids of 3rd what they were doing and set up the computer for me, but my rebellious side told him, "It's all in Korean though, so..."

The 3rd teacher left when I stepped in the room. Kids ran wild while I debated being good or putting on a movie...

Ok I'm grown so I chose to be good. I didn't use the computer but I taught ch.12 anyway. Surprisingly the kids listened well this time and knew what I wanted! No movie necessary.

The 4th grade teacher returned with his class. Made an action plan upon discovering the tv didn't work and coordinated with me in the 10min break.

Here comes 5th grade. I'm prepared for them to misbehave because they barely understand me but their teacher has them in check and she didn't even stay more than 10minutes. They listened repeated and practiced so we played a game. Amazing class.

6th grade teacher prepared a PPT on a hurry but the no TV thing was slightly hindering. We still played the review games because they were easy to adapt.