International Video Conferencing with Our Korean Sister School

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Sister School MOU Signing  

Korean Sister School's Educational Visit

Marking the start of a long-distance friendship with our Korean sister school 

I've been so proud of pulling off the MOU signing, host family training, and a whole day cultural exchange course. It's the very first sister school partnership in the history of KMJH. If it weren't for the pandemic, I would've headed a delegation and visit KNUMS this April.

My Korean counterpart, Belle, and I decided to have regular Skype sessions, gift exchange, and some other project ideas to extend our collaboration under COVID. The ninety-minute long Skype session went quite well, and here are some highlights:

1. Icebreaking Activities

Students from both sides made a sentence of what they can do in their cities by turns. Students practiced introducing famous local food, tourist spots, and activities in simple English with this activity. Then, I had a True-or- False activity with the Korean students to have fun and introduce a bit of Daegu to mine. 

2. Talent Show

My students played the flute and showcased some fancy dance moves. It was nerve-wracking to perform in front of everybody without too much practice. The Korean students also played musical instruments and sang a Korean song, which reminded me of the song and dance they did last year. I loved the melody and lyrics of 아름다운 나라. 

3. Student Pairing

We paired off Taiwanese and Korean students and exchanged contact info. They felt awkward when seeing each other on the big screen, but I kept reminding them it was their job to begin and develop this long-distance friendship. We'll soon exchange Christmas cards and gifts then. 

4. LMS

I finally learned to appreciate what a learning management system (LMS) can do with an international collaboration like this. My students come from two grades and different classes. I began to use Google Classroom to post information, assign readings and homework, complete with rubrics to assess their English self-introductions. Also, Belle would post videos her students made on Padlet so that mine can discuss and ask follow-up questions on the platform. 

Of course, not every student in KK Club would enjoy all these as much as I did. Some were born shy and tended to overthink it for everything. It's perfectly normal because I was the same as a junior high student.

Though I've been doing Skype exchange sessions with mostly Japanese and Korean teachers for many years, each one lasted about half an hour, and the students barely knew each other, let alone leave personal contact info and exchange presents. With this great opportunity with our Korean sister school, I'm looking to students from both schools to enjoy more possibilities like Teddy Bear or cultural box projects.