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EPIK (English Program in Korea)

The Best Disney Frozen English Winter Camp

My very first winter camp was a hit. You can’t go wrong with a Disney Frozen theme for an elementary school English camp. Deciding on a topic or theme for a camp can be nerve-racking. Luckily Frozen 2 came out in November 2019, so students were still on the Frozen high. A Frozen themed winter camp in January of 2020 was perfect timing. As next year’s winter camp approaches, I want to reflect on my first time…

EPIK Teachers Have Faced New Circumstances Since COVID-19

This year has been a rollercoaster, to say the least. The coronavirus pandemic shifted the way teaching is done worldwide. In Korea, from late March to mid September, teachers in Korea juggled teaching online, partially-online, in-person with social distancing, and alternating between which grades will come to school. And due to various reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, many EPIK teachers have either transferred out of Korea’s smaller rural towns, into bigger cities, left the EPIK program, or left Korea altogether. The remaining teachers take on new and for some, even heavier workloads. Despite the new circumstances, there was always a bright side. And there still is…

Everything You Need To Know About Working In Travel Schools In Rural Korea

I couldn’t wait to finally talk about what it’s like to work in travel schools. Prior to coming to Korea, and teaching for EPIK, I hadn’t read any information online about teachers teaching at more than one school or the term, “travel school.” It wasn’t until I arrived in my rural town and started teaching that I learned some schools are really small and therefore only have one English class with an EPIK English teacher every week…

Top 5 Questions I Get Asked About the EPIK Program

I’ve been getting asked tons of questions from people about the EPIK program. I’ll answer the top five questions in this blog post…

7 Things I’ve Learned In My 4 Months of Teaching In Korea

It’s been four months since I flew all the way from New York to South Korea. Though there are so many things I’ve grown accustomed to do – speaking a few words in Korean to staff and students, choosing an activity that engages a particular class’s learning ability, it took time to get there. I am not perfect but I’ve definitely made lots of progress…

A Typical Day as an EPIK Teacher

I am an elementary school teacher. I teach in a rural city in the Gangwon-do Province. In my main school, I teach about 70 students from grades three, four, five and six. What’s a typical day like for me as an EPIK teacher? For starters school begins at 8:40am, and ends at 4:40pm. The commute to school is less than five minutes by foot…