The Saha Times

An April Halloween

2008-11-03T05:45:00.001-08:00

Halloween is always a good reason to have a party and get dressed up in scary costumes. This Halloween, all manner of ghosts, ghouls, witches, and fairies descended upon Saha April English school for the first April English Halloween Party.

Lots of games, activities and snacks kept everyone entertained, and ensured that teachers went home exhausted! Here are some pictures of students and staff on the day.
This is Leah, of Sprout 3. She won a best costume prize.
These are the lovely front desk girls, Jenny and Kerry, ready to terrify any students who walk in the door.
And this is David, another administration staff member, failing to scare Cindy before class.
Liz Teacher, Grace Teacher, Nancy Teacher, Ashley Teacher and Jenny before class.
Here is a Seedbed 2 class dilligently doing their review tests.
Here is Seed 1 at play, and at work.
Not all costumes were scary.
This is Mark of Seed 1. He came dressed as a homicidal pumpkin.
This is Jane, proud to be Snow White for the day.
A fairy and a wizard.
Expelliamus!! Kate casts a spell.
Seed 1 enjoying themselves.
Alex came as a cow. Guess which one he is.
This is Wizard Angela.
This is Grace Teacher, Luke, Paul, Simon Teacher, Liz Teacher and James Teacher doing their best to look scary.
And rounding out this post is Ben. Scary?

'Til next time!

2008-10-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

On October 12th 2008, the 15 CDI and April English branches from Busan and Changwon cities met together at the grounds of Yeonsan Middle School for a company-wide sports day. Events included Foot Baseball, Tug-of-war, Karaoke and Dodgeball. In the end, a lot of laughs were had and many new friendships between the branches were made.
Such events are symbolic of the cohesion and friendliness between the CDI South community and we look forward to the next gathering at the end of the year.

Warm up exercises in the morning.

The dodgeball matches were hotly contended.

For lunch, the company spent US$1500 on food, including two roast pigs, as well as $500 on beer! It's just our way of saying "Thank you for all your hard work!"

Who wants a scooter ride with the CEO?

The object of this game was to hold the material so that someone could race across it

Teamwork is vital whenever you have a giant floating ball to bounce

Massaging each others shoulders in preparation for Tug-o-war!

Glenn Shriver clocking around 75 mph on the turn. Note the faint trail of vaporised sand in his wake.

A flawless baton exchange between Mr Hong, the Gwangan branch manager and Mrs Lee, the Hwamyeong April manager

A Photo finish. By sacrificing his body, Mr Hong wins the day with a perfectly timed dive at lightning speed.

Jef Robison and Amanda Johnson lighten the mood with some stand-up comedy.

It was an enjoyable day for all. Come and join us next time!

Substitute class

2008-07-19T22:12:00.000-07:00

A couple of photos from Mr Lee's substitute classes.

This is Mr Lee's old Memory Mega class that he got to teach again last week. Look at the face of Kate in the front row. That's how happy she is to see her old teacher again!

Angela and David still like to volunteer for every single reading passage. That's a good way to improve your reading ability.

How often do you get to read in class?

April Fun!

2008-07-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

April English Saha is still going well. We have moved to a different building, and now have six teachers and around 140 students. Here are the teachers with some of their classes....

This is Simon Teacher with Seedbed 2-1. They are very enthusiastic and fast learners.

This is Liz Teacher with Seed 2. They are one of the oldest classes at April, and are usually pretty well behaved.

This is Claire Teacher with the friendly students of Seed 1. They have learnt the alphabet and are now studying sentences!

This is Jordan Teacher with Seedbed 2. Jordan is a CDI teacher who is helping us out at April until we get a new permanent teacher.

This is Kaitlyn Teacher with Pre-seedbed. These students are learning the alphabet, some for the first time. They also learn fun stories like, "Hello Zebra. Hello Elephant. Hello Tiger. Hello Bear."

This is Gracie Teacher with Sprout 1. Sprout students are the most advanced, and these students are doing well. Jack (center) sometimes gets very excited and likes to run to the front of the room and back again.

That's all for now!

Andrew's amazing pencil-drumming skills

2008-06-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

Here are the Memory Giga students studying hard.

Vocabulary tests occur on the second lesson of the week. If you don't do your homework, they are difficult to pass.

During the test, a lot of concentration is needed. So the Monday/Friday class always do their test in silence. The only sound to be heard is from the occasional rubbing of an eraser on paper.

Here's Angela, who likes to practice her English. Angela is saying "Hello Saha students!"

Here is some extension work from Memory Tera. The students were asked to come up with a happy ending for Shakespeare's Hamlet. In Sunny's story, every ends up having a party and getting married.

In Veronica's version of events, a good doctor brings the dead king back to life! If you study hard, you can be a good doctor too.

Here's Andrew and Annie from Birdie reading. They like to play with their phones during breaktimes because they are not allowed to turn them on during lesson. Do you always remember to turn your phone off during class?

Andrew likes to sit at the front of the class so that he can be closer to the action.

Here he is showing us his amazing drumming skills! If you would like to learn this from him, you can find him during breaktimes.

- Written by Mr Lee

Some EC3 and Par student work

2008-05-16T04:16:00.000-07:00

Here's some extension work completed over break times, brought to you from Saha's Par and EC3 classes. Click to enlarge!

Alyssa completed the end of the story 'Karen and the Artist'. In Alyssa's ending, Karen and Antonio get married and have a baby. This is a recurring theme in much of her creative writing. Thanks Alyssa!

In Daniel's version of events, there is an exhibition and Antonio makes a lot of money. If you study English well, you can make a lot of money too.

Joon knows that Mr Lee is a big fan of Yi So-Yeon, the first Korean astronaut. So Joon took the story into space with the International Space Station. Mr Lee likes this story a lot, even though it ends in tragedy.

Meanwhile, in Par Reading, the students have been learning about the water cycle. Jason says that the cycling reminds him of a Moebius strip, an infinite loop with a singular plane.

This is Lilly's interpretation which has a decidedly minimalistic feel to it.

Emily drew a nice picture of some precipitation. In real life though, it rarely falls as rain, snow and hail at the same time. As the Par students all now know, it actually depends on the temperature at the moment of condensation.

And here's a picture of Mr Lee's favourite ramyeon on his desk. It's good that the PC room upstairs sells it.

Thanks for all your good work everyone!

Some Hot Shots of Ms. Nicole's Spring Term Students

2008-05-01T01:44:00.000-07:00

This is Araceli of Ms. Nicole's MM Class. She has excellent English fluency... And she's good at dancing!

April Adventures

2008-04-19T21:14:00.002-07:00

Time to meet some of the students from the April English program! April English is relatively new at Saha, and has only been in operation since March. These students are younger, from Grade 1 to Grade 6, and generally newer to English than their CDI peers.

This is a typical April English student, full of beans. His name is Ronnie, but his classmates prefer to call him "Running Machine".

This is Kane. He is missing his two front teeth, so he looks a little vampire-ish. Is he doing the classic rock guitar move "the windmill"? Is he doing the '80s school dance move "starting the mower"? Who knows...

This is Seed 1, in a jovial mood before class. Ross (arm slightly showing far left) this week declared that Sally (far right) "had love for him". Sally was not impressed.

And this is Seedbed 2-1, getting ready to learn some sounds. They are not asleep. When one kid hides from the camera it spreads like wildfire.

Rounding out this post is Seedbed 1-1. They are learning the sounds "ip" and "ig". They are very good at reciting the following rhyme:

How many pigs are on the rig?
Just one pig is on the rig!
The pig has big hips.
The pig has big lips!

Which is the best-behaved class you've seen so far?

'Til next time!

Bridge Listening, Mr. John

2008-04-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

Rora, Heidi, & Angela showing off their acting skills in Bridge Listening Class

Joon's Map of the World

2008-04-15T16:20:00.001-07:00

Joon (안준모) drew this map of the world on the whiteboard before class today.

I can see Korea very well. However, 'Eurpe' is normally spelled 'Europe'.
Also, there seem to be some countries missing from this map. Can you think of any countries that are missing?

Thanks Joon!

Island For Sale

2008-04-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

Some students have drawn some good pictures lately. Click on them to make them bigger!

This is a map of Kelly's house (신효원). Kelly's family must study very hard because they have a book room. They also have a field in their apartment, right next to the toilet.

Victoria (서수빈) is very good at drawing because she goes to art school. She began this drawing in class, but finished it at her home. Victoria's family look very happy.

Another Kelly (손민정) from a different EC3 class drew this picture. It's a scene from one of our favourite books, 'Island For Sale'. Roxanne fell into the water because she was standing up and moving in the boat!

Here is a picture of Julie's house (김민정). Julie is an expert at memorisation and usually gets an A+ every week!

Sofia (이소미) drew this picture, also from Island For Sale. Duncan, Roxanne and Leaping Larry are in a boat. It looks like they are floating on a sea of milk, but in the story they were on the ocean. I'm not sure where the dogs went. Good job Sofia!

And here are some of the students whose work we just looked at! From the back: Jessie, Harry, Jasmine, Julie, Emily, Heather, Jennifer and Kelly.

Thankyou for your good drawings!

More friendly students from Mr Lee's classes

2008-04-05T02:00:00.000-07:00

English Chip 3 is always a fun place to be!

In this photo are John, Kevin, Annie, Kelly, Victoria and Sally. They are excited in this photo because it's time to go home.

And on the other side of the classroom are Alyssa, Sofia, Jessie and Justin. These students all do very good homework!

And here they are studying hard. Right now, Mr Lee's class are reading 'Amazon Rally', which is about a motorbike race in the Amazon Jungle. Do you know which country the Amazon is in?

This is Daniel who likes to sit at the back of the class. Daniel is always in a happy mood and likes to write his own stories.

And here is a close-up photo of Sofia. Sofia didn't know that Mr Lee was taking a photo while she was watching the computer. Mr Lee is very tricky!

Here is David from Par Reading. David is only 11 years old but very intelligent. He knows more dinosaur names than Mr Lee does, which is impressive because Mr Lee is a dinosaur. Although he is smart for his age, David sometimes eats his pencils. That can be detrimental to your health!

Here's Alice, Emily and Estella from Memory Tera, all working hard as usual. Alice and Emily like to help each other a lot, but they never cheat on tests!

And here are the other Memory Tera students: Lily, Jason, Christine, Andrew and Rori. Right now they are learning about some extreme science jobs. When you grow up, will you be a scientist too?

Life in the classroom

2008-03-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

Meet the friendly students of Memory Tera!

Here's Jimmy, Joseph, Lisa, Brenda and Lilly. Right now they're studying Spies of the Civil War and they think that being a spy is very exciting. One day Joseph wants to be a spy for South Korea, but he knows that spies would usually get more than a B- on their memorisation test. Keep studying Joseph!

At the back of the class is Janice who is very good at paraphrasing. In the middle is Mindy who is quiet but always work hard. At the front are Helen and Tina who always sit there because they have bad eyesight. Tina has a funny face because she made a mistake on her Review Test.

And this is Windy from Eagle class. Right now, Eagle is the highest class at Saha, so these students are the Kings and Queens of Saha. Windy works so hard during the lesson that during break time she sleeps like this on the tables. If you study as hard as Windy does, one day you'll be in Eagle class too.

And here are some other students from Eagle: Julie, Abby and Lion. Lion loves computers and will often spend break time staring at the screen like this, waiting for something exciting to happen. Unfortunately, exciting things rarely happen on Mr Lee's computer, but Lion is always hopeful.

- Written by Mr Lee

Lion and Mike - Winter Intensives

2008-03-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

Here's Lion and Mike from intensive classes performing their dialogue. They wrote the entire script themselves. At the end of the video, you can see Abby.

A Brief History of the Saha Branch

2008-03-16T00:29:00.001-07:00

The CDI Saha Branch opened around July 2006. Since then, attendance has grown to around 300 students and there are 17 staff members. The branch is located in Western Busan, near Dangni Station.

This is what our school looks like from the outside. Right now there are 6 regular CDI teachers: Mr Lee, Mr Jordan, Teacher Michelle, Teacher Logan, Mr John and Ms Nicole. There are also 4 April English teachers: Teacher Liz, Mr Simon, Teacher Grace and Teacher Claire. Teacher Cassie is our special Teukmokgol program instructor.

Here's a promotional video for the Chungdahm Institute in Korea.

In December last year all of the CDI teachers had an end-of-year celebration. During this time a lot of food was eaten and competitions were held. Here is Mr John competing against another teacher in the arm wrestling competition. Mr John is very strong.

Here are some of the administration staff at the dinner.

And this is Mr Kang, the CEO of most of the CDI branches in Busan.

Here's Ms Nicole and Christine enjoying a dinner after a long week of work.

Saha teachers like to read English books all the time. Even on the subway.

This photo is from Head Instructor training in Seoul. CDI teachers are trained to do many different things.

Sometimes students at the Saha branch can be naughty. Mr Lee makes naughty students write lines during breaktime. It's important to finish all of your homework and not be noisy!

This is Joe, who is now in Bridge Reading. Joe likes to balance the desk on his lap so that he can be closer to his work and study harder. Do you study this hard?

Here is a photo from (the branch manager) Julie's birthday. You will probably never find out her age.

Here is another Julie, who is now in Birdie Reading. Julie is looking at the camera because she is curious about the shutter speed.

After that, all of the students wanted to have a closer look. Here are Annie, June, Julie and Cuttlefish Ben. They are good students and study hard for their tests.

And here's a big photo of June. June says to all of the CDI students "Study hard so you can be in Birdie Reading, just like me!"

- Written by Mr Lee

First Post - Some General Guidelines for Teachers

2008-03-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Saha CDI blog!

I hope that this website can be a creative outlet and learning resource for all of our students, even after we have moved on to greener pastures.

Here are some general guidelines that I would like to suggest:

1) You can post as little as you want, or not at all. Using this website is completely optional and an extension of regular work. However, try to refrain from over-posting especially if it is drowning out the less frequent posters.

2) The purpose of this site is to showcase student work, provide information on the CDI Saha Branch and to be a learning resource for any ESL learners. Posts that drift away from these principles should be avoided.

3) Posts should use a level of English appropriate to each class level. For example a post about an English Chip 1 class should contain very simple English, while a Birdie Reading post would be much more articulate.

4) All instructors at Saha, including April English and Teukmokgol teachers should have equal administrative access. No students shall be given the password and login details.

5) Some suggestions for posts: Any creative writing from students or teachers, artwork, class photos, student or staff profiles, recent news, birthday announcements, updates on life at the branch, ideas for improvement and anything else that common sense dictates.

Enjoy!

- Lee Farrand
Head Instructor, March 2008