My Soccer Princes

My sons had a great season of soccer. This spring, they wanted to play soccer again,and this was the third season for them. I was busy taking them to practices and games at different place and on different time. But I am glad to see their skills have been improved a lot since they started to play soccer last year. Now, they have confidence on the field. In this season, they didn't socre any goal, but they did good assist and let the other kids score a goal. When they go back to Korea, to be sure, they will miss playing soccer in the GREEN field.

Personality

I remember I lived a life wihout any conflicts with others until graduating from college. My family members were expert at my behaviors or thoughts, I was a good students to teachers, and I got along with my friends at school.

However, from the moment I got married and started teaching at school, I faced with a lot of problems. Most of problems were derived from relationships with my husband, sons, and students. They did not behave and think in the way I expected toward them.

When I felt I needed something to solve problems, I decided to apply for Counseling and Psychology at graduate course. The professors put an emphasis on how to build up healthy relationship with others. They said that the first step for good realtionship is to understand differences between others and I.

As one of courses I had to take, I attended MBTI Personality workshop with my classmates. At that time, I learned understanding others’ personality is like geting to know their strengths, and I realized I had dwelled on their weaknesses. I had tried only to change others in my way, not changing myself. That’s why I had conflict with others, which was an eye opening to me.

I changed the way I dealt with people. I began listening more and focusing on the positive, praising others as often as possible. I could accept my husband’s way of thinking, have patience with my sons and students. Then, I realized conflict with others was melting down. I felt more satisfied and at peace with myself.

North Korea

My knowledge about North Korea

One of the most frequent questions I have been asked is about North Korea. I was surprised to know that Americans I have met are more familiar with North Korea than with South Korea. Whenever I am asked the question “What do you think of North Korea?,” I have nothing to say because I have little knowledge about North Korea. I feel ashamed of my ignorance. Therefore, I’d like to arrange my thoughts to answer to questions about North Korea.

First, when I was an elementary school student, I was taught that North Korea is a communist society. In the text book, communism was described as a bad political system. I remember that I had a poster contest and slogan contest about anti-communism. Most students drew the leader of North Korea as the monster. The theme of most slogans is that we hate communism.

While I was attending middle and high school, I studied the reason North Korea and South Korea had to be split. In 1945, Japan failed in World War II, and we were independent from the colonial times of Japan. But we were not strong enough to have our own government. So, the meeting held in Moscow decided that Soviet (Russia) was charge of the North while United States was charge of the South for five years. They drew temporary line at 38 latitude but it became permanent after the Korean War. I remember I studied the importance of reunification at social studies class. I also had to write an essay about why we should be reunified.

After graduating from high school, I had few opportunities to learn about North Korea and I was not interested in politics. I did not read the articles and opinions related to North Korea. Honestly, I do not feel that North Koreans are the same nation as us since I have lived in the divided country for long time. I guess they have different ways of thinking from us, which will cause problems after reunification. The reason North Korea sticks to nuclear weapons is to threaten the world to keep their own system; the gap between North Korea and South Korea became larger. When I think of families separated, however; my heart breaks. They are political scapegoats. The reunion of separated families are a great achievement in the history of the divided country.

You Are My All In All

This is one of songs I love.

I am not a Christian, but here, I am studying Christianity through the Bible study classes. I remeber the time clearly I listened to this song for the first time. My first semester was so hard that I regretted coming here to study. I was worn out studying and I missed my family a lot. I felt like giving up studying but this song encouraged me to keep studying.

Would you like some Biscotti?

Biscotti are twice-baked cookies, and they are very crispy. The name Biscotti is derived from 'bis' meaning twice in Italian and 'cotto' meaning baked or cooked.

I am taking a cooking class at the Highland Park Church on Thursday mornings. It is one of the programs provided for international ladies. I am really enjoying this class, and it's a good opportunity for me to know the names of western food.

I did not cook what I had learned at home, but I recently have been trying to practice food for my kids. These are my kids' favorite snacks. I'd like to share recipe for this, and it's really easy to follow.

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolated chips
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 large eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, berries, chips, baking powder and salt.
3. In a small bowl, mix vegetable oil, the 2 extracts and beaten eggs.
4. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and blend well.
5. Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth.
6. Divide dough in half and shape each half into 8-inch long log.
7. Place logs 6 inches apart on baking sheet coated with cooking spray, then flatten each to about a 1-inch thickness.
8. Bake 35 minutes, then remove logs from baking sheet and cool 10 minutes on wire rack.
9. Meanwhile. reduce oven heat to 325 degrees F.
10. Cut each log diagonally into 15 half-inch slices, placing slices standing up on baking sheet.
11. Return slices to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and transfer slices to wire rack to cool completely.

Are you ready to bake?

Canoeing

My boys and I went to Texas for Spring Break. It was a trip provided by the International Office.

One of the highlights of my trip to Texas was the day we went canoeing in the San Marcos River. We have gone rafting in Korea and kayaking at Key West, but this was the first time canoeing for my family.

I expected some guide would get on the canoe and help us since we are novices. However, a staff member at a canoe rental shop just explained how to do it and some rules. I was getting nervous and regretted I was there. If I had gone there privately, I would have given up. However, it was a group activity, and I had no choice but go canoeing.

One canoe was given to my family. My first son Jinho sat at the front, my second son Jinbeom sat in the middle, and I sat at the back. As soon as we set out, we got stuck on a river bank. We did not know how to get out, and Jay, who is one of staff members in the International Office, helped us get out of it. Jinho and I tried to paddle in the way we had remembered, but it did not work. I could not control the canoe to go toward the direction I wanted. From then, I started to blame Jinho, saying “you should know how to do at the front.” Jinbeom cried, saying “I want to get off the canoe, and I don’t want to fall into the river, Mom, I am scared” It was terrible. The river was still, and it was so quiet and peaceful. It was such a beautiful day. But I could not enjoy anything. I could seldom see people around us. Only my family was in the middle of river, and we were perfectly isolated.

I did not know how many minutes had passed, Jinho and I studied and got to know how to control canoe to move in the direction I wanted. Then we could enjoy the scenery and the weather. We could have time to relax, watch a turtle cling to the bush, and a bird fly above us, we saw a lot of bushes and rocks in the river, which blocked our way. We tried desperately to avoid them. Sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we bumped into them. After we knew the strategies of paddling, bumping into them and getting stuck on them was not big deal.

It took more than five hours to get to destination. It was a long journey, and I learned a lot about myself: while I was canoeing, I kept thinking it is much like life. When we do not know how to deal with obstacles, we are easily frustrated and blam the other. Besides, we have to solve most difficulties by ourselves with endurance.

Before I went to canoeing, I researched what canoeing would be like, and found out some interesting viewpoints in a blog.

“Before you marry someone, go canoeing with them. For like 6 hours. And make it be hot out and the river have shallow, cold water, and make the stream have lots of trees and debris in it. Then see if you still want to marry the person because I PROMISE their true self will come out.”

At that time, I did not understand what it exactly meant. Now I completely understand.
Being in a canoe is like being in a relationship. Both people have to work hard and focus in order for it to be smooth sailing. Both people need to adjust to the other person's needs. There also needs to be constant communication. The person in front needs to let the person in back know what's coming. Both people need to communicate how they are feeling .

I found out Jinho’s great strengths, his endurance was amazing. When he was asked to paddle nicely in an annoyed tone, he never complained toward me. He tried figure out hard to go forward. He never gave up. It was a great experience in my life.

Elearning

I got email from UCO, saying that Curtis Bonk will deliver an educational and entertaining keynote for the Heartland eLearning Conference. All right, since I am taking online class and interested elearning, I sign up for this.

Bonk is an instructional systems technology professor at Indiana University and I came to know that he is internationally known eLearning author.

I really had fun while listening to his lecture, because he was creative, loud and clear. He explained how things are being taught online. According to Dr.Bonk, the key issue educators and teacher will face in the near future is how to engage and connect students. He suggested ten technology trends which he called educational openers. Interestingly, when the first letter of each opener is combined, the acronym becomes WE ALL LEARN:
Web Searching in the World of e-Books
E-Learning and Blended Learning
Availability of Open Source and Free Software
Leveraged Resources and Open CourseWare
Learning Object Repositories and Portals
Learner Participation in Open Information Communities
Electronic Collaboration
Alternate Reality Learning
Real-Time Mobility and Portability
Networks of Personalized Learning

His lecture gave me time to think of several issues; What is the future of learning like? What role should technology play in the classroom? What should I prepare for paradigm shift in education? Can I, as a teacher, survive in this new learning environment?