reflection of April 16th's class

Last Saturday we talked about the barriers why we can't implement oppositional reading. One of the reasons is irrelevance. Current curriculum mainly focused on increasing the score especially in the viewpoint of owner of Hagwon or parents (sometimes students). When we try to use oppositional reading, they might think it's irrelevant to the current learning materials. As getting higher graders I think there is definite neccessity of oppositional reading, which makes students think in English and their English competitive or productive.
One of solution is that we can use students' background knowledge and of course we should prepare the material in advance. In doing so, students will be engaged in the class. Secondly, teachers give students freedom to choose what they want among several choices activities. Students might choose the the activity that is one of their interest most and they are able to be involved well. Thirdly teachers need to choose the right material for students. Topics that are included in the regular curriculum can be connected outside world and there's no need too academic nor light. One day one of my student suggested to use colorful "Around the world", which interested her in stead of studying all boring grammar classes. Using such kind of books I can connect to multiculture or humanity, equality, racism,human trafficking and so on, which makes students think critically.

reflection of 9th of April

From the vedio,the conversation between an Asian flight attendant and a western client in the first class seems to be casual and friendly. He asked her "You aren't a stranger, are you?" We considered she the oppressed even though Cathy Pacific is a carrier of Hong Kong we think her job is to provide almost all services to clients in the carrier. When people pay for certain service, they expect the service providers to be obedient no matter what situations there are.
From last week I as an oppressor started teaching about midterm exam for my students 2nd year in middle school. One student said our hagwon should have started preparing for exam earlier like before April since their exam is 25th of April. At that time I said it's true it's kind of late to prepare for exam at this moment "I'm sorry.". When I said this situation to my family, my dad said the student might think he's one who has paid money for it he deserves it. I think at that time my student was an oppressor. I have thought about it and talked with my co-worker, who said as a student the student should know the material of the exam and why hasn't the student prepared for the exam by himself since student's duty is studying and he has already studied the material at school? What I want in the classroom is to cooperate between teachers and students facing the same goals. But why do we alternately keep taking turn to be an oppressor?

Belize Immigration Profits $10 M from Human Trafficking

(copied from the CNN>
iReport —
Belize immigration staff regularly issue work visas to ficha bar owners for illegal residents trapped in ficha bars – specifically, human trafficking victims. It is estimated the Belize immigration department obtains remuneration from ficha bar owners for approximately 6,600 human trafficking victims annually.

Work visas cost bar owners $1,500 (Belize) if they are issued by immigration for a human trafficking victim. By comparison, a legitimate visa has a price tag of $150 (Belize).

The bar owners treat this “purchase” as payola, a cost of doing business, with the understanding that they have bought the blind-eye of the immigration department -- from the inspector level to the top executive.

“Belize immigration is profiting from human trafficking and complicit in keeping victims trapped in the forced prostitution business,” said Trill. “Instead of identifying trafficking victims to assist them, immigration staff extort money to keep the victims in slavery.”

Compounding the corruption, the same immigration officials regularly raid ficha bars and arrest the same human trafficking victims for whom they have issued sham work visas. Immigration is able to make the arrests because the victims have no documentation and are in the country illegally. The victims are in Belize because they have been trafficked across borders. They have no passports or other identification because the bar owners take whatever documents they have.

After arrest, most of these women wind up in Hattieville Central Prison on remand, where the Kolbe Foundation gets over $400,000 a year for incarcerating human trafficking victims. These profits are due mainly to Belize immigration staff co-operation across the country.

“Belize immigration officials, to the executive level, are victimizing human trafficking victims,” said Trill. “Belize is poised for worst-list human trafficking status. To avert Tier 3 designation, it is incumbent on Belize to ensure their immigration staff are identifying and assisting victims, not profiting from human trafficking.”

Sunitha Krishnan fights sex slavery

Since we're in the safe world, it's natural not to be interested in human right.
I heard number one engaged in sex industry in US is Koreans. How sad! But it's true. Aside from sex slavery, there are many kinds of human trafficking. As a teacher how do we approach this kinds of problem?
Haven't we avoided those topics in our classroom in the excuse the our teaching environment is not ready to teach? Including Koreans there are many teen victims around the world.
By the way who are the victims there?
Where does the money benefited from human trafficking go?
What would be the preventions of human trafficking?
Is it enough for our kids not to play violent games and to watch adult materials or is it enough to arrest gansters?

How to make Yearly Curriculum

These day I spend lots of time making yearly curriculum for my Hagwon. I'm still struggling with that.
I have had many concerns. At first I thought education can't be standardized since each student's learning ability is different
there's no need for such a standard program. While talking my head teacher in Hagwon, I realized we need a standard curriculum as a learning objective on which I can teach my kids based. Since I'm a homeroom teacher of most of "lower"(?) or basic classes,which of course seem not to learn fast, I thought I have to change the curriculum to fit into my Ss. There might be a danger of downgrade them.
Considering curriculum standardization vs. customization how should I make balance or should I prioritize either?