On September 12, after Saturday classes of the fall term had finished, the teachers of the North Alabama Korean School gathered together at the school for a teacher demonstration day.
Five teachers in all took the floor as presenters: teachers who attended the 44th National Association for Korean Schools (NAKS) conference and the Southeastern Chapter teachers' workshop this past summer, together with teachers currently teaching students in our classrooms.
The event was arranged so that the new teaching methods and educational materials learned at the conference and the teachers' workshop could be shared with the whole faculty, and so that the teachers could think together about how to put them to use in an actual classroom. Rather than stopping at relaying the content of the training, each teacher added their own teaching experience and ideas, making it a practical teacher-training occasion for sharing concrete methods and materials that can be applied in the classroom straight away.
Korean lessons that use AI as a 'bridge to experience'
The first presentation was given by Vice-Principal Lee Owen on the theme "Korean Lessons Extended with AI and Multimedia: Beyond the Classroom, Into Experience." It reworked, for the educational setting of the North Alabama Korean School, the lecture given by Assistant Professor Han Hye-min of the Department of Korean Language Education as a Foreign Language at the KFL Graduate School of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies at the 44th NAKS conference.
Vice-Principal Lee opened her presentation with the practical conditions a weekend Korean school faces: a class that meets only once a week; wide differences in students' levels within a single classroom; the limited opportunity to use Korean among students who speak mainly English at home; and the difficulty of teaching language, culture and history together within a limited span of time.
Within those conditions she explained the role of AI as a 'bridge,' and introduced ways of connecting a Korean lesson that happens once a week to everyday life outside the classroom. Working from real examples, she covered everything from the process of designing a sixteen-week lesson plan to making online word games herself and sharing them through the parents' group chat, so that students can practise repeatedly at home with a parent or a sibling.
She gave the presentation added meaning by shaping it so that the teachers who joined the school this term could take practical help from it in planning and running the flow of a whole term's lessons.
NKT lessons that look past the test to the student's growth
In the second presentation, Cho Seung-yeon introduced the running and the teaching direction of the NKT class, newly opened this term.
The NKT is an examination that assesses the ability to use Korean in real life, centred on the four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Rather than focusing only on the score or the result itself, Cho explained, she leads the class so that each student's Korean ability can grow in a balanced way through the process of preparing.
She also shared concrete materials and teaching methods with her fellow teachers, setting out what can be prepared and taught now in the beginner and intermediate classes to help students as they go on to prepare for the NKT. Through this, the teachers also explored a direction in which not only the NKT class but Korean-language education across the whole school can connect naturally.
Hands-on lessons, learned with the body and remembered through the senses
The third presentation was given by Lee Sun-ok, who shared her experience of the hands-on lessons she has run in her own classroom.
Lee drew attention to the tiredness students attending a weekend school feel from their weekday school life and their many activities, and to their growing academic load. Rather than adding one more piece of 'study' for such students, she explained, what matters is letting them experience Korean and Korean culture more enjoyably through hands-on activity centred on the five senses — seeing, hearing, touching and moving for themselves.
Introducing a range of cases she has experienced directly in the classroom, she shared with her fellow teachers how hands-on activity can be an effective way of raising students' participation and interest and of making what they learn at Korean school stay with them.
A workshop on building class materials with AI
In the fourth presentation, Ko Hyun-i led the teachers through a hands-on workshop on making class materials with AI, based on what she learned at the 44th NAKS conference, held under the theme 'Korean Schools Growing Together in the Age of AI.'
The content of her presentation was reworked for the actual teaching setting of the North Alabama Korean School, on the basis of the lecture given by Professor Im Cheol-il of Seoul National University, the keynote speaker at this conference.
The teachers experienced for themselves the process of developing lesson ideas and making materials with AI, and looked at the possibilities of a new educational tool. At the same time, it was emphasized that in the course of teaching Korean history, Korean culture and Hangeul, AI can produce incorrect spelling or inaccurate information and images.
However convenient and useful a tool AI may be, therefore, the final check and judgement must be made by the teacher, and class materials should be used on the basis of the teacher's responsible review — a point the teachers reflected on together.
Adult Korean education: where it stands and where it is going
The final presentation was given by Principal Demi Pysh, who introduced the actual process of preparing the adult Korean class.
Principal Pysh set out the practical challenges the adult class faces — the varied learning purposes and levels of Korean among adult learners, and the limited time available for study — and showed, through her actual preparation process, how she selects and puts together class materials suited to them. She also shared with the teachers the difficulties adult Korean education currently carries, along with the direction the school should be considering and developing going forward.
Closing the demonstration day, Principal Demi Pysh emphasized once again the meaning of 'Korean Schools Growing Together in the Age of AI,' the theme of the 44th NAKS conference, in which some 560 teachers from across the country took part.
"AI does not take the place of the teacher; it is an aid to Korean-language education that can make a lesson for our students richer. What matters is that the teacher holds the initiative and uses it responsibly in the classroom. When a new tool and a teacher's experience come together, we expect to be able to raise both the quantity and the quality of Korean-language education at the same time."
Learn, share, and back to the classroom
The teaching methods and educational materials introduced that day did not end as the presenters' own experience. All of the presentation materials were shared with the whole faculty, so that they can be used and developed further in this fall term's lessons right away.
Coming after a full Saturday of teaching, the demonstration day was more than a time for learning new teaching methods. It was a precious time for teachers walking the same path to look into one another's classrooms and share their own experiences, questions and ideas.
The fall term is already under way. We hope the new teaching methods and materials shared at this demonstration day will settle naturally into each classroom this term, becoming the ground in which students learn Korean and Korean culture with greater joy and grow with confidence.
The North Alabama Korean School will go on building a school where teachers learn first, share with one another, and carry that learning back into the students' classrooms.