Alumni Spotlight: Desiree Gabel

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Desiree Gabel is from Portland, Oregon and is currently Choreographing musical water fountains in her family business. She spent her time in Korea from August 2008 to August 2009. Desiree received her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science in Portland, OR. Desiree is 28 years old, loves all food, doping crafts, and taking pictures of her new experiences.

Highlights: My favorite experience within my school was always teaching the Kindergarteners. They were the most open to learning and would have so much fun doing it. They were almost never negative about learning English in my classroom. The highlight overall was the traveling and learning the local culture. It was interesting to be able to see all the differences in the different regions of Korea.

Morning: My typical evening would usually involve de-stressing activities. I would go walking around town, spend time with friends, watch something in English, or some other fun activity. One to two times a week I would volunteer teaching English and raising money for the local orphanage kids along with many of the other English teachers.

Afternoon: I was an elementary school teacher in Korea and so I had to follow an almost rigid lesson plan. I would spend my afternoons after classes coming up with creative and new ways to teach the kids the material. I would try and improve on the material as much as my co-teacher would allow me as I felt the books were often boring or obsolete as teaching materials. Most afternoons I would also teach extra classes. I would spend time preparing the classes and then I would teach the children English using lesson plans completely designed by myself. Every Wednesday afternoon I would also be asked to participate in the teacher Volleyball tournaments. It was very important to the native Korean teachers to have all teachers be involved in these games when possible as it worked to build community within the school.

Evening: My typical evening would usually involve de-stressing activities. I would go walking around town, spend time with friends, watch something in English, or some other fun activity. One to two times a week I would volunteer teaching English and raising money for the local orphanage kids along with many of the other English teachers.