Korea's Basic AI Law for Educators

 

The Difficulties of Opening New Private International School in Daegu, Korea (according to ChatCPT)

A few weeks back, I wrote a blog post about the difficulties of opening new school in Daegu, Korea. It focused on the specific challenges we were facing in doing it, but I was curious to see what ChatGPT thought the difficulties would be. Overall, ChatGPT was right on the money, but I feel that it is because new schools face similar problems everywhere, so it was easy for the AI to "answer" the question. Here is the answer it provided:

Opening a new private international school in Daegu, South Korea can present various difficulties that need to be overcome to ensure success. Some of the significant challenges are:

Competition: Daegu is a competitive market for international private schools, with many established institutions offering similar programs and services. New schools need to differentiate themselves to attract students and also compete with online education options. (This was interesting, because there aren't actually many international schools in Daegu. I'm very interested in how this part of the answer come out. I'm guessing ChatGPT was working of a general source of information about opening international schools in general and it applied it to Daegu without checking to see if that was the case locally. As this technology evolves over time, it will be able to give specific information from a location.)

Cultural differences: South Korea has a unique culture, language, and educational system that can be challenging for those unfamiliar with the country. Schools must understand and be inclusive of these cultural differences to build a supportive community.

Regulatory compliance: International private schools in South Korea must comply with a complex set of regulations and standards at the national and local levels, including obtaining necessary licenses, permits, and certifications, and meeting student safety, curriculum, and teacher qualifications standards.

Staffing: Recruiting and retaining qualified staff is crucial, but can be challenging as the pool of qualified international educators may be limited and competition for top talent is fierce. Schools must offer competitive compensation and benefits and have a supportive workplace culture.

Marketing and enrollment: Marketing and enrollment are major challenges for any new school, and schools must effectively communicate their unique value proposition, build a strong reputation, and align their programs with changing demands and expectations.

Infrastructure and facilities: Developing necessary infrastructure and facilities can be costly, especially in a city like Daegu with high real estate prices, and schools must consider the long-term maintenance and operational costs.

Curriculum and program development: Developing a quality curriculum and educational program is critical and schools must adapt to changing needs and expectations of students.

IT infrastructure and technology: Schools need robust IT infrastructure and technology to support operations and meet the needs of students and staff, which can be a significant challenge for new schools.

Financing: Obtaining sufficient financing to cover the costs of opening a new school can be difficult, especially in a competitive market like Daegu. Schools may need to secure loans, grants, or partnerships with investors to secure funding.

These are some of the difficulties that a new private international school in Daegu may face. Overcoming these challenges requires careful planning, effective communication, and a commitment to providing high-quality education.

EdpuzzleLIVE: Developing a Professional Learning Network with Tech

 

Opening a New School — The Struggles, part 1

Opening a new school is a collection of struggles, but those struggles are intensified when you try to do it in the middle of the academic year. Since Covid-19 and the now well documented "quiet quitting" that is happening in education, finding qualified teachers was going to be difficult. However, finding qualified educators in the middle of the school year is a very difficult uphill climb. Somehow, Brandon (our Director) and I have managed to find three teachers and we have a few more interviews this week. 

The other struggle has been finding students. Daegu International School has a huge waiting list, but that

doesn't mean parents are willing to jump into a new school. Korean parents take education very seriously and the culture of Daegu is also a little more conservative than Seoul, Busan, or Incheon. The parents want to see proof. But how does that happen without students? It is a real pickle. We did have a parent information session last Saturday and around 15 parents showed up to listen to our explanations of why American STEM Prep was a great investment in their child's future, but now we have to see if any of parents give us a try. One of the public schools here in an IB school, so many parents think, "The public schools of Daegu are great, why pay?"

Then we have the added problem that the building we will be using is still in the process of being renovated and won't be finished until mid-February. So we can't really take parents and students on a tour of the school. Furthermore, due to now being open, our website is still under construction, so we don't really have an online presence to show off. The ASE website looks great, but the Daegu section isn't available yet.

So you are probably to yourself, "Why Tim? Why would you do this job?" It is a fair question, but I absolutely love the challenge of it. I like being at the opening of a new school and working with colleagues to figure out all of the little things that need to be done. Building the culture as you go.

Kraemerlee Brewery, Gapyeong, Korea

Kraemerlee Brewing street view.

For my first blog about food and travel, I want to write about Kraemerlee Brewery in Gapyeong. It is located right across the street from the Kensington Resort, so very easy to find. From the ITX station, you can take bus 36-1 and you will drive right by it. We visited on a Sunday and we were both super glad we did. Due to Covid, they are currently running a simplified menu of fries and pizza, but the pizza did not disappoint. Seriously some of the best pizza I have had in Korea. Of course, the beer is the real star of the show at a brewery, so we will focus more on the drinking than on the eating.

Round One: I ordered the Imperial Stout and my girlfriend ordered the Oatmeal IPA. The Imperial Stout

was delicious with a notes of malt, chocolate, coffee, and roasted nuts. The roasted nut favor came at the back of the throat and was a pleasant surprise to me. I don't offered encounter a flavor combination with roasted nuts, but it complimented the other flavors very nicely. I'll give the Imperial Stout a 4.5 out of 5 for taste and smoothness. Very easy to drink, I could have downed a bunch of these.

Round Two: Cream Milk Stout and Sour Citrus. We mixed things up this time with my girlfriend ordering a stout and I got a sour. I have only recently gotten into sours and this one was fantastic. The balance of the sour was perfectly aligned with the citrus favor, so although it was sour, it wasn't overly sour. It didn't

Round 2: Milk Stout & Sour Citrus

make my lips pucker up, which I appreciated. Very strong notes of lemon and orange, but easy to drink for sure. Other sours that I have had are one pint only for me, but I felt I could drink a second or even third of this delicious blend. 4 out of 5 for taste and smoothness. So far we felt like Kraemerlee was pitching a perfect game for us. It is worth noting that our pizza came during round two and paired very nicely with the pepperoni pizza we had. 

#12dayslearning Day 4 -- What is one way you globally connected your classroom or school in 2018?

Day 4 -- What is one way you globally connected your classroom or school in 2018? Bonus: share a picture.

Participating in Twitter chats like #ISEDCoach and #PubPDAsia. Going to events like the Google Summit at Chadwick International School, KORCOS at Gyeonggi Suwon International School, Atlas Rubicon Curriculum Summit at Cheongna Dalton School, and #21CLHK11 at the Hong Kong Convention Center.

Most of the #ISEDCoach Chat team

#12dayslearning Day 3 -- Pencils or Dry Erase Markers

Day 3 -- Would you rather have... Pencils that are always sharp or dry erase markers that always have ink?

This is a tough question, because usually in my classroom the students have the pencils, but I have the dry erase markers. So do I go with what is good for the kids or what is good for me? I'm going to be selfish and pick dry erase markers that always have ink. This works for the students as well because sometimes they do use them as well.

On an interesting side note, once an administrator purchased all the teachers in our school dry erase markers that were not the standard colors of red, blue, black, and green. These things were like gold, because most of the teachers burned through them very quickly, but I didn't allow my students to ever touch the other markers and it became a thing with them. They would literally beg to use the other markers when they were going to do something on the white board.

#12dayslearning Day 2: Give a shout out an educator who is transforming student learning

Thanks to @edurolearning

Day 2 -- Give a shout out to an educator who is transforming student learning

Just one? That is going to be tough, because I'm coming off the Google Summit at Chadwick International School where I met some great educators. So this will be a list of people doing great things and you better start following if you aren't already.

1. Mr. Craig Kemp (@mrkempnz) -- Craig is just a super nice guy, but he also knows a ton about technology integration and how to move it forward in a school. His keynote presentation on The Changing Face of Education: Connecting, Engaging & Empowering was very inspiring and a great way to launch the event.
2. Mr. Rob McElroy (@EdTechMac) -- Once again bedazzled me with the possibilities of VR in the classroom with his presentation Take a Trip With Google Expeditions and Google Tour Creator. It can us a chance to play with Google Tour Creator which is simply a great way to build some cool explorative journeys with your students.
3. Mr. Sethi De Clercq (@sdcthailand) -- I met Sethi for the first time during this Google Summit and I was immediately impressed with his knowledge and skill. In his Youtube ins and outs session he taught me some super sick things with analytics in Youtube that were beyond my imagination.

You can read Day 1 here.

#12dayslearning Day 1 What is one action you took in 2018 that was inspired by new learning?

Thanks to @Edurolearning

I saw my friends at Eduro Learning were getting this 12 Days of Learning challenge going this December and I wanted to join in as well as spread the word to others.

The first question is what is on action you took in 2018 that was inspired by new learning? What impact did it have on student learning?

Great question! 2018 saw the development of several new actions for me professionally. I managed to get a classroom set of Google Cardboards (20 with a router for them) and started playing with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in the classroom. The trick here is that I don't have may own classroom, so I need to convince other teachers of the value of something. This was pretty easily done. I offered a week's worth of PD session in The Zone to give teachers a demo of what AR & VR could do. The response from teachers was quite good; everyone was really impressed with the power of the experience, but it really only translated into one teacher really adopting in her teaching. But for now, I will call that a small but important victory, because Karissa Van Liew really was willing to try something very new and different in her music lessons.

Karissa took her G5 students to New Orleans with our Google Cardboards. The students were studying a unit on Jazz music, so Karissa took them to New Orleans to tour the hometown of Jazz music. The students love it! They did all the things we all do the first time we see VR -- loads of ahhh's and ohhh's as they attempted to walk around in the new environment. They talked to each other about what they were seeing and how the buildings and city looked compared to Cheongna and in general -- just had a great time.

So what impact did it have on student learning? Early results are limited, but the students did enjoy the experience and kept asking me when they would do it again every time they saw me in the hallway. I say that is a positive response. I got one teacher to buy in to the idea, so based on her experiences my hope is to get the Social Studies and Science teachers to try out some lessons utilizing the Cardboards in the coming spring semester.

Scanning Documents with a iPhone

1. Open Notes and hit the + key

2. Choose Scan Documents from the menu

3. Adjust the scanned image and hit Keep Scan 

Sometimes a person asks me a question that makes me realize that the world has changed, but the person asking the question doesn't know it. Today's question involved one of the faculty members asking about how to get our photocopier to scan documents. To actually change it requires super-admin privileges, no one on campus has that level. The company we lease the machine from has to send out a representative to change it. This will not happen immediately, so I asked the teacher about using her/his phone. She/he said, "Oh, but I don't want a photo of it. I want a real scanned copy, so the quality is good." I calmly asked, "What type of phone do you have?" She/he replied, "An iPhone 7." I explained that in Notes, you can scan a document now. I have included a three-step guide on how to do it. No other apps are needed. But even if you have an older phone, you can download QR Reader from the app store for iOS or Android. The great thing about the QR Reader app is that you can also create your own QR codes with it. Don't live in the Dark Age!

Final Comments in PowerTeacher Pro

Book Study -- Enhancing Professional Practice: The Framework for Teaching

The Cheongna Dalton School admin team is in the process of changing our teacher evaluation system. As part of this work, we have committed to having a book study as a group to discuss and add to our knowledge. Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching by Charlotte Danielson has been around for several years and is a good place for us to begin our process. Specific goals we are hoping to achieve:

1. Developing a common language around educator evaluation and growth.
2. Finding a more consistent way to conduct evaluation with a focus on professional growth.
3. Improving our knowledge as a team.

Move moved through the beginning chapters of the book pretty quickly, but now that we are in the section that describes in detail each domain and the type of evidence that could be gathered, we have slowed do to really think through each section. 

I've read the book in the past, but I'm enjoying rereading it as a group to discuss what we are learning and choices that we need to make to have this work for CDS.

Reminders in Google Calendar

One of my colleagues didn't have Reminders in his Google Calendar and we couldn't understand why it wasn't available, but I was able to figure it out finally. I figured I better share the knowledge because I'm sure other people are having the same problem.

Youtube

Hangout/Meet & Google+

Funny Stories from Elementary School

Recess time

One of the great highlights of my job at Cheongna Dalton School is the fact that my position is PreK-G12. At first, I was a little apprehensive about the elementary part of the job, because my teaching license is for secondary and most of my experience has been in secondary. However, I've learned a ton from observing my elementary colleagues and the experience of teaching elementary students has been wonderful. And the best part is that every once in a while, you get a great story to share about kids. We have a Ms. Garcia who teaches G2 here, this is important to the story.

The classrooms here have an open concept, so there are walls separating the rooms, but there are no doors, so it is possible to walk from one class to another; in fact, you must go through one room in order to reach the classrooms farther

Recess time

away. You could walk around the outside of the building and come through another door, but nobody does that. So it is very common for people to pass through a room and the students are so used to it that they hardly notice it. This morning I was walking through the G3 classroom on my way to G4 to say hello to another teacher. School was just starting and the G3 teacher was waiting for her students to join her for carpet time to go over the day's activities. Some of the G3s were there, but others were still getting ready and milling about. As I said hello to the teacher, one of the boys looked up and said, "Good morning, Ms. Garcia." The teacher and I both started laughing and then said of course asked, "Why did you call Mr. Bray Ms. Garcia?" And without hesitation the kid replied, "I forgot his name." So you called me Ms. Garcia? I guess any name will do in a pinch.

Google Slides & Drawing

Basics of Google Classroom in 13 Slides

Social Media at Cheongna Dalton School

Social Media at CDS

To the new faculty, we have a culture of crowdsourcing social media at CDS. With that in mind, here is a list of some of the places you can engage in our community. Our policy is that teachers and students should not friend or each other on any social media platform. Facebook pages do not require you to friend any student. It is a shared social space. If you have questions or concerns about social media use at CDS, please feel free to ask. Enjoy!

1. CDS Staff Facebook
2. CDS HS Facebook
3. CDS MS Facebook
4. CDS FP Facebook
5. Live Streaming Youtube
6. My Channel with many videos about CDS
7. EdTech Blog
8. Humans of CDS
9. On Instagram we use the hash tag #cdsphoenix (you can also check out the hash tag #cheongna to see people's photos of life here).
10. On Twitter we use the hash tag #cdsphoenix, Ben, Karissa, and I post quite a bit.

WriteReader -- a free storybook creation tool