BLOG: GIC Journal's Social Discourse of Disquiet
Great plans for daily posts. January and February were good. The rest of the year was carried by the photography of Mark Eaton and the performances from Gwangju Performance Project. Doug Stuber also added significant posts.
BLOG: Gwangju Calendar
Part of my Korean study plan was to translate the Gwangju Art Guide list of things to do. No time after March to do this.
BLOG: Koreamaria
Just like my uberplan for sdod. Wanted daily posts, but couldn't even keep up with my basic scrapbooking of daily photos and events.
Drawing lessons
In July GAC offered some drawing lessons. I enjoyed them, but realized how much I don't like the 'work' of making art.
Dance lessons
Another fail. My teacher hit me, yes, hit me, for missing steps in the 3rd class. Needless to say, I quit. I lost 50,000won because of this: 20,000 as a withdrawal penalty and 30,000 to the club pot of cash for our closing party which I was never invited to attend.
Performance Art
This was really fun. I did a play reading with the Gwangju Performance Project. Helped support the Spring play: Picasso at Lapin Agile as well as the Fall play: The Real Inspector Hound. And I auditioned for The Vagina Monologues. I will be doing "The Flood."
Promotion
I like to promote people and projects. Most of my free time is devoted to writing, talking, and doing for peeps and things I think important - kinda like cultivating the garden I want to live in, ya know. In addition to my 'art' on my blogs, I have also done GFN talks on promoting GIC, GIC presentations, and lots and lots of facebook mentions of good things that need celebration and bad things that we can stop if we work together.
Sungbin Book and Bake Sale
While this should probably not be on my art page, it is. Tons of people created food art for this event. Check out some pics here.
Exercise
Love moving my body and despite the age, my body is an art work. So grateful to my uni for having a great gym in my dorm building. But even more stellar is to go to Big Spo (for free - thanks, Gwangjudae) for yoga, kickboxing and aerobic dance class. I feel like I am on stage in the 1980s again.
Teaching - GU Fall Fantastic
My Spring classes were lousy - I had some shockingly rude students! But this fall, amazing! My students totally outperformed my expectations. I love teaching. It is planning, design, performance, interaction, tweaking, freaking, thinking on my feet, adjusting my knowledge to get the right fit for the learner. LOVE it. And it loved me back this semester. So many times, as a teacher, you don't get to see your impact on your learners. This semester I was able to see the changes and better yet, my students could see them as well!
Action Research
All my teaching is action research. I am always testing, checking, tweaking, learning. This year, I tried out some things that worked and other things that didn't work. It was lots of fun. I learned a lot of new technology. And I am shocked at how little my students use technology for learning purposes.
Poetry Picture Book
Finally. Finished. My God, I have been working on this for two, three years? Always something held me back from finishing. 'Walking Thoughts' is now printed. It is a small booklet of 10 poems that I wrote on my walk/commute to my job. The pictures are all mine as well. Lots of things in it could be better, but it's done. My first "book." Yay, me!
2012 Family Calendar
Last year my mom died. My neice and I took our summer break and scanned 9,000 family photos. I chose a 'water' motif and then selected 12 pics from the 9,000. My brother also helped collect all the birth, death and anniversary dates into a family tree. The scans we made are horrible, and I don't have PhotoShop. With the 12 I selected I went to the campus photographer. He thought I was nuts, I didn't want the pics cleaned up too much! At the print shop, I chose old fashioned, yellowed textured paper. It turned out pretty good!
Myeongshim Bogam Translation
Prof Lee Hee Jai has translated Myeongshim Bogam since 2009. I finally finished my first full edit of his translation. This winter we are doing more editing and hope to print it in March 2012.
Nanowrimo
National novel writing month. I started writing a memoire style novel. Only finished around 20,000 words, but it was a great experience nonetheless. Learned I write best when I just sit and write without distractions. I wrote 10,000 word in 7 hours. While I didn't finish the requisite 50,000 words, I felt good working with others who did finish in our Gwangju Nanowrimo Group.
Professional Development Book
I've done so much research for this but never finish. I think I will end up just having this as a blog and ebook to share with people. So much knowledge I wanna share, but never seem to be able to finish it.
Effective English Education Book
Sound corny, especially if you are here in Korea teaching English. This book is a movement I want to start. I want Korean parents to start realizing that playing and games can provide deep learning. I want my students and the Korean government to realize that memorization and test scores don't improve life styles or the economy. I have lots written but I need to unify the voice within the methodology/pedagogy to everyday terms challenge that I have set for myself.
Fashion Design
I didn't make anything in 2011. I bought some material. Did some design drawing. But the expense was not worth it, nor did I find materials that I wanted when shopping.
Boutique Publisher
I published my calendar and my poetry photo book. Next up Myeangshim Bogam, my Nanowrimo group's books, and my two other books. But I don't have a label or online store. I didn't even get an ISBN number for my poetry book. Next steps.
