COE News and Highlights
 

Student Teacher and Internship Exchange with Korea University

Through the collaborative efforts of College of Education Dean Charles Schmitz , Joel Glassman, academic director for the UM-St. Louis Center for International Studies, and COE faculty member Kim Song who was born in South Korea, a new student exchange program has begun with Korea University. Dr. Song visited Korea University (Seoul, Korea) last spring to promote UM-St. Louis College of Education programs and a new graduate TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) program. During her stay, she spoke to Korea University’s education department about starting a student teaching exchange program.

Dean Schmitz and Joel Glassman hosted Korea U’s College of Education Dean Lee, Vice Dean Eur, and Vice Dean Yu at the UM-St. Louis campus last July to discuss the partnership, student teacher exchange program and the TESOL program.  A formal   student teacher/intern exchange program was established in August 2007.  “I am extremely pleased to be partnering with Korea University, which is widely regarded as the most prestigious private university in South Korea,” said Dr. Schmitz.

As part of a new exchange program between the College of Education (COE) at UMSL and the COE at Korea University four teacher education students from Korea are in the UMSL campus in the United States. Teacher Education students from UM-St. Louis will be going to Korea University starting in Spring 08.

Min Park, from Korea, is majoring in Physical Education and said that she is eager to learn about the educational system in the United States. As a pre-service teacher in this exchange program she plans to compare and contrast the two educational systems and atmospheres.  Her hope is that she and her Korean colleagues will be able to take back good programs to Korea and share some of theirs with students here in St. Louis. She said that her ultimate goal is to become an understanding teacher and an instructor for P.E. combined with dance. “Being able to study in a different environment itself” said Min, “is giving me much to learn, every moment to cherish.”

Nuri Kim is majoring in Education, with a Secondary English Education as her minor. Having lived in Korea and for six years in China, she has experienced Korean schools as well as Chinese and International schooling. Looking forward to being an English teacher in Korea, she said the experience in the US will be extremely helpful. “It will provide me the opportunity to learn how to teach English by comparing the curriculum of each country,” Nuri said.

Eunyoung Lee is a student at Korea University majoring in mathematics education. She has an internship at Sigel Elementary School in St. Louis Public School District, and Marquette High School in Rockwood School District. She is also working at the Math lab at Clay Elementary School in St. Louis Public School District as a tutor. Her goal through this internship is to learn effective methods for teaching mathematics in English to Koreans. “I will be working hard in this internship,” she said, “but I also plan to have fun exploring St. Louis.”  

Eunbi Jo is majoring in Secondary English Education. One of the reasons she applied for the program is to learn a lot by comparing two different educational systems while doing the internship.  She looks forward to seeing how teachers in the United States teach their students in general, particularly those who teach English language learners. “It could be very helpful for me since I aim to be one of the best teachers ever in Korea,” she said.