Nope.  But only my main school wants camps.  They have throughout the pandemic.  All others and most schools from what I have heard have not had camps. 

All my schools have winter camp, and on those days where I'm not doing camps, I have to do zoom classes.
Basically, they've ensured that I have 22 lessons a week even when school is not officially in session. 

My zoom classes are going to be based on online gaming, texting, memes, and webtoons. Each "chapter" will be 3 lessons. 1st lesson I will have a ppt video that I post on my youtube channel that they ave to watch. It includes the vocabulary they will need to know, will include examples of the topic that will be discussed, and will contain a small flipgrid assignment that they will need to complete. They also have to leave a comment on the youtube video. 2nd class we'll be using the introduced vocab and grammar to discuss the topic. Students will bring in examples their personal favourites, and I'll have a couple popular examples to discuss in case the students didn't bother with bringing their own. 3rd class will be a more in depth discussion of the media we looked at using vocab and grammar.

This is for middle school 1,2, and 3, as well as primary 5 and 6. Each lesson is 90 minutes  long, but realistically, it'll be 35ish minutes of class, 20 minute break, and then 35 more minutes.

What's your YT channel?

All my schools have winter camp, and on those days where I'm not doing camps, I have to do zoom classes.
Basically, they've ensured that I have 22 lessons a week even when school is not officially in session. 

Oh wow! That is a really dedicated set of schools you got there!
Is this in Seoul or Daejeon by any chance? I heard those two can be quite strict when it comes to camp and classes. >.<
And do they just not give you any downtime/ desk warming days at all?

The Offices of Education need to re-start paying for camps again 500,000 per week (5 days), 1.0 mill per 2 weeks (10 days), and if there are schools requiring a whole month of winter camp or even as much as 6 weeks that need to be an extra (2.0 mill).  And any extra phone/ zoom classes done during school vacations need to be compensated for at the same rate as regular paid after-school classes during the semester... (20,000 ~ 30,000 per class period).

Yeah, the idea is that when we're not actually using our vacation days, we're still being paid the same wages as during the school year, and should therefor be doing the same amount of work.
I live in a somewhat more rural area inGyeongsangbuk-do, and over the last 5 or 6 years they've been increasingly gung-ho about having the NETs do some kind of supplementary work when regular school is not in session. I'm not sure if this is true just for my own region, or if it's true for all the teachers in my province, but this has been the first year where they've arranged that I do the full 22 teaching hours , which really sucks. 
Yes, I remember that, and it was awesome!
I guess they figure we're getting paid anyway, and we're contractually obligated to do up to 22 hours a week, so they may as well get their money's worth out of us.
Pretty sad though: I remember a decade ago regularly going home at around lunch time during desk warming, and being told by the principal to not bother coming for a week etc etc. And of course, no online classes or the like. Ah, the good ol' days!

Are they forcing the students to attend the classes?

Are they forcing the students to attend the classes?

I'm not really 100% sure, but in middle school, i think the KET/homeroom teachers ask for volunteers (and twist some arms, I'm guessing). There might also be a bit of bribing in the way of points (students in our province (all of South Korea?) get points for extracurricular activities and lessons that go in their student portfolios which are considered when determining which schools they can apply for when they graduate).

For the elementary schools, I'm sure that it's the parents who volunteer: the home room teachers send out a notice to the parents about the vacation programmes that will be available, and the parents sign the kids up for the ones they want.

My coteacher showed me the memo from the POE, they were quite clear in their emphasis that we must fulfill our 22 hours a week this time round. Even on weeks with camp I have to do additional hours. I'll be doing a split of in person at my main school and zoom classes at the high school. It feels punitive but I guess they want us to make up for the Covid slack on previous vacation periods.

Sounds very similar to what's going on at my schools. They say that there'll even be some representative from the POE coming around to check whether or not the schools are actually having us do what the paperwork is saying that we're doing. 

I'm not really 100% sure, but in middle school, i think the KET/homeroom teachers ask for volunteers (and twist some arms, I'm guessing). There might also be a bit of bribing in the way of points (students in our province (all of South Korea?) get points for extracurricular activities and lessons that go in their student portfolios which are considered when determining which schools they can apply for when they graduate).


When are East Asians going to learn the meaning for the word 'vacation'?

When I arrived in Korea in 2008 the school closed on December 24th for vacation but of course I had to go in to desk warm after Christmas day, I arrived at school and all the students and teachers were there and classes were going on as usual. I was totally confused and asked 'isn't it vacation?'  I was told yes, but the students and teachers come to school for lessons as normal since it makes the principal happy. Unbelievable.

That isn't the norm though. Kids do come in for extra-curricular programs/camps, whether they are forced to by parents (elementary) or volunteer/are coerced to (middle/high). However 90% of the students will not be there. Don't make it into a weird 'East Asians are backwards' thing.

Who said anything about East Asians are backwards. Stop putting words in my mouth. It was certainly the norm in the schools in the area where I taught back then. What it is like now, I don't know but I was just going on what he said about having to teach online in the vacation.

Yeah, zoom or telephone camp for ESL is another ring of Hell. Zoom classes only really work with highly motivated students. You're not going to get that in the majority of cases here, especially with younger learners.

But anyway, I've thought a lot about what I'd do if I were being forced to do one, though, especially since it was a very real possibility a couple of years back that I was expected to do all alone.

Like Kyndo, I'd start the class off going over necessary vocabulary using a youtube video. For younger learners, I'd find a sing along song vid, for middle school and higher I'd make my own vid introducing the terms, using them in sentences, and probably have them play a free quiz game where they can test their memory. For younger learners, I'd play a matching card game using the vocabulary first, then maybe follow it up with Pictionary where I'd draw something and students would have to guess which vocab word it is, then use it in a sentence (depends on levels I'm working with).

From there, I might try to get them to answer relatable questions involving those vocab and terms. Think Sesame Street, I basically just copy what they do for younger learners.

For in between, there's online gaming. A while back it was possible to create a room on one of those free Tetris gaming sites. If that's still possible, I'd create one and send a link to each student in the class to join, and we'd have competitive gaming sessions as rewards and breaks. I did this a while back and found students were highly motivated to play against the teacher, plus it made for a great way to help break up the monotony of the lessons. Kind of like allowing students to mentally stretch a little while also giving them the opportunity to see you as more than just a teacher. It's a great way to bond with them a bit.

Other activities I'd have them do would really depend on how many students there are, how reliable their internet is, their ages and levels, and etc.

If I'm working with 8 or more students, I'd probably focus a lot on group or team work. Activities and games would involve solving puzzles, online scavenger hunts, timed quizzes, just whatever I can incorporate the targeted vocab and grammar concepts into. Having them watch videos and answer questions, first team to complete all questions correctly wins, that sort of thing.
Maybe even have them write scripts and turning those scripts into videos using whatever free programs I can find and refer them to.

There are ppt games I could play with them, too, but I keep these more as alternatives since they don't always work very well via zoom. More for intro'ing concepts and instructions than anything else.

Other games that could work well via video would be Apples to Apples, Hot Seat, Mafia, and Taboo.

Also, I would not be beneath just letting the students watch movies or episodes from an approved series. The way I see it, camps are a major waste of everyone's time, it's just busy work and micromanagement for the most part. If they don't care enough to provide me with a coteacher, especially if it's all online and with low level students, then I can't be arsed. I don't get paid enough for that, and I'm not a ****** work horse. They either need to pay me more, or they need to provide me with the same level of support as they would a normal class. This includes telling me how many students there's going to be and what levels I'll be working with well in advance. If they don't want to do any of that, then the kids are getting a movie.

That's pretty rought Kayos.  I guess you needed to start a video or hand out a wordfind (using vocabulary you will be using that day) or give them a handout with letters A-Z and ask them to find as many words as they can for each letter - ideally based on the topic (to keep the KT happy!).

Regarding online live camps - I had 4 online camps in the summer vacation.  I teach at Elementary School.  Each camp was 80 minutes a day for 5 days (I didn't want to do 160 minutes a day for each camp so I chose to do 4 camps rather than 2!!!)
One thing that worked well with me (for the top group - I had them level based and had to push quite hard to get the school to agree) - was to have 2 or 3 questions for the day and I would ask one student one of the questions, they would answer it and then ask one of the other students a question.  It was better than just going teacher-student-teacher-student-teacher-student etc
I was able to do this with the lower students (but only for the same question eg 'How are you? (day 1), Do you like (...)? (Day 2) etc.

I had given them the text of a story in a camp booklet before camp started.  We listened to video of the story (or I read it - or I let the students read it on their own before I read it, or we did listen and repeat after that....).  Then I had the students write two questions to ask about the story (with some modelling of they type of questions they could ask).  Again I asked one student my question, they answered and then asked another student one of their questions.  This was for my higher level group - I didn't do this with the lower level students!!!!

In the camp book I also had a simple board game (phonics based).  I had the students stand up and play by themselves.  They had to write down the words for the squares they landed on.  At the end of the time I had them hold up their mini-whiteboard with the words written on (camp booklet would work well too) to the camera and we read them together (and counted them to see who was the 'winner'.

One thing that doesn't work on Zoom is to have a song and chant playing while you sing along.  For this I had to mute my voice (and other students) as it seems there is a delay and it is very messy and scrambled sound.  I try it once (so they can hear it) and then mute while it is playing.  I need to remember to unmute when the song is finished.

Another thing I found is that when you ask a question - you need to give a bit more time to answer.  They tend to be shy so you may need to use their names or have them all answer at the same time eg 'What's this?  It's a ....(dog)'

Fortunately I have not had to do phone calls.  I think that would be awful.  Unless you give them a story/text and you read it together (listen and repeat for low students), and ask basic questions.  You could always use the dialog from the textbooks????? 
I hope no-one is required to do this.

It used to be compulsory for a KT to be present - in event of an emergency I guess.  A few years ago they dropped that (for some reason - the emergencies could still exist)
.  Mostly I have a KT present - if not I have a phone number taped to the computer for students to phone if there is an emergency.
I teach in Daejeon at an elementary school.  Different places may have different rules though.