10 AM: My first-period class was cancelled, which is great for my lesson-planning ability, but bad in way because I was really looking forward to seeing the boys of 2-7, 2-8 A, though they gave me grief last week.
(Boys in that class: Peter-Pan-Taehoon, Grumpmaster-Jiwoong,
Diamond-in-the-Rough-Seonghyun (all are my afterschool boys), Sparkly-Daehoon and Kind-Jihyuk, and Tanned-Helpful-Ikgwang. Last week, Ikgwang went without playing a fun game himself so he could help me keep score. I was rather tired and the boys were loud, so Ikgwang's kind gesture earned him chocolate, as well as many verbal thanks from me.)
It's October! I spent the entire month of September in a country that is not the US! On September 18th, I'd been here for one month, but now I've lived through one entire calendar month, here.
It's been good. I still get nervous over how lessons will go, but I've got a routine going. I still don't know how to get everywhere, but I haven't been lost in three weeks, I know my city's downtown area pretty well, I can take a taxi whenever I need to, and I have a good understanding of the train system and a shadowy understanding of the subway system.
I worked and earned my first fulltime teaching paycheck.
I met about 80 boys I can smile at and call by name in the hallways.
I made friends with O-Teacher, JY-Teacher, Y-Teacher, and KBR-Teacher, and many more co-workers have shown me kindness at every opportunity. My Vice-Principal is patiently teaching me Korean. Mr. B is like an uncle to me, helping me with class discipline.
I found a church that might be the place I want to attend for the duration of my stay here.
So far, it's all been worth it. The endless language study, the mounds of paperwork, the travel stress and uncertainty of living in a new place while constantly wondering if I'll measure up and be a proper teacher...I'm so glad the Lord put it in my heart to do this. I have no idea why I'm supposed to be here, but for this year, I definitely believe that this is my place.
And to think that the most adventurous thing I'd ever previously wanted to do was maybe visit London for a week.
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10:45 AM Went over to O-Teacher's room and talked to some of the regular students who were hanging out there. This morning, I wore my hair in...pigtails/dog-ears? Don't know what to call it, but it's two ponytails. One kid said, "Cute, so cute!" Then Inha, Jaehyung's friend who is a 2nd-grade A-class, saw my hair and said "Sailor Moon!" naming a popular Japanese anime character who has long blonde hair in pigtails. Then he said "Barbie!" and "Cinderella!" I forget how many iconic cartoon characters have blonde hair.
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1 PM 1-5, 1-6 B went awesomely! This is what the document O' Kids says about who'd in there: Hyunshik-Pig, Munsu-Octopus, Jinho-Puppy,
Acapella-Hyunho, Frontrow-Heekyu, Reserved-Cool-Kid Minjong
(left side of room, sits by wall).
They loved the game at the end, and I managed to engineer opportunities so that my favorites didn't win the game, but they still got chocolate if they practiced English with me after class. Gameplay in the classroom seems to thrive on sudden reversal--if you set up a game where the smartest kids can win through their smarts, it's no fun. But if you make winning one part skill, two parts chance, suddenly everyone has a chance and everyone is invested.
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3 PM: 2-5, 2-6 B went well! Except for one activity I chose which was too difficult for them, things went nicely and JY-Teacher was in there with me. Kids are: Jonghoon, Big-Eyes Injae,
Dongjun (sits behind Seongsu, looks like Sooncheon), Yoopil (sits behind
Dongjun).
We had a good time and I got to feel their enjoyment of the final game. Team 2 kept losing so bad. They'd bet all their points every time, sinking their chance of winning against decisions they weren't sure of. But they found their perpetual failure to be hilarious, too.
Met Shion, the other huge kid who's even huger than Shotputter Jinseong. Shion is in 3rd grade and I've seen him in one of my classes. He's so big, when I first saw him one week into school, I thought he was a P.E. teacher I'd just failed to meet. He seems to have a kind nature.
First-graders in the halls are calling me "Julia". This is obviously a reference to a cartoon or comic book or line of toys I'm not familiar with.
Jaehyung's out of school, apparently getting his wisdom teeth removed, if Inha's miming act is to be believed.
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6 PM The final class of 3rd-graders---the worst 3rd-graders of my week, in fact, were fine. We got through everything just dandy. They were sweet. Gyujeong is the loner in that class--I've yet to see anybody sit by him.
Afterschool was not awful, but was a little sad because I decided to just give up on the boys in the back. I talked with and gave chocolate to the twelve boys in the front and just let Jiwoong, Taehoon, and the other dudes play their phones in the back. It seems like I can I either have a barely-mediocre class where everyone is involved, or a good class where I only teach the front of the room.
Jiwoong tried to intrude on the spelling game I was doing with the boys in the front, then I told him, "You're not even part of this game. You're playing on your phone." Which was incredibly immature and was just my hurt feelings talking. Jiwoong-ah was making an attempt to answer--I should have let him do so. At the beginning of class, I did give him chocolate when he said his favorite movie, though. And when I pulled my chair up by him, he just laid his head down--he didn't scoot his chair away. He wants to be fussed over, to be sought out. But I don't. have. time. Don't you see that, Jiwoong?
I don't know when I started loving this kid and worrying about whether he gets enough attention. Probably shortly after I stole 3 of his jackets.
Cardsharp-Minsu had a great day, which was nice after our tug-of-war yesterday. He paid attention to the spelling game and he won chocolate for correctly guessing "Vietnam". He also had the time of his life "stealing" the chocolate bag from me. He moved himself to the front row, just so he could keep grabbing the bag and pretending to stuff it away in his backpack. I would laugh and scold him, and he was enjoying it tons. Is this the way to keep him happy--create opportunities for him to tease me and pull pranks? He loves being just a little bit bad.
Clever-Sunwoo was having fun, too. The other day, I walked up to him to compliment him on his English and his good sportsmanship in the game we played that day, and he looked 300% non-plussed, as if he couldn't possibly care whether I was proud of him. Ooo-kay, I thought. Forget about saying nice things to Sunwoo. But he's no beyond having fun.
Diamond-in-the-Rough Seonghyun said he had actually been the first to guess "Vietnam," but Minsu was just louder.
Letter-Byeonghyun was so good at the spelling game, I had to disqualify him. Then he said HE wanted to write a word and have the other kids guess how to spell it. It was a food, some incredibly complex Korean holiday food that not even the other boys could guess. Byeonghyun is quite simply an amazing person.
Sanghwa was out at the "hospital," but since I never get a proper doctor's excuse from him it's likely that he's just skipping class. I mark him absent, and everybody's even. But when he told me his stomach was hurting and made a massive put-on hurt face, I opened my arms and said "Do you want a hug?" with overblown sympathy. Sanghwa doubled over laughing, which was my intent, then went skipping down the hall, sing-songing, "Bye, Sem! See you tomorrow, see you tomorrow!" Fuzzy cutie-pie.
Seongsu's friend, S-Line-Kid, is named Dongjin. The smart guy who looks like Seohyung but isn't Seohyung is Yeongju.
