As I was trying not to worry on my walk up to the school, I saw Byeonghyun-the-Letter-Writer smiling and waving from a second-story window. How can you fail to be happy when that kid is smiling at you? And then when I got to my office, he walked through the door with a canned drink for me. I took a picture.
The Can, In Front of His Letter, Still Tacked To My Cubicle Wall.
I opened it, and it's coffee! I can't get enough coffee, so that makes this an even better present. Okay, the rest of the day can go however. I'm happy now.
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11 AM: 1-7, 1-8 B went well. My little baby Hyo was cheek-pinchably cute as always, and Class-Clown-Hyunmin got along really well with me. The lesson on Thanksgiving and Chuseok went fine, even though I didn't teach them anything new in terms of words, all the boys seemed willing to work with me on their papers.
Hyunmin and his crew of 4 other fairly cool boys let me pull up a chair among them and work on writing about Chuseok. They spoke in mostly Korean, and seemed really gratified that I could usually take their meaning. I wish we'd had more English produced verbally, but at least they were writing it. These same boys acted up pretty majorly last week, so it was like a tea party, sitting inside a knot of 5 of them, talking about their Chuseok plans. They wanted to know if I've ever played League of Legends, and by now I'm fairly convinced that I need to get myself to a PC Room to see what all the fuss is about.
I met 2 new small ones in 1-7, 1-8 B: Chanjin and Mingyu, who are best buddies and who were happy to talk a bit. Minjoon is the member of Hyunmin's cool crew who had the best English, and Hyukjae is the person among the normal kids who had the best English. All 4 names are written on my hand, and I also met a sleepyhead named Moonshik who was a darling kid to work with, every time I nudged him from his slumbers.
It was a beautiful class, actually. I got so much one-on-one time, I feel like we're getting somewhere. Even after the bell rang to dismiss us, two of the boys let me sit by them and finish their Chuseok poems. And the cool crew took 2 minutes to try to explain to me that one kid in the back's nickname was "grasshopper," and that got us talking about animals. I said I was born in the Chinese year of the Tiger, and they replied that Kid-In-The-Back was born in the Year of the Grasshopper. There is no such year, but I like their creativity.
Saturday-Jeongmin walked into class as I was leaving and I got to ask him which class he normally stays in--he's 1-8, but he's A-level and I only teach B-level 1st-graders. I told him I wanted to give him a thank-you note for helping me on Saturday. I went downstairs, got out my stickypad notes and a purple pen and wrote, "Jeongmin, thanks so much for helping me on Saturday. You're the best! --Leigh-Teacher".
I walked back up four flights of stairs, then when I inquired about Jeongmin, someone in 1-8 directed me to the next room. I presented Jeongmin with his tiny thank-you letter, then left. The boy who showed me to Jeongmin seemed to be saying that his name was Seongmin and that he should get a note as well, because their names were similar.
One unknown child in a P.E. shirt has decided to shake my hand every time we pass in the hallway.
Met little 1st-grader Laryngitis-Seonghoon on the stairwell, where he announced, "Glasses!" and pulled on a sleep mask designed to look like a pair of sunglasses. I rubbed his head and said it was "very cute".
Coming down from 1-7, 1-8 B, I saw one of the bigger boys squeezing a smaller kid's face very hard, and the smaller kid was making pained noises. The big guy was the boy who brought me the dead bat last week, the boy who always wears a soccer uniform and who the other kids say is Japanese--I don't know if they're joking or serious when they say that. When Soccer Player let the smaller boy go, the smaller kid looked just fine and when he saw me, he beamed and said, "Hello, Princess!" It's the first time any kid has used that term, so I assumed he was okay.
Still, I punched Soccer Player in the back to get his attention, and he did not react because he presumably did not feel a thing. Then I touched his shoulder and said, "Hey. Hey. Be nice." Soccer Player smiled and nodded, then said "Konnichiwa!" So either he actually is Japanese, or he's playing along with the foreigner role the other boys have assigned him. Now that I've interacted with him, I think I like Soccer Player. He may play too rough, but he seems to have a pleasant nature. I'll try to get his name, soon.
Seongjae-the-I-Love-You came up in the hallway to remind me that I teach him in 4th period class. As if I'd forget that. So in just a bit I've got my favorite 3rd-graders, Seongjae, Yeonghyo, Hyunjoon, Hwangmin, and Teacher's-Pet-Jeongmin. Looking forward to seeing them!
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1 PM: Class with 3-5, 3-6 B went fine. Mr.B was at a parent-teacher conference, so I had them by myself and they weren't bad. It was hard to get them to write on their worksheets, though. And Teacher's-Pet-Jeongmin was in a fine frenzy. I was apparently not paying enough attention to him, so he would flounce about and walk over to other people's tables to talk with them. When it took me too long to come sit by him, he yelled "Hurry up!"in English. I gave him a look that said I loved him but he was treading on thin ice. I instructed him to say he was sorry and he did.
When I spent too much time with Seongjae's crowd at the front of the room, Jeongmin started crooning what I assume is an actual song that gets radio play but which might have been his own invention, "I love yooooou. I love you so muuuuuch. I'm hurrrrrt." When we did start his worksheet together, he wouldn't name traditional Chuseok foods, and instead decided to write all the food-words he knew, like "chicken, water, ice cream, " but when I left, he was soon off talking while I was trying to speak to the class, and I had to tell him to be quiet, using his full name. It's rather like dealing with a spoiled kitten.
Soon, the lunch bell rang and I went to eat with O-Teacher and the special-needs boys. It's mildly unusual for a teacher to sit with students, but it's fine for mine because I'm with O-Teacher and she has to sit with her boys. But then some 3rd-graders who were decidedly not special-needs kids came up and sat by me. "Hello, good to see you again!" trilled one of them, then didn't speak again for the rest of the time. When asked about his name, he said "Secret!" But I did learn the name of his friend, Inseong, who was probably the guy with the idea to come over. I don't teach Inseong, but he says goodbye to me everyday on my walk home.
Saturday-Jeongmin said thank you for the thank-you note. Gave Poet-HH another decent high-five. We're on a roll! Trying to figure out a game for the next two classes. I want to do something a little more fun with the lesson.
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6:30 PM My two second-grade classes went fine. The boys were a wee bit bored, but when I brought out the candy rewards, they perked right up. I can't offer them candy every day, but today I wanted to do something special since Chuseok is coming up. Some boys who never would have talked to me or written their vocabulary on their own suddenly brightened up and made a serious effort. I had a good time talking to them.
My poetry-writing exercise was a non-starter because I was working with B-class students. I bet the A's could have made it work, but at least I coaxed a few new words out of the B's. And I found out that Minsu in my afterschool is also B-class. What is up with so many B-class being in English afterschool? Minsu likes cards, and I need to have an excuse to let him use them in class. Cardsharp-Minsu is also very much like a cat---he craves attention and kicks up a storm to get what he wants, then when you actually have time to engage him, he's not interested and can't be bothered to roll his head in your direction. He shouted and blustered that he needed candy, until I said he would have to write a story to get it. Then he claimed he never cared for chocolate in the first place. Absolute cat.
Afterschool went fine except for Jiwoong. Grumpmaster-Jiwoong came to class 15 minutes late, after another teacher hunted him down. When the other boys put up their phones, he draped his jacket over his head and kept his phone, claiming that he was not playing it. I put his phone in my pocket and he demanded, "You steal my phone. Give me my phone!" I explained to him that he needed to speak in a kinder tone. I said he was speaking in "yeongeo banmal" or English informal language. A student should never speak to a teacher in Korean banmal, so he understood that I was telling him to be more respectful.
I said, "It's not "give me my phone!" You can say, "Give me my phone, please." Jiwoong replied, "No. You steal my phone. Give me my phone." I said, "Jiwoong, if you say "please," you can have your phone back. Say "please"." He said, "You take my phone. You drive me crazy." Oy. The other boys are screaming at him at this point, telling him to be more polite, but he won't budge. Peter-Pan-Taehoon is one of Jiwoong's buddies and I think Taehoon was the angriest at Jiwoong for his fussiness. The wrath of Taehoon is pretty fierce.
Anyways, i just dropped the issue. Jiwoong refused to write a story with me, and I think he wrote something bad about me in Korean, because I saw the Koreanization of my name written in a scrawled sentence on his paper. 3 minutes before class ended, I gave him his phone back, trying to show him that I cared and I was not unreasonable, and he immediately started playing phone games. I'm trying to figure out what's this boy's motivation--does he want to be perceived as tough in front of his schoolmates? Is he the type who will resist me to the death, just to prove a point? I'm not trying to control him for the fun of it. I wanted to give him chocolate, and I wanted to give his phone back, but he would not be less than a grade-A grump.
My Taehoon moved to the back of the room for the second half of class and put his head down on the table. He seemed genuinely exhausted. While the other boys were writing stories, I went to the back to work with Taehoon. I nudged him awake and we wrote a story about a boy with a magic dog. I said we needed a villain, so what should the bad man's name be? He grinned at said, "Jiwoong," knowing that Jiwoong had just given me a first-rate headache. Taehoon later changed the name on the paper to "Minho," another friend of his. I was just glad that on a rough day, I could still write stories with Taehoon and make him smile.
I worked with a quiet boy in class called Seonghyun, and I've never talked to him before because he's not brilliant and he's not trouble. But he smiles so brightly and he laughs at my jokes, and he was perhaps the only boy left I could work with after being pointedly ignored by Grumpmaster-Jiwoong and shrugged off by Cardsharp-Minsu. That kind of rejection can get to a girl, but Seonghyun was ready to work on his story, so he got his chocolate and I also got to meet a new kid that I really like.
Letter-Byeonghyun's story had me in it--I was a powerful villain. But I don't think he was trying to send me any secret messages or anything. I never got mean or angry with Jiwoong. Clever-Seonwoo wrote a good story on his own, Seonbin and Hyun wrote a very bloody tale together complete with illustrations, and Seonghak and Jinseop wrote a good full-page story together. Protector-Seongyeol wrote two brilliant sentences, but he overthinks everything. Sanghwa wasn't there because he said he had a problem with his eyes, but I don't care if he was lying or not because he told me sweetly, and that's pretty good.
Also, for the almost 2 hours of afterschool, I played 10 Questions with the boys. I'd think of a song, a teacher at our school, a movie, a country, etc. If they guessed it right, they could watch a Youtube video of their choice. What they chose was this horrible, nasty cartoon where the characters keep dying bloody deaths. I won't watch it with them again, but for today I was just letting them access something they liked. Half the fun for them seemed to be watching my horrified reactions to their chosen entertainment.
They loved winning 10 Questions so they could get back to a few more minutes of their horrible cartoon. It became a big production when I'd "lose" and be forced to watch more of it--it was like little boys holding a frog in front of a girl's face for the fun of hearing the shriek. I played it up, too, and let them enjoy their moment. Because this is bonding time. Everything's more fun when your teacher is their to praise you or be aghast at your questionable taste.
The boys were screaming out answers for 10 Questions. Sometimes I would choose something I thought they knew, but it would be too obscure--I picked a math teacher at our school who only teaches the 3rd-graders, so my boys didn't know her name. They lost that round, so the next round, I picked the other American at our school and Taehoon got it in two guesses. Clever-Seonwoo cackled with manic glee as he walked over to my computer to start up another round of our violent cartoon and I whimpered out a "whhhhyyyyy...." They ate it up.
Jinseop had a good day, too. By pairing him with Stoic-Seonghak, whose English level is higher, I got a lot more out of Jinseop today, and he seemed really interested in the story-writing. I also made Jinseop happy by trying to wrestle him away from the computer. I was trying to turn off the cartoon, but Jinseop prevented me, telling me the episode wasn't over yet. I pulled at his arm for half a minute, trying to budge him, mainly just so he could have the fun of keeping me from it. When I was truly ready to turn the show off, I quietly told him to move and he did. But Jinseop was so joyful for those moments when I was letting him win--I felt like it made up for my ignoring him for nearly 2 weeks, since he's another one of the boys who is B-class and has very little English. Now he knows he's well-liked.
During the break between class periods, Stoic-Seonghak asked me in a carefully composed sentence, "Teacher, I would like to watch soccer news site, please." I let him access it, so for the 15 minutes of break, those of us who were still in the English room watched soccer matches because Seonghak's into English football, Manchester United, specifically. Some other A-class 2nd-grader who isn't even in our afterschool slid into class during break to hang out with us. He (Yoong..jae?) translated some Korean for me, and participated in a few rounds of 10 Questions. It was sweet.
I was leaving school with O-Teacher, and Teddybear-Deokryeong ran toward me at the door as if he was expecting a hug. I was weighing the pros and cons of giving him one when he stopped short. He said in Korean, "Where are you going?" I said in Korean, home. He said in Korean, "Shall we walk together?" I said in English, sure. O-Teacher was laughing like crazy because I could understand him. He only walked a few steps with us before chickening out, but it was still cute.
Then me and O-Teacher were swarmed by more 3rd-graders issuing a bajillion greetings and saying of their friends, "He I-love-you! My friend, he I-loves-you!" It's so much fun to accuse your friends of harboring teacher-crushes. O-Teacher and I grabbed coffee and cheesecake, and on the way home she called me "unnie," or "big sister". My hear goes melty when the boys call me "Sem," the familiar form of "Teacher," so being called sister does the same thing.
O-Teacher is so sweet. I feel really fortunate to know someone so grand. One of her boys was asking for me today, wondering where his piano-playing partner was. I ran down the hall to play 1 minute of Heart and Soul with him even though I was already running late for 6th period class. I'll have more time to spend with the special-needs boys tomorrow.
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