10:30 AM Whee! First class went well! Yesterday's classes were a bit boring, so I changed it up for today and downloaded a powerpoint game called Turkey Attack. I showed the boys of 2-7, 2-8 A some slides about Thanksgiving, then we played the game to see how much they remembered. There was shouting, there were accusations, there was general uproar and rioting in the streets. But they were Englishing, and more importantly, they were happy.
Peter-Pan-Taehoon is in this class and, as always, he waited for me to do his worksheet with him. In this class there is also Grumpmaster-Jiwoong, but there were so many fun, loud boys in the class, his grumpiness was minimized, and I even saw him shouting answers and arguing with the other boys. Tanned-Ikgwang is in here also, as are Sparkly-Daehoon and Daehoon's Friend-Jihyuk.
Diamond-in-the-Rough-Seonghyun from my afterschool is in this class, too. I only noticed Seonghyun for real yesterday, when I struck out with Grumpmaster-Jiwoong and Cardsharp-Minsu and I just had to succeed with some kid or I was going eat all their candy myself. I sat by Seonghyun and worked with him on a story about a book that made a kid invisible, and it was awesome. Today, there were 4 teams in class and Seonghyun led his team to victory. He remembered a massive amount of material from the slides and calmly stated the correct answer. Diamond-Seonghyun probably needs more notice in the future. I told him today, "Seonghyun, you're really smart." He smiled and all his friends heard it, so that went over well.
My mom reminded me to get Chuseok presents for important people, so this morning I left a container of my favorite coffee for Mr. B, and chocolate bars with thank-you notes for Co-Teacher, KBR-Teacher and a new girl, S-Teacher, who I only taught with for the first time yesterday. I have 2 chocolate bars left, and I think I need to save one as a prize for my afterschool boys. Who gets the other? B-Teacher? Vice-Principal? Principal? Gosh, I should have gotten more, but this morning 1 canister of coffee and 5 chocolate bars looked like plenty of presents.
I spent 20 minutes with O-Teacher and the special needs boys. Joonsung is the Piano Prodigy who wants me to sing better in Korean, and Jaehyung is my friend, who I play Heart and Soul with. I don't know the other two boys well, but Byeongsu is small and Chanyeong is big, so I remember them by size.
Jaehyung is always smiling. If you didn't know, it would be hard for you to tell he has autism until you really hear him talk. Whereas Joonsung is on the more severe end of the autism spectrum, though his English is actually rather good. When I picked up a book that Joonsung did not want me to touch, he took it from me, then nudged my arm with his head. I suppose a head-butt is his way of saying, "How could you?"
When I sat down at the table in their class, Jaehyung asked O-Teacher why I was there: "Sem isseoyo. Waeyo?" She explained that I was there to help them with math. MATH. So at O-Teacher's prompting, I helped Jaehyung with his math problems. So there's me, a word-person, helping an autistic teenager with mathematics. In Korean. Fortunately, the math was simple and I knew the words for the numbers. And Jaehyung was smart, too, so we got through. When he finished, O-Teacher said he could play piano as a reward, so we practiced our duet a bit more. And Jaehyung was humming "Heart and Soul" while he did his subtraction problems. Sweet.
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11:30 AM --Woohooo, just checked a Korean book out of our school library, using only Korean. WHO'S THE MAN? I'm the man. Sort of.
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1 PM : 1-5, 1-6 B went well. This is the class with Hyunshik-Pig, Munsu-Octopus, Jinho-Puppy and Acapella-Hyunho. Hyunho committed himself to my memory last week when he said he enjoyed acapella music and sang with one of the videos. This time I finally added Smart-Heekyu to the list of boys I recall. I wrote Heekyu on my hand last week, but I didn't remember him because his brand of intelligence is very quiet. Heekyu's a wonderful kid though, and he hung around after class to say, "See you later, Teacher."
The Turkey Hunt game went well, though there's a huge difference in what A-level and B-level can remember. So I wrote words on the board as the slides went by, to jog their memory, and that helped. There were several kids trying to sleep, but I think at least one of them--Hyunshik--had a severe headache. I should learn more of 1-5, 1-6 B because they're a good bunch of kids.
At lunch, I managed to greet Huge-Eyes-Jeonghee who I met yesterday. I was really afraid I would forget Jeonghee because he seemed to care that I remembered him. He's lovely. At lunch I sat with O-Teacher and the special needs boys on one side, and Inseong and Secret and the other 3rd-graders on the other side. There seemed to be some debate and some pushing regarding who was supposed to sit by me, but it ended up being Secret again. Secret managed to tell me that our lunch co-ordinator is crazy. He said she's only nice "on surface," but is crazy on the inside.
I'm seeing Walk-to-School-Minki everywhere. He greeted me as he stood in the lunchline, and Laryngitis-Seonghoon punched him in the stomach. But then Minki put Seonghoon in a chokehold, so. All's right in the world, or something. It's so weird to catch myself feeling happy when the kids are beating each other up in equal measures.
Saturday-Jeongmin met me in the hall to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving, aka Chuseok. He informed me that the two holidays were "very similar". I love when he does his lecturer-delivering-cultural-info voice
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2: 40 PM Third class went well. I really need to learn names for 2-5, 2-6 B, because I know a few faces but don't have the kids in my brain yet. They did well with the game and I immediately went to sit with the cool kids as soon as the game was over and it was time to do Chuseok worksheets. My new strategy is to cozy up to the cool kids first, if it's possible.
The quiet kids need me more, in all likelihood. But if you don't go talk to the troublemakers first, they'll think you don't like them. AND they'll be bored, which is double death. But when I went to the cool kids first in 1-7, 1-8 B on Monday, everything went smoother. Same thing here. Seongsu is the only boy I really know, and I remember him because he made fun of my laugh back in week one. I made a beeline for Seongsu and his crew after the game. After some prodding, they filled out their worksheets just fine and we shared some laughs over the fact that their big plans for Chuseok are going to the PC room to play computer games.
Laughter-Seongsu's friend Dongjoon has slightly better English, and in my head he's Really-Dongjoon because he kept reassuring me that he was telling the truth by saying "really". Seongsu and I get along fine now that I understand that mimicry is his way of having fun, not his way of attacking.
Seongsu told me my eyes were beautiful, then a friend of his said my face was beautiful, and a third friend went a bit further and said, "body, Teacher, S-line very nice!" complete with hand motions to illustrate what he meant, in case I didn't get it. I elbowed him in the ribs and the slight pain seemed to calm him down. You just have to be a little bit mean when they're being a little bit idiotic, and everything turns out. You can't get too mad because they're still little kids in a lot of ways and they're not being threatening, but you can't let it slide either, or they'll take it as a signal to say more.
So I hope that as the weeks wear on, I can spend more time with the quiet ones. I don't want to be a respecter of persons, valuing the charismatic kids more than the less sparkling ones, but sometimes I have to make a decision in class and pick a maximum of five kids to really interact with. If the Lord blesses, I'll get to have it be a different 5 kids next week.
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5 PM: Freeedoooommmm! I didn't have an afterschool! We let out, we are done! I have a friend from Gangwon coming to stay with me tomorrow, and we are going to soak in the vacation.
3-3, 3-4 B went great. I thought I remembered these boys being my single worst bunch of 3rd-graders from last week. I had a 45-minute lesson for them that lasted 20 minutes, and I remember looking over at Mr. B like "what happened? what do I do now?" I hashed something together because I survived that class, but it was nasty. No one was mean, but they were a level of uncooperative I have not previously seen.
Ah, but today would be different. Today, I had Turkey Attack. 3 classes had already loved this game, and fun and candy were there for the having. They tried not to react, but the thrice-blessed teacher who put together the turkey powerpoint game designed it to have moments where instead of merely gaining or losing points, you can attack another team and make them lose points. Team 3, who took a full minute to say a single word in English when I asked them the first question, was screaming out responses when presented with the chance of taking points away from teams who had taken points from them.
I did worksheets with the cool kids again. The weird thing is, the class leader for 3-3, 3-4 B looks nearly identical to Laughter-Seongsu, the loudest kid in 2-5, 2-6 B, my previous class. Weeeeird. I have even mistake the 3rd-grade boy for Seongsu before. The 3rd-grade instigator of 3-3, 3-4 B is Hyungjin, and the way I can tell him apart from Seongsu in appearance is that he is slightly taller and has much prettier eyelashes. Eyelashes-Hyungjin wanted candy so badly although his team lost the Turkey Attack, but I had it set up where if the boys finished their worksheet, they got candy, so he had his piece after all.
Mr. B was proud of me after class. I had really wanted to show him that game, because our class together yesterday was fairly boring and I wanted him to see that I could change my plans and do something fun for the boys. It was great. I have worried so much about being a disappointment to Mr. B, but when I started focusing on doing lovely things for the students, I got the side benefit of lots of praise from Mr. B. Almost like Solomon asking for wisdom from God instead of money, then getting wisdom and money. Only not as important or Biblical.
He said these boys are the single worst batch of 3rd-grade B-class, but they were engaged today. He said they loved the game, and that he likes my style of going around one-on-one and talking with each boy. The trouble is, he says, that when I'm with one kid, the rest of the room acts up, but he agrees that teaching to the whole room does not work. It's not my fault, he says, it's just the difficulty of teaching these boys. Yay! Happy kids and happy teachers! I can't think of a better note to end the work week on.
I gave the two remaining chocolate bars to JY-Teacher and to my Vice-Principal. Everyone seemed happy with the little presents, and one of the teachers said he was jealous of the Vice-Principal and wanted chocolate too. In Korean, I told him "There is no more," which made all the men laugh. The male teachers all said goodbye to me today, one shook my hand, and some went out of their way to speak English when it's hard for them to do so. It was terribly thoughtful.
After lunch, I played piano with Jaehyung some more. This time about 10 of the regular students crowded into the room to listen, so I was happy he was getting the extra positive attention. Jaehyung is so likable, he seems to be treated very well by the non-special-needs students. From what I can tell, everyone understands that he needs to be protected, and they do so. I need to find us some more piano duets--maybe order some sheet music so I can learn it, then teach it to him. Maybe a Canon in D variation?
Greeted Shotputter-Jinseong about 3 times today--being the size of linebacker, he is hard to miss. Jinseong seems to appreciate the attention, and I appreciate the chance to give it, so everybody wins.
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