11 AM: First two classes went well!
2-1, 2-2 A has Byeonghyun in it, and I gave him his letter of appreciation, telling him that even though I never get to talk to him as much as I want, I always appreciate his support and his kindness in class.
And I gave HH a letter also, telling him how awesome a writer he is--that his poem about that temple was great, and his magic story written with Daehoon was great too. I told him that he was very talented.
I loved reading a book called the 5 Love Languages, once upon a time. There's a million books on personality, but this one made sense to me. It said that there are 5 big, obvious ways that people express love and receive gestures of love: Words, Gifts, Quality Time, Physical Touch, and Acts of Service. The way you most want to receive love is probably also the way you tend to give it...
For instance, people who feel most loved when they get small Gifts are likely to give chocolates and flowers and knick-knacks on a regular basis, not just for birthdays and holidays. People who feel love through Words are likely to write encouraging notes and to verbally praise friends.
Physical Touch is the one that's most misunderstood and can most easily go wrong, but it's one of my love languages. If no one hugs me for a week, I feel starved. Fortunately, the other female teachers here are getting used to my hugs and O-Teacher even offers hugs on her own!
For the boys, I never know which love language makes them feel cared for, so I try a mix of everything I can, to see what sticks. Everyone likes candy, but some of the boys seem to go over the moon when they get a piece of chocolate, so I mentally file those kids as Gifts people.
I pat shoulders and pat heads all the time, and the ones who seem to appreciate it most are the boys who are always hugging or hanging on their friends--their love language is Touch. If you don't ruffle their hair or pat their shoulder, they will not feel cared for.
Words-kids are harder to help, because of the language barrier. But I try to constantly give out praise and good words, so that it will strike home for some of them.
Quality Time is hard to come by for any kids but my afterschool boys, and Acts of Service is semi-included in the task of teaching them and helping them with their papers.
In short, I'm trying every avenue I can think of to be loving to my students.
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1-9, 1-10 B was great. They were more responsive than any other 1st-grade class, and I had polished the lesson up better for them. Laryngitis-Seonghoon was there, voice on the mend and cuter than ever. Governor Yunho was there, and surprisingly quiet. Teddybear Deokryeong was there, and he had already struck up a conversation with me this morning about how cold it was. He said, "wear vest AND jacket!" referring to his own system of layers.
Deokryeong was teased by the other boys again. They remembered what I said last week, and they said "Teacher, he's a handsome boy!" but in a half-mocking way. Deokryeong responded not with fists but with hand gestures. There's so much upsetedness in that boy, but he's always an angel to me.
When asked whether he would rather be rich, smart, or handsome, beautiful little Laryngitis-Seonghoon said he wanted to be rich so he could have plastic surgery. He said he needs to have his nose fixed because he has a flat nose and he wants a nose that sticks out. I told him in mangled Korean that his nose was cute and he doesn't need surgery, but I don' t think he believed me. And Seonghoon's the cutest kid, honestly. It may be a stretch to call Deokryeong handsome--he needs a few years to grow into his face, which is a bit too manly too soon for a 12-year-old--but no one could look at Seonghoon's face and think he needed changing. That child needs Words of affirmation, for sure.
One more class, then lunch, then lesson planning for tomorrow! I have a good game idea for my open class. :-)
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1 PM: I finally know America the 3rd-grader's name! It's Hyunkyeong. He's been really willing to engage me in conversation, which I really appreciate.
At lunch, I sat with O-Teacher and the special needs boys, and Baby-Deukhee came up and sat by me, him and his best friend Sanggyu, which was really brave. Normally only the 3rd-graders have the guts to do that, but Deukhee loves me in that pure-of-heart-golden-child way, and I return the love.
Today, what we had for lunch was hard for me to eat. It was a soup of wire-thin noodles and the noodles were uncut. They were hard to cut with a spoon and elusive to grasp with chopsticks. For the first time in this country, I was wishing for a fork. And I'm positioned toward the lunch line, so the kids are watching me cut up and eat my noodles like a baby; a very unsuccessful baby. Not that I care when I look uncool! No sirree, not me.
America-Hyunkyeong even paused in the lunch line to tell me I was eating my grapes wrong. They were seed-filled grapes and Koreans eat them by pulling off the skins, but I was eating them whole because they were the only thing I could eat easily. He mimed the correct way to eat them, but I just shook my head, indicating that I was a grape maverick, ready to ingest these fruits in new, unheard of ways.
And some 2nd-graders ganged up to embarrass me in the lunch line....well, it wasn't so much that they were aiming for that; it was more of an en masse love confession. It's mainly just one kid who has been shouting "I love you, I need you," and he was proclaiming it loudly from the lunch line, which prompted Snappy-Seongsu from 2-5, 2-6 B (which I just taught) to say "pretty!", then I-Love-You-I-Need-You-Kid got even more vehement in his praise, and a couple others joined in. Fortunately, Shotputter-Jinseong sensed my discomfort and gave I-Love-You-I-Need-You a quick one-armed push that landed him about 4 feet away from his original position.
I said thank you to Jinseong. Who knew that this giant kid would protect me from discomfort? This morning in the hall outside the teachers' office, he was kneeling and writing sentences for over an hour as penance for something. I made sure to speak to him in Korean each time I walked by, and he seemed to repay the kindness by making the other boys quiet down.
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2:30 PM Well, Byeongyoon's reign as the only kid at school to hold my hand was short-lived. I was walking down the stairs when I-Love-You-I-Need-You decided to kick things up a notch by taking my hand while professing his love. I kept walking and he let my hand go, but my face must have been five shades of red. I've decided that being embarrassed at this behavior is not helping matters--it just makes the braver boys do more so they can see what reaction they'll get.
Perhaps sarcasm is the way to go? Just roll my eyes at them instead of ducking my head? I don't know why I'm more bashful in Korea than I ever was at home, but I am. Anyhoo, the older boys still aren't threatening--it's cute more than anything, but I'd rather have actual discussions with them than bear up through unending rounds of appearance-based compliments. It's less problematic to be told my lessons are boring, as Joonki did yesterday--boring lessons, I can alter. Overzealous middle-schoolers are tougher to figure out. But I think real, genuine conversation is the way to go; getting to know them as people instead of as periodic annoyances.
Went walking with JY-Teacher again, basking in her aura of awesomeness. And tonight, I have plans to meet KBR-Teacher for coffee. Girl-bonding time!
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3:50 PM Just 40 more minutes in the office, then I can go. I've been looking up EFL (English as a Foreign Language) games, so I can change things up in the class. The Powerpoint game format I've been using is called a "bomb game" and the kids love it, but I don't want to do it every week. Maybe this specific format would work better when used once a month. I can still use Powerpoint games of other varieties, just not the "4 teams compete, and you can steal other teams' points" type.
Many of the games I've seen online will not work with any of my B-level boys because you can't get them to leave their seats. A.k.a, there can be no "race to the whiteboard one by one to write answers" games. You'd think they'd welcome the chance to move about, but in fact they welcome the chance to be comfortable. So I have to work around my boys' tendencies and what they're likely to agree to do. That's part of why bomb games are so fun--they can do it while sitting down and yelling.
But I will find other things they like, as well.
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5 PM Back home, eating dinner. I realized that a "connect with the kids" activity that had been failing all week finally succeeded today.
I turned it into a classroom game where the kids could say a word in English, then I would write it in Korean. I wanted the boys to see me trying to learn their language, and to see me making mistakes. The first couple days I tried this it was a non-starter. For one thing, I was asking them to come up and write on the board, and that's just unspeakably high-pressure, or so I found out. But when I asked them for an English word and wrote it myself, that was different. Suddenly, the boys were finding words.
1-9, 1-10 B really loved it. I intentionally spelled the Korean word for "paper" wrong, just to hear them shouting out instructions for how to change it. I felt a difference in the affection I got from 1-9, 1-10 B after that--no matter what, they know I'm on their side. I met another boy in that class, Seonghyun, who wears cool glasses designed to look like they're rendered in chunky pixels. I remembered seeing him at the movie theater over Chuseok, so I said, "I saw you at the yeonggwagwan!" He beamed and said, "Yes. Percy Jackson!"
In 2-1, 2-2 A, Letter-Byeonghyun was doing a "make a surprising dialogue" exercise with his friend and it went as follows: "Did you know that Leigh-Teacher hit B-Teacher with her hair? Yes. He's in the hospital, now." I died laughing. Byeonghyun's one of the few kids with enough creativity and English to come up with that.
In the same class, when Poet-HH had to come up with a famous person to write clues about, he wrote them about a French contemporary science fiction novelist whose book he's currently reading, translated into Korean. Needless to say, I could not guess his famous person, but it does indicate something about HH's level of avante-garde artsiness. Speaking of whom, when I walked home from school, HH was waiting for me not at the bus stop but at the corner where I turn toward my side of town. He said "thank you so much for your letter," and I got another high five.
On the way home, I also got a tiny little "hello!" from Baby-Deukhee's best friend Sanggyu, who lit up with a sunny smile when I remembered his name and showed him where it was written on my hand. America-Hyunkyeong was also gratified to hear me call him by name on the way home, and Loner-Artist Joohyun from 2-1, 2-2 A felt the same when I ran into him on the 2nd-floor teacher's office. Names matter.
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