10:45 AM Well, first class went decently well. I felt like I didn't teach them much because it's hard to teach the whole room--their chairs are really spread out all over the place. But they stayed in their chairs and talked to me when I came by them one-on-one. I played a video about cute baby sloths to elicit and "agree" or "disagree" response. "I think baby sloths are cute...do you agree? Or disagree?"
Later, I played 2 lyrics videos; one for a pleasant pop song, one for an ear-jarring dubstep song. They liked both, but only when you questioned them up close. They do not respond as a group to anything. So as labor-intensive and time-consuming as it is, it may be that the only way to teach 1-7,1-8 B is to meet them as individuals.
My little Hyo was amazing. He has the best and neatest handwriting in English, and can write whole sentences. He didn't do that for me last week! He marked "don't agree" on his paper for whether students should wear school uniforms, and when I asked him why, he tugged his collar and said "too hot". He also draws--he drew a chick on his paper and wrote in English under it, "Baby Chicken". Dawww. I want to feed him cupcakes.
Another boy in 1-7,1-8B wrote"I disagree...B class". When asked, he confirmed that he thought he belonged in A-class, not B-class. He has the brain for it, definitely.
Hyunmin makes fun of the way I call the class to order. I'm looking for ways to make a fuss over him, so he's so full-up with positive attention, he doesn't seek negative attention.
Seongjae met me in the hall. When I just said "hi" and didn't immediately mention his name, he went into a small panic. -"Teacher! My name? My name is!" -"Seongjae." -"Yes!" -"You. First class." -"Yes, I teach your class next." What he meant to say was that I'm teaching him in my next class, right after he gets out of P.E. I look forward to it. The third-graders are energetic, which I need after teaching a stone-quiet 1st.
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1:10 PM 3-5,3-6 B went better, and they may be shaping up to be my favorite class. We have Seongjae in there and one of my favorite Jeongmins, and Yeonghyo, whose name I wrote on my hand last Friday. Also, I learned two more names today--Hyunjoon and Hwangmin. All of these boys are delightful and full of personality, and if they're not invested in English, they're at least very, very invested in spending time with me.
Normally, students won't call me over when they need help, but I was answering a dozen calls of "Sem! Leigh-Teacher! Helping! You help me please." And "Done! Finishee!" I'm not making fun of their linguistic level, there--they actually do add a full "ee" syllable to the end of the word "finish" because Korean words rarely end in that sort of consonant sound. I loved the whole class.They did their work, said their lines, and chatted with as much English as they could muster, so it was really a successful class in terms of speaking practice.
They've caught on to the fact that when you write something really good, I put a smiley-face on your paper, so now they all wave their papers to get one: "Teacher! Smile!"
And they really liked the parkour video I played for them.
At the end of class, a large pack of them ran up to me to show me a treasure they had found in the stairwell--a small dead bat. They helped me spell the word "bat" in Korean on the chalkboard,so it was a language exchange moment. Just me and my boys and chalk and dead bats. And possibly the rabies virus.
Here's hoping that my next two 2nd-grade classes go well! I'm going to try my best.
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7:00 PM Survived the day! Wheeeee! I taught a 2nd-grade A that went well--it had Sunwoo and Geon in there, one of whom I know from my afterschool and the other of whom I know from Saturday. The class went nicely. The boys were rather quiet, but they answered their "Who My Hero Is" worksheet very well. One boy said he was his own hero and wrote highly flattering things about himself on his paper--"He is my hero because he is smart, talented, funny, and handsome". Not too proud of yourself, are you, kiddo?
Then I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off for the next 10 minutes because I thought I was teaching 2-1, 2-2 B when in fact it was 2-1, 2-2 A. So I had unplugged a laptop and gathered up my stuff to walk downstairs, only to trot right back up those stairs and get everything going again. Oy. And these boys are louder and rowdier than their earlier counterparts, so it was harder to keep there attention. My Taehoon was in the back, putting his head on the desk and complaining of a headache. Attention-hog.
Finally the regular classes were over, and it was time for a double afterschool. We were going to finish our zombie movie, do worksheets, and write short zombie stories. I brought up the wrong laptop and had to dash downstairs for the one with the disc in it. Sweetie-Sunwoo said "You are late!" And he was right. Leigh-Teacher does not have all her ducks in a row. The ducks are so far out of their row, they're not even all on the same floor of the building.
But our movie went okay. The boys had fun. We nearly had a meltdown regarding cellphones though, because Sanghwa was back. So help me, I'm beginning to resent that child. When he's not in afterschool, everything goes smoothly. When he's there, he's not content to just be a cellphone-game-playing slacker. He's got to draw half the back of the room into talking with him.
The other back-row boys were willing to help me with nametags. Sanghwa would not. The other boys would fill out their worksheet. Sanghwa would not. I patted his back to calm him down and he said "don't touch me". I want him to be happy, but nothing makes him happy--not schoolwork, not slacking, not attention, not being left alone. He skipped class for second period, saying, "I get message, I go to hospital!" and I was not sorry to see him go. *sigh* Four beautiful classes and one rather successful double-afterschool, and I'm still a bit down because I can't make Sanghwa anything other than a tiny ball of anger. Pray, please.
But! I had the best time with Taehoon. He wants to play his phone, too, but he drops it the minute I come up with an activity. We sat in the back and played a word game---he would write a word in English, then I would try to write the same word in Korean. We did 10 of those, then I would write a word in Korean and he'd have to match it in English. He would grin like crazy when he thought he'd stumped me, but we were even when the game was over.
At then end, I told the boys if they wrote a 5-sentence zombie story, they would get chocolate tomorrow. Byeonghyun, Seongmo, Sunwoo and Taehoon are definitely getting chocolate. Though Taehoon's is a bit unfair, since he only wrote a story because I was there asking him for every sentence. He came up with it one his own, though--"Korea is full of zombies. They are nice. They are slow. They eat animals. Yeongtae was a zombie. He was fast, different." I was thrilled with this.
But. I can't just focus on Taehoon, can I? I tried to write with Joon, but he told me he wanted to work on his zombie story at home. I told the boys that even if they wrote me a zombie story at home and brought it in tomorrow, they'd get their chocolate. I would give anything if Joon would let me work with him, but maybe in the future. I can only push and encourage so much--some of them are open and ready to respond, some of them are semi-closed or fully shut.
After class, Byeonghyun was the only one left in the room, and I hated to burden him but I asked, "Do you know why Sanghwa....is so angry? Is it me? He doesn't like me?" Byeonghyun said, "No Teacher. He does not like being in afterschool. It's not you. You are good teacher, now." Thanks for the vote of confidence, Byeonghyun. You're pretty special, yourself. So I still have no clue what to do with Sanghwa, none at all. I want to ignore him and not even try to engage him, but that is wrong. I must change my heart toward this little fellow.
Also, I have a big blessing in my life! I have a new friend. O-Teacher is a single woman like me, and we seem to have many similar interests. I'm going to try to cultivate this friendship because I really think that we click. She's so sweet, and she lived in the states once, so she knows what it's like to be a foreigner.
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