10:45 AM First two classes were awesommmme!
The kids in 1-1, 1-2 B were perfect beasts last week, being easily my worst class of 1st-graders and the cause of no small amount of depression. Sungmin was the only kid I remembered from this class, and I remembered him because he asked if I was crazy last week, before asking for a fair chance at winning Connect 4.
But today, we had fun. I started off with a video with music in it, then I explained that everything we were doing today was going to be in teams. When I began our spelling game, they got invested because points went to the team who guessed the word first. Then we learned about American money and I passed around a $5 bill I still had. Many of them decided to smell it.
Next, we filled out worksheets, watched another video and played our betting game with comparatives. They ate it up and were smiling and laughing. Crazy-Sungmin was thrilled that I remembered his name. His best buddy is called Sucheon,
In the back of the class, I unexpectedly ran into the jjang, the kid who runs the show. I can't always tell who this type of kid is in any given class, and since I teach leveled classes (for example, all the B-level kids in class 1-3 and all the B-level kids in class 1-4), there's an entire swath of the student body I'm never seeing. For some classes, I don't see the obvious leader because it's possible that class 1-3's jjang is a smart one in the A-class and class 1-4's jjang doesn't care about school and is in the C-class, leaving me with a class full of regular power-game-free B-level kids.
But I found one, today. A very tall, silent boy who sat in the back and quietly worked on his worksheet with me. This student was very tall for first grade, and if I'd seen him in a 3rd-grade class, he wouldn't have looked out of place. When I asked his name, he wrote "Goongwon". Then I moved down the line to work with the next kid, who said his name was Goongwon. I pointed to the boy behind us and said their names were the same, whereupon Real-Goongwon told me that Tall Kid's name was Jaehyung, like my piano-playing friend with autism. Jjang-Jaehyung responded by throttling the kid, who hollered to me, "He big! He is best!" I think jjang literally means "best," too.
Jjang-Jaehyung wouldn't finish his worksheet, saying that there was nothing in the world he wanted to buy, but he told me so in respectful Korean, with the 'yo,' ending, so I left him alone. But during the comparatives game, Jjang-Jaehyung moved from the back of the classroom to the front seat so he could figure out answers better and shout more clearly. At first i thought he had left the room, but to my shock, he was sitting four feet away from me. I like this one.
2-3, 2-4 B was next, and that class has Sanghwa in it, plus Sanghwa's buddy Scorekeeper-Yoonseok. Last week, I needed someone to help me keep score in the game, and Yoonseok was the one to volunteer. He's a loudmouth attention-hog and I really like him. There's also Tall-Sweet-Junho in this class, a boy who looks at me with protective affection, like I'm his baby sister, despite being 13 years older. He's darling, and is good at answering questions.
And hanging around in the classrooms after class is still working out well, because I give out extra chocolate to the kids who talk to me. I couldn't understand why one boy couldn't say, "My favorite movie is..." until someone explained that the boy was C-class. I walked him through every word, after that: "My, my, favorite, favorite, movie, movie, is, is..." and he got his chocolate. Also saw Magician Byeongyoon when he limped into class on his crutches. I asked him, "How's my favorite magician?" He replied, "Just horrible!" with a smile.
My most-liked 3rd-graders are slipping up and calling me "Leigh" instead of "Leigh-Teacher". Eh, it's totally not a slip-up; they're doing it on purpose, trying for more familiarity. I admire their persistence but I have to add "Teacher," though America-Hyunkyeong, Secret-Daeho, and Intensity-Insung will probably drop the title again the next time they greet me.
-----------------------------
12:45 PM Governor-Yunho came by my office and I asked him why he's been calling me "Julia" in the hallway all yesterday and all today. Turns out, he's been saying Juliet. He repeated to me: "Julia. Romia and Julia." "Oh," I said. "Juliet? Romeo and Juliet?" He nodded. I pointed to Yunho and said, "Are you Romeo?" He nodded an affirmative. Glad we've got that cleared up.
I gave Governor-Yunho chocolate and he left, only to return 2 minutes later to tap his flashlight against the bottom of my upturned shoe. No idea what that gesture was about, but I'm assuming that shoe-tapping with a flashlight is affectionate. I almost feel sorry that tomorrow's a holiday because it means I won't get to teach Yunho.
2-9, 2-10 A went great! According to the Document O' Kids, this class has: Clever-Seonwoo (afterschool), Big-Guy-Geon
(Saturday), Soccer-Minwoo, Stoic-Seonghak (afterschool), Funny-Taekyeong
(afterschool).
They really enjoyed the big game at the end, especially the reversal where our end-of-class spelling game changed the winner not once but twice. We had a good time together--lots of smiling and shouting, and Clever Sunwoo got to show off his cleverness. JY-Teacher was in there with me, and it was a right fun time.
I-Love-You-I-Need-You's name is Junho! And his friend We-Go-Date Kid is Danhee.
I wore a silver cross necklace to school today, and I didn't think anyone would notice, since it's a symbol of my faith in Jesus, but in America is doesn't really signify anything--gangsta rappers wear crosses, too, and we don't think they have a commitment to God. But Danhee saw my necklace and said, "Christian! Me too, very big Christian!" Dawww. It was such a sweet moment.
Then 15 minutes ago, Daesung stood outside my office, just looking at me. Then he said, "Christian! Same!" I smiled at him and we talked for half a minute about us both being Christians. I think I could tell he was--he seems to sparkle with inner joy, despite being stuck in C-class, which is a really soul-sucking place to be.
At lunch, our Lunch Co-Ordinator came by and put a tiny diamond tiara in my hair. No lie. I took it out after a minute, but she came back by and put it back in. Guess I'm wearing it until school lets out.
---------------------------------------------------
6 PM Ugh, afterschool was so bad, I came home and had a good cry. No kidding, they finally broke me. They weren't even being mean, just ignoring everything. Yesterday, I had 4 boys in the back playing their phones. Today, the absent kids come back, so I had 9 boys in the back playing phones.
Because I don't have the energy to stop them. And I haven't bonded with the new boys who were absent for 5 weeks, so that feels weird, too.
I spent a long time modifying a new game I thought they would like and the good boys in the front only sorta-kinda made an effort at playing it.
I wrote short letters to 8 of the boys. No telling if that was the right thing to do when they're so far gone in terms of being invested.
But before class, Pepper-Dongmin was keeping Taehoon from leaving the 2nd-floor office. I told Dongmin to move and he did. Dongmin shot Taehoon this strange look and explained to me that Taehoon was his friend. In the hall, I said to Taehoon, "Is he your friend?" He replied, "Yes. A bad friend." -"Nappun chingu. I thought he was being mean to you." -"Yes." I really do think Taehoon and Dongmin have some kind of weird friendship, but I've never forgotten that Dongmin's the kid who was feeding pepper to smaller students who couldn't say no.
I misspelled the word "secretly" on the board, and Seongmo corrected me. When I fixed the spelling, Byeonghyun said, "No, leave it, it's cute." I couldn't believe what I was hearing."Me spelling words wrong is cute?" -"Yes, very cute." And now Byeonghyun thinks he's my oppa (big brother).
Back when I predicted that the 3rd-grade boys wouldn't soon change their habit of calling me by my first name only, I was wrong. Now they call me "Leigh...Teacher." There's an ellipsis there, as they pause just long enough to let me know they could be familiar, but are choosing to take the high road and be polite.
---------------------------------------------
