10:45 AM First class went gooood. 1-7, 1-8 B has: Hyo, Hyunmin, Cutiepie Best Friends Chanjin
& Mingyu, Cool-Hyunjoon, Smart-Stubborn-Hyukjae, Sleepy-Front-Row
Moonshik, Next-to-Hyo-Minjoon, Quiet-Sits-Behind-Hyukjae-Hyunwoo,
Poet-Necktie-Jangyeop, Tan-Kyeongwon (sits with Hyunmin),
Big-Smart-Hweeyu.
The new kid I learned this time around was Hweeyu. He's big enough to be a 3rd-grader and he's terribly smart.
The Scattergories categories were a big success: Sports, Musical Instruments, and Desserts. I looked up the Korean words for each and wrote them down too, in case there was a miscommunication, and the boys jumped right in. The worksheet I chose for them--about recycling--was too complicated, but the bomb game at the end was massively well-received. Hyunmin and his cool crew were crawling over tables to get the right answers spoken first, as if they were A-class.
One 1st-grade child from the A-class came into the classroom at the end and said, "I saw...you! At coffee shop with a friend. My brother and I go by, see you." Awesome that he's got the language skills to communicate that.
Saturday-Jeongmin was coming into class as I was leaving it, and we greeted each other happily. Saturday-Jeongmin doesn't even do high-fives anymore; he goes in for a raised hand-squeeze, like we're bros.
My Lunch Co-Ordinator invited me to her office! It's nice. She fed me grapes, chestnut, and a duck egg, and we chatted in mostly-Korean. She says she has a sister who went to America to study at Duke University, and she has a son my exact age, so she feels like my mother. She also either hugs me or pets my hair when I walk by, like I'm a kitten. It's nice being loved.
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1 PM: 3-5, 3-6 B wasn't a class but a speaking test. The boys came out into the hallway and spoke 5 sentences about their favorite foreign food.
In there: Love-You-Sungjae,
Enthusiastic-Yeonghyo, Confident-Hyunjoon, Quiet-Hwangmin,
Teacher’s Pet Jeongmin, Braces Sooncheon, Lawyer-Junhee,
Interestingly-Cut-Hair-Gyuyeong, Last-Jangwon.
I was given a grading scale of 7-10, and four kids prepared hard and got that 10. Two said only two sentences and got the 7. The 8's and 9's were hardest to figure, but I went with 9 anytime there was doubt. I'm an easy grader.
But poor Last-Jangwon, the kid who went last. He wasn't even going to try until I pointed out to Mr. B that one student on the list hadn't gone. Jangwon stepped outside with a casual expression, like a fun-loving slacker who hadn't practiced for the test and didn't care which way it went.
However, after speaking a couple of loosely structured sentences, he took several long pauses. He said another sentence, then paused for 30 seconds. He said a few words, then his face scrunched up because he was starting to cry. I told him "It's okay" and "don't worry" in Korean, then when he regained his composure, I said "one more" in Korean. Technically, I'm probably not supposed to guide the students in any way, but it was important to give Jangwon a chance. And on his own he moved his 7 up to an 8.
Braces-Sooncheon was the best of the bunch. He said clearly that sushi is his favorite foreign food because he grew up going to his grandmother's house, which was near the ocean, and she often served sushi. My goodness, the boy had reasons for his preference, complete with a detailed backstory! You go, Sooncheonie, you go.
My little friend Teacher's-Pet-Jeongmin barely prepared at all, then expected a 10 as his rightful due. His sense of entitlement is vast--it contains whole mountain ranges of things which are owed to him because he's Jeongmin.
Saw Saturday-Jeongmin again in the hall. He still wants to know what we're doing for this Saturday's class. I told him that I hadn't decided yet. *whimper* Saturday class, again? It rolls around really quick when you fill in for somebody. Whinetime now over. Back to being a big girl.
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6 PM: 2-9, 2-10 A was great. They went batty-bananas over the Scattergories game at the start. Jokey-Yoonseong and the adorable kid next to him were making owl noises through the whole game, begging for attention. It was great, energy-wise. Yoonseong's never been to keen on me, but I passed him on the bridge yesterday and told him I liked his shoes, so I think that made him more attentive.
Clever-Seonwoo from my afterschool was in fine form, answering every question in the world, grinning like a mad man, and making afterschool-related inside jokes that only he and I would understand. Cute.
2-7, 2-8 A was challenging as usual. For an A-class, they sure have behavior issues. BUT. When I revealed the bomb game at the end, the boys in the back rallied to win the thing. My Taehoon was yelling out correct answers and pushing his friends out of the way so he could be seen by me and therefore be heard better...I guess that was his logic.
At the end, the Team 2 slackers won, and they seemed to get a little bit of the point of why they should speak in class and actually, you know, participate, because when they all came by to claim their candy, I only recognized half of them and the rest had to get friends to prove that they were in fact members of team two. I gave them their candy in exchange for learning their names and their favorite colors.
Jiwoong had to bodily fight through 3 of his friends to get candy. I was trying to pave the way for him and he said something like, "Trying!" It was sweet that he knew I would get his candy to him before anyone else got any, because he's someone I know and care for.
Afterschool was good but exhausting. I passed out a worksheet like KBR-Teacher suggested, and 6 of them did it. From this "what do you want to be?" worksheet, I learned that Jinseop wants to be a barista serving up coffee for a living, Seonwoo wants to work for NASA studying black holes because he likes science and space, Seongmo wants to be a cellphone designer, and Seonghak wants to be a good father. Aren't they sweet?
And I even bonded a tiny bit with Perpetually-Sick-Byeongmin, who was teasing me about something. And when I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said "I haven't thought about it yet." Wow. Quite clever. I wasted so much time not getting to know this kid.
I served popcorn and played a movie for the boys, and I'm glad I had popcorn ready because Stoic-Seonghak told me at 2 PM that he was hungry. I said, "But we just had lunch!" He said, "Ate lunch, but I'm still hungry." Poor baby. I gave him extra.
Sanghwa was obviously still somewhat ticked at me for having witnessed his breakdown because when I poured popcorn for him, he didn't touch it. Every other kid dove in, but Sanghwa ignored his pile of popcorn for 50 minutes--then he caved and ate it.
Me and my front-of-the-room crew had fun, as usual. We had tons of new jokes about how Seonghak never wins, how Jinseop is sneaky, and how Seongmo's pouty when he loses.
Seonghak's nickname is "crane" like the bird, because the "hak" syllable means crane. They tease him about this. When I asked Byeonghyun what he did this weekend, he said he played soccer. Seonwoo said he hung out with a friend. And before Seonghak could answer the question..
Me: "Seognhak, what did you do this weekend?"
Seongmo: "Flying."
Byeonghyun" All he can do is fly."
Seongmo: "And lose."
Seonwoo: "You can't never win, Seonghak!"
Seongmo: "This weekend he flew to America. Caw, caw!"
Seongahk had the last laugh though, because he won.
I'm exhausted after today. The boys needed a lot of attention today, and normally I feed off of their energy, but Mondays are the hardest day. But! Today in the halls I was greeted by more students than ever. After 2 months of teaching, I know enough of them to greet bucketloads of them, and I smile at the ones I don't know. I'm in the process of becoming one of their people.
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