9:30 AM Got some Thanksgiving lessons ready to go, which is ironic because I've been really non-thankful this morning.
It's dark and cold and rainy outside. I'm sleepy. And when I walked through the school doors, I greeted Sanghwa, who ignored me even though he was 3 feet away. I thought, "Ah, so it's going to be one of those Mondays."
But! God loves me. I'm healthy and I have so many beautiful kids to love and teach and talk to. I'm ready to turn this Grumpy Monday around and have a happy heart.
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11:00 AM It got better! First class was grand. We had a lovely time, just writing things we were thankful for in a sort of Thanksgiving acrostic poem.
I spent most of my time with Jangyeop and Minjoon, then moved over to help Taeho, Hyukjae, Yeongchan, Moonshik and Kibeom. I successfully named four of them before tripping over Kibeom's name. He asked in Korean, "Sem, you know my name, right?" I apologized and said no, could he please tell it to me again. He said it was Kibeom and then he smiled in that strained "am I really so lame you can't remember me?" way. I protested that there were so many students and only one teacher.
Then I got to tease Kibeom because he didn't know my name either--he and the other boys thought it was my last name because they're not clear on the personal-name/ family-name inversion in English. I cleared it up for them, then had to compliment Taeho a zillion times because Hyukjae kept saying Taeho was "dirty". The boys most frequently use this word to mean "morally or socially inferior" not "covered in dirt". I said Taeho was a good guy and had a very cute face, whereupon Taeho struck a movie star pose, framing his face with his thumb and forefinger. Taeho's awesome.
After class, all the kids crowded around to get chocolate, and I made sure 12 of my favorites from B-class got their chocolate before I talked to the A-boys. One loud, charming A-class 1st-grader, Jongyoon, was also terribly letdown that I didn't know his name. I see you once a week! And I don't even teach you! But still, it's my bad, Jongyoon. I should know you.
Proposal-Heejoon again professed his dual love for me and for chocolate (the two things are inextricably connected in his mind), and I threw him a heart-sign back. He came into the special needs room and attempted to play me "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz on the ukulele while Jaehyung attempted to braid my hair. Neither the song nor the hairstyling were particularly successful, but we were all having a nice time.
Sangyeop from 1-3, 1-4 B (sandwich-gift) hangs out with Proposal-Heejoon, so I think they're actually both in 1-3 or in 1-4.
Yeonghyo came by to wheedle some chocolate and to extract a promise to play spoon-cards with him at lunch time.
Yeongchang's mastering the left hand part of Canon in D, which is quite difficult.
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5 PM: Totally great day. How did it end up going so good? I was convinced it'd be a nightmare.
My class with 3rd-graders was just playing them a movie, but I got to interact with new boys! I played a few rounds of UNO with just me and Jangwon, who was one of the players last week, but this time around he was brave enough to hang out with me by himself.
Two other boys looked interested, and I asked them a few times to join us, but they declined with embarrassed smiles. Finally, I positioned my chair between Jangwon's desk and Doyeon's desk and dealt Doyeon a hand whether he wanted it or not. He absolutely did. He was thrilled to play, and we happily went through three games with the new arrangement. Some kids want to be sought and asked for their participation--some kids want to be hunted down and made to participate at gunpoint, so it seems.
Saturday-Jeongmin tried to surprise me in the hall after lunch, but I turned around, spoiling the shock. He seemed so excited about the idea of sneaking up on me, I almost felt like apologizing for depriving him of that joy. We watched videos together, using my earphones, until my 3rd-graders (and Wooseok!) same by the office to borrow me.
I was so caught up in Jeongminnie's funny video, I kept motioning for the 3rd-graders to wait. Instead, they opted to come in and watch the video over our shoulders for half a minute, then Jinhwan calmly took out my earphones and Wooseok began to carry my pink bag full of card games into the hallway, nodding his head for me to follow. They don't play around when it comes to game time. I decided to go along with it, since we do have a standing appointment for this.
Jeongmin was not happy about not getting to finish the video with me. He told me his little sister thought it was hilarious, and he kept asking me to stay just a little longer, but I had to go. So far, none of the boys have ever gotten angry at the others for spending time with me, but I wanted to deflect attention from Jeongmin, just on the outside chance that the big 3rd-graders could develop any sort of resentment for Jeongmin taking up their time. I supremely doubt that they would hassle him, but it's not worth finding out.
Wooseok continued to inquire further about exactly where I live. He's a sweet baby, but he actually had some angry moments today, it seemed. Just angry at life, I guess.
We were joined by 3rd-graders Seonmoon and Euijae, both of whom I teach (I think?) but neither of whom I've directly talked to before. Euijae sat by me and it wasn't long before he gave into the temptation to hold my hair. And while holding my hair, he might as well smell it, right? That seemed to be Euijae's logic, and it's what most of the kids end up doing. On Thursday, Jaehwan correctly identified the brand of shampoo I used, from smell alone. I'm trying to think of some way to make that seem not-weird.
In 2-9, 2-10 B I had computer troubles, but all went well. Jinseop did his worksheet, as did Woonki, and Jeonghee, and Byeonghyuk, and so on. They were shockingly enthusiastic when given the chance at chocolate. Minchan, who has never spoken a word to me, came across the room to find me and tell me that he didn't have a worksheet and he needed one. Woonki's normally pretty taciturn, but he was making all manner of noise to get me to come check his worksheet.
In 2-7, 2-8 B, Cardsharp Minsu and Do-Il did their worksheet, which marks the first semi-conversation I've had with Minsu in 3 weeks. Had a killer time with Chansu, Danhee, Changyo, Jungbok, Duyeol, Sanghyeop, Hojin and Joonwoo, too. We get along immensely well and I think Chansu's going to come looking for me at lunch someday, because he's desperate for UNO.
Then I only had one afterschool period instead of two because our hours have been cut down, yay! The boys were great and we had fun together. Though the left side of the room is basically one giant love confession, with everybody accusing everybody of loving me and forging each others' name on homework papers. We were writing Thanksgiving acrostic lists, and one pair's work looked like this:
T-Teacher love
H- Hi hello
A-Apple
N- Naver.com
K- Kola
S- So pretty girl
G- Girl
I- Iloveu
V- volt
I- I love, Lee Teacher do you love me?
N-Nike
G--good thank you
Yoodam doesn't play the accusation game--he just tells me he loves me twice per class. No angst, no games, just clear information about how he sees things. He's a straightforward kid. Played cards with Seonghyun, Chaeho, Munju, and Dongwook for the last 10 minutes while we watched a movie. It was great.
During the day, Wooseok went a little nuts, insisting that I should give him bubbles because "Yeongchang got bubbles on Friday". Yeongchang, you and your bragging. Now Wooseok feels neglected, and it seems to really be bugging him. Wooseok does not like hearing me say nice things about other boys and evidently doesn't like me giving them presents, either. I told him I'd bring him something tomorrow. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I felt like he needed some kind of reassurance that he was important.
Sujin asked if I was teaching I today, but I was in B--he was hoping I'd have his class, but I'll see him tomorrow.
High-fived Seongmo in the hallway, was greeted by Byeonghyun on the walk home, gave Byeongyoon two pieces of chocolate while he cleaned the office.
Yeongjoon informed me that he knew where I'd been last night--one of his friends saw me at the theater and reported back to him. Our town is full of spies.
Good thing I wrote Loud-Jongyoon's name on my hand, because I ran into him on the walk home and he wanted me to tell his friend that I knew his name. Everyone was gratified when I managed to do it.
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