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Thursday, December 5, 2013

12-6-13 Cute 1st-Graders, Entitled 3rd-Graders, and Apologizing to HH

9 AM: At school. Was greeted by Eunshik on the way in, which is extra nice because the boys hardly ever say hi on the way in. Said hi to Hyungmin, had some mini-convo with Daesung about the World Cup, but I'm not sure what we said, exactly.

Left my sad little plastic bag of one cabbage kimchi in my silver bag all night and had to scrap the bag. After 3 1/2 months of good service, I retired Banjjak-Banjjak ("bling-bling"), but I have 3 sparkly purses lined up to take it's place, thanks to packages Mama sent to me.

And here's my schedule for break and for the next few days, just in case I forget it, I can find it back here:

Dec. 11, 12, 13th final exams.
Dec. 27th Winter Vacation Ceremony
Dec. 28th interview students for Saturday program, 9 AM, prepare questions.
Dec. 30th---January 14th (extra classes in morning—camp?) 1st and 2nd period, 1st graders.
MY BREAK: January 15—Feb 2nd.
Feb 3rd :Winter Vacation Over.
February 14th: Spring Vacation. Until February 28th.

New semester starts: March 2nd.

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11:40 AM Dude! 2-1, 2-2 B was so good! 1-3, 1-4 B was kinda "meh" as usual, but the boys in 2-1, 2-2 were stunning.

In 1-3, 1-4 B, I sat with Jeongho and Minjoon, two boys that didn't want to do any of their worksheet (and frankly I don't blame them). Instead of filling out the worksheet, we played the English-Korean word game, which they seemed to enjoy. I gave them points for playing the game with me, anyway. They were using English and they were engaging, so that was grand.

Then I went to work with Yoodam, Minki, and Heesu, three of my favorites. Yoodam's in my afterschool, and Minki has his own little corner carved out in my heart, and Heesu is charming and clever. I played the word game with them also, instead of doing the worksheet, and I ended up staying with them for way too long. But most of the kids were sleeping anyway, so it seemed more worthwhile to interact with the kids who felt like being interacted with.

Minki asked me lots of questions about America and wanted to know when I was going back. Yoodam helped explain that I was going back for a vacation in January, but I'd return. The boys just could not leave the word game alone, and every time I tried to leave to go check on other kids, they say, "Sem..." and write another English word and gesture pleadingly. So I stayed with them for a good long while, and every moment was lovely.

At the end of class, my precious troublemakers Dongseok and Sangyeop came up for candy and I gave them some because they participated. Dongseok tried to get more by saying, "I see!" because we run into each other in town all the time, then he tried to one-up himself with compliments: "You're pretty! .... Beautiful!" He was so proud of himself for figuring out a better flattery method.

Sangyeop kept scooting to stand as close to me as humanly possible, and I realized he was trying to measure our respective heights and to get me to notice how tall he was. Yes, you're very for a big first-grader. Congratulations, honeybunny. He and Dongseok are always checking to see if they've outgrown me yet.
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1:20 PM Today, I wore a cloth mask to school because some kind of micro-dust pollution is floating over from China and I was warned to try using a mask, as many other people do. As a result, when I'm outdoors I look like I'm trying to rob somebody:

I'm experimenting with photo-filters on my phone, which can make you look much better than you do in real life, by brightening the center of the photo, or altering the color tone warmer or cooler, or just adding a general blur. Some of the filters make you look orange as a pumpkin, and others take on a ghostly quality.
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6 PM: Thank goodness I'm home! I stayed over an extra 2 and a half hours at work because I had to format something for the test-question writing job I have, and I could only do it on a school computer because the required software is a Korean program that won't work at home. It was lonely work, hanging out in a school with no students and only a few teachers. You forget how much the kids lift the mood and bring light to the place.

As I was working, our Vice Principal came over to tell me that Oldest Teacher (who was at the moment telling an incredibly loud and presumably off-color joke far across the room) would be retiring soon. O-Teacher already told me this and she said that a lot of the teachers were worried that I was offended by Oldest Teacher. He seems pretty harmless and has the corniest sense of humor, but I can't say that I look forward to seeing him. Our VP took the time to come reassure me that, "He is very rude, but soon he is retiring." That was kind of him to think of me.

Today, I apologized to HH for fussing at him. Yesterday I taught his class and we were doing a "draw an invention and describe what it does" activity, and HH didn't hardly do anything, as per usual for him. I just sighed at his paper and said, "You don't even try. You're a genius, and you don't try." 

That was the wrong thing to say. HH is wonderful. I was only upset because when he doesn't try, he deprives me of the chance to make a big fuss over him and appreciate his work. And I miss presiding over geniuses, like I did in America. I had brilliant students who did good work, then I'd tweak and polish it until it looked astonishing, so everyone came off looking good. 

Here, there is none of that. Nothing I teach is immediately or longterm-ly reflected in anything the kids produce. Basically, for each kid I'm thinking, "I want you to say a thing or write a thing or make a thing that proves I am a good teacher." I'm trying to squeeze self-worth out of the students' performances, and it's not fair or right.

And I don't know what kind of pressure HH is under. A brilliant A-class kid like him has got to be under, at minimum, a little heat to stay perfect. Do I really need to add to that? In my class, he smiles and laughs and enjoys the privilege of being one of only four boys that can carry on a full conversation and make extended jokes with me. Isn't it enough to let him enjoy that, knowing that he's got math and science and history and all the serious subjects ahead of him in a day's time, and that next week is the super-stressful final exams?

When he came into 2-1 for chocolate today, he smiled like the precious person he is and said, "Your hair looks great today." I don't think he has ever complimented me before, unlike the other students who toss around "you're beautiful" like it's going out of style. His thoughtful words made me think of just how unthoughtful I'd been toward him. I don't know if he understood why I was apologizing but I said, "I'm sorry. Yesterday, I got upset at you in class, and I shouldn't have."

In 2-1, 2-2 B, I also got in some quality time with Shotputter-Jinseong, who actually drew an invention, and let me sit with him. He and Yonghan tried to get me to help them solve formulas in their math book, and they thought it was mighty funny how bad I was at it. Later, I found Jinseong in the hallway and stopped him to give him candy because he hadn't stayed around in class at the end to get any. He seemed pleased that I cared enough to find him and give him something nice.

At lunchtime, Jeongminnie and I got about 20 minutes of video-watching in. He told me, "I saw you eating noodles for lunch. Were they delicious?" So my boy must come into the lunchroom to make sure I'm there, then skedaddle down the hall to wait for me. Does he do this every day? As usual, one of the male teachers, with a mixture of amusement and delight, questioned Jeongmin about...something. Jeongminnie never feels the need to translate these exchanges for me.

My 3rd-graders eventually came to get me for Monopoly, but they now understand that they don't get to infringe on Jeongmin's time. They come in and wait their 4 or 5 minutes until we've finished. Yesterday, I just played with the three standard Monopoly boys: Daesung, Wonbin, and Dongyeong, but today a whole fleet of other 3rd-graders came into the math room. 

Jaehwan made himself into the banker, Yeonghyo and Seonmoon started fights with each other for no good reason, and Jinhwan sat by me and pouted. Jinhwan was upset because he wasn't playing, and because I didn't answer his most recent Kakao messages ("Teacher, I love you. Can I walk to the home Friday?"), and also because I put a lockcode on my phone and he can't get into it anymore.

I brought my phone to the Monopoly game in case anything photo-worthy happened or in case I needed my dictionary, and the boys were whining the whole time, "Teacher, unlock. Phone pattern. Hint-uh. Hint? Open phoooone." No less than five of them tried to crack the code and all of them gave up fussily. Jinhwan settled for taking the cat-shaped phone charm from my phone and putting it on his phone, then removing my pink phone case and putting it back on repeatedly. Like, "I can't invade your phone's data, but I can mess with its externals!" Then he and Seonmoon amused themselves by trying my braids into knots, then untying them.

Jeongmin made me proud by coming back by the math room when his lunch was over. I got him to stand by me, and he observed the Monopoly game until he knew how it worked. He surprised me by saying, "I want to play the next game," so I let him join after Dongyeong won the first game and we changed players. So it was me and Jeongmin and Jaehwan and a kid called Geonhee, who I only sort of know. It was great, having my smart little 1st-grader in there, making room for himself with the big kids and them being okay with it.

For 2-3, 2-4 B, it seems that Sanghwa and his bestie, Redhair Joonyoung, are on the outs because they sat on opposite sides of the room. Joonyoung let me sit with him and help him come up with an invention. Joonyoungie came up at the end for candy, but Sanghwa didn't, and Sanghwa didn't try to draw anything, but then again I didn't go over to help him like I did with so many of the other kids.

Little Twin-Seongho tried to tell me that he was Twin-Jeongho, but I knew. I KNEW. He got incredibly tickled when I called him a liar.

When asked what my name was, Junho's friend Taehyun replied, "여신!(yeoshin)" Which means "goddess". I laughed so hard, I nearly fell down. The kids are always trying to one-up each other with their compliments, but I think Taehyun just went the distance with that one.

Saw tiny little Sanggyu on the playground near my house. Or actually, he saw me and called out, but it was so dark I had to ask, "Who is it?" He was so let down when he had to say "Sanggyu..." but he perked up when I greeted him brightly.
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