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Monday, March 17, 2014

3-18-14 TV With Joonsung, Monopoly Boom, Afterschool Dragons

11 AM: Day was good. I didn't hardly sleep last night, so I was expecting a hard morning, but we did fine. For the first class of 2nd-graders, I was with SG2-Teacher and I got to do the Mario game with the boys. They loved it and I think we had a pretty successful class because I got to hear verbal practice from so many of them. I've got most of their names, now, my 2-3, 2-4 boys.

In the 3rd grade class, it went slow but the guys were great. KBR-Teacher told me after class that she loved the new direction I'm taking, with using the CD and lots of speaking practice for the boys. She said she wanted to encourage me because while it seemed like some of the boys were bored, they were really learning and this was a good way to get more speaking in.

I was so happy to hear that! And honestly, plenty of the boys were having a grand time, chatting with me and with each other, answering questions about jobs and running dialogues. I cracked Daehoon up with a joke about how doctors need to be patient and need to have patience--he's probably the only kid in class who could get that one.

I joked that Seongmo should be a professional comedian and I learned that Seohyung is running for president of the whole school. Dude. I made friends with Taehyun's buddy Donghyun by saying that he should be a professional rapper (that's my go-to job when telling the kids they should be something cool). I also got to know Chaehwan better, a boy I had all last year but never really talked to because the other kids sparkled brighter.

Chaehwan's right funny when he's interacting with Seokyoon. Seokyoon's another that I never paid much mind, but who is clever and delightful and only needs to be joked with and asked questions in order to seem grand. I'm well on my way to knowing all these boys, too.


And this morning, Joonsung came into the 3rd-grade office! No one was in there but me, so I slow-chased him around the room, like a dad chasing a toddler. He squealed and slowly moved away, only to collapse into laughter when I caught him. Then we sat at my desk and watched Teletubbies.

But Joonsung doesn't like watching full episodes of Teletubbies--he likes watching the final 30 seconds of episodes, where the four brightly colored thingies hop into a hole and say "bye". We watched the canned ending of Teletubbies at least 7 times. And he doesn't just reply the same video clip--he clicks a new one every time and skips to the end! And sometimes they aren't in English either; we listened to the four day-glo Tubbies say "Au revoir" four times on the French video.

Also, I tried to get Joonsung to play Jenga with me, but he wanted to look at himself in a mirror. He absconded with M-Young Teacher's mirror and JY-Teacher's spare chair, then sat at my computer and stared into his own eyes. Unlike my own brother with autism, Joonsung looks at himself dead-on, not sideways, so there's no problem with the way he processes visual stimulation. He can make eye contact just fine, too.

Jeongmin came in during all this, asking for some tape. He was surprised that we were watching Teletubbies, which is, he says, "for VERY young children," but I explained that Joonsung thinks like a young child. Jeongmin seemed to understand after that.

Went to the special needs room a while ago and washed Seongwonnie's hands. My boy's hands are covered in pea-sized black scabs, as if there were shallow puncture wounds on the top. But I saw him playing with bricks yesterday, so this is all in a week's work for Seongwon. Dirt and scrapes are his golden standard.

Jaehyung scooted next to me and leaned his head over--he's gotten more affectionate lately. When I left, Yeongchang blocked my way so I had to push him out of the door, or more accurately, I pushed and then he decided to move. That low center of gravity is nearly impossible to combat.

Donghyuk came to the office and we had a bit of a conversation about how he was tired from school sports activities. I learned new Korean words, he learned new English words--it was a success indeed.

I went around to other teacher's desks and put encouragement notes and candies. :-)
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2 PM: Good lunchtime games. I had made some modifications to different documents I'm doing with the kids this week, and after working on that it was time for lunch. KBR talked with me a lot--she actually had us leave for lunch early, just the two of us, so we could chat. We're knocking around the idea of doing some prayer/Bible study together.

Jeongmin came to get me and we were going to play chess, but the art room and the secretary's room were closed. Then we went to the math room, but the Vice Principal came along because there was going to be a special meeting there. So we ultimately went up to Jeongmin's homeroom class, where we were joined by 10 kids and we played 8-person Monopoly in teams. Hyunho was my partner.

Twin-Eungyho kept swooping into the room and tapping my shoulder, trying to get me to think it was Kibeom. Yeonghan, my sweet little fellow with the recently broken arm, had a great time and announced that we simply must all play again tomorrow. I think we shall.
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6 PM:  I am a sawdust doll of tiredness, leaking weary grains out of my sewn-together joints.

Guhhh. 2nd grade classes are the hardest to teach and I had two of those, followed by afterschool with my exuberant babies.

On the upside, for as dreary and un-wonderful as those 2nd-grade classes are, at least I got a lot of affirmation from New Guy Teacher. He came and spoke to me before classes, telling me where he thinks we could slow down and have him translate, because it's clear the kids don't understand. I was so glad to hear that because I've just been running through things and feeling lost.

He also said not to feel so responsible for the kids' education--they're not motivated to study English, and I shouldn't feel burdened when things don't click with them. I'm figuring he heard about my crying last week and had to find a way to let me know that the icky classtime wasn't my fault.

Anyways, I felt so much better after talking to him. We were having a real conversation and I could relate to him as a person instead of as a distant, vaguely disapproving figure. Like I said, the classes were still tortuously slow and I may have longed to drop into the ground a few times, but I knew New Guy Teacher was having just as tough a time as I was and was trying to help me. The kids weren't even bad--it's just a difficult situation all around.

Thennnn I had afterschool. I decided Tuesdays were going to be "Stories and Art" day, so we wrote stories about dragons, then drew the dragons. As expected, I have some kids who can just string together 2 sentences, and as unexpected, I have about 5 kids who can basically write novels in English.

There's one little stinker in there who is as cute as a basket full of labrador puppies and smart as a whip, but he's got a snotty attitude. I was trying to draw something positive to say about him when he was annoying me, so I said that he reminded me of my brother. (His intelligence and cuteness remind me of my brother, definitely not his annoyance levels--this kid is world class.)

After mentioning the similarity. the kid insisted that his name was the same as my bro, so I called him that a few times. And doggone if I don't think I'm going to have to keep calling him William, just as a way to remind myself to love him. I can't despise any kid I'm calling by my brother's name. In my mind, I've fed a thousand bottles of formula milk to the person attached to that name, and I've picked them up after bicycle wrecks and cheered them on at ball games. I must love the person that name goes with, says my brain.

Afterschool was exhausting but good because the boys produced such great stories. I wished I had time to really appreciate them because 5 different kids were always clamoring for attention. And at one point I had to confiscate a grown-uppish novel with questionable pictures from one of the boys. It could have been worse, but it was definitely several steps past school-appropriate reading/viewing. So tomorrow I'm feeding them. Wednesdays is food day and I hope it'll go well.

Passed Wooseok in the hall. I thought we were just saying hi, but he reached back to hold my hand for a second. So adorable.

Inha and Yeongchang caught up with me on the walk home. After several joking requests to buy them alcohol, they admitted they really were hungry and we went together to buy kimbap at the convenience store. There were middle school girls in the store, but they were 1st-graders, judging by their size, and my boys ignored them. The way one girl stared up at Inha, I realized that to somebody, my little ragamuffins are the "cool older guys".

Day is done. We do it up again tomorrow. Peace!
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