9 AM: No classes until later, and Thursdays are my favorite because all day there's just 1st and 3rd grades, so it's all cutie-pies and cool kids.
But I think it's a good thing that I'm playing Lunchtime Games with the 2nd-graders...I get a feeling that I'll find my stride with them too, that I'll have a fun adjective to assign to them also. The 2nd-graders are awesome outside of class and that's got to bleed over into class itself.
Dongjin is still refusing candy. Boy got his feelings hurt and he's not being assuaged any time soon.
Got rice cakes from the 2nd-grade teachers this morning. Gave one to Yeongchang, who said he was hungry.
C-Jeongmin came to give me candy and to tell me he saw me walking yesterday. He called out but I didn't hear him because I had one earbud in, he said quite disappointedly.
I spent the last hour putting together a "heroes and villains" worksheet for afterschool. I used my dictionary and google to add Korean definitions to all the key vocabulary, so the young ones don't get lost. We're watching Frozen today, and I want to start a little discussion about good guys and bad guys. C-Jeongmin saw the worksheet and sang "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" to me.
A-Yoonseok teased me this morning, and on other mornings, about not wearing a necktie to school. When I wear a white-collared shirt, it semi-resembles the boys' uniforms and they get penalized for leaving behind their ties, so A-Yoonseok likes to joke about my being lax in regard to the dress code.
This morning, a bunch of my favorites all filed into the office to have a conference with the science teacher. It was BH, HH, Jihyuk, Daehoon, and BY. BH was closest to me and I asked him what the meeting was about. He said there's a science competition coming up. I asked if he liked science and he said "maybe". I told him that maybe he didn't like science, but I bet he was good at it. That made him happy.
The science teacher is the older man who I thought was so scary when I first got to the new office. But I summoned up my courage and I went to introduce myself to him, and after that we became friends. Two days ago, he took me to the science room for chocolate and real-actual coffee and we talked in English and Korean for an hour. Who knew that the good coffee is all stashed behind the the science lab beakers?
Science Teacher is very kind and smart, and he's reading "To Kill A Mockingbird" in Korean. He has three daughters just younger than me, and he thinks teaching high school (his former job) is easier than middle. We've been doing some language practice, lately. I told him in Korean that the students he met with today were my favorites and that they were all good at English. He asked me to correct his English text message to a friend. It's a pretty good exchange, all things considered.
----------------------------------------------
1:40 PM 1st-graders were darling. We had a funny moment when Cool-Guy Hyunseo's best friend Anime-Doyeong was just staring at me and I looked down at him to say, "뭘 봐?" (mwol bwa) or "what are you lookin' at?" It's a defensive sort of phrase, just like in English, but I said it to be funny and the boys laughed so hard, they couldn't collect themselves. Hyunseo said, "Teacher, say that, I feel...thrill. It's thrill!" Sem speaking in slang is the funnest thing ever.
For 3rd grade, they had real trouble writing and talking about their favorite memories, so for Minhwe's, we wrote together that his favorite memory was meeting Leigh-Teacher and becoming her friend because she gives him candy every day. And it's true--Minhwe shows up at my desk and says, "here for daily candy!" In class, Gyuchan also stood next to me and began to measure our heights. He was beyond happy when he discovered that he was taller. I said, "But I'm stronger!" and S-Teacher said she highly doubted that.
For Lunchtime Games, we had the usual bunch and I had the usual amount of pulling kids off other kids when they got too hardcore in their punching. Woojeong, a beautiful little kid who can get quite rude at times, was the center of the game and wanted to make himself the dealer every time. Kibeom didn't want to play, but he did want to explain the game to every kid who came through.
----------------------------
10 PM: Rest of the day was good. My second round of 1st-graders was grand, with Dongwoo, Eunseong, and Dongbin being the new names I learned. Wonhye and Hyungeun from afterscool were in there.
Outside the class, Mr. B told me the boys had been fighting, which I interpreted to mean that they were in a violent mood and I should be prepared for angry students, but then he said, "They've been fighting over who gets to sit in the front row and be close to you." Okaaay, then. By then, I was really curious to see who was in the front row, because these are the 1st-grade alpha males who have beaten down their competition.
Class was lovely and the babies were just peachy. Next I had 3rd-graders, and that went fine. They all got in their speaking practice and Suho, a kid I've overlooked, did perfectly. You go, Suhho. And Yeongmook, a kid who's virtually unnoticeable, told me after class that he wants to live in America, so I suggested that he and I talk more in the future. He really seems to want to talk a little with me each week--I will make time to interact with him.
And we had a big technological meltdown because HH was messing with my classroom computer and turned it off, then didn't know what precisely he'd done to make it turn off. While I'm talking to other students, he makes a habit of tapping the smartboard computer lectern I'm using, and doing things like raising and lowering the screen. But while I was on the other side of the room, he graduated to flipping switches and the computer and projector both turned off, leading to me and SG2 taking five minutes to figure out how to get everything in order again.
It was pretty funny because we didn't actually need the projector at this point--we were working off worksheets. But HH was both horrified and delighted that he'd messed up so drastically. he was having so much fun, being an unintentional troublemaker.
Gimin had a horrible headache. He was a member of last year's Demon Class, but I have some affection for him and I only made him speak to me for 30 seconds at the end of class--I let him put down his head and not do his worksheet because his pain was visible to me.
C-Yoonseok got horribly beaten as punishment for something. It was with a wooden stick and C-Yoonseok was a mess afterwards, crying and crying. He had to be led out of the office by the hand, his friend escorting him out while Yoonseok hid his face. It was horrible.
Yet, the kids don't get punished like this for nothing. For being sassy, late, using phones in class, etc, they have to squats or pushups. Serious-er things earn them a swat on the butt with a stick, like Haneul got the other day. But this was an all-new level. And the 50-something male teacher who gave the punishment looked heartbroken afterward. He talked things through with Yoonseok and he made it clear that he was not at all gratified and having to hurt him. I can't imagine what the boy must have done.
Afterschhool was the bomb! We watched more Frozen and we got some great mini-discussions going about what makes heroes special and ow Anna saving her sister Elsa's life makes her a hero, even though she doesn't have magical powers.
And I made a difference by going to sit with my troublemakers. I was sitting on a desk behind Leader-Jaehoon and CoolGuy Hyunseo and the other good boys who I already like. The song "Let It Go" came on and the boys asked me to sing with it--to really sing it, loudly. I did so, and I noticed one of my troublemakers on the other side of the room, staring at me.
I looked back later and he was still turned sideways in his chair, watching me sing and not even hiding the fact that he was doing so. Then it hit me--this kid who has only annoyed me before wants to be a favorite. I'm sitting across the room with kids I care about, while he is left out because I didn't click with him right away.
Well, I'd had enough of watching a student stare hopelessly, so I relocated to Troublemaker Central to help them with their worksheets. Staring boy is Jinhyuk, and his compatriots are Lens-Jihoon and Backpack-Dongjoon. I stayed wit them for the rest of the movie, chatting about characters, then graduating to playing the English-Korean work game with them.
My crazy boys melted into puddles of sweetness when we were playing word games. It was perfect. They're my boys now--we bonded. From here on, I can't un-know them.
Byeongyun surprised me in the office while I was using the copy machine. He walked past me and sighed, "Your hair. I envy you it." I asked why, not knowing how on earth that could make sense. He said, "Because it's colorful." Maybe he's tired of black hair and wishing he could color his own, though it's pretty much forbidden. Danhee was actually playing with my hair in the lunch line and got out the full English sentence, "I love your hair!"
I finally got chocolate to Dongjin. He and I are back to normal--he's accepting stuff again, after our weird thing yesterday.
Gave Seonwoo my canned rice-punch drink. He and Yeongchang get half my food, I swear.
C-Jeongmin gave me yet another sucker and came by my desk a third time to give me a cheese cracker. While we were walking down the stairs, he saw two boys hugging the technology teacher, a young and super-sweet guy who's in my office. The other boys were cuddling their teacher (who has a gentle personality and is very cute, partly due to being about 5'4 inches tall) and saying, "Sem, sem, sem, sem, sem...." to him, so C-Jeongmin leaned in to snuggle against my arm and repeat, "Sem, sem, sem, sem..." The technology teacher saw it and laughed.
When we got to the bottom of the stairs, C-Jeongmin asked if I worked in a big school or a little school when I was in the states. I said a small one. I feel like C-Jeongmin has a mental case file for me and he's adding more information, day by day.
Twin-Eungyo made me sing "Let It Go" for his twin Eunjae wile we walked home. I was glad to oblige, then Jinbong and Dongjoon heard it and asked me to do it again.
On the way home, there was a huge pile-up of bicycles from kids stopping to check out an accident. One boy got hit by a taxi. I saw him--he was just clipped. No blood, no obviously breaks, no tears, but he was clutching his leg. I used Korean to find out what was going on from Governor-Yunho, then I pulled Yunho away from the road because his bike was too close to oncoming traffic. He asked if I was worried that he'd get in an accident too, and I told him to be careful and said in Korean that he was an "important student". He smiled and moved his bike to a safer place. He knows.
-----------------------------------
