The time I put into preparation last night definitely paid off. I had a culture lesson about Valentines' day, with a Powerpoint (taken from another teacher and modified with my own words and pictures), a video clip of a cutely romantic cartoon called "Paperman," a scrambled-vocab words worksheet, a report-writing and speaking activity, cookies to give the kids at the end, and UNO cards to play with people during the break.
I was prepared. And it soooo paid off.
Well, the 2nd-graders, who I taught first, were really kind of a dead crowd. All quiet, all timid, all hesitant to move or breathe. They finally warmed up to me, mainly after I helped with their word scrambles and played UNO with 5 of the shyest girls, but it was still a very subdued class. I felt like we learned a bit about culture and got some good speaking in, though.
Jeongmin helped me spread Nutella on plain cookies at the end, and we added colorful sprinkles and gave everybody one. But it was like they didn't even want cookies. I've never seen such a non-reaction to snacks before. They had to be encouraged to come and get one. So the first class was academically successful, but not really fun.
The next class, with 1st-graders, was another matter altogether. Fun beyond measure.
No sooner did I step out of the classroom of 2nd graders than from way-far down the hall I heard, "Teacherrrr!" and I made out the shadowy forms of Eunseong and Hyunseo sprinting my way. They dove nearly headlong to give me high-fives and that was when I knew our class would be lovely.
I went into class and the little girls immediately began murmuring happily. They exclaimed over my face and hair, which let me tell you, was flattering in the extreme. Because these little angels were cute and snuggly and fluffy with their tiny hair bows and their big brown eyes...1st-grade girls are like porcelain dolls. The way they felt about me was the same way I felt about them.
They kids also became mini-paparazzi agents and took photos of me all through class. At first it was just the boys, but then the girls whipped out their phones and started taking pictures, too. "Teacher, pose! Pose!" This. This has not happened before. But the babies decided that inaugural Saturday class must be documented, and so it was.
My boys Eunseong and Hyunseo sat in the front row, along with Sangbin, a clever boy from another middle school. Sangbin has an amazing dry sense of humor and he kept cracking me up with his comments. When i mentioned giving the interviewees Reeses back in December, Sangbin said, "Yes, but I didn't eat mine. I just put it in the fridge." I laughed and told him he should have eaten it. Then he said he'd gotten dozens of them for Halloween and had gotten sick of them, which was even funnier.
As for my own boys, their levels of love have entered new categories. The teacher before me had done fancy nametags with the kids, where they got really artsy with it. And there were also categories on the name tags for their favorite things. I was listed as a favorite thing on all three nametags. The girls' interests were K-pop, kittens, and books; Hyunseo's nametag read, "Interests: Table tennis, Leigh-Teacher". And thus, I have become a hobby.
Eunseong kept writing "Eunseong Loves Leigh" on his desk in pencil, then erasing it, then writing it again. I once thought that only girls obesessively doodled their crush's name in notebooks, but that is entirely inaccurate.
The girls had tons of questions about me and I had to go around to the whole room to show them each my eyes, because there was great debate over whether my eyes were gray or green. And the debate still rages, because opinion was divided.
And! One of the girls, Chaeson, has an oppa in my classes! Her brother is a 3rd-grade A-level student and I know him, so this beautiful little girl was incredibly gratified that I remembered her older brother. And most of the girls go to my friend Amanda's school, so when I confirmed that we were friends, they went nuts. I want to get to know the girls better, but the boys were demanding most of my attention, as they do. Hyunseo decided to reach for my hand as often as possible while I was talking, so at different points I just let him hold it while I explained the powerpoint to the class.
Then when I made a comment to Eunseong about wishing he was in afterschool with me and Hyunseo and Jaehoon, Eunseong dropped this surprising bit of news:
Eunseong: I couldn't be in afterschool because I lost rock-paper-scissors.
Me: What?
Eunseong: We did rock-paper-scissors to see who got into your class.
Me: *still confused* I thought your parents picked which afterschool they wanted you to be in.
Eunseong: No, we picked. But too many students wanted to come, so we did rock-paper-scissors. *points to other 2 boys* They won. I lost.
Erm. That's pretty blamfrazzling. I'm certain-positive that last year the kids were just railroaded into afterschool by their parents (judging by just how hardcore apathetic most of them were), but this year, they must have some freewill about the whole thing. And because afterschool didn't start until the 3rd week, the boys had time to see me in the halls and in regular class and decide that extra time with me was worthwhile.
It also makes me see my afterschool boys in a whole new light. They all want to be there. There was an actual competition for it. When I perceived my troublemakers wanting attention/friendship, I was deeply surprised because I assumed they were being fussy because they wished to be elsewhere, but now I understand that a connection was what they were hoping for all along. It reinforces my intention to make afterschool a great place for them.
While in 2nd-grade, the kids had to be nudged and asked to come get a single cookie, the 1st-graders flooded to my table and got about 5 each. I spread Nutella on cookie after cookie after cookie and one of the girls added colored sprinkles while another girl passed them out. The girls were such cute little tyrants, too, telling the boys to stop hogging the cookies and stop hogging Teacher's attention. The boys just danced around, happy to be annoying the girls.
In the end, they all got lots and lots of tastiness and they went home smiling. It was a perfect day with the kids and I look forward to seeing all the little ladies again.
Here are pictures of my with the girls from work, on Friday when 4 of us were wearing jean-shirts and had to take a photo.
Cute Pose, Left to Right: JY, SG1, YSR, and Myself.
With B-Teacher Photobombing in the Background.
Fun Pose, B-Teacher Still in the Back,
But No Longer Photobombing.
And here's the Paperman video that I played for the Valentines lesson today.
