I had to report my boys Yechan and Hyunseo for their fight yesterday. I told Mr. B the situation and he said he'd take care of it. I don't want them punished, I just want them to not do that again. And if there was a real issue between them, I don't want that to go unnoticed. Maybe it wasn't serious and one kid just broke another kid's ruler, but I saw how that emotionally wrecked Kyeongho during the first week of school.
My friend Amanda suggested that I observe a Korean teacher's class to see if they teach differently, and to get inspired for the 2nd-graders. I asked JY-Teacher if I could watch hers, but she wasn't really keen on it, plus she teaches 3rd, which is just going to be a bit different. When I told her that the kids weren't bad and that I was just searching for inspiration to engage them, she told me something helpful.
The 2nd-graders are on an experimental kind of semester where they don't have big tests. From what I understand, the boys don't have to prepare for midterms or semester finals, so they're even less inclined to do stuff. She said the Korean teachers have the same issue with the boys, so that helped me. I figure the non-interest situation is their natural condition and it's only exacerbated by the language barrier.
So. Continue trying, but focus less on classroom "success" and more on connecting with a few individuals.
And here are pictures of my boys' stories! First pictures are of the Reese's advertisements we did. I provided them with a lot of target vocabulary to use--I'm trying to teach them a lot of adjectives for describing things they see and taste. Commentary under the pictures, not over them.
Hyunseo looked at advertisements on Google and drew the Reese's package.
Daehyun drew a cake on his advertisement.
I told my darling Cheolho that I thought he could do better on his advertisement because it was just okay, but he was a genius. (I rarely push my Korean students the way I did my American students. But I sensed that Cheolho would take it in the right spirit and rise to the occasion.) He went back and improved his advertisement with the addition of robot bears. Sweet. Robo-bears would sell the product to me, definitely.
Now we come to the "Cloud Stories" from Tuesday, wherein Yechan explains rain as originating from a sky-dragon. Twist ending: it's not really rain.
Again, Hyungkeun shocks and awes with his ability to craft a beautiful story, and one with a moral, no less! The dark cloud envies the bright cloud's beauty and popularity, while the bright cloud envies the dark cloud's practical ability to create rain. Moral? Both clouds are valuable and we need both for a balanced world. DUDE.
Cheolho being artsy and imaginative, like he does.
Changho hid this drawing from the prying eyes of a dozen other students, in order to deliver it to me. Clouds and I are lovely in a similar manner, it seems.
Jaehoon discusses his friend "Loud" and how Loud fell to C-ban in school, leading to the nickname "C-Loud" or "cloud". I was flabbergasted at the creative usage of the word "cloud".
Jiyoon finally drew somthing, after 6 weeks of steadfastly not doing work. It's a cloud mommy, giving birth to a cloud baby after a 12-month pregnancy.
Glasses-Seongmin, showing off his comics skills.
Tan-Seongmin's work.
Jihoon, my only B-class, putting forth a big effort on his story.
2nd-grade comics with Jiwon, who wins points for cuteness.
2nd-grade comics with Yooseok, who wins for most disturbing comic.
2nd-grade comics with Myeongbae, who wins for most informative. He came up with 6 separate solutions for sleepiness.
2nd grade comics with Jeongkyo, who I'd never talked to before but who is quite pleasant,
And now there is some kind of bouncer situation at the office. Office Leader stands in the hall and only lets a few kids in at a time. Gyuchan hold his arm across the door, acting as a barrier for the kids. Maybe it's to keep the kids from swarming us during work hours, but I would welcome more company. C-Jeongmin just stood in the hall with 15 other students, staring into the office but not getting to come in. I'm not the only teacher he visits, but he does always stop by. Maybe the bouncer thing is only for the mornings? I hope it lets up in the afternoon.
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1:40 PM: Next classes went well. 1st-graders were lovely and I got to ask Hyunseo what the fight yesterday was about. Yechan had chucked a pencil case at his head, so Hyunseo retaliated. I believed it--Yechan is smart and talented, but very babyish in some ways. He's exactly the type to chuck a loaded pencil case at somebody's head with no thought for the fallout.
Between classes, I got chocolate from BY. BY. He's never given me anything ever.
3rd grade class was good, with clever comics from Jinseo, Gyuchan, Minhwe and A-Yoonseok. We had a nice time and they really made me laugh.
Jihoon from afterschool braved the scary hall full of big boys to come see me and get his chocolate from the other day.
After lunch, I went out walking with JY and SG1, then the Technology Teacher bought ice cream for us. And I walked back with the (young, single, cute) Geography Teacher, which was nice. He's got a decent amount of English, so we could discuss our teaching experience and our respective college majors pretty well. When we reached the gate, Jeongmin was waiting to pick me up for Lunchtime Games, so I walked along with my kid.
Jeongmin and I discussed my baby brother, who I said was adopted. Jeongmin said immediately that he wanted to adopt a child someday because he doesn't like the idea of making a baby. I wasn't sure what he meant exactly, and I was conflicted about how to answer, because human reproduction is not something you want to discuss with middle school boys ever in life. So I just said that children are great and adoption is wonderful.
At the games, I taught Eungyo the word "better" by using Korean. I have way more Korean than Eungyo has English, so I'm able to be his tutor. He thinks UNO is better than Monopoly.
Minchan saw me outside eating an apple and said that before the apple, my face was sad and after the apple, I looked cheerier. Cute observation.
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9 PM: C-Jeongmin disinfected my hands today. I was sitting at my desk when he indicated that he wanted to give me handsoap. He put some on my hands, then led me over to the office sink so I could wash them. I did so, but I was so puzzled. Was this a commentary on my personal hygeine? Did he think my hands were dirty?
I asked JY-Teacher, and she laughed and said that it's just an indication of care and thoughtfulness. People sometimes clean/disinfect each other's hands--it was a sign that C-Jeongmin was thinking about my health. Dawww. I'd never heard that one before. In Korea, people will sometimes clean each other's ears with a Q-tip if their relationship is very close. It's not terribly common, but last month I saw a college-age couple doing this in a coffee shop.
Wooseok came by to talk with me, but again he's so afraid of English he won't hardly do it. When I asked how old he was he said in Korean that he didn't know, just so he wouldn't have to do it in English! I counted numbers on my fingers until we reached his age.
Dongmin came by for chocolate and he knew the question I was going to ask, the 'what did you do yesterday?' question. He told me in Korean, "Teacher, you know you already know what I did yesterday. So." I asked him a new question instead: "when did you wake up this morning?" I've been getting a jillion miles of conversation with my boys, and I love it. They come one after the other and sit down to talk.
HH and Jihyuk weren't in class today, and I missed them because without my favorites to talk with in the front row, I just have to stare at Jeongsu and Jiwoong and Gimin being nuts in the back row. I ended up just moving Gimin to the front to cut down on nonsense. We had an okay class though, and I got to reward Cheolho's big brother Suho for his good art.
Poor SG2 looks so tired. Tired-er than me. It reminds me that I really don't have things so bad after all. She's a grand person and I want to pray for her more.
My tutoring session went longer tonight. My tutor wanted to do more with me because it was "fun". Working with me with language is fun! For another person! EEEEEE! She suggested that we up our sessions to an hour and a half, and by now, we can totally do that. We have enough to learn and to talk about that we can do it. I'm beyond jazzed about this, I'm ecstatic. What a blessing to be learning and to be a blessing to someone else.
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