3:30 PM: Not positive, but I think I might have William-Jiyoon's heart. He's in my new afterschool, but couldn't come to the first two days because he had swim meets to go to. But today in class he answered a million questions, and I motioned him to my office for chocolate. He lingered around the office and translated other students for me.
When I asked him if he'd be in afterschool next week, he said yes and looked interested when I told him the book and movie we were watching. My little psycho sure is looking angelic these days.
I had a minor come-apart with my babies in 1st grade today, but I didn't raise my voice and wasn't angry. Friday boys are always the ones I have to get on to, and today Jinhyuk knocked over a giant flat screen television after being warned repeatedly to calm down. I gave them all a big speech in dreadful Korean, and Jeongmook asked me to please use English. So I switched over, and by hook or crook, by kids knew what I meant.
I thought we were all okay, but afterward I was surprised to see that Jinhyuk was about to cry and Dongjoon kept bowing and holding my hand, in the posture of a whipped puppy. I had to reassure both boys repeatedly that I wasn't mad and that everything was okay. I forget that me being upset with Jinhyuk and Dongjoon means more to them because I'm one of the people who loves them--when one of the adults in your life is stressed out over you, it's hard. I told Dongjoon, "Don't worry. You are my boy." Those words always seem to work.
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Thursday, May 29, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
5-29-14 Triple Niceness, Class Management, Youngmin
9:20 AM
Thursdays are my easy day, meaning no classes for the first two morning periods, so I'm chilling happily.
Big Class was good yesterday! I walked in the door and I didn't have to move the babies forward and re-arrange their desks because they had arranged themselves. My boys. My triple-class mini-monsters had moved up their own desks and never once attempted to scoot backward.
I could have hugged them. Also, there were fewer sleepers and they responded well to having their manhwa taken. And I've got more names now, so previous sleepers like Minjoon and Seunchan are guys I can joke with and tease while they doing speaking.
However, NG points out that speaking practice, as I make them do it now, it kind of mindless and too easy. He is right, but grrr. I had just figured this thing out. I had just gotten a format that worked, and now he thinks we should change it. But I'm so thankful to have someone who can see the problem, who can go, "No, the kids can do more than this. We can give them more and ask more of them."
We still don't know what we'll alter about it, but speaking practice for our little guys is about to get harder and better. And my classroom management is still going well. If I see a problem, I can move the kids around. Tell Hyungoon to get out of the window, tell Yooseok to sit down, tell Seungchan to get off his desk. And soon I shall have great things for them.
My warmpups are still great--the soccer videos and quizzes have really gone over well with the kids and they are all up in the World Cup facts.
Went downstairs to the special needs room to hang with Dohyun and Chanyeong. Taught Dohyun the English words for various fruits.
----------------------------------------
10:15 AM: Youngmin's trying to figure out where I live, specifically. He says he's going to stalk me, which is just too cute. Having Youngmin trotting around after me would be fun--he can do a lot with the amount of English he has. It's like he doesn't necessarily know more English than the other A-levels, but he knows how to negotiate the maximum amount of linguistic value from his existing vocab.
My Deokryeong came by. He's precious. Jeongmin came by as well and I'm working to appreciate him and not get annoyed--for some reason, he's been extra clingy lately. Can I have cookies, can I see your book, can I drink your drink, can we walk, can I play cards without you while you talk to the 3rd-graders, why do you like Hyunho, do you know that he's trouble, do you know that he broke things.
Hyunho's had problems, too. I walked in after lunch to find him in my chair, on my computer. This is not good, because I'm always working on Powerpoints, etc, and he could mess up my files. I told him very calmly that we had to stay of of Teacher's computer unless she gives us permission. He said he understood. Oy.
---------------------------------------------
Thursdays are my easy day, meaning no classes for the first two morning periods, so I'm chilling happily.
Big Class was good yesterday! I walked in the door and I didn't have to move the babies forward and re-arrange their desks because they had arranged themselves. My boys. My triple-class mini-monsters had moved up their own desks and never once attempted to scoot backward.
I could have hugged them. Also, there were fewer sleepers and they responded well to having their manhwa taken. And I've got more names now, so previous sleepers like Minjoon and Seunchan are guys I can joke with and tease while they doing speaking.
However, NG points out that speaking practice, as I make them do it now, it kind of mindless and too easy. He is right, but grrr. I had just figured this thing out. I had just gotten a format that worked, and now he thinks we should change it. But I'm so thankful to have someone who can see the problem, who can go, "No, the kids can do more than this. We can give them more and ask more of them."
We still don't know what we'll alter about it, but speaking practice for our little guys is about to get harder and better. And my classroom management is still going well. If I see a problem, I can move the kids around. Tell Hyungoon to get out of the window, tell Yooseok to sit down, tell Seungchan to get off his desk. And soon I shall have great things for them.
My warmpups are still great--the soccer videos and quizzes have really gone over well with the kids and they are all up in the World Cup facts.
Went downstairs to the special needs room to hang with Dohyun and Chanyeong. Taught Dohyun the English words for various fruits.
----------------------------------------
10:15 AM: Youngmin's trying to figure out where I live, specifically. He says he's going to stalk me, which is just too cute. Having Youngmin trotting around after me would be fun--he can do a lot with the amount of English he has. It's like he doesn't necessarily know more English than the other A-levels, but he knows how to negotiate the maximum amount of linguistic value from his existing vocab.
My Deokryeong came by. He's precious. Jeongmin came by as well and I'm working to appreciate him and not get annoyed--for some reason, he's been extra clingy lately. Can I have cookies, can I see your book, can I drink your drink, can we walk, can I play cards without you while you talk to the 3rd-graders, why do you like Hyunho, do you know that he's trouble, do you know that he broke things.
Hyunho's had problems, too. I walked in after lunch to find him in my chair, on my computer. This is not good, because I'm always working on Powerpoints, etc, and he could mess up my files. I told him very calmly that we had to stay of of Teacher's computer unless she gives us permission. He said he understood. Oy.
---------------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
5-28-14 Sanghwa Quips, Triple Fun, and Afterschool Hunger Games
11 AM: One of the best things from yesterday was when I was having Question Time and one of the C-levels, Jeongil was stumped on what to ask me. He finally landed on, "Teacher...do you like English?" I was blindsided by the perfection of it. My boy Sanghwa was watching this event, and he lifted his hands to the sky and said, "Oh. Game Over!"
I fell apart, laughing. It was such an apt description of what had happened, and it meantso much to hear something funny from Sanghwa. Points to you, Jeongil. You the man.
And in 2-5, 2-6 with H-Sol today, Giwoong and Hyunmin continue to study my hemline (which is not high) like it's notes for a final exam. However, we got in a lot of meaningful discussion today--I got good speaking practice out of them and I also had a Korean conversation with them about how they're both highly intelligent,but Giwoong does better in class because he speaks more. Hyunmin would excel if he talked a little more. Both boys seemed to respond well to my assessment of their intelligence.
And we also gained some rapport from the fact that I took away Giwoong and Hyunmin's playing-coins and made them sit down when they got up to waddle around aimlessly. Not in a mean way, just in a controlling-the-room way. The boys have gotten to where they just laugh over being put back in their place. They mostly stay put and mostly don't attempt to read comics/play with coins, etc. I'm happy with the way classroom discipline is progressing.
2-1, 2-2 with NG was good, too. It was our first attempt at having the kiddoes do a writing assignment and it failed, but we learned from it--next time, we'll explain the assignment and NG will work with the individual young'uns on it while I do speaking practice with the others. We're going to try that strategy out on the Triple Class this afternoon. Hee hee. Writing assignments for 30 kids--that's going to go beautifully.
But yesterday's Big Class was actually kind of fun. They were loud as a volcano eruption, but they were in happy spirits and I got 3 kids who had never spoken ever to do their practice. I described the class to NG as being like running a very small and unsuccessful nightclub. A tiny, noisy crowd that's almost (but never quite) having fun. And yet I do enjoy them so much--they are charming and it's not their fault that they got smooshed into a class with a billion other students.
I have an open class next month, says Mr. B. But! It's a 1st grade open class. So I have time to plan for it, and it's also my cute little babies, so totally workable.
B-Teacher made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the office. Holla. Lunch always seems so far away.
JY-Teacher tells me that I can maybe have an extra day of summer vacation because I had to work on Labor Day. That will be great--I think I'll be home the first 2 weeks of August. our break is from the 3rd week of July to the 3rd week of August, but most teachers have to teach a bit during that time. I shall know soon.
My afterschool yesterday was fantaaaaastic. I thought it would be so boring, but we did vocab on the Hunger Games, then did a wordsearch and a definition-thing where the boys wrote the Korean version of words like "hunger" and "archery". Then we matched the first 10 minutes of the Hunger Games and I narrated in Korean/English the whole time.
Because last semester, I had 22 kids and only 2 of them were B-level. Now I have 13 and 7 are A, meaning I have half the class who need extra help to connect with the material. But it went along in such a lovely fashion. They were basically enraptured by the story, thinking about the implications of Katniss volunteering to sacrifice herself and save her sister's life.
Before afterschool, my Jaehoon and Daehyun came by to visit me, just because they missed me. They're in Adorable History Teacher's afterschool now, and they say that I teach better than he does, which is flattering but I won't hear any ill words spoken against AHT, because he is wonderful.
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I fell apart, laughing. It was such an apt description of what had happened, and it meantso much to hear something funny from Sanghwa. Points to you, Jeongil. You the man.
And in 2-5, 2-6 with H-Sol today, Giwoong and Hyunmin continue to study my hemline (which is not high) like it's notes for a final exam. However, we got in a lot of meaningful discussion today--I got good speaking practice out of them and I also had a Korean conversation with them about how they're both highly intelligent,but Giwoong does better in class because he speaks more. Hyunmin would excel if he talked a little more. Both boys seemed to respond well to my assessment of their intelligence.
And we also gained some rapport from the fact that I took away Giwoong and Hyunmin's playing-coins and made them sit down when they got up to waddle around aimlessly. Not in a mean way, just in a controlling-the-room way. The boys have gotten to where they just laugh over being put back in their place. They mostly stay put and mostly don't attempt to read comics/play with coins, etc. I'm happy with the way classroom discipline is progressing.
2-1, 2-2 with NG was good, too. It was our first attempt at having the kiddoes do a writing assignment and it failed, but we learned from it--next time, we'll explain the assignment and NG will work with the individual young'uns on it while I do speaking practice with the others. We're going to try that strategy out on the Triple Class this afternoon. Hee hee. Writing assignments for 30 kids--that's going to go beautifully.
But yesterday's Big Class was actually kind of fun. They were loud as a volcano eruption, but they were in happy spirits and I got 3 kids who had never spoken ever to do their practice. I described the class to NG as being like running a very small and unsuccessful nightclub. A tiny, noisy crowd that's almost (but never quite) having fun. And yet I do enjoy them so much--they are charming and it's not their fault that they got smooshed into a class with a billion other students.
I have an open class next month, says Mr. B. But! It's a 1st grade open class. So I have time to plan for it, and it's also my cute little babies, so totally workable.
B-Teacher made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the office. Holla. Lunch always seems so far away.
JY-Teacher tells me that I can maybe have an extra day of summer vacation because I had to work on Labor Day. That will be great--I think I'll be home the first 2 weeks of August. our break is from the 3rd week of July to the 3rd week of August, but most teachers have to teach a bit during that time. I shall know soon.
My afterschool yesterday was fantaaaaastic. I thought it would be so boring, but we did vocab on the Hunger Games, then did a wordsearch and a definition-thing where the boys wrote the Korean version of words like "hunger" and "archery". Then we matched the first 10 minutes of the Hunger Games and I narrated in Korean/English the whole time.
Because last semester, I had 22 kids and only 2 of them were B-level. Now I have 13 and 7 are A, meaning I have half the class who need extra help to connect with the material. But it went along in such a lovely fashion. They were basically enraptured by the story, thinking about the implications of Katniss volunteering to sacrifice herself and save her sister's life.
Before afterschool, my Jaehoon and Daehyun came by to visit me, just because they missed me. They're in Adorable History Teacher's afterschool now, and they say that I teach better than he does, which is flattering but I won't hear any ill words spoken against AHT, because he is wonderful.
-------------------------------------------------------
Monday, May 26, 2014
5-27-14 Fish Name and Cute-Fives
11 AM: Good stuff.
Minjoonie tells me that my name in hanja--Chinese characters--means "carp" as in fish; 잉어. Nice.
My 2nd-graders with SG this morning were great. They were calmer than yesterday and they looooved the new soccer video. I'm introducing them to one player, one country, and one vocab term per video and it was amazing. Dongha outshone everybody this time around. He just knew answers to everything.
Seungyeop taught me a Korean phrase meaning "I can't stand it" and when I said that he was my Korean language teacher, he said that he deserved chocolate. When I asked him why he was happy today, he said it was because he was by Sangpil's side, which was pretty hilarious.
I got my hard-to-reach boys really giggling this morning. I made Quiet-Minjong smile a lot and I got Gunwoo dying laughing over my insistence that we had to do a elementary-style double-high-five after his speaking practice. That little bit of cuteness killed Woohyuk too--sometimes absurdity cuts right through their defenses and makes them giggle-buckets.
And learning about soccer was sooo the right decision. Yeonghan wants to talk about teams and they all feel knowledgeable about geography etc, which are related to knowing international sports. It's so fun to share something with them. Yeonghan's my baby, too. He's back to being a happy kid, with squishy pink cheeks and the world's brightest smile--I thought he'd lost it after last year, but no.
Gave speaking test to 3rd-graders. They were awesome. Jinyeong, a kid from last year's nightmare of an afterschool, made a favorable impression on me with his fun answers. He's my kid, now. Seongmo's favorite memory of the past was learning English with me, he said. And I got a lot of the others laughing by calling their names in a weird, growly monster-voice. Today has just been fun, period.
-----------------------------------------
Minjoonie tells me that my name in hanja--Chinese characters--means "carp" as in fish; 잉어. Nice.
My 2nd-graders with SG this morning were great. They were calmer than yesterday and they looooved the new soccer video. I'm introducing them to one player, one country, and one vocab term per video and it was amazing. Dongha outshone everybody this time around. He just knew answers to everything.
Seungyeop taught me a Korean phrase meaning "I can't stand it" and when I said that he was my Korean language teacher, he said that he deserved chocolate. When I asked him why he was happy today, he said it was because he was by Sangpil's side, which was pretty hilarious.
I got my hard-to-reach boys really giggling this morning. I made Quiet-Minjong smile a lot and I got Gunwoo dying laughing over my insistence that we had to do a elementary-style double-high-five after his speaking practice. That little bit of cuteness killed Woohyuk too--sometimes absurdity cuts right through their defenses and makes them giggle-buckets.
And learning about soccer was sooo the right decision. Yeonghan wants to talk about teams and they all feel knowledgeable about geography etc, which are related to knowing international sports. It's so fun to share something with them. Yeonghan's my baby, too. He's back to being a happy kid, with squishy pink cheeks and the world's brightest smile--I thought he'd lost it after last year, but no.
Gave speaking test to 3rd-graders. They were awesome. Jinyeong, a kid from last year's nightmare of an afterschool, made a favorable impression on me with his fun answers. He's my kid, now. Seongmo's favorite memory of the past was learning English with me, he said. And I got a lot of the others laughing by calling their names in a weird, growly monster-voice. Today has just been fun, period.
-----------------------------------------
Sunday, May 25, 2014
5-26-14 Soccer, New Aquarium, and Seonwoo Strikes
11:45 AM:
Good day. :-) The soccer videos worked well. I had decided to try soccer-quiz videos in the style of the movie quizzes. I've had fun researching the subject of soccer, since I normally couldn't care less about the sport. But NG suggested that the kids were into soccer and might respond well to soccer vocabulary, and I also noticed that the World Cup is coming up next month, therefore it was time to make a little space in my brain for futbol.
I very much liked learning about the World Cup, how often it happens (every 4 years, like the Olympics), how many teams are in it (32), and what America's chances are of winning (ha, ha, ha! no. nope.). I found out that my Yeonghan looooves soccer and we had a talk about our favorite players because, like, that's something I have now.
My 2-3, 2-4 class was way noiser than my 2-1, 2-2 this morning, but we did okay. I have more classroom control these days. No, Dongu. Sit down. No Hyunseop, we are not having wrestling matches right now. They're still little noise machines, but I'm keeping tabs on them. And I'm connecting better to my sleepers--Gunwoo, Woohyuk, Beomjoon, etc.
I bought my fish a 3-gallon aquarium last night, complete with plants, pebbles, a tank thermometer, and chlorine treatments. I let the water sit for an hour, then I lowered his glass sphere to float in the water, to get him used to the temperature change, if there was one. Then I let aquarium water into his sphere, then after 10 more minutes, released him into the giant aquarium.
Some websites say you should take up to 24 hours to slowly introduce your fish to his aquarium because of the possible differences in pH balance, but I didn't have time for that. I had to drop off my little guy and hope he was strong enough to last.
He is! My fish was happy and kicking this morning, and he really seems to enjoy his new environment. I took video of him on my phone, and I showed it to Minjoonie today. Taekyoon, HH and the other boys were all suitably impressed at how beautiful Minjoon's fish looked, and he got lots of recognition for giving me the bestest and prettiest present ever.
----------------------
5:30 PM Day was fine!
Did a speaking test for 3rd grade. They were mostly marvelous and I learned a few more names. Youngmin wants to be me when he grows up. Good luck on that one, sugar.
But my Seonwoo accidentally hurt me. I had fallen and bruised my hand on Friday--loose board on a bridge made me take a tumble while running. So I have a dark bruise across my palm, and when Seonwoo finished his speaking test, he high-fived me harder than any kid ever has.
It was so hard, I felt it in my wrist bones. I was just speechless for a moment, then I 'm sure I looked hurt, both physically and emotionally. I told Seonwoo that he could not high-five women that hard because it's about 3 times too much pressure. Seonwoo backpedaled by saying that the amount of force he used was equal to the amount of love he had for me. I had to administer the rest of the speaking tests while holding my hand loosely, trying not to use it much.
It really surprised me, because of all the kids who try to show their affection physically (often in dude-bro ways, such as wanting to arm-wrestle, to prove to me that they're bigger and stronger), Seonwoo has never been one of them. It's kind of out of character for him, but he clearly didn't intend to hurt me. I just don't know what possessed him to think that I could withstand that kind of impact easily.
He came to the office to apologize and he blew on my hand to make it better, so I guess we're calling this matter closed. So weird.
New afterschool went well! Only 13 kids, with just 3 of them coming from my previous afterschool. We're going to read and watch and discuss The Hunger Games, so we'll see how that goes. :-)
-------------------------
Good day. :-) The soccer videos worked well. I had decided to try soccer-quiz videos in the style of the movie quizzes. I've had fun researching the subject of soccer, since I normally couldn't care less about the sport. But NG suggested that the kids were into soccer and might respond well to soccer vocabulary, and I also noticed that the World Cup is coming up next month, therefore it was time to make a little space in my brain for futbol.
I very much liked learning about the World Cup, how often it happens (every 4 years, like the Olympics), how many teams are in it (32), and what America's chances are of winning (ha, ha, ha! no. nope.). I found out that my Yeonghan looooves soccer and we had a talk about our favorite players because, like, that's something I have now.
My 2-3, 2-4 class was way noiser than my 2-1, 2-2 this morning, but we did okay. I have more classroom control these days. No, Dongu. Sit down. No Hyunseop, we are not having wrestling matches right now. They're still little noise machines, but I'm keeping tabs on them. And I'm connecting better to my sleepers--Gunwoo, Woohyuk, Beomjoon, etc.
I bought my fish a 3-gallon aquarium last night, complete with plants, pebbles, a tank thermometer, and chlorine treatments. I let the water sit for an hour, then I lowered his glass sphere to float in the water, to get him used to the temperature change, if there was one. Then I let aquarium water into his sphere, then after 10 more minutes, released him into the giant aquarium.
Some websites say you should take up to 24 hours to slowly introduce your fish to his aquarium because of the possible differences in pH balance, but I didn't have time for that. I had to drop off my little guy and hope he was strong enough to last.
He is! My fish was happy and kicking this morning, and he really seems to enjoy his new environment. I took video of him on my phone, and I showed it to Minjoonie today. Taekyoon, HH and the other boys were all suitably impressed at how beautiful Minjoon's fish looked, and he got lots of recognition for giving me the bestest and prettiest present ever.
----------------------
5:30 PM Day was fine!
Did a speaking test for 3rd grade. They were mostly marvelous and I learned a few more names. Youngmin wants to be me when he grows up. Good luck on that one, sugar.
But my Seonwoo accidentally hurt me. I had fallen and bruised my hand on Friday--loose board on a bridge made me take a tumble while running. So I have a dark bruise across my palm, and when Seonwoo finished his speaking test, he high-fived me harder than any kid ever has.
It was so hard, I felt it in my wrist bones. I was just speechless for a moment, then I 'm sure I looked hurt, both physically and emotionally. I told Seonwoo that he could not high-five women that hard because it's about 3 times too much pressure. Seonwoo backpedaled by saying that the amount of force he used was equal to the amount of love he had for me. I had to administer the rest of the speaking tests while holding my hand loosely, trying not to use it much.
It really surprised me, because of all the kids who try to show their affection physically (often in dude-bro ways, such as wanting to arm-wrestle, to prove to me that they're bigger and stronger), Seonwoo has never been one of them. It's kind of out of character for him, but he clearly didn't intend to hurt me. I just don't know what possessed him to think that I could withstand that kind of impact easily.
He came to the office to apologize and he blew on my hand to make it better, so I guess we're calling this matter closed. So weird.
New afterschool went well! Only 13 kids, with just 3 of them coming from my previous afterschool. We're going to read and watch and discuss The Hunger Games, so we'll see how that goes. :-)
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Thursday, May 22, 2014
5-22-14 Minhwe, Swap, and Observing
5:30 PM: Good day.
Had no video capability in the English room, so I taught 4 classes just by using the book and board-marker games, but it went well.
I assigned my 3rd-graders to write about an experience with foreign culture. It was hilarious when I asked both classes, "Do you know any foreigners? Have you met a person from another country?" and they said no. Then I would open my eyes a little wider and ask, "Guys. Do you know someone from another country?" Still getting definite "no's" from the boys. They I would point to myself. And suddenly they'd all laugh, because they'd forgotten me.
It's actually really endearing because it illustrates how my older boys have really forgotten that I'm from another country. It warms the heart right down to the core, the fact that despite the language gap I don't register as an outsider at all. Hugs to all of you, 3rd-grade guys.
Minhwe shocked me when he talked about his experience with a foreign culture. He said that he had to live in the Philippines for awhile, as part of a study program for English. It was miserable and he was very sad, but he stuck it out because the program was so expensive, and in the end he did see an improvement in his English.
Oh, my boy. He felt so strongly about the topic that when he came to the front of the class, he refused to read out loud. I immediately knew that something was wrong, so I just read his composition quietly then thanked him for his work. Minhwe. I didn't notice him last year, but this year he comes by my office every day for questions, usually twice if not more. He's my kid, and all this time I didn't know how much stress he had suffered for English.
Played a new card game called "Swap" at the Lunchtime Games today. The boys loved it, and we had a great time. Hyunho wasn't there--Jeongmin told me he'd been kept out of school today as punishment for fighting. It wouldn't surprise me, considering the table-flipping and face-cut-by-glass incident. Hyunho, why do you do this.
Got to watch a Korean English class for the first time today--NG let me observe his class. It was awesome because now I finally know how these things work, but also gloomy because I can't do what he does. I can't deliver a fun lecture in all Korean, then ask the kids to name the words in English. The boys were quiet and not precisely attentive, but at least not nuts. A few sleepers, but nobody dared whip out the manhwa. Anyways, I took two pages of notes and it gave me a lot to think about.
---------------------------
Had no video capability in the English room, so I taught 4 classes just by using the book and board-marker games, but it went well.
I assigned my 3rd-graders to write about an experience with foreign culture. It was hilarious when I asked both classes, "Do you know any foreigners? Have you met a person from another country?" and they said no. Then I would open my eyes a little wider and ask, "Guys. Do you know someone from another country?" Still getting definite "no's" from the boys. They I would point to myself. And suddenly they'd all laugh, because they'd forgotten me.
It's actually really endearing because it illustrates how my older boys have really forgotten that I'm from another country. It warms the heart right down to the core, the fact that despite the language gap I don't register as an outsider at all. Hugs to all of you, 3rd-grade guys.
Minhwe shocked me when he talked about his experience with a foreign culture. He said that he had to live in the Philippines for awhile, as part of a study program for English. It was miserable and he was very sad, but he stuck it out because the program was so expensive, and in the end he did see an improvement in his English.
Oh, my boy. He felt so strongly about the topic that when he came to the front of the class, he refused to read out loud. I immediately knew that something was wrong, so I just read his composition quietly then thanked him for his work. Minhwe. I didn't notice him last year, but this year he comes by my office every day for questions, usually twice if not more. He's my kid, and all this time I didn't know how much stress he had suffered for English.
Played a new card game called "Swap" at the Lunchtime Games today. The boys loved it, and we had a great time. Hyunho wasn't there--Jeongmin told me he'd been kept out of school today as punishment for fighting. It wouldn't surprise me, considering the table-flipping and face-cut-by-glass incident. Hyunho, why do you do this.
Got to watch a Korean English class for the first time today--NG let me observe his class. It was awesome because now I finally know how these things work, but also gloomy because I can't do what he does. I can't deliver a fun lecture in all Korean, then ask the kids to name the words in English. The boys were quiet and not precisely attentive, but at least not nuts. A few sleepers, but nobody dared whip out the manhwa. Anyways, I took two pages of notes and it gave me a lot to think about.
---------------------------
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
5-21-14 Giwoong Commentary, Scary Movies With Wooseok, and Bye to Afterschool
11 AM: Ergh, I'm in fair spirits but the morning was kinda lame.
First 2nd-grade class went okay, if dull, but they looooved the quiz I put together for them. I cracked Chaeho UP with one of the questions. When I suggested that the female lead of the movie was "Optimus Prime's daughter," he nearly cried from the humor of it.
This is awesome, because very few of my kids know I'm funny. And last week Jonghoon died over one of my jokes as well, so the video quizzes are at least good for a few laughs.
H-Sol and I also had to have a talk with Giwoong about not talking badly about my body. The boys of 2-5, 2-6, specifically Giwoong, Hyunmin and Seonghoon, are extra interested in my dimensions. For the most part, it's a fascination/lack of understanding about the fact that American bodies are different from Korean ones. At home, I'm neither fat nor especially full-figured, but in Korea I'm bigger in all ways than most women I know.
Korean women are usually somewhat short and squat, or tall and very narrowly built. Nobody is built like me, as a shopkeeper reminded me last week when I was looking for dresses that didn't have a straight-up-and-down fit---"American, line is different, everywhere". So I'm an anomaly for the kids, and when you pair a physical anomaly with their lack of sensitivity, plus hormones in overdrive, plus the fact that I recently started wearing dresses exclusively, and you get some weird comments.
Giwoong started by writing the word "chest" on his paper and I asked him if he knew what it meant. He gave me the Korean definition, then said to Minshik in English semi-loudly, "Yours is bigger." I said well yeah, I'm a woman. Giwoong insisted he was talking to Minshik, not me, but that didn't make a lot of sense because Minshik doesn't understand that level of English and he and Giwoong are the same size of child, too.
Then I got up in front of the class to explain the speaking activity and Giwoong said while looking at me, "Horse dari," with "dari" meaning legs. I stopped teaching and started a dialogue with Giwoong about how we don't say things like that. I wasn't angry at all, just intent on letting him know how to behave. H-Sol called him up at the end and he said he'd been talking about another kid's legs, just happening to look my way. Eh. It's possible, but given Giwoong's track record, I think I'm right.
Anyhow, I told H-Sol that Hyunmin (who stuffed a ball down his shirt 2 weeks ago, to imitate my silhouette) and Giwoong are usually the kids who are focused on inappropriate body commentary, so she had them both apologize to me. I smiled at them afterward--we're all okay. I'm seriously cool with my little guys--I just want them to be kinder to women in the future.
It helps that I run 4 miles every day and I know for a fact that I look nicer than I ever have. 20 pounds ago, I might have been torn apart by comments like Giwoong's, but now I'm just thinking, "Yep, compared to what you're used to, I'm huge, but these horse legs are amazing because they can run for an hour without stopping." Rather than lamenting the tiny, delicate Korean body I will never have, I should appreciate the decent-sized, healthy American body God gave me.
This is who I am. And it's quite a blessing. I have life and health and energy, and isn't that worth celebrating?
S-Teacher told me that the 2nd-grade A-boys who are with B-Teacher complain about it and want me to teach them. It was a big pick-me-up, actually, when I consider that my own kids would prolly rather have B-Teacher.
---------------------------
3:45 PM Whoa, lost an entire post...
Upshot is that Triple Class was good today.
-----------------------------------------------------
6 PM: So many things happened.
In the gap between one of my classes, Wooseok came into the office to talk. When he hung around, I knew he wanted company, so I had him pull up a chair and we listened to music while he surfed the Korean internet. Then he asked me what I liked, and I looked up that sad short zombie film about the dad saving his baby daughter at the expense of his own life.
I was shocked to look up and see Wooseok wiping tears. I think the short film is beautiful as an affirmation of fatherly love and family sacrifice, plus it's just a good empathy exercise. It's good for the boys to understand that other people have feelings and hurts. But some boys feel it harder than others, and Wooseok surprisingly is one of them. I side-hugged him and told him everything was going to be alright.
He responded by finding us a Korean ghost movie to watch--no gore, but it was really scary, and it made me jumpy while it didn't affect him at all. Throughout the movie, I asked him questions in Korean and he gave me answers, so it was language practice, too. It was amazing after seeing him so little this semester to have a whole afternoon with my boy.
I also found out that Wooseok's a Christian and that he goes to my church, which didn't really come as a surprise to me because I could have sworn I'd seen him before outside church, hiding behind a stone pillar so I wouldn't see him. We were having a religion discussion in the office and A-Class-Minsu is Buddhist, and so is my Changyo.
I had a random last-English-afterschool class, tacked on to my schedule just because it needed filling. We just watched a video and I had them all come up to me for "final words"--essentially a last blessing before I released them into the wild.
And it occurred to me that this is the first afterschool I've truly loved.
I loved individual kids within that first long purgatory of afterschool. I loved Byeonghyun, Seongmo, Jinseop, Seonwoo, Seonghak, Seongyeol. I had a fondness for Taehoon and Joon and Afterschool Jeongmin that faded a bit over time. I despised Jiwoong and Sanghwa at moments. I couldn't understand why Cardsharp-Minsu just wouldn't join the fold.
But as nasty as that class was, it gave me relationships with some of my favorite students ever. Even though he didn't mix with me much then and even outright declined my attempts to be nice to him, Seonwoo is my boy now and he visits me a minimum of four times every day. Four times. I wouldn't have Seonwoo without having had that horrific class.
Byeonghyun is a kid I'd probably entrust my life to, and I got him through that class. And nowadays I'm quite cool with Jiwoong and very friendly with Sanghwa--the unbearable awfulness of certain events does not last forever. I had not lost the respect of those kids for all time and eternity.
Also, it was on a totally defeated fall-afterschool day when I had leftover popcorn that I connected with Wooseok--he was a C-level kid that always bopped into our class and I decided to feed him as well.
Winter afterschool with last year's first graders was nearly a wash. But! It gave me Chaeho and Seonghyun, two kids I really appreciate to this day. Plus, grumpy Taehyun and I are finally connecting.
But oh, my spring afterschool. These kids. These kids were on a whole other level. I'm glad I didn't have a chance to prepare a special final day, complete with fanfare because I probably would have cried. Instead, I got to say some sweet words to all of them.
And they returned them. Minsang said he was glad to have met me. Daehyun said that I had a beautiful smile and good figure, and I kinda wish he'd stopped at "smile," but he said it so sweetly and guilelessly, I didn't bother to correct him for it. I ordered Huyunseo to say something nice as we were parting, and he grinned and said "Nice!" which technically fulfilled the requirement.
I walked home with my afterschool boy Changho, and we stopped at a convenience store to buy him a snack. At the store, we were greeted by 5 of my nicest 3rd-graders plus Chaeson, one of the beautifullest little girls from the Saturday program. She squealed and hugged me and we chatted as I walked around with Changho, picking a snack. She wanted to know when I taught her Saturday class next. She says everyone is waiting for me to come back, which makes me so happy.
A good day, it has been.
This is what I feel like:
------------------------------------
First 2nd-grade class went okay, if dull, but they looooved the quiz I put together for them. I cracked Chaeho UP with one of the questions. When I suggested that the female lead of the movie was "Optimus Prime's daughter," he nearly cried from the humor of it.
This is awesome, because very few of my kids know I'm funny. And last week Jonghoon died over one of my jokes as well, so the video quizzes are at least good for a few laughs.
H-Sol and I also had to have a talk with Giwoong about not talking badly about my body. The boys of 2-5, 2-6, specifically Giwoong, Hyunmin and Seonghoon, are extra interested in my dimensions. For the most part, it's a fascination/lack of understanding about the fact that American bodies are different from Korean ones. At home, I'm neither fat nor especially full-figured, but in Korea I'm bigger in all ways than most women I know.
Korean women are usually somewhat short and squat, or tall and very narrowly built. Nobody is built like me, as a shopkeeper reminded me last week when I was looking for dresses that didn't have a straight-up-and-down fit---"American, line is different, everywhere". So I'm an anomaly for the kids, and when you pair a physical anomaly with their lack of sensitivity, plus hormones in overdrive, plus the fact that I recently started wearing dresses exclusively, and you get some weird comments.
Giwoong started by writing the word "chest" on his paper and I asked him if he knew what it meant. He gave me the Korean definition, then said to Minshik in English semi-loudly, "Yours is bigger." I said well yeah, I'm a woman. Giwoong insisted he was talking to Minshik, not me, but that didn't make a lot of sense because Minshik doesn't understand that level of English and he and Giwoong are the same size of child, too.
Then I got up in front of the class to explain the speaking activity and Giwoong said while looking at me, "Horse dari," with "dari" meaning legs. I stopped teaching and started a dialogue with Giwoong about how we don't say things like that. I wasn't angry at all, just intent on letting him know how to behave. H-Sol called him up at the end and he said he'd been talking about another kid's legs, just happening to look my way. Eh. It's possible, but given Giwoong's track record, I think I'm right.
Anyhow, I told H-Sol that Hyunmin (who stuffed a ball down his shirt 2 weeks ago, to imitate my silhouette) and Giwoong are usually the kids who are focused on inappropriate body commentary, so she had them both apologize to me. I smiled at them afterward--we're all okay. I'm seriously cool with my little guys--I just want them to be kinder to women in the future.
It helps that I run 4 miles every day and I know for a fact that I look nicer than I ever have. 20 pounds ago, I might have been torn apart by comments like Giwoong's, but now I'm just thinking, "Yep, compared to what you're used to, I'm huge, but these horse legs are amazing because they can run for an hour without stopping." Rather than lamenting the tiny, delicate Korean body I will never have, I should appreciate the decent-sized, healthy American body God gave me.
This is who I am. And it's quite a blessing. I have life and health and energy, and isn't that worth celebrating?
S-Teacher told me that the 2nd-grade A-boys who are with B-Teacher complain about it and want me to teach them. It was a big pick-me-up, actually, when I consider that my own kids would prolly rather have B-Teacher.
---------------------------
3:45 PM Whoa, lost an entire post...
Upshot is that Triple Class was good today.
-----------------------------------------------------
6 PM: So many things happened.
In the gap between one of my classes, Wooseok came into the office to talk. When he hung around, I knew he wanted company, so I had him pull up a chair and we listened to music while he surfed the Korean internet. Then he asked me what I liked, and I looked up that sad short zombie film about the dad saving his baby daughter at the expense of his own life.
I was shocked to look up and see Wooseok wiping tears. I think the short film is beautiful as an affirmation of fatherly love and family sacrifice, plus it's just a good empathy exercise. It's good for the boys to understand that other people have feelings and hurts. But some boys feel it harder than others, and Wooseok surprisingly is one of them. I side-hugged him and told him everything was going to be alright.
He responded by finding us a Korean ghost movie to watch--no gore, but it was really scary, and it made me jumpy while it didn't affect him at all. Throughout the movie, I asked him questions in Korean and he gave me answers, so it was language practice, too. It was amazing after seeing him so little this semester to have a whole afternoon with my boy.
I also found out that Wooseok's a Christian and that he goes to my church, which didn't really come as a surprise to me because I could have sworn I'd seen him before outside church, hiding behind a stone pillar so I wouldn't see him. We were having a religion discussion in the office and A-Class-Minsu is Buddhist, and so is my Changyo.
I had a random last-English-afterschool class, tacked on to my schedule just because it needed filling. We just watched a video and I had them all come up to me for "final words"--essentially a last blessing before I released them into the wild.
And it occurred to me that this is the first afterschool I've truly loved.
I loved individual kids within that first long purgatory of afterschool. I loved Byeonghyun, Seongmo, Jinseop, Seonwoo, Seonghak, Seongyeol. I had a fondness for Taehoon and Joon and Afterschool Jeongmin that faded a bit over time. I despised Jiwoong and Sanghwa at moments. I couldn't understand why Cardsharp-Minsu just wouldn't join the fold.
But as nasty as that class was, it gave me relationships with some of my favorite students ever. Even though he didn't mix with me much then and even outright declined my attempts to be nice to him, Seonwoo is my boy now and he visits me a minimum of four times every day. Four times. I wouldn't have Seonwoo without having had that horrific class.
Byeonghyun is a kid I'd probably entrust my life to, and I got him through that class. And nowadays I'm quite cool with Jiwoong and very friendly with Sanghwa--the unbearable awfulness of certain events does not last forever. I had not lost the respect of those kids for all time and eternity.
Also, it was on a totally defeated fall-afterschool day when I had leftover popcorn that I connected with Wooseok--he was a C-level kid that always bopped into our class and I decided to feed him as well.
Winter afterschool with last year's first graders was nearly a wash. But! It gave me Chaeho and Seonghyun, two kids I really appreciate to this day. Plus, grumpy Taehyun and I are finally connecting.
But oh, my spring afterschool. These kids. These kids were on a whole other level. I'm glad I didn't have a chance to prepare a special final day, complete with fanfare because I probably would have cried. Instead, I got to say some sweet words to all of them.
And they returned them. Minsang said he was glad to have met me. Daehyun said that I had a beautiful smile and good figure, and I kinda wish he'd stopped at "smile," but he said it so sweetly and guilelessly, I didn't bother to correct him for it. I ordered Huyunseo to say something nice as we were parting, and he grinned and said "Nice!" which technically fulfilled the requirement.
I walked home with my afterschool boy Changho, and we stopped at a convenience store to buy him a snack. At the store, we were greeted by 5 of my nicest 3rd-graders plus Chaeson, one of the beautifullest little girls from the Saturday program. She squealed and hugged me and we chatted as I walked around with Changho, picking a snack. She wanted to know when I taught her Saturday class next. She says everyone is waiting for me to come back, which makes me so happy.
A good day, it has been.
This is what I feel like:
Yes, I've come here to receive the...
'Aww Yissss
------------------------------------
Sunday, May 18, 2014
5-19-14 Bike Folderol, Fishy Preservation and Ciphers
10 AM:
Saw America Hyunkyeong on my way to school this morning! We high-fived.
Holla! Had a good first class, though I'm kinda shocked that I survived the weekend.
Becuase I accidentally rode my bike to Daejeon.
Daejeon is a fair piece away. It's almost 25 minutes by train. And the way I got there was thusly:
My friends are in killer shape. I've been running 4 miles a day, 5 days a week, and I'm not close to being in their league. But they decided that a few of us should bike from our tiny town to a much larger town 2 hours away, so we could eat brunch at a cool place that just opened.
It was hard, but I survived the 2-hour bike ride. Brunch was good. Some of the girls were going to bike another hour to Daejeon and some were going to bike the 2 hours home. I had a dreadful dreadful bike-seat malfunction that had to be repaired at a shop, but by the time I got it fixed, I was somehow grouped with the Daejeon Girls not the Going Home Girls.
Okey dokey. I couldn't ride my bike home because I didn't know the way (also: tired), so my buddies tried to put me on a bus. Bus driver says no bikes. I had two choices: I could leave my bike chained up in the city and trust that I might eventually be able to work my way back to it (unlikely...it would take way more time than I ever have to spare).
Or I could park my tired self on my bike for another hour in the Saturday sun and get to Daejeon, whereupon I could ride the subway to the train station and take a train home.
So I did that. I struggled and struggled and fought to keep up with the girls, because they would eventually notice I wasn't with them, but I could be lost for several minutes before they discovered the fact. And we were riding on this special bike path between the 12-lanes-o'-traffic highway.
Meaning that lil' old me, she who had only purchased a bike on Thursday after not riding one since she was in 7th grade, was riding a bike at Many-Many-Kilometers Per Hour on a walled path in the heart of a Korean metropolitan city. And it occurred to me as I pedaled my wobbly legs off, that any time you mix me and travel, weird and unexpected things happen. I should really just plan for the wildly unexpected to happen. It finds me, regardless.
We all smooshed our bikes onto the subway and my friends got off early, trusting that I could get off on the right stop and get myself on a train just fine. And I could. Though I had to take my bike on about 5 different handicap access elevators to do it. A lot of the petite grandmothers with no English took care of me on the elevators, making sure I got on and adjusted before everyone else crawled in. Tall blonde tired girl with a tiny pink bicycle seems to be a big sympathy draw for Korean grandmothers.
(I didn't know, but my bike is very small. Like, it has gears and can get up very fast but it's not for serious mountain biking like what my buddies have. It's for noodling around town and looking cute. I was not aware of this until seeing everybody else's gigantic-huge-normous bikes on the ride.)
On the train, I was told I wasn't supposed to have a bike on the train (or maybe just on that part of the train?) but I know people do it all the time, so. They let me ride anyway. I got off at home sweet home, exhausted and slightly weirded out by my travel mishaps, and never so glad to see home turf. I mostly-walked my bike home, parked the little guy in the stairwell under my apartment, then went upstairs to rest.
Strangely, I was fine the next day. No cramps, no pains. I even went on a long Sunday evening run with no ill effects. Maybe my training paid off--I couldn't keep up with my adventure buddies, but my recovery time was almost nil.
In addition, I have kept my fish alive.
*applause* *throws confetti* *accepts rose bouquet*
I though he was a girl because his color is pale, between pink and red, and his fins are short, but further research about bubble clouds reveals my fishy to be a boy. I named him Butterfly. I nearly lost him when I tried to transfer him from his Ziploc bag into his new hanging bowl (he flopped out onto a washcloth I'd used to cover the sink drain, and he repeatedly resisted my attempts to pick him up), but we both survived. Now I feed him flakes and show him a mirror once a day, and he keeps me company. As he dances around his glass bowl, flippy-flippy. Swimmy-swimmy.
On Friday night, I was telling my friends that I no longer live alone--I share my apartment with an ambiguously gendered tropical fish. But now that I know more about betta fish, I can say with full certainty that I share my apartment with a boy-fish named Butterfly.
____________________________________________________
12 PM: Whoop, whoop! My 2nd-grade class with NG went great, too. Like with my morning class, I moved all the kids upward closer to the front. It really helped with their concentration and was great for rapport, for mixing with the young'uns. I could chat with them more easily, since they were all neatly within reach.
The cipher paper worked GREAT. I put 2 hours of work into making a word puzzle for them and they responded beautifully, both classes. Hee. *Cera the Triceratops from The Land Before Time voice* "I found it! I fou-ound it. Hee."
They loved it. It wasn't too hard, but it was hard enough to be a challenge. 80% of them did it perfect,and the remaining ones had to have help to re-count the words in their cipher. Love, love, love. My boys were using their noggins. Then we turned the cipher into speaking practice, which was graaaaand.
Good. Second. Grade. Classes.
And some of the little guys followed me downstairs for chocolate and all was well with everyone. I've still got to figure out how to implement my plans for the Triple Class, but NG and I are going to talk it out tomorrow and hopefully I can figure something that will make things just a teensy smidgen better than before.
----------------------------------------------------------
Saw America Hyunkyeong on my way to school this morning! We high-fived.
Holla! Had a good first class, though I'm kinda shocked that I survived the weekend.
Becuase I accidentally rode my bike to Daejeon.
Daejeon is a fair piece away. It's almost 25 minutes by train. And the way I got there was thusly:
My friends are in killer shape. I've been running 4 miles a day, 5 days a week, and I'm not close to being in their league. But they decided that a few of us should bike from our tiny town to a much larger town 2 hours away, so we could eat brunch at a cool place that just opened.
It was hard, but I survived the 2-hour bike ride. Brunch was good. Some of the girls were going to bike another hour to Daejeon and some were going to bike the 2 hours home. I had a dreadful dreadful bike-seat malfunction that had to be repaired at a shop, but by the time I got it fixed, I was somehow grouped with the Daejeon Girls not the Going Home Girls.
Okey dokey. I couldn't ride my bike home because I didn't know the way (also: tired), so my buddies tried to put me on a bus. Bus driver says no bikes. I had two choices: I could leave my bike chained up in the city and trust that I might eventually be able to work my way back to it (unlikely...it would take way more time than I ever have to spare).
Or I could park my tired self on my bike for another hour in the Saturday sun and get to Daejeon, whereupon I could ride the subway to the train station and take a train home.
So I did that. I struggled and struggled and fought to keep up with the girls, because they would eventually notice I wasn't with them, but I could be lost for several minutes before they discovered the fact. And we were riding on this special bike path between the 12-lanes-o'-traffic highway.
Meaning that lil' old me, she who had only purchased a bike on Thursday after not riding one since she was in 7th grade, was riding a bike at Many-Many-Kilometers Per Hour on a walled path in the heart of a Korean metropolitan city. And it occurred to me as I pedaled my wobbly legs off, that any time you mix me and travel, weird and unexpected things happen. I should really just plan for the wildly unexpected to happen. It finds me, regardless.
We all smooshed our bikes onto the subway and my friends got off early, trusting that I could get off on the right stop and get myself on a train just fine. And I could. Though I had to take my bike on about 5 different handicap access elevators to do it. A lot of the petite grandmothers with no English took care of me on the elevators, making sure I got on and adjusted before everyone else crawled in. Tall blonde tired girl with a tiny pink bicycle seems to be a big sympathy draw for Korean grandmothers.
(I didn't know, but my bike is very small. Like, it has gears and can get up very fast but it's not for serious mountain biking like what my buddies have. It's for noodling around town and looking cute. I was not aware of this until seeing everybody else's gigantic-huge-normous bikes on the ride.)
On the train, I was told I wasn't supposed to have a bike on the train (or maybe just on that part of the train?) but I know people do it all the time, so. They let me ride anyway. I got off at home sweet home, exhausted and slightly weirded out by my travel mishaps, and never so glad to see home turf. I mostly-walked my bike home, parked the little guy in the stairwell under my apartment, then went upstairs to rest.
Strangely, I was fine the next day. No cramps, no pains. I even went on a long Sunday evening run with no ill effects. Maybe my training paid off--I couldn't keep up with my adventure buddies, but my recovery time was almost nil.
In addition, I have kept my fish alive.
*applause* *throws confetti* *accepts rose bouquet*
I though he was a girl because his color is pale, between pink and red, and his fins are short, but further research about bubble clouds reveals my fishy to be a boy. I named him Butterfly. I nearly lost him when I tried to transfer him from his Ziploc bag into his new hanging bowl (he flopped out onto a washcloth I'd used to cover the sink drain, and he repeatedly resisted my attempts to pick him up), but we both survived. Now I feed him flakes and show him a mirror once a day, and he keeps me company. As he dances around his glass bowl, flippy-flippy. Swimmy-swimmy.
On Friday night, I was telling my friends that I no longer live alone--I share my apartment with an ambiguously gendered tropical fish. But now that I know more about betta fish, I can say with full certainty that I share my apartment with a boy-fish named Butterfly.
____________________________________________________
12 PM: Whoop, whoop! My 2nd-grade class with NG went great, too. Like with my morning class, I moved all the kids upward closer to the front. It really helped with their concentration and was great for rapport, for mixing with the young'uns. I could chat with them more easily, since they were all neatly within reach.
The cipher paper worked GREAT. I put 2 hours of work into making a word puzzle for them and they responded beautifully, both classes. Hee. *Cera the Triceratops from The Land Before Time voice* "I found it! I fou-ound it. Hee."
They loved it. It wasn't too hard, but it was hard enough to be a challenge. 80% of them did it perfect,and the remaining ones had to have help to re-count the words in their cipher. Love, love, love. My boys were using their noggins. Then we turned the cipher into speaking practice, which was graaaaand.
Good. Second. Grade. Classes.
And some of the little guys followed me downstairs for chocolate and all was well with everyone. I've still got to figure out how to implement my plans for the Triple Class, but NG and I are going to talk it out tomorrow and hopefully I can figure something that will make things just a teensy smidgen better than before.
----------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, May 15, 2014
5-16-14 Pink Bike, Beta Fish, Seeing Jaehwan
11 AM: My birthday was lovely.
It was my first birthday totally away from my family--I think in college the semester was usually over by mid-May, allowing me to be at home for it. But it wasn't an emotional issue, being away for this.
I went out with my friend and she helped me buy a bicycle. It's pink and super-super cute. I hadn't ridden a bike since I was 12 years old, so I was quite uncomfortable with it at first, and I had never ridden a bike with gears, so that was new as well. For a while it was touch and go, wondering whether I'd wreck, especially since we had to ride near traffic. But I had a helmet and I got the hang of things pretty quickly.
I practiced riding with B-Friend for an hour, then I went home to get cleaned up for a trip into town. I spent over 2 1/2 hours getting a gel manicure, which is wickedly pricey and obviously time-intensive, but they look amazing and they last for a month. So. The shop owner told me that the design I'd chosen by happenstance was "wedding nails". Pics forthcoming.
Then I went clothes shopping and got 2 new skirts and 2 new dresses, because so help me I'm going to make this dress thing happen. It makes the older teachers so very happy, to the point that I can't ignore their preferences. Also, it's getting hot. Jeans are practical when the weather doesn't go over 75-80, but it's going to get blistering before long and dresses are a good option.
Today, more presents were waiting. I got a cute little jar of great-tasting pink candy from KBR.
And Minjoon gave me a fish.
A FISH.
Minjoonie raises tropical fish as a hobby, and he gave me a beta.
A beta and a glass jar and a frame to hold the jar and a bottle of fish food, and a hand-written and illustrated instructional card in Korean and English, telling me how to take care of my new pet. He used Google translate to get it just right, he said.
I hugged him twice. I could just cry, it's so thoughtful. I really really really hope I can manage not to kill this fish.
Got another package from my Mommy. :-) :-) :-) Arrived just in time.
Had the best class ever with H-Sol. It was 2-7, 2-8 and they understood everything and did everything. Score, happy-dance, score, happy-dance! Considering that my last class with her just gave up and I didn't make them do anything for the last 15 minutes, it was a great reprieve.
-------------------
1:20 PM Further birthday presents have occurred. Ferrero Rocher chocolate from my Seonwoo, for one.
In class, KBR told me that C-Jeongmin had asked her what kind of present he should get me. She said he was really, really nervous about it. Today, I saw C-Jeongmin several times, on the periphery of the kids who were hovering around me in the office. He kept not coming forward, so I was assuming the birthday present thing wasn't happening.
Then KBR walked over and dragged C-Jeongmin in front of me, saying that he had my present in his pocket, but was too shy to give it to me. He finally produced a nice little box of chocolate, simultaneously looking happy and embarrassed to death. I squeezed his hand and told him how much I appreciated it.
My next 2nd-grade class with NG went well. I moved all the boys in the back to the front--which took 5 minutes and much fussing. And of course, a few of them kept sneaking back to the back, so I had to make them go back. Also, to keep everyone's attention, I had to yell some. Not angry, but really super loud one time. And later, I had to raise my voice a little, but never to the same level because the babies knew when to start paying attention.
Anyhoo, I hope if I keep moving the kids to the front so they can all be together, it will help them pay attention. At the very least, they are all in one place and not starting fights/throwing things, etc. And I hope if I vocally get their attention a few times, I shant have to yell in the future.
Also, I ended the class with speaking, which seems to be the way to go. They work better that way,when they have something concrete to do.
I don't want to be harsh with the boys, but physically moving them to new seats and using the mic to call their notice to the pertinent parts of the lesson seemed to keep them on track--EVERY SINGLE CHILD finished their worksheet. That has never happened in the history of my teaching 2nd-graders. So long as I can keep from being angry with them while I do all the mega-discipline.
---------------------------------------
4 PM: Good day! I went to the special needs room and talked with Dohyun for forever. He can stand if he has his walker to support him, and he decided to stand and look down on me while I sat, for the duration of our conversation.
He was working really hard to stand up straight, which I know was an effort, considering his level of muscle control. He ran through the ever-growing list of words he knows in English, and asked me the meanings of other words. We probably talked for ten minutes like this. He asked if I liked exercise, then informed me that he has been exercising also.
That's so wonderful for him. But also kind of heartbreaking that he has to try that hard to get his physical body into the condition where he can do basic things. He told me about his Saturday plans with classmates from Ship-ban, and he said that he thought of me as one of his close friends. I'm going to remember to go see him at least once every day. He's important and he can't come talk to me, so I have to go to him.
Had my craziest 1st-graders all by my lonesome. But I managed, though I had to make them put their little noggins down on their desks as a disciplinary measure for a while. William-Jiyoon caused no trouble and participated very well, though. And Jeongmook kissed my hand.
GOSSSHHH. Mimic-Jaehwan came by just now! My graduated student, C-level Jaehwan who I never taught but played 5 zillion games of cards with. He came by with his buddy to visit the 3rd grade offices. His buddy was here to see YSR-Teacher, but Jaehwan's home room teacher from last year left, so instead he visited me.
I gave him chocolate and oohed and ahhed over his haircut, which looks tons better than last year's bowlcut, but which does make him look like an entirely different kid. When he leaned his head in the office door, I didn't recognize him. I made myself look back at the small, unknown kid in the door, and low and behold it was my boy Jaehwan. He told me he goes to one of the technical high schools, a place where my friend Matt says the kids are totally dead-eyed and hopeless all the time. I hope Jaehwan's doing okay.
-------------------------------------
It was my first birthday totally away from my family--I think in college the semester was usually over by mid-May, allowing me to be at home for it. But it wasn't an emotional issue, being away for this.
I went out with my friend and she helped me buy a bicycle. It's pink and super-super cute. I hadn't ridden a bike since I was 12 years old, so I was quite uncomfortable with it at first, and I had never ridden a bike with gears, so that was new as well. For a while it was touch and go, wondering whether I'd wreck, especially since we had to ride near traffic. But I had a helmet and I got the hang of things pretty quickly.
I practiced riding with B-Friend for an hour, then I went home to get cleaned up for a trip into town. I spent over 2 1/2 hours getting a gel manicure, which is wickedly pricey and obviously time-intensive, but they look amazing and they last for a month. So. The shop owner told me that the design I'd chosen by happenstance was "wedding nails". Pics forthcoming.
Then I went clothes shopping and got 2 new skirts and 2 new dresses, because so help me I'm going to make this dress thing happen. It makes the older teachers so very happy, to the point that I can't ignore their preferences. Also, it's getting hot. Jeans are practical when the weather doesn't go over 75-80, but it's going to get blistering before long and dresses are a good option.
Today, more presents were waiting. I got a cute little jar of great-tasting pink candy from KBR.
And Minjoon gave me a fish.
A FISH.
Minjoonie raises tropical fish as a hobby, and he gave me a beta.
A beta and a glass jar and a frame to hold the jar and a bottle of fish food, and a hand-written and illustrated instructional card in Korean and English, telling me how to take care of my new pet. He used Google translate to get it just right, he said.
I hugged him twice. I could just cry, it's so thoughtful. I really really really hope I can manage not to kill this fish.
Got another package from my Mommy. :-) :-) :-) Arrived just in time.
Had the best class ever with H-Sol. It was 2-7, 2-8 and they understood everything and did everything. Score, happy-dance, score, happy-dance! Considering that my last class with her just gave up and I didn't make them do anything for the last 15 minutes, it was a great reprieve.
-------------------
1:20 PM Further birthday presents have occurred. Ferrero Rocher chocolate from my Seonwoo, for one.
In class, KBR told me that C-Jeongmin had asked her what kind of present he should get me. She said he was really, really nervous about it. Today, I saw C-Jeongmin several times, on the periphery of the kids who were hovering around me in the office. He kept not coming forward, so I was assuming the birthday present thing wasn't happening.
Then KBR walked over and dragged C-Jeongmin in front of me, saying that he had my present in his pocket, but was too shy to give it to me. He finally produced a nice little box of chocolate, simultaneously looking happy and embarrassed to death. I squeezed his hand and told him how much I appreciated it.
My next 2nd-grade class with NG went well. I moved all the boys in the back to the front--which took 5 minutes and much fussing. And of course, a few of them kept sneaking back to the back, so I had to make them go back. Also, to keep everyone's attention, I had to yell some. Not angry, but really super loud one time. And later, I had to raise my voice a little, but never to the same level because the babies knew when to start paying attention.
Anyhoo, I hope if I keep moving the kids to the front so they can all be together, it will help them pay attention. At the very least, they are all in one place and not starting fights/throwing things, etc. And I hope if I vocally get their attention a few times, I shant have to yell in the future.
Also, I ended the class with speaking, which seems to be the way to go. They work better that way,when they have something concrete to do.
I don't want to be harsh with the boys, but physically moving them to new seats and using the mic to call their notice to the pertinent parts of the lesson seemed to keep them on track--EVERY SINGLE CHILD finished their worksheet. That has never happened in the history of my teaching 2nd-graders. So long as I can keep from being angry with them while I do all the mega-discipline.
---------------------------------------
4 PM: Good day! I went to the special needs room and talked with Dohyun for forever. He can stand if he has his walker to support him, and he decided to stand and look down on me while I sat, for the duration of our conversation.
He was working really hard to stand up straight, which I know was an effort, considering his level of muscle control. He ran through the ever-growing list of words he knows in English, and asked me the meanings of other words. We probably talked for ten minutes like this. He asked if I liked exercise, then informed me that he has been exercising also.
That's so wonderful for him. But also kind of heartbreaking that he has to try that hard to get his physical body into the condition where he can do basic things. He told me about his Saturday plans with classmates from Ship-ban, and he said that he thought of me as one of his close friends. I'm going to remember to go see him at least once every day. He's important and he can't come talk to me, so I have to go to him.
Had my craziest 1st-graders all by my lonesome. But I managed, though I had to make them put their little noggins down on their desks as a disciplinary measure for a while. William-Jiyoon caused no trouble and participated very well, though. And Jeongmook kissed my hand.
GOSSSHHH. Mimic-Jaehwan came by just now! My graduated student, C-level Jaehwan who I never taught but played 5 zillion games of cards with. He came by with his buddy to visit the 3rd grade offices. His buddy was here to see YSR-Teacher, but Jaehwan's home room teacher from last year left, so instead he visited me.
I gave him chocolate and oohed and ahhed over his haircut, which looks tons better than last year's bowlcut, but which does make him look like an entirely different kid. When he leaned his head in the office door, I didn't recognize him. I made myself look back at the small, unknown kid in the door, and low and behold it was my boy Jaehwan. He told me he goes to one of the technical high schools, a place where my friend Matt says the kids are totally dead-eyed and hopeless all the time. I hope Jaehwan's doing okay.
-------------------------------------
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
5-14-14 B'Day Presents, and Hyunho Fights a Few Different People
11 AM: Well, my birthday's tomorrow, and it'll be my first birthday away from school.
The happy bits have already started happening. This morning, one of the 1st-grade female teachers and one of the 2nd-grade male teacher saw me walking and gave me a ride to school. We made some conversation in Korean.
When I got to school, there were two pretty wrapped packages on my desk--one in pink and one in pastel blue. They had riddles written on them and said "Do not open until tomorrow". I asked KBR about them--she thought they were from a student and sure enough, the pretty boxes were from Jeongmin.
--------------
2:40 PM: So Jeongminnie had me open one present and save one present for tomorrow. The one he had me open was chocolate--some seriously good chocolate because Jeongmin has killer taste in chocolate. Seriously, this child knows the good stuff from the imitators. I thanked him bunches and I will try to keep thanking him for it. Jeongmin even wrote a cute little riddle on the paper.
After lunch, I had to stop Hyunho from ripping the paper off my remaining present, though. Because he came by my desk and saw it and was curious. He tore one tiny corner before I stopped him and Jeongmin showed up a few seconds later. I don't like to think what would happen if Jeongmin saw Hyuunho opening the present I'm supposed to avoid seeing until tomorrow.
Background: Jeongmin and Hyunho got into a fight on Friday wherein no blows were exchanged, but both kids started flipping tables. I've never seen the like. If Mr. B hadn't told me that Hyunho was known for destructive tantrums I wouldn't have believed my eyes. Hyunho knocked over 5 tables before I could cross the room and wrap him in a hug to stop him.
(Note: Whenever I begin to describe student violence, my mother says it always sounds like it takes me an eternity to stop it. Truly it does feel like an eternity, but I'm always moving toward the problem as quickly as possible, it's just that the rooms are large and there are often tables, chairs, and other students between me and the kids who have a problem.)
But then once I had Hyunho stabilized and calm, patting his back and asking him to stop, Jeongmin went nuts and flipped a couple of tables of his own. I held on to Hyunho and ordered Jeongmin to stop. Because Jeongmin responds to verbal commands but Hyunho doesn't. I let Hyunho go, then I went to sit in the window of Sa-ban.
As I sat in the window, Jeongmin came up to me to explain his plight. Hyunho had been cheating and he's just always annoying in general. I talked with Jeongmin and said I would pray for Hyunho to calm down and for him to have patience with Hyunho. Then Jeongmin left and Hyunho came to the window to discuss his beef with Jeongmin.
Today they were okay, aside from some snippy remarks. Hyunho had bloody scratches around his eye from a fight with Kyeongwon, which I'm assuming broke his glasses, judging by the depth of the cuts and Hyunho's lack of glasses. Later, Kyeongwon walked in and I asked him why he'd hurt Jeongmin--he raised a bandaged hand and showed me where Hyunho's glasses had completely cut up his right hand.
Boys.
---------------------
The happy bits have already started happening. This morning, one of the 1st-grade female teachers and one of the 2nd-grade male teacher saw me walking and gave me a ride to school. We made some conversation in Korean.
When I got to school, there were two pretty wrapped packages on my desk--one in pink and one in pastel blue. They had riddles written on them and said "Do not open until tomorrow". I asked KBR about them--she thought they were from a student and sure enough, the pretty boxes were from Jeongmin.
--------------
2:40 PM: So Jeongminnie had me open one present and save one present for tomorrow. The one he had me open was chocolate--some seriously good chocolate because Jeongmin has killer taste in chocolate. Seriously, this child knows the good stuff from the imitators. I thanked him bunches and I will try to keep thanking him for it. Jeongmin even wrote a cute little riddle on the paper.
After lunch, I had to stop Hyunho from ripping the paper off my remaining present, though. Because he came by my desk and saw it and was curious. He tore one tiny corner before I stopped him and Jeongmin showed up a few seconds later. I don't like to think what would happen if Jeongmin saw Hyuunho opening the present I'm supposed to avoid seeing until tomorrow.
Background: Jeongmin and Hyunho got into a fight on Friday wherein no blows were exchanged, but both kids started flipping tables. I've never seen the like. If Mr. B hadn't told me that Hyunho was known for destructive tantrums I wouldn't have believed my eyes. Hyunho knocked over 5 tables before I could cross the room and wrap him in a hug to stop him.
(Note: Whenever I begin to describe student violence, my mother says it always sounds like it takes me an eternity to stop it. Truly it does feel like an eternity, but I'm always moving toward the problem as quickly as possible, it's just that the rooms are large and there are often tables, chairs, and other students between me and the kids who have a problem.)
But then once I had Hyunho stabilized and calm, patting his back and asking him to stop, Jeongmin went nuts and flipped a couple of tables of his own. I held on to Hyunho and ordered Jeongmin to stop. Because Jeongmin responds to verbal commands but Hyunho doesn't. I let Hyunho go, then I went to sit in the window of Sa-ban.
As I sat in the window, Jeongmin came up to me to explain his plight. Hyunho had been cheating and he's just always annoying in general. I talked with Jeongmin and said I would pray for Hyunho to calm down and for him to have patience with Hyunho. Then Jeongmin left and Hyunho came to the window to discuss his beef with Jeongmin.
Today they were okay, aside from some snippy remarks. Hyunho had bloody scratches around his eye from a fight with Kyeongwon, which I'm assuming broke his glasses, judging by the depth of the cuts and Hyunho's lack of glasses. Later, Kyeongwon walked in and I asked him why he'd hurt Jeongmin--he raised a bandaged hand and showed me where Hyunho's glasses had completely cut up his right hand.
Boys.
---------------------
Monday, May 12, 2014
5-13-14 Woohyuk Works, 3rd Grade Rocks
11 AM: Classes were good!
I didn't get much sleep last night because I was putting together a second lesson for my little 2nd-grade guys today. It was still on extreme sports, but I simultaneously simplified it and spiced it up.
It went over well. Woohyuk did his worksheet, which he never does, and then came to my office for chocolate, which he never does. I like my Woohyuk--he's in the same crew with Soonhyuk and Governor Yunho, but he's been a teensy bit of a holdout.
SG2 complimented me on my preparations--she said she thought I really put a lot of thought and effort into my lessons. She wanted to know where I found my GIFs, the animated pictures I put into every lesson. I told her I just internet-search for them, and that sometimes it's a time-consuming process, but it connects with the kids in a surprisingly strong way.
My Yeonghan had a headache and Donggu was a little blue, so I made sure to ask them how they were feeling, and to pat their backs and let them know I sympathized with them. They both came to the office for chocolate and I got them to ask me questions, gradually shifting them into the Question-Time system. If you win something in class, you can come for chocolate, but you still have to speak. Fortunately, Yeonghan, Soonwoo, Myeongui and crew all think this makes getting chocolate more fun.
My 3rd-grade class was amazinggg. Due to midterms and then the long weekend, I haven't taught them in three weeks and I forgot how much I missed Seongmo, Seohyung, Daehoon, and the rest. Seokyoon and Seonghak did a dialogue where they changed the parts and it was hilarious, since nobody else had been playful with the language in that way.
At the end, we played a game I made with Wordle, where I showed them 5 English words, then had them guess what the words had in common. Chaehwan did well on it, as did Byeongmin, who rarely tries. Taegyeong did well with his dialogue and overall, they were just super-darlings. During class, Chansu noticed that KBR had changed her phone since she was his homeroom teacher last year, and that was cute--the little things they notice.
--------------
I didn't get much sleep last night because I was putting together a second lesson for my little 2nd-grade guys today. It was still on extreme sports, but I simultaneously simplified it and spiced it up.
It went over well. Woohyuk did his worksheet, which he never does, and then came to my office for chocolate, which he never does. I like my Woohyuk--he's in the same crew with Soonhyuk and Governor Yunho, but he's been a teensy bit of a holdout.
SG2 complimented me on my preparations--she said she thought I really put a lot of thought and effort into my lessons. She wanted to know where I found my GIFs, the animated pictures I put into every lesson. I told her I just internet-search for them, and that sometimes it's a time-consuming process, but it connects with the kids in a surprisingly strong way.
My Yeonghan had a headache and Donggu was a little blue, so I made sure to ask them how they were feeling, and to pat their backs and let them know I sympathized with them. They both came to the office for chocolate and I got them to ask me questions, gradually shifting them into the Question-Time system. If you win something in class, you can come for chocolate, but you still have to speak. Fortunately, Yeonghan, Soonwoo, Myeongui and crew all think this makes getting chocolate more fun.
My 3rd-grade class was amazinggg. Due to midterms and then the long weekend, I haven't taught them in three weeks and I forgot how much I missed Seongmo, Seohyung, Daehoon, and the rest. Seokyoon and Seonghak did a dialogue where they changed the parts and it was hilarious, since nobody else had been playful with the language in that way.
At the end, we played a game I made with Wordle, where I showed them 5 English words, then had them guess what the words had in common. Chaehwan did well on it, as did Byeongmin, who rarely tries. Taegyeong did well with his dialogue and overall, they were just super-darlings. During class, Chansu noticed that KBR had changed her phone since she was his homeroom teacher last year, and that was cute--the little things they notice.
--------------
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Happy Mother's Day!
10 AM:
I don't want to mention real names for privacy's sake, but happy Mother's Day to all the women in my life!
Grandma, my mom's mom, Granny, my dad's mom, Aunt K, my dad's sister, Aunt S, my mom's sister, Cousin S, my first cousin on Mom's side, Cousins M and C, married to my cousins on mom's side, and Aunt A, married to my uncle on mom's side.
You are all wonderful. I'm so glad to be part of your family, to be yours in some way.
And as for my mother, I miss you so much. Hour-long video conversations on Skype every night are what keeps me sustained for my everyday life. I couldn't do what I do without you. Thank you for watching over me when I was little, so I could grow up to watch over people myself.
While I stood by the window, waving goodbye to the students as they left school last Friday, my boys called me 감시자--gamshija, or guardian/observer. It struck me that this was a good word for you, too. By guarding my childhood, you ensured an adulthood that could be (and IS) marvelous. All my love and respect go to you as you continue to guard 4 other people, my little siblings. You amaze me, pretty person.
---------------------------
I don't want to mention real names for privacy's sake, but happy Mother's Day to all the women in my life!
Grandma, my mom's mom, Granny, my dad's mom, Aunt K, my dad's sister, Aunt S, my mom's sister, Cousin S, my first cousin on Mom's side, Cousins M and C, married to my cousins on mom's side, and Aunt A, married to my uncle on mom's side.
You are all wonderful. I'm so glad to be part of your family, to be yours in some way.
And as for my mother, I miss you so much. Hour-long video conversations on Skype every night are what keeps me sustained for my everyday life. I couldn't do what I do without you. Thank you for watching over me when I was little, so I could grow up to watch over people myself.
While I stood by the window, waving goodbye to the students as they left school last Friday, my boys called me 감시자--gamshija, or guardian/observer. It struck me that this was a good word for you, too. By guarding my childhood, you ensured an adulthood that could be (and IS) marvelous. All my love and respect go to you as you continue to guard 4 other people, my little siblings. You amaze me, pretty person.
---------------------------
Thursday, May 8, 2014
5-9-14 B-Teacher B-Day, Good Work With H-Sol, Happy Jiyoon
11:00 AM (from yesterday's non-post): Must say before I forget...I saw Secret-Daeho last week! He goes to the high school next door and he waved at me from the window. :-) It's been 4 months since I saw that one.
It was B-Teacher's birthday today, so we got him a cake and candles and sang to him and got an office picture, which he hated. It's so funny, watching him try to be a good sport about all the fuss. I, on the other hand, love being fussed over. B-Teacher was telling me, burthdays are hard because everyone wants to spend time with him and force him to be merry and celebrate, when he'd rather just relax and chill. I'm proud of his kindness to everybody, though.
First class of 2nd-graders with H-Sol went well. Half the boys did a beautiful job with their dialogues. My little Governor Yunho breezed through his with no issues at all, and every time the boys do well with their dialogues, H-Sol and I "ooh" and "ahh" over them. We really become their cheerleaders, encouraging and nudging them in their learning. She and I have a similar level of joy over their successes.
There's such a rush in hearing the lower-level ones really get it. Today, so many of the low-levels did excellently and it was great.
Plus, I got to talk lots more with H-Sol. She and I have always gotten along, but now I'm taking the time to really ask her questions and connect. She said that she started taking English class when she was 10, but she didn't have a native speaking teacher until high school. But in high school, she said she was too shy to say a single word to her native teacher.
I told her I was trying to be as friendly with the kids and possible because I don't want them to be afraid of foreigners, and I want them to be at ease. She told me that she knows I try really hard and that the kids like me. She said the students tell her all the time that I'm so pretty. Which is really sweet. I told her I'd rather just be good at my job, but some days it's just good enough to try hard and to care about the students a lot.
----------------------------------
2 PM: Showed a movie to the before-noon 2nd-graders and none of them killed each other. Daehwan did accidentally cut the power to the computer, so we had to restart the whole computer program. I spent the whole class period sitting in the back, talking with NG-Teacher. He's easy to talk to, now. It was so much fun, it made me wish there were more occasions to play movies for the 2nd-graders, but there aren't, because they don't have midterms or finals.
After lunch, I went walking with the other ladies and the Ee-ban(class 2) 3rd-grade teacher, a sweet, beautiful, classy lady just 3 years older than me, talked with me in mostly-English for half an hour. We've never spoken before, so I was delighted to have the surprising new friendship. She teaches my Yeongchang, so we chatted about favorite students quite a bit.
-----------------------------
3:40 PM About to get off work in a bit. Going to exercise, then plan my Saturday lesson.
My last class of 1st-graders went fine. I didn't have Mr. B in there, but we managed okay. My little Jeongmook tried to sleep through class because he's genuinely sick. Poor baby. But he wasn't too sick to hide in the vestibule and scare me as I walked into class. He's been trying to scare me for weeks, so it was fun that he finally succeeded.
Jongmin and Bin are the academic stars of that class. I did manage to get Dongjoon and Jinhyuk to participate in all the stuff, so I felt like that was an accomplishment. They're not bad boys, just unfocused. And my boy Jiyoon really shone. I've yet to find anything he enjoys, but during the game he aced the writing portion. He singlehandedly won the game for his team, because he can write clear English sentence 5 seconds faster than the next-fastest kid.
It made the game boring because Jiyoon maintained his team's lead so easily, but I was happy to see his joy. After class, when he crowded in to get his chocolate, he beamed and said "thank you!" and bowed. Jiyoon bowed. Oh, little chicken, you don't know how hard I've worked to make things good for you or how much it warms my heart to see you actually living well.
----------------------------
It was B-Teacher's birthday today, so we got him a cake and candles and sang to him and got an office picture, which he hated. It's so funny, watching him try to be a good sport about all the fuss. I, on the other hand, love being fussed over. B-Teacher was telling me, burthdays are hard because everyone wants to spend time with him and force him to be merry and celebrate, when he'd rather just relax and chill. I'm proud of his kindness to everybody, though.
First class of 2nd-graders with H-Sol went well. Half the boys did a beautiful job with their dialogues. My little Governor Yunho breezed through his with no issues at all, and every time the boys do well with their dialogues, H-Sol and I "ooh" and "ahh" over them. We really become their cheerleaders, encouraging and nudging them in their learning. She and I have a similar level of joy over their successes.
There's such a rush in hearing the lower-level ones really get it. Today, so many of the low-levels did excellently and it was great.
Plus, I got to talk lots more with H-Sol. She and I have always gotten along, but now I'm taking the time to really ask her questions and connect. She said that she started taking English class when she was 10, but she didn't have a native speaking teacher until high school. But in high school, she said she was too shy to say a single word to her native teacher.
I told her I was trying to be as friendly with the kids and possible because I don't want them to be afraid of foreigners, and I want them to be at ease. She told me that she knows I try really hard and that the kids like me. She said the students tell her all the time that I'm so pretty. Which is really sweet. I told her I'd rather just be good at my job, but some days it's just good enough to try hard and to care about the students a lot.
----------------------------------
2 PM: Showed a movie to the before-noon 2nd-graders and none of them killed each other. Daehwan did accidentally cut the power to the computer, so we had to restart the whole computer program. I spent the whole class period sitting in the back, talking with NG-Teacher. He's easy to talk to, now. It was so much fun, it made me wish there were more occasions to play movies for the 2nd-graders, but there aren't, because they don't have midterms or finals.
After lunch, I went walking with the other ladies and the Ee-ban(class 2) 3rd-grade teacher, a sweet, beautiful, classy lady just 3 years older than me, talked with me in mostly-English for half an hour. We've never spoken before, so I was delighted to have the surprising new friendship. She teaches my Yeongchang, so we chatted about favorite students quite a bit.
-----------------------------
3:40 PM About to get off work in a bit. Going to exercise, then plan my Saturday lesson.
My last class of 1st-graders went fine. I didn't have Mr. B in there, but we managed okay. My little Jeongmook tried to sleep through class because he's genuinely sick. Poor baby. But he wasn't too sick to hide in the vestibule and scare me as I walked into class. He's been trying to scare me for weeks, so it was fun that he finally succeeded.
Jongmin and Bin are the academic stars of that class. I did manage to get Dongjoon and Jinhyuk to participate in all the stuff, so I felt like that was an accomplishment. They're not bad boys, just unfocused. And my boy Jiyoon really shone. I've yet to find anything he enjoys, but during the game he aced the writing portion. He singlehandedly won the game for his team, because he can write clear English sentence 5 seconds faster than the next-fastest kid.
It made the game boring because Jiyoon maintained his team's lead so easily, but I was happy to see his joy. After class, when he crowded in to get his chocolate, he beamed and said "thank you!" and bowed. Jiyoon bowed. Oh, little chicken, you don't know how hard I've worked to make things good for you or how much it warms my heart to see you actually living well.
----------------------------
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
5-7-14 Hyunmin, Guiding Chanyeong, Talking with Jaehyung
11 AM: Good day!
I spent a million hours putting together a killer game for the 2nd-graders and we didn't even do it because they took up all the time doing their speaking practice. But anyhoo...they all spoke well, and we're getting the pattern of the new type of speaking practice.
Class with NG was good. We get along as well as any other co-teaching configuration I've got, and it's such a relief to not have to worry about earning disapproval. We know each other--he's not going to disapprove. Some days, things just don't work well, and some days they work excellently. This is just life with the 2nd graders, and we're all in the same boat.
Class with H-Sol was also great and the kids surprised me with how well they did at speaking practice. You go, Sleepy Moonshik! You go. Giwoong rocked his part as well.
The only downside to H-Sol's class was when Hyunmin stuffed a medium-sized ball down his shirt, arranged it just so, then kept looking back toward me for reference before crossing his arms and settling into a casual sideways pose that looked familiar...it was the way that I often stand. Posture and proportion-wise, Hyunmin was doing a killer (and strangely enough, a reasonably flattering) impression of me.
But they're supposed to not be focusing on my torso, so I don't know how to deal with that. I keep everything covered up and even wear little jackets over my shirts to further obscure everything, but the kids still have a supernatural level of focus on that area. Maybe I should stop crossing my arms. I don't even know. I just rolled my eyes at them in this case and hoped they'd get bored of the concept soon. They're just being dumb little babies, not doing something criminal; that's my take on it.
Took presents of chocolate to the principal and vice-principal, complete with notes in Korean and English. :-) I've been needing to re-connect with them and thank them for letting me work at their school.
---------------------------------
9 PM: Just got back from post-work dinner after working at the office of education on a pamphlet they made for the schools in our province. Semi-exhausting, but we only worked for 3 hours when they projected 10 hours.
I had to skip my afterschool today because I had to take a cab to the education office and my Jaehoon met me in the hall as I was running our asked me what we were eating today. Because it's Food Wednesday--the babies are expecting to be fed and to be delighted. I told him I'd catch them later--it couldn't be helped that my extra-work-work was scheduled for today.
Seonwonnie stuck up on me in the hallway twice today, to tap my shoulder and hide so I wouldn't know it was him right away. Daww.
Chanyeong was in my Triple Class today. He was there and nobody could figure out why, so I took him by the hand and led him out of the room to try to find where he goes. I went from my place in Room 10 and took him to H-Sol in room 9, and she told me that he belongs in Room 11, with C-ban. It's strange to me to think of Chanyeong being in any English class at all--that's the unfairness of the system, the boys with the intellect of a 3-year-old child are sorted into class with sharp kids who simply test poorly.
At least Chanyeong has all the special programs as well. Because traditional public education can't do anything for him. NG met me in the hallway and we each took one of Chanyeong's hands and led him to his proper class. I was glad to have Chanyeong installed in a safe place, and then we could proceed with the chaos of Triple Class. Do to the sheer insane numbers of kids in the room, I only got 2/3rds of the kids to do their speaking parts, but I tried.
And when class was done, a little cloud of them followed me to the office for chocolate, not because I promised them any but because they know if they come along, I'll feed them after wheedling some conversation from them. Little Jiwon, and Myeongbae and Afro-Jiwoong, and my Deokryong came along and that was great. If it weren't for office visits, I wouldn't ever see Deokryong at all.
Myeongbae's a genius. He was feeding the other kids lines to their dialogues, but he had the entire dialogue memorized, both parts. The same thing happened with Daejeong in the morning--he sat in the front and unwittingly memorized the whole thing on account of hearing it so many times.
At lunch, Jaehyung walked around the entire soccer field with me. It was so sweet. We talked about the weather mostly, about how he feels happy on sunny days like today and gloomy when it's overcast. What a wonderful boy.
---------------------------------
I spent a million hours putting together a killer game for the 2nd-graders and we didn't even do it because they took up all the time doing their speaking practice. But anyhoo...they all spoke well, and we're getting the pattern of the new type of speaking practice.
Class with NG was good. We get along as well as any other co-teaching configuration I've got, and it's such a relief to not have to worry about earning disapproval. We know each other--he's not going to disapprove. Some days, things just don't work well, and some days they work excellently. This is just life with the 2nd graders, and we're all in the same boat.
Class with H-Sol was also great and the kids surprised me with how well they did at speaking practice. You go, Sleepy Moonshik! You go. Giwoong rocked his part as well.
The only downside to H-Sol's class was when Hyunmin stuffed a medium-sized ball down his shirt, arranged it just so, then kept looking back toward me for reference before crossing his arms and settling into a casual sideways pose that looked familiar...it was the way that I often stand. Posture and proportion-wise, Hyunmin was doing a killer (and strangely enough, a reasonably flattering) impression of me.
But they're supposed to not be focusing on my torso, so I don't know how to deal with that. I keep everything covered up and even wear little jackets over my shirts to further obscure everything, but the kids still have a supernatural level of focus on that area. Maybe I should stop crossing my arms. I don't even know. I just rolled my eyes at them in this case and hoped they'd get bored of the concept soon. They're just being dumb little babies, not doing something criminal; that's my take on it.
Took presents of chocolate to the principal and vice-principal, complete with notes in Korean and English. :-) I've been needing to re-connect with them and thank them for letting me work at their school.
---------------------------------
9 PM: Just got back from post-work dinner after working at the office of education on a pamphlet they made for the schools in our province. Semi-exhausting, but we only worked for 3 hours when they projected 10 hours.
I had to skip my afterschool today because I had to take a cab to the education office and my Jaehoon met me in the hall as I was running our asked me what we were eating today. Because it's Food Wednesday--the babies are expecting to be fed and to be delighted. I told him I'd catch them later--it couldn't be helped that my extra-work-work was scheduled for today.
Seonwonnie stuck up on me in the hallway twice today, to tap my shoulder and hide so I wouldn't know it was him right away. Daww.
Chanyeong was in my Triple Class today. He was there and nobody could figure out why, so I took him by the hand and led him out of the room to try to find where he goes. I went from my place in Room 10 and took him to H-Sol in room 9, and she told me that he belongs in Room 11, with C-ban. It's strange to me to think of Chanyeong being in any English class at all--that's the unfairness of the system, the boys with the intellect of a 3-year-old child are sorted into class with sharp kids who simply test poorly.
At least Chanyeong has all the special programs as well. Because traditional public education can't do anything for him. NG met me in the hallway and we each took one of Chanyeong's hands and led him to his proper class. I was glad to have Chanyeong installed in a safe place, and then we could proceed with the chaos of Triple Class. Do to the sheer insane numbers of kids in the room, I only got 2/3rds of the kids to do their speaking parts, but I tried.
And when class was done, a little cloud of them followed me to the office for chocolate, not because I promised them any but because they know if they come along, I'll feed them after wheedling some conversation from them. Little Jiwon, and Myeongbae and Afro-Jiwoong, and my Deokryong came along and that was great. If it weren't for office visits, I wouldn't ever see Deokryong at all.
Myeongbae's a genius. He was feeding the other kids lines to their dialogues, but he had the entire dialogue memorized, both parts. The same thing happened with Daejeong in the morning--he sat in the front and unwittingly memorized the whole thing on account of hearing it so many times.
At lunch, Jaehyung walked around the entire soccer field with me. It was so sweet. We talked about the weather mostly, about how he feels happy on sunny days like today and gloomy when it's overcast. What a wonderful boy.
---------------------------------
Saturday, May 3, 2014
5-4-14 In Which She is In Busan
1 AM: Been in Busan for over a day, loved it all. Have done: Sandcastle-making and clothes shopping and watching Spiderman at the nation's (world's?) largest theater. More later...
Thursday, May 1, 2014
5-2-14 In Which Things Actually Work
11 AM: Best day everrr so far.
Morning class with H-Sol and 2nd-graders was amazing. I tried a new method for speaking practice and IT WORKED IT WORKED IT WORKED.
Only took near-about 2 months of failure smackdowns to find anything remotely workable. I talked it over with H-Sol and we had the boys come to the front in pairs, not saying the dialogue for the whole room but saying it for she and I.
They learned the dialogue from a paper I printed out, then they had to say it by filling in the blanks that I'd made on the powerpoint. It worked beautifully, made them use their brains a little, and still wasn't too stressful. H-Sol told me that she felt this was much, much, much better.
Eeeeee. EEEEE! I'm going to do it this way from here on out, I told her. I'm still open to change, but this is the best thing I've lit upon so far. Thank you God, for your many blessings.
3rd-grade class was stunningly awesome. I played them a movie, but most of us played a complicated Western-themed card game in the back of the room. BY ran the game--which he had excitedly told me about the day before. It was me, BY, Kyeongtaek, Sujin, Yoonjae, Yeongjoon, and Myeongkeun--if we'd had Byeonghyun in the circle, it would have been perfect.
The game was insanely complex, but BY was really patient in explaining the rules to me. The other boys were having the time of their lives and we all had the best time together. Daww.
Sanghyeop told me the movie was "no jam" (boring) and I said "no, it's kul jam!" (totally fun) and Heonmin corrected my slang--"kul jam" is okay slang but "honey jam" is even better when you want to say something really intense. I love my rapidly increasing middle-school vocabulary.
In the 2nd-grade class, I surprised Governor-Yunho by remembering that his birthday is next week (it's on my calendar). It's on Monday, when I'll be off school, but I can bring him something on Wednesday. I asked what he wanted. He said anything was fine. I told him I'd get him chocolate.
Seonwoo loves the "Fire and Ice" poem I put up in my office. He comes by all the time and reads it out loud. Today he muttered "Meoshineunde" (it's really cool) and that made me happy. Seonwoo has enough English to know this is a snappy poem.
-----------------------------
2 PM: Day stayed good! I tried out the new speaking-practice technique in class with NG, and it worked pretty well. The boys all got their speaking done, some better than others, and even when they were trying to "cheat" by giving each other words for the dialogue, they were still cooperatively using English, so score. Score, score, score.
At the end, the boys were pretty invested in the paper throwing-star-making activity and stayed right with me for most of it. We didn't have enough time to finish, but they were all up in it and were following each step and asking for help. Guhhh so good. What did I do to deserve a day so good?
After lunch, some 2nd-graders almost skipped lunch because they wanted to play ball with me. When I realized what they were giving up, I told them to scoot along--we'd play later.
I had Lunchtime Games with Jeongmin, Hyunho, Hyo and others. The Twins wanted chess, so I handed the board over to Eungyo. I had a conversation with NG today about how to tell the Twins apart--I can do it and he can't yet, so I told him the ways you can distinguish between them. I didn't add that Eungyo is the crazier of the two and if you see one of them standing still it's almost certainly Eunjae. The times I've seen Eungyo being still are almost nil.
Had to pause blogging because Tall-Giseok came by for Question Time. He's a kid I thought was pure trouble, but he's getting to be my boy gradually. He even stood in front of an ice cream shop last week and waved at me until I noticed him. He's a good one.
Further note: We have a super-long weekend coming up, no school on Monday or Tuesday, so I may not post until Wednesday. Maybe I will, but there's a possibility I shan't, since I'm travelling to the beach for the long weekend, and I'm taking work with me to boot.
I've got to buy a birthday present tonight and spend time with my birthday-friend before hopping on a train to the coast. Then when I come back on Tuesday, I've got another best friend's birthday to do stuff for. It's a fun, happy kind of busy-ness to be involved in.
----------------
3:50 PM Got a few minutes to type before leaving work.
Final class was great--baby 1st-graders were grand. Jiyoon--that's right, JIYOON--appointed himself as the techie in charge of syncing up the subtitles every time they got a teensy bit off. Everyone sat really quietly and enjoyed the movie, except a little crowd of troublemakers who pulled their chairs up around my chair and spent the whole class period asking me questions and shoving each other.
And then there was Jeongmook, who switched seats with another kid so he could hold my hand. And hold it he did--for basically the whole 45 minutes. My boys Dongjoon and Jinhyuk had a million questions and I talked with them while Jeongmook inspected my hand. I'm really glad for the chance to talk with Dongjoon and Jinhyuk, because they seemed so unreachable around the first of the semester.
----------------------------
Morning class with H-Sol and 2nd-graders was amazing. I tried a new method for speaking practice and IT WORKED IT WORKED IT WORKED.
Only took near-about 2 months of failure smackdowns to find anything remotely workable. I talked it over with H-Sol and we had the boys come to the front in pairs, not saying the dialogue for the whole room but saying it for she and I.
They learned the dialogue from a paper I printed out, then they had to say it by filling in the blanks that I'd made on the powerpoint. It worked beautifully, made them use their brains a little, and still wasn't too stressful. H-Sol told me that she felt this was much, much, much better.
Eeeeee. EEEEE! I'm going to do it this way from here on out, I told her. I'm still open to change, but this is the best thing I've lit upon so far. Thank you God, for your many blessings.
3rd-grade class was stunningly awesome. I played them a movie, but most of us played a complicated Western-themed card game in the back of the room. BY ran the game--which he had excitedly told me about the day before. It was me, BY, Kyeongtaek, Sujin, Yoonjae, Yeongjoon, and Myeongkeun--if we'd had Byeonghyun in the circle, it would have been perfect.
The game was insanely complex, but BY was really patient in explaining the rules to me. The other boys were having the time of their lives and we all had the best time together. Daww.
Sanghyeop told me the movie was "no jam" (boring) and I said "no, it's kul jam!" (totally fun) and Heonmin corrected my slang--"kul jam" is okay slang but "honey jam" is even better when you want to say something really intense. I love my rapidly increasing middle-school vocabulary.
In the 2nd-grade class, I surprised Governor-Yunho by remembering that his birthday is next week (it's on my calendar). It's on Monday, when I'll be off school, but I can bring him something on Wednesday. I asked what he wanted. He said anything was fine. I told him I'd get him chocolate.
Seonwoo loves the "Fire and Ice" poem I put up in my office. He comes by all the time and reads it out loud. Today he muttered "Meoshineunde" (it's really cool) and that made me happy. Seonwoo has enough English to know this is a snappy poem.
-----------------------------
2 PM: Day stayed good! I tried out the new speaking-practice technique in class with NG, and it worked pretty well. The boys all got their speaking done, some better than others, and even when they were trying to "cheat" by giving each other words for the dialogue, they were still cooperatively using English, so score. Score, score, score.
At the end, the boys were pretty invested in the paper throwing-star-making activity and stayed right with me for most of it. We didn't have enough time to finish, but they were all up in it and were following each step and asking for help. Guhhh so good. What did I do to deserve a day so good?
After lunch, some 2nd-graders almost skipped lunch because they wanted to play ball with me. When I realized what they were giving up, I told them to scoot along--we'd play later.
I had Lunchtime Games with Jeongmin, Hyunho, Hyo and others. The Twins wanted chess, so I handed the board over to Eungyo. I had a conversation with NG today about how to tell the Twins apart--I can do it and he can't yet, so I told him the ways you can distinguish between them. I didn't add that Eungyo is the crazier of the two and if you see one of them standing still it's almost certainly Eunjae. The times I've seen Eungyo being still are almost nil.
Had to pause blogging because Tall-Giseok came by for Question Time. He's a kid I thought was pure trouble, but he's getting to be my boy gradually. He even stood in front of an ice cream shop last week and waved at me until I noticed him. He's a good one.
Further note: We have a super-long weekend coming up, no school on Monday or Tuesday, so I may not post until Wednesday. Maybe I will, but there's a possibility I shan't, since I'm travelling to the beach for the long weekend, and I'm taking work with me to boot.
I've got to buy a birthday present tonight and spend time with my birthday-friend before hopping on a train to the coast. Then when I come back on Tuesday, I've got another best friend's birthday to do stuff for. It's a fun, happy kind of busy-ness to be involved in.
----------------
3:50 PM Got a few minutes to type before leaving work.
Final class was great--baby 1st-graders were grand. Jiyoon--that's right, JIYOON--appointed himself as the techie in charge of syncing up the subtitles every time they got a teensy bit off. Everyone sat really quietly and enjoyed the movie, except a little crowd of troublemakers who pulled their chairs up around my chair and spent the whole class period asking me questions and shoving each other.
And then there was Jeongmook, who switched seats with another kid so he could hold my hand. And hold it he did--for basically the whole 45 minutes. My boys Dongjoon and Jinhyuk had a million questions and I talked with them while Jeongmook inspected my hand. I'm really glad for the chance to talk with Dongjoon and Jinhyuk, because they seemed so unreachable around the first of the semester.
----------------------------
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