12:10 PM A good morning, it's been. I just put together a birthday present for Hojin, a sweet 3rd-grader who I don't teach anymore because he's in B-level. He told me it was his birthday yesterday and HH confirmed it--though I suspect they're all just calling in their birthdays after having seen the fun stuff it earns them.
But Hojin is one I strongly like--he has a lot of English and has a good heart. He always smiles and makes me laugh; he earned a birthday present, so I put together an origami card out of colored folding paper, with a message inside and Hershey kisses on the outside. Then I delivered it to his class. He seemed quite happy.
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1:45 PM One of the difficulties of this morning's class was the fact that SG2 and I had to stand the whole time--apparently the VP decided that teachers shouldn't sit in class anymore, and I can see how that might be important in most situations. But SG2 is hurting. She's stiff and moving slow from her fall, and a 40-minute class on her feet wasn't fun.
I did sit in my 3rd-grade class because we were in the tucked-away English room and we weren't having class anyway-- we were having study. Which for me meant playing the Memrise phone app with Seonghak, Daehoon, Seokyoon, and Seongmo. At first, Seongmo was bored with the app and didn't want to do it, then he moved his entire chair around to the other side fo the desks so he could sit by me and get a decent look at the phone screen.
It was good to spend time with Daehoon because he's a doll and I never get to see him, even tough we have class together once a week. Seokyoon is a firecracker-smart kid who I rarely see also, and Seongmo's always been close to my heart, thanks to his spot in my first afterschool and his connection to BH.
I had a long time with Ponyfish-Minwoo aboout unknind words and how he can't say "I hate you" to me even if he's smiling and clearly joking. I explained that this hurts my feelings. He seemed to get it. Then we somehow had a long conversation about our dads physically disciplining us and the various welts and bruises we've received (very few for me, and none since I was 9 years old).
I think the conversation was originally about how he can't get low grades because he dad once practically put him in the hospital after a particularly dreadful test score. I believe it. These boys get some quite hardcore punishments at home. All my boys are worried about the exams, though. Seonghak's sweet brown eyes were glazed over with concern during our last class.
Hyo and Joonseo (2nd grade) came by after lunch to hang out and play phone games. Joonseo told me in Korean that Hyo can't do sports because he is weak. I indicated that I understood but tried to get Joonseo off that subject--Hyo doesn't need to be reminded of his tiny physical stature, especially not by his friends.
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