8:30 PM
Good day! Here's the Thank List.
91. Sehong, who calls me darling, then when
asked to define "darling" says it means "my wife"!
92. Technology Teacher coming in to fix the
computer in 3-11 for me. Everything ran smoothly after that.
93. my jumper dress with hearts on it. I'm
starting to love heart-patterned anything.
94. Having a really good conversation class
plan--detailed enough to be well prepared, but loose enough to allow for input
and changes.
95. Being THIS CLOSE to getting another good
native teacher for my school's Saturday program. I want my kids to have
somebody smart and sweet, so I'm laboring to connect with the best girls I
know.
96. Figuring out the perfect method for eating a
giant apple in the English room--more complicated than you might believe.
97. JY working tirelessly on preparations for
the gifted class, comparing schedules, making calls like a diligent woman who
gets stuff done.
98. Squishy baby 1st graders and their
darlingness.
99. Office coffee, simple little stick coffee
mix that smells and tastes so homey. Korea-homey, which is distinct from
America-homey, homie.
100. Having plenty of practice time to get used
to the CD's for the new classes. Getting comfortable, getting familiar.
11:23 AM
Had good first classes. Early morning 2nd
graders were pretty silent, but that's mostly because a lot of quiet kids were
stacked in one class. We did okay, and my next class was even better.
I had 3rd grade with SG, and the room was
charming. I had Sparkly Yeonghan, Criminal Beomjoon, Hyunho, my Sehong, and a
ton of other well-known ones. They cheered when I walked in, then cheered for SG, and were just generally
fun.
It was good to see SG because it was our first
class together. We both lamented the fact that we only have 2 classes together
this semester, because last year we had 3, then 8, which was ample time for us
to get close.
She observed the glorious truth that the 3rd
graders seemed to have transformed into much more mature versions of
themselves. They are almost invariably charming and delightful, and I'm so
pleased to see them grow into young men with good attitudes.
This morning, NG was waiting for me at the
crosswalk, already standing there at the railing so we could have our morning
talk. His homeroom is fine, but something's wrong with the electrical wiring in
there and he temporarily doesn't have lights. We laughed a bit over quirks in
our schedules, and it was just a nice way to start the morning.
3:30 PM
Taught the 1st grade babies for the first time!
Cute and super sweet. Thus far, they are not the wild adoring fan boys of last
year, but I've still not encountered them en masse yet. But I did manage a
classroom of 24 of them okay by myself.
I was by myself because I have one coworker who
doesn't attend class. It's.... Just the way things are. It's not especially
annoying, but it's interesting because
there's no way I could have handled an entire homeroom of mostly low-level
babies if I hasn't had a lot of Korean to start with.
Any wimble-womble, I'm fine and the class was
charming. I think it might have actually been more fun to have them all alone, and I think I'll have some decent strategies for teaching the tiny ones in the future.
Talked more to NG at lunch: it's not his
classroom light that exploded, it was his house light, which is rather more of
a problem.
Vice provincial came over to talk to mm me and
JY about a recent film that he and I had seen. It was a pretty good convo and I
appreciate him making a point of connecting.
