11:10 AM I'm alive! I just didn't post yesterday because I was busy. Mondays are crammed, and all my in-between-class time was spent revising lessons. After school, I went exercising then I went to a coffee shop for further lesson-fixing. Then sleep! The whole day was essentially spent teaching or preparing to teach.
Yesterday was good. The little stool I got for students has been awesome. They come in and sit down and talk with me, so I feel almost like a school counselor.
Minchan came by on Monday and talked to be about a million things. The amount of ideas he was able to convey with a C-level vocabulary was stunning. I know he's sensitive about his weight and he told me that he's been even more stressed the past few months because in December he was hit by a car and injured his leg so he couldn't exercise for 3 months.
Because the boys sometimes get hit by cars. I've seen the aftermath of one such accident, blood-free, thankfully. When you have a thousand teenagers swarming the streets on foot and on bikes, chatting and playing, running around willy-nilly, and pair that with an aggressive driving culture, you've got a recipe for a lot of accidents.
(Background: almost no one in Korea had a privately owned vehicle before the late 80's, so while Korea is very modern, they are very recently modern, so the driving culture might be compared to 1960's America, in terms of how long the population has been driving.)
So Minchan had a reason for hanging out in front of the nurse's office for so long. For months, I'd see him on the little bench in front of the school hospital room, and I thought he just didn't have anywhere to be. Turns out, he must have either been waiting for check-ups or painkillers, etc.
When Jeongmin came in to talk with me while I was with Minchan, I sent Jeongmin upstairs with the games so I could stay and talk with Minchan, who seemed to need an ear. He told me he was jelous of Jeongmin's English ability.
Minchan also asked me about how I felt about students always asking for candy. He said, "I think outside happy look, but inside angry, I think". That blew my mind--that Minchan would be able to perceive or care that the way I seem and the way I feel might be different. But I told him no, I'm happy inside also. I don't mind giving students candy. I like talking for them and doing nice things. He said the students call me an angel, because I'm like an angel in the halls, smiling and giving them things.
I only stopped talking with Minchan because Hyo had been waiting for me for 10 minutes, out in the hall. I told him to go play games in Sa-ban, but I gradually realized that Hyo doesn't care about Lunchtime Games for their own sake--he wanted to spend time with me, specifically. So Minchan left and me and Hyo went up the stairs to go sit in the sunshiny window seat.
We talked about his weekend. He did funeral rites for his great-grandfather, because Sunday was his great-grandpa's anniversary of death. In the States, we often visit graves or reminisce with loved ones on death anniversaries, but it's even more formalized in Korea, where there are really specific rituals and meals for such things. Hyo said his great-grandpa hadn't seen him since he was born, so there was no mourning or missing happening.
While we were sitting in the window talking, the Technology Teacher came by the room to greet the 2nd-grader, though he's a 3rd-grade teacher. Hyo whispered to me as if it was a significant observation, "That teacher. I see. Sometimes. He very...he small. But...but...nice." I agreed, saying, "Yes, he's very small. But he has a handsome face and he's very smart. And he's a nice person. Like you."
Hyo smiled to himself. And I mentally thanked the Technology Teacher for being such a great person, and for always smiling and being cheerful. Another man could be really bothered by being so petite--being shorter than 75% of your students can't be easy, but Technology Teacher never seems anything less than pleasant and glad to be alive. The kids adore him and huddle around him like puppies.
And he's such a good example for Hyo, who is probably never going to be anything but physically little. Hyo notices an older man who is similarly sized, but who is confident and successful and happy. He can be the same way when he becomes a man.
I'm so thankful for my boys to have good examples. I can love the students and encourage/appreciate/joke with/comfort them, but I can't show them how to be a good guy. But I know people who can! Today I saw NG-Teacher hugging one of my new favorites, Seungyeop. Seungyeop likes me plenty, but the way he lights up at attention from NG-Teacher is another matter altogether. And I saw Adorable History Teacher at the gate this morning, hugging one of his little 1st-graders. It was so sweet, I started laughing. These men really do care about the students, just like I do.
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8 PM: I'm a little let down because the 2nd-grade lesson I spent 5 hours devising and 2 hours revising only sorta-kinda works. No matter how much you break it down for the boys, there are still confusing bits. And when you tell them to practice speaking, they don't practice. And when you give them worksheets, they don't hardly try to do them.
I love my boys. I heart them so much, and I really want to make lovely things for them. If only it worked better.
On the upside:
1. I DID try something hard for the first time, making a lesson from scratch.
2. Making future lessons will be easier because now I have a template.
3. I only have to teach it one more time!
4. Now I know what I did wrong.
In class, Yunho tried to get me away from another kid. He said in polite Korean, "Sem, I want to study." Meaning he wanted one-on-one time to flirt. But he does his English when I help him, so. Everybody wins. NG-Teacher was great with the kids as always, but class is either a wild or a boring place when the boys do exactly what I want, but only if I'm right with them.
Bright side--today, the one kid I got mad at two weeks ago became my friend. Bomin is his name, and he and I bonded over his worksheet today. When I got mad at him, it was over his refusal to stand for his speaking part, but he was just shy. Now he knows I'm his person and I won't force him. We can just talk it out.
And I got Junbeom, who flat-out absolutely refused to speak, to do his dialogue. After Taesu, who can barely sound out any words at all, did the dialogue, I went back to Junbeom and asked him quietly if he'd like to try again. He did. I put a mark on his paper which he later redeemed for candy, him and Taesu both. Normally, kids don't get rewarded just for doing the basic elements of their work. But today, Taesu and Junbeom made heroic efforts. Other kids breezed through the dialogue in seconds, but these two had to work for it and I like to recognize bravery.
Bravery is hard for my Wooseok, too. Today all the students who came by for candy had to talk to me first--I just asked them "what did you do yesterday?" and they had to use some English. Wooseok is so scared of English, he refused to speak, left the office and stared at me through the glass. I beckoned him back, then fed him his sentence word by word: I-I went-went-to-to-the-the-park-park.
The other kids had miraculous results when I asked them to speak with me. They sat on the stool and got really chatty. They seemed to be enjoying the English conversation, like it was a video game and they had to win points by using phrases. Yeongjoon and Gyuchan especially talked a lot. BY wanted to talk, too. I didn't make him tell me what he did yesterday, but he volunteered--he wanted to tell me about his day, and was disappointed when I didn't ask him!
2nd-graders Afro-Jiwoong and Myeongbae discovered that the size tag was still on my new shirt. Doggone it, that was embarrassing. But they're my boys, and I'd rather they told me about it than another adult. Afro-Jiwoong bonded over our mutual love of Japanese comics.
Had several half-English half-Korean conversations with co-workers. Feeling happy about the communication.
Found out that my 3rd-grader A-level Suho is the big brother of my 1st-grade afterschool A-level Cheolho. How did I not know this. They have the same face. Same face. They are both intelligent and their 1st names end in -ho...I should have put it together before now!
In afterschool, the shy, withdrawn Jihoon did a beautiful job on his story and his art. I was quite proud, because Jihoon in the only B-level in that whole class. Everyone else is a brain, and I know it's got to be hard for him to try.
Showed Jiyoon a picture of my baby brother. He said my brother's handsome. I said, "Yes, like you." I have to yell at Jiyoon about once a class (get out of that window, stop punching Dongjoon, do not sit on the desk, etc.) but I try to reinforce that I really do like him.
3rd-grade Changyo is endlessly impressed with my Korean abilities. Every time we cross paths and he hears me use Korean, he acts like I've done him a personal favor by learning words. I'm right fond of Changyo and I miss teaching him. Minsu and Chansu and Sanghyeop from his class last year moved up a grade, but Changyo remained in B. Still, we see each other sometimes. :-)
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Monday, April 7, 2014
Thursday, April 3, 2014
4-4-14 Eye Color, Sanghyeop Steals the Show, and PE Teacher
11 AM: Good first two classes. Things with H-Sol Teacher were good and the boys got their stuff done. My Governor-Yunho kept trying to prove that he was as tall as me by stretching up on his tippy-toes, but he's not as tall as me, not yet.
Class was pretty good. I was doing my clapping-out-the-syllables thing, which helped them say. "That's too bad" instead of "that's-uh too bad-uh". We're getting it! Woot! The don't hardly practice their sentences, but they will perform quite well when called on.
The new little stool I've gotten to keep beside my desk chair has been put to good use already. C-Jeongmin came by to sit and show me more of his sentences from KBR's class. Later, Minchan came by to tell me that he woke up late today and didn't have breakfast. I gave him chocolate and then snuck him some crackers from the office food stash. He looked so touched.
Minhwe came by for his morning chocolate, smiling like an angel. Soccer-Minwoo wanted to know why he was getting candy and I said that it was our "yaksok"(promise/appointment).
In 3rd-grade class, Byeonghyun told me my eyes were "Very attractive" and "looked silver" today. Which naturally led to another debate on my eye color, launched between him and BY. Byeonghyun also teased me that my hair was turning brown and I should dye it gold. It's still gold! Still! But Byeonghyun loves these little moments of annoyance.
The boys are so fun. We laughed and joked and had a killer time. The only downside? Their teasing of each other. If I could just go one class period with no one making fun of Seunghwan's weight, BY's verbal quirks, or Kyeongtaek's skin problems, I'd be happy.
The funniest moment happened when Sanghyeop and Hunmin came up to recite their memorized parts. Sanghyeop is a card, a cut-up, a class clown extraordinaire. The first two weeks of school, he annoyed me a bit, but now I just let him roll on, because he makes class more enjoyable.
Hunmin played straight man in the dialogue, asking questions while Sangyeop sang the replies, R&B style. It was so genuinely funny, the class was dying of laughter and Hunmin fell to the ground, the laughter was hurting him so bad.
I called on Face-Yoonjae after that, but he was really disappointed. "Teacher, they strong. Next, we...not strong." Meaning that Sanghyeop's a tough act to follow. Nobody wants to go after that. Yoonjae's a favorite of mine. He wants to be witty/funny, and he almost gets there, but he feels self-conscious about not being super funny. Which is interesting, because he's one of the best-looking kids in his grade. He has one of those heartbreaker faces and he's very smart too, but everybody has something else they want to be.
Hyunseok told me that Sanghyeop wanted to go again, but this time to be paired with the amazing Yeongjoon: "Boss team, Teacher. Boss team!" Yeongjoon kept saying he didn't want to do it, but the thing about Yeongjoon is he wants to be forced to do cool things. He'll act like he doesn't want to sing or rap or tell jokes, but then after you beg him to do it, he's so glad to be in the spotlight.
Anyhoodle, Yeongjoon and Sanghyeop got the whole class beatboxing, smacking the tables and making hip-hop noises. Then they rapped their dialogue, which was asking for advice on making cookies.
I laughed until I cried.
It was the absolute best. I had them both come to my office for chocolate afterward. They were splendid in all ways. You go, boys. You go.
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1:45 PM
To continue the earlier story about Sanghyeop, I have to say that I appreciate him more than I normally would because of what I know from KBR, his homeroom teacher. She said that Sanghyeop has not lived with his parents for quite some. They divorced and he was...left to live with a caretaker?
There's a slight language gap with me and KBR-Teacher, so the details were fuzzy to me, partly because the details were fuzzy to her as well. Because it's downright weird, the situation. His mom remarried and I think his dad remarried too, but both parents either can't or won't have Sanghyeop come live with them.
At first, KBR said that Sanghyeop lives with his grandmother, then she amended it--he lives with a grandmother, but she's not a relative, she's paid to cook and clean. In Korean, you call all elderly women "grandmother," so KBR was using that word in English, which made his living situation sound warmer than it really is. In reality, he lives alone.
Once she told me that, I resolved to not be annoyed at Sanghyeop ever again. He pulled himself up by the bootstraps and advanced from B-class to A-class on his own. I feel for him and I respect him tremendously. This kid is a fighter, and he still puts on a smile and makes the rest of us laugh. All the more reason to give him opportunities to shine.
KBR actually told me that about half the kids in her homeroom live with only one parent or with a grandparent. I have to remember that I don't know these babies' situations. I flat-out don't know. Even their homeroom teachers don't always know if they have a learning delay or family troubles, etc.
Today, Jeonmin gave me a really nice lollipop. Like, it's the size of a tennis ball. Finishing it will be the work of a long weekend. It was a very nice present and I tried to make an appropriately big deal out of it. After lunch, he tried to tell me that I was too tired to play with the other kids and i had better just stay in my office with him. I told him that he had to share me with the other students, which really amused him.
At Lunchtime Games, I let the boys play while I sat in the window with Hyo, soaking in the sunshine and chatting about our weekend plans. Hyo and I can near-about keep a real conversation going. Hyunho barged in a little while later and roughhoused with Hyo just a tiny bit. I told Hyunho to sit on my other side and talk to me. Because Hyunho's gotten a teensy bit possessive lately, I noticed. If Jeongmin high-fives me, he has to have one also.
The nicest point of Lunchtime Games came when Mr. B came into the room. He came to talk to me and tell me, "You come here every day with the kids. Thank you. I don't have to worry about these boys because you're watching them. You're their homeroom teacher and they're safe with you."
Normally, I would have teared up, but I was so happy, I didn't. How beautiful for him to say that. Isn't that just such a refresher? Doesn't that just encourage so very much? He also said, "I see you smiling so much lately. I feel like you are happy at my school these days." I had to agree with him on that.
Wooseok came by for candy, but JY Teacher was chasing all the students out of the office because it was class time. My boy left, but he snuck back. So he wouldn't get in trouble, I stepped out into the hallway with my bag of candy, and no sooner did I get a piece for Wooseok then HH and Yonghan descended.
Yonghan said, "Teacher, I saw you at _____ apartments last night!" HH said, "I did too!" I told him he hadn't, because I know he lives on the far other side of town, while Yonghan lives in my neighborhood and I've run into him and Pepper-Dongmin before. He self-corrected, "Well, I'm seeing you now." Which was true. He got his candy.
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6:30 PM
Tall-PE Teacher speaks English. His major was English. We've never spoken other than hello, but I noticed that one day he overheard me asking Dongseok a question, then translated the question into Korean for Dongseok. I thought, huh, I guess he understood that one thing. But no.
Today when TPE-Teacher came into the 3rd grade office, I summoned up my courage and asked him in Korean if he taught PE. I knew he did, but the word for physical education is different in Korean and I wanted to try using it and to connect with a new co-worker. He replied in English, "Yes, physical education.' I tried to keep going in Korean, saying that I was the English teacher, and he said, "I know. My major was English."
I was stunned silent for a moment, not sure how to proceed. Then I said, "Oh. We should talk sometime!" He said he wasn't good at speaking and then he had to leave, but now I know. I'm not just going to drop the possibility of having one more person to talk to. He is about to be friendshipped.
The boys continue to come by my desk and attempt reading my volume of e.e. cummings' poetry. Good luck, honeybunnies. It's hard to understand those when you're a native speaker. It's almost a game for them to see who can hold out the longest before getting hopelessly tangled in words.
Walking home from exercise today, I was greeted my Junho, who was coming out of one of the bulgogi restaurants. In a uniform and apron. I said, "Junho. You work here?" He grinned an affirmative. For the record, part-time jobs for teenagers are rare in Korea. Not unheard-of, but almost so. You only do it if you're poor and you have no academic future, which was what I figured about Junho. But he looks bouyant. I think he's alright.
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Class was pretty good. I was doing my clapping-out-the-syllables thing, which helped them say. "That's too bad" instead of "that's-uh too bad-uh". We're getting it! Woot! The don't hardly practice their sentences, but they will perform quite well when called on.
The new little stool I've gotten to keep beside my desk chair has been put to good use already. C-Jeongmin came by to sit and show me more of his sentences from KBR's class. Later, Minchan came by to tell me that he woke up late today and didn't have breakfast. I gave him chocolate and then snuck him some crackers from the office food stash. He looked so touched.
Minhwe came by for his morning chocolate, smiling like an angel. Soccer-Minwoo wanted to know why he was getting candy and I said that it was our "yaksok"(promise/appointment).
In 3rd-grade class, Byeonghyun told me my eyes were "Very attractive" and "looked silver" today. Which naturally led to another debate on my eye color, launched between him and BY. Byeonghyun also teased me that my hair was turning brown and I should dye it gold. It's still gold! Still! But Byeonghyun loves these little moments of annoyance.
The boys are so fun. We laughed and joked and had a killer time. The only downside? Their teasing of each other. If I could just go one class period with no one making fun of Seunghwan's weight, BY's verbal quirks, or Kyeongtaek's skin problems, I'd be happy.
The funniest moment happened when Sanghyeop and Hunmin came up to recite their memorized parts. Sanghyeop is a card, a cut-up, a class clown extraordinaire. The first two weeks of school, he annoyed me a bit, but now I just let him roll on, because he makes class more enjoyable.
Hunmin played straight man in the dialogue, asking questions while Sangyeop sang the replies, R&B style. It was so genuinely funny, the class was dying of laughter and Hunmin fell to the ground, the laughter was hurting him so bad.
I called on Face-Yoonjae after that, but he was really disappointed. "Teacher, they strong. Next, we...not strong." Meaning that Sanghyeop's a tough act to follow. Nobody wants to go after that. Yoonjae's a favorite of mine. He wants to be witty/funny, and he almost gets there, but he feels self-conscious about not being super funny. Which is interesting, because he's one of the best-looking kids in his grade. He has one of those heartbreaker faces and he's very smart too, but everybody has something else they want to be.
Hyunseok told me that Sanghyeop wanted to go again, but this time to be paired with the amazing Yeongjoon: "Boss team, Teacher. Boss team!" Yeongjoon kept saying he didn't want to do it, but the thing about Yeongjoon is he wants to be forced to do cool things. He'll act like he doesn't want to sing or rap or tell jokes, but then after you beg him to do it, he's so glad to be in the spotlight.
Anyhoodle, Yeongjoon and Sanghyeop got the whole class beatboxing, smacking the tables and making hip-hop noises. Then they rapped their dialogue, which was asking for advice on making cookies.
I laughed until I cried.
It was the absolute best. I had them both come to my office for chocolate afterward. They were splendid in all ways. You go, boys. You go.
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1:45 PM
To continue the earlier story about Sanghyeop, I have to say that I appreciate him more than I normally would because of what I know from KBR, his homeroom teacher. She said that Sanghyeop has not lived with his parents for quite some. They divorced and he was...left to live with a caretaker?
There's a slight language gap with me and KBR-Teacher, so the details were fuzzy to me, partly because the details were fuzzy to her as well. Because it's downright weird, the situation. His mom remarried and I think his dad remarried too, but both parents either can't or won't have Sanghyeop come live with them.
At first, KBR said that Sanghyeop lives with his grandmother, then she amended it--he lives with a grandmother, but she's not a relative, she's paid to cook and clean. In Korean, you call all elderly women "grandmother," so KBR was using that word in English, which made his living situation sound warmer than it really is. In reality, he lives alone.
Once she told me that, I resolved to not be annoyed at Sanghyeop ever again. He pulled himself up by the bootstraps and advanced from B-class to A-class on his own. I feel for him and I respect him tremendously. This kid is a fighter, and he still puts on a smile and makes the rest of us laugh. All the more reason to give him opportunities to shine.
KBR actually told me that about half the kids in her homeroom live with only one parent or with a grandparent. I have to remember that I don't know these babies' situations. I flat-out don't know. Even their homeroom teachers don't always know if they have a learning delay or family troubles, etc.
Today, Jeonmin gave me a really nice lollipop. Like, it's the size of a tennis ball. Finishing it will be the work of a long weekend. It was a very nice present and I tried to make an appropriately big deal out of it. After lunch, he tried to tell me that I was too tired to play with the other kids and i had better just stay in my office with him. I told him that he had to share me with the other students, which really amused him.
At Lunchtime Games, I let the boys play while I sat in the window with Hyo, soaking in the sunshine and chatting about our weekend plans. Hyo and I can near-about keep a real conversation going. Hyunho barged in a little while later and roughhoused with Hyo just a tiny bit. I told Hyunho to sit on my other side and talk to me. Because Hyunho's gotten a teensy bit possessive lately, I noticed. If Jeongmin high-fives me, he has to have one also.
The nicest point of Lunchtime Games came when Mr. B came into the room. He came to talk to me and tell me, "You come here every day with the kids. Thank you. I don't have to worry about these boys because you're watching them. You're their homeroom teacher and they're safe with you."
Normally, I would have teared up, but I was so happy, I didn't. How beautiful for him to say that. Isn't that just such a refresher? Doesn't that just encourage so very much? He also said, "I see you smiling so much lately. I feel like you are happy at my school these days." I had to agree with him on that.
Wooseok came by for candy, but JY Teacher was chasing all the students out of the office because it was class time. My boy left, but he snuck back. So he wouldn't get in trouble, I stepped out into the hallway with my bag of candy, and no sooner did I get a piece for Wooseok then HH and Yonghan descended.
Yonghan said, "Teacher, I saw you at _____ apartments last night!" HH said, "I did too!" I told him he hadn't, because I know he lives on the far other side of town, while Yonghan lives in my neighborhood and I've run into him and Pepper-Dongmin before. He self-corrected, "Well, I'm seeing you now." Which was true. He got his candy.
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6:30 PM
Tall-PE Teacher speaks English. His major was English. We've never spoken other than hello, but I noticed that one day he overheard me asking Dongseok a question, then translated the question into Korean for Dongseok. I thought, huh, I guess he understood that one thing. But no.
Today when TPE-Teacher came into the 3rd grade office, I summoned up my courage and asked him in Korean if he taught PE. I knew he did, but the word for physical education is different in Korean and I wanted to try using it and to connect with a new co-worker. He replied in English, "Yes, physical education.' I tried to keep going in Korean, saying that I was the English teacher, and he said, "I know. My major was English."
I was stunned silent for a moment, not sure how to proceed. Then I said, "Oh. We should talk sometime!" He said he wasn't good at speaking and then he had to leave, but now I know. I'm not just going to drop the possibility of having one more person to talk to. He is about to be friendshipped.
The boys continue to come by my desk and attempt reading my volume of e.e. cummings' poetry. Good luck, honeybunnies. It's hard to understand those when you're a native speaker. It's almost a game for them to see who can hold out the longest before getting hopelessly tangled in words.
Walking home from exercise today, I was greeted my Junho, who was coming out of one of the bulgogi restaurants. In a uniform and apron. I said, "Junho. You work here?" He grinned an affirmative. For the record, part-time jobs for teenagers are rare in Korea. Not unheard-of, but almost so. You only do it if you're poor and you have no academic future, which was what I figured about Junho. But he looks bouyant. I think he's alright.
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Wednesday, April 2, 2014
4-3-14 Afterschool Artwork, Jeong, and Jaehyung-Walking
9:30 AM: Thursdays are so beautiful, because the first two periods have no classes, then I have all 1st and 3rd-graders, plus movie-watching with my afterschool. Speaking of my afterschool, here are some pictures of their artwork/stories.
Cheolho is the undisputed artistic champ. We have a lot of talented artists, but not many people can draw a convincing dragon-attacking-a-boar-monster pictures.
Or tiger-fights-a-wolf-over-a-rabbit pictures....
The boys are really catching on to the "hero" and "villain" vocabulary I've been trying to teach, too.
Then we come to Leader-Jaehoon, my beautiful sidekick. I couldn't figure out why he wanted to know "name of the smallest animals. Smaller than beetle and ants". I spelled out "micro-organism" for him, wondering how on earth he could work that word into a bunny story, but he did. He also manages a reference to April Fools, a holiday he was bent on celebrating with gusto.
And CoolGuy-Hyunseo was the only student to write a zombie bunny story. That takes chutzpah.
Cheolho is the undisputed artistic champ. We have a lot of talented artists, but not many people can draw a convincing dragon-attacking-a-boar-monster pictures.
Or tiger-fights-a-wolf-over-a-rabbit pictures....
Yechan, a bright and cheery fellow, drew this little gem when I had them write stories about potatoes:
Note The Handsomeness. This Root-Based Vegetable is a Stunner.
Also Yechan's.
The boys are really catching on to the "hero" and "villain" vocabulary I've been trying to teach, too.
Changho Knows the Easter Bunny is a Hero.
Then we come to Leader-Jaehoon, my beautiful sidekick. I couldn't figure out why he wanted to know "name of the smallest animals. Smaller than beetle and ants". I spelled out "micro-organism" for him, wondering how on earth he could work that word into a bunny story, but he did. He also manages a reference to April Fools, a holiday he was bent on celebrating with gusto.
Do You Believe This Story?
Intelligent-Eunseong from my Saturday did a great job, practically writing an essay:
And CoolGuy-Hyunseo was the only student to write a zombie bunny story. That takes chutzpah.
Glasses-Seongmin wrote about a rabbit with the ability to fly...
And he drew good illustrations on the back, too.
But my favorite story probably comes from little Hyungkeun, about a lying rabbit who steals a golden carrot from a king. The story has all the marks of a grand, dramatic fairytale straight from a nursery book and contains one of the most poetic lines ever, which is almost iambic pentameter:
And He Has The King's Golden Carrot Yet.
C-Jeongmin came by to give me gum and chat. He brought me a list of high-level vocabulary he's having to learn for hagwon. I think words like "medical" and "performance" when I had to carefully explain the phrase "you can do it" to him, but I'm super super thrilled that he thought to ask me about them. I'd love for the students to ask me more questions about English work.
And C-Jeongmin was accompanied by another kid I didn't know (actually, C-Jeongmin is usually being hugged by some other boy while he visits. All the kids are at least medium-affectionate with others, but C-Jeongmin is even more so, and I almost always see him wrapped within the arms of another student. They hold him upright while he talks with me.)
Anyhoo, this other kid couldn't quite place the relationship between me and C-Jeongmin and was quite surprised that C-Jeongmin was asking me about his homework, giving me candy, flipping through my poetry book, etc. He asked in Korean, "Do you like this sem?" which made me laugh. Then the kid himself laughed because he didn't know I could speak Korean and my laughter surprised him.
I explained that C-Jeongmin was my student and sort of gestured my hand between us to indicate that we knew each other well. In Korean, you might say we have "정"(jeong), something like "affection, attachment, compassion, familiarity".
Jeong is what I mean when I say that a student is "my kid". Or when I say that now I know them and I can't un-know them. It's the state of somebody really being on your radar. Maybe you don't always like them (me and Sanghwa, back in the day), maybe they're terribly annoying (lookin' at you, Jinhyuk and Dongjoon), but the empathy doesn't go away. Jeong is a lot like the love of Christ, in that way. I don't really understand divine unconditional love, not at all, but I do understand jeong because I feel it.
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2 PM: Had a good two classes and a good lunch. Cool Guy Hyunseo in 1st grade told me I was funny, like it was the best revelation ever; "Teacher. You're funny." If there's one thing I like better than being told I"m smart it's being told I'm funny. That lights up my day. 1st-graders did a really good job of singing "My Favorite Things," too. We learned a lot about beats and rhythms in songs.
Before lunch, Jeongmin caught up with me and asked if I wanted to walk with him, just us, and pick flowers with him after lunch. I just can't. For one thing, I was going to be walking with the other teachers, and for another, I knew he was trying to get me away from the other 2nd-graders.
Jeongmin's gotten tired of sharing me with 10+ other students at lunch, but that was the whole idea, for me--that I could see a lot of students and check in on their lives, and Jeongmin could bond with other students, which he desperately needs because he must forge social ties.
But now he asks if I'm not getting bored playing the same games every day. Yeah, it's dull but I'm not looking for excitement, I'm looking to take care of people. To see if Hyo or Kyeongwon or Eungyo needs anything. Also, I can't go flower-picking with him because it is so clearly supposed to be romantic. And he's already doing as much putting-arm-around-teacher-to-lead-her-in-the-chosen-direction stuff as is feasible. I try not to shake him off, but I also don't follow his lead.
How to be his friend and part of his support system without becoming too important? How to set limits for him without getting annoyed? Gotta pray, gotta pray.
Came back from lunch to find Hyunho sitting in my computer chair, playing Solitaire. He and Jeongmin had a bit of a tiff in Sa-ban, which led to Jeongmin leading some kids in a Monopoly game and Hyunho leading UNO. I just observed both games for awhile and sang along with the radio that was playing from the school speakers, until Duck-Subin rudely asked me to stop. But I was so happy that the duckling spoke, I ruffled his hair and stopped singing for awhile.
Hyunho's just more assertive in general lately. After Jeongmin followed me most of the way to the lunch room, trying to hold my elbow the whole time, Hyunho dashed up after Jeongmin left. Hyunho patted my arm in front of all the 3rd-graders in the lunch line, saying "Teacher, thank you!" I asked what he was thanking me for, and he just kept smiling and thanking, before running away. Maybe he just wanted to remind me that were were supposed to play games today?
-------------------------------------------
9:30 PM Good day. I don't have time to really write, but the upshot of the day was this:
Cheolho in my afterschool is the most lovely child in the world. I was scanning the crowd while I played "Frozen" for the kids, and they all looked totally wrapped up in it, but Cheolho was the next step beyond--he was rapturous. I think I gave Cheolho another little slice of my hear after seeing his precious face smiling so happily at the antics of an animated snowman.
Little-Hyungkeun in afterschool seemed glad that I sat with him through the movie, and he summoned up his courage to make a prediction in English. As the cartoon character Olaf neared the fireplace, he told me quietly: "I think the snowman will melt." I patted his back and told him he was right.
Leader-Jaehoon and I now have a secret handshake. I can retire, now. I've reached the pinnacle.
When school was over, I told Jaehyung from the special needs room that we should walk home together. I thought he'd just run on, but after I changed my shoes I found him on the front porch, waiting for me. And it was a good thing too, because we had an unexpected cold snap and an unexpected cold rain, and Jaehyung didn't have an umbrella and I did. So we walked the 15 minutes home arm-in-arm, shielded from the gale-force rain my by industrial strength umbrella.
He asked me in Korean how to say "cherry blossom" in English, and he thought it sounded ridiculous. In korean the flowers are called "but-coat" which sounds dreadful to my ears. We sang "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and we had as much conversation as we could. I asked how his was, he said it was depressing.
While I was out at dinner, Daesung called me! We talked for a while, but phone convos are nearly impossible with language barriers this big. It was good to hear from my boy, though.
I saw my graduated student Heechan in town. Seems like a world ago that he was fighting with Wooseok over who got to sit by me at UNO. We smiled and said hi--he looks like he's doing well.
On my walk back to my apartment, I heard "Sem!" behind me. It was Yeongchang, one street away, waving and smiling. That's a nice sight to end the day on.
----------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
4-2-14 Wardrobe, Artist-Joohyun, and Broom Elevation
11 AM: Morning was good!
First class went fine. We did our bingo and all did speaking, so that was good. And Taehyun, a belligerent kid from my afterschool last year, began warming up to me. He asked me for help on another English worksheet he was doing, so I did help him even though we probably should have been concentrating on what we were doing in class. I was just so happy to have grumpy-gloom Taehyun treating me like a teacher who could help him.
I just realized...I haven't taught Peter-Pan Taehoon yet. I think he dropped to B-ban, like Jeongwook. And I haven't taught little Byeongji, so he must have dropped, too.
In my class with H-Sol teacher, things went fine, the boys spoke a lot and we got through our game okay. There was one little incident with Laryngitis Seonghoon and his friend Giwoong, though. They thought I didn't notice, but while I was doing speaking practice with their friend, they were distinctly looking somewhere lower than my face. When class was over, I talked to Seonghoon about it and he insisted that he was innocent of any such thing and that it was all his friend's fault. Little boys. Oy.
I put forth a pretty intense effort to dress modestly and I always look fine to myself when I walk out the door, but then I get to school some days and go "what was I thinking?" because now everybody can see me from 360-degrees all around, in shadow and in sunlight, up view and down view on the staircase. If there is a hint of anything remotely interesting, the students will notice. And then I will mentally berate myself the rest of the day for not doing a better job at dressing for maximum non-interest.
Nothing to do but keep trying and not give up the fight. And to also understand that sometimes the kids are just going to be grown-uppy-minded like that, even though they still look like tiny babies.
Joonsung came to visit this morning. I let him commandeer my chair while I stacked papers for the next class' bingo activity. Joonsung sang to himself a lot while looking in the mirror and I had to stop Haneul from making fun of him. Haneul didn't mean any harm, but still, we can't be mocking autistic students.
Next class is sweet 1st-graders, then lunch. Whee!
---------------------------
2:45 PM: So tired, but quite happy.
First-graders were good, and again the front row always seemed on the verge of fainting from teacher-emotions. The feeeelings rolling off these little ones. Pretty intense. They weren't as into singing "My Favorite Things," but they did learn it.
At lunch, I went walking outside the school gates with JY-Teacher. We came across YSR and SG1, and we sort of traded walking partners until I was with SG1. She and I made conversation work, talking about our favorite movies, our views on the weather, and our ages (she's one year younger, so that makes me the unnie, she says!). I had a great time hanging out with her.
At lunch, JY-Teacher made a point of asking me easy Korean questions in front of the other teachers, so they would know that I could speak a bit. That was very thoughtful of her, because I think it might have earned me a little more goodwill among the others.
When coming back from the lunchtime walk, I found Hyunho waiting for me in the office and Gyuseong on the stairs, both wanting to know why I was so late. I hopped upstairs to play UNO, where Twin-Eungyo was yelling (in polite, formal Korean), wanting to know why I was so late.
We played and Jeongmin rolled in late because he had some kind of special book-delivering responsibility today. He joined the game and Hyunho spent most of the time yelling at him and the others. Hyunho's really shouty lately, but he's still very sweet to me and I try to encourage him to be calm and kind. When the games were over, he told me he'd text me sometime and I asked how he had my number. He showed me a paper where he had it written down. He'd gotten it off the list of teacher-numbers on my desk, which is visible but only if you know where to look. Oh well. Hyunho ought to have that number, anyway.
I got gum from a 2nd-grader I don't even know, a student who watched me play UNO then quietly came up to give me a stick of gum where the other kids couldn't see. C-Jeongmin also gave me gum and a sucker today. He's big on multi-gifting. When I was giving out candy to other boys, C-Jeongmin just came up and cutely nudged my arm, like a puppy might do, until I gave him some too.
Final class of the day was good. Got through 2-9, 2-10, 2-11 okay. I'm finding ways to streamline the class and maximize speaking. They don't need nearly as much practice as I think they do. And the final bingo game worked well. No one in class seems rebellious anymore. They're just fun kids and some sleepy-headachy kids, who I let sleep.
Seongwonnie is still practicing the piano. I heard him doing a creditable version of "Balloons" by TVXQ today. But he won't play for me. He just practices, gets good, then pretends he can't do anything when I walk in.
I still see Yeongchang everywhere. I don't write about it, but everyday he bumps into me and I pat his arm. He tells me good morning, etc. We're always in communication.
Baby Minho has grown. I told him so the other day. Peter-Pan Taehoon came by to tell me that he had, in fact dropped a class ranking, but I told him that he was still smart and he has a handsome face, so it all evens out. Taehoon seemed to agree with my assessment.
Went to the first-grade wing, just to visit. They swarmed out, and there was much kiss-blowing and high-fiving until Jeongmook showed up, wrapped my arm around him and announced I was his girlfriend. Then he held my hand all the way up the stairs until I made him go to class. He lost no time in cementing his status as a favorite.
-----------------------------
9 PM: Artist-Joohyun, who dropped a level to B so I don't teach him anymore, asked for my number as I was leaving the school and I gave it to him. I'd love to hear more from him--he's always been a tender soul and ever since I remembered his birthday with a present, he's been my kid.
Minchan texted "thank you for everyday" and I think he means for the conversation, because every day he comes by my desk and I give him candy and he stays to talk for a few minutes; really talk about what he's thinking. Today, he said he was going to exercise right after school because he wants to lose weight. He's a bigger kid and I know how much it bothers the other rounder kids--they can't escape the teasing, so they sometimes take drastic measures. I told him I knew he'd be successful.
Afterschool was great. I had plain cookies, nutella, peanut butter and colored sprinkles, the exact snack from Saturday class, to do for my boys. I made them all a cookie, then if they wanted a second, they could fill out their worksheet and read it to me.
The last snack days, I sat at a table in front while the kids stayed in the back, but that seemed ineffective, so I pushed together a few tables up front then called Jinhyuk up to help me. Well you can't call one trouble-dude without the others. William-Jiyoon, Dongjoon and Wonhye all came up, too, setting up shop around me.
Soon, they were all there. It was a very "kumbaya-all-is-well" kind of class for a half hour. My favorite good-boys had to be dissauded from cookie-snatching, though. They may be smart and good, but they're still sneaky. You think you can trust the good ones not to disobey but they're too full of mischief to just let opportunities pass.
I'd put together a really good worksheet--a gap-fill where they had to choose verbs, nouns and adjectives from a word bank and put together sentences like: "we spread the nutella on the cookie. The cookie is round and crunchy. The nutella is creamy and sweet. We put the sprinkles on the nutella. The sprinkles are small and colorful. The cookie is tan, the nutella is dark brown."
And after every English word in the word bank, I had looked up the Korean equivalent so they didn't have to guess what the new words meant--the translation was right there. I really want them to learn descriptive words, because that's what my tutor is teaching me right now. Then instead of just handing it in, the boys brought them up and read them out loud to me, for extra speaking practice and to make sure they got the vocabulary meanings down pat. I checked pronunciation, too--they were great.
I did get exasperated when the trouble-dudes finally got back to mingling around the room while I listened to kids read their worksheets. I was in the middle of a crowd of ten kids, then I look over to find three boys lifting Dongjoon into the air while he sat on a broom, and doing it in such a violent manner that it could impede his plans for having a family in the future (can't count the times I've stopped kids from damaging each other in similar ways via punching, kicking, umbrella-swords, etc, but this was the first broom-elevation incident).
And Dongjoon was laughing, too. He's not a bullied baby; he's a top dog. Chances are, the whole thing was his idea. But I don't want them hurting each other for fun, even if the person getting hurt also thinks it's funny. I settled them down, then got back to listening to the half-dozen little voices wanting to read me their papers, and the half-dozen other little hands grabbing for cookies. 21 children is rather a lot.
But it didn't stop there. Dongjoon and Jinhyuk ran out of the room and I yelled at them in Korean to come back in. I got to my feet and told them to come to the front. Yechan asked if I was angry, seeming awed at the possibility. I said yes I was. Not furious, but right tired of their antics when they are well and away old enough to not run out of a classroom just because they're not getting attention every second.
I left the quiet boys watching the cookies while I talked with Jinhyuk and Dongjoon. I was calm then, talking to them like adults. I told them the I was their teacher--I was like their mother or their sister. I gestured to the room and said that this, this was difficult. Teaching is hard. I need them to help me. They grinned a little because getting a serious talking-to is kind of amusing, but I think they understood.
Jinhyuk and Dongjoon, more than most of the others, feel like small men. They seem to have a strong core of underlying good sense beneath their ridiculous shenanigans, which makes it all the most frustrating when they do nonsensical little-kid things. Because you know they've got good logic and are capable of way better behavior than they currently produce. Anyhoodle, I love them both and they should know it. I think they do.
Leader-Jaehoon told me before I left, "Teacher, thank you. For teaching every day, thank you." My heart can't take it. It's too kind, too precious. Jaehoon has some capacity to know how much thought I put into their class, and he expresses his appreciation verbally. Thank you, beautiful little person. You are welcome.
Also, pictures of me from today! Bit tired in the first one, but I managed a smile later.
First class went fine. We did our bingo and all did speaking, so that was good. And Taehyun, a belligerent kid from my afterschool last year, began warming up to me. He asked me for help on another English worksheet he was doing, so I did help him even though we probably should have been concentrating on what we were doing in class. I was just so happy to have grumpy-gloom Taehyun treating me like a teacher who could help him.
I just realized...I haven't taught Peter-Pan Taehoon yet. I think he dropped to B-ban, like Jeongwook. And I haven't taught little Byeongji, so he must have dropped, too.
In my class with H-Sol teacher, things went fine, the boys spoke a lot and we got through our game okay. There was one little incident with Laryngitis Seonghoon and his friend Giwoong, though. They thought I didn't notice, but while I was doing speaking practice with their friend, they were distinctly looking somewhere lower than my face. When class was over, I talked to Seonghoon about it and he insisted that he was innocent of any such thing and that it was all his friend's fault. Little boys. Oy.
I put forth a pretty intense effort to dress modestly and I always look fine to myself when I walk out the door, but then I get to school some days and go "what was I thinking?" because now everybody can see me from 360-degrees all around, in shadow and in sunlight, up view and down view on the staircase. If there is a hint of anything remotely interesting, the students will notice. And then I will mentally berate myself the rest of the day for not doing a better job at dressing for maximum non-interest.
Nothing to do but keep trying and not give up the fight. And to also understand that sometimes the kids are just going to be grown-uppy-minded like that, even though they still look like tiny babies.
Joonsung came to visit this morning. I let him commandeer my chair while I stacked papers for the next class' bingo activity. Joonsung sang to himself a lot while looking in the mirror and I had to stop Haneul from making fun of him. Haneul didn't mean any harm, but still, we can't be mocking autistic students.
Next class is sweet 1st-graders, then lunch. Whee!
---------------------------
2:45 PM: So tired, but quite happy.
First-graders were good, and again the front row always seemed on the verge of fainting from teacher-emotions. The feeeelings rolling off these little ones. Pretty intense. They weren't as into singing "My Favorite Things," but they did learn it.
At lunch, I went walking outside the school gates with JY-Teacher. We came across YSR and SG1, and we sort of traded walking partners until I was with SG1. She and I made conversation work, talking about our favorite movies, our views on the weather, and our ages (she's one year younger, so that makes me the unnie, she says!). I had a great time hanging out with her.
At lunch, JY-Teacher made a point of asking me easy Korean questions in front of the other teachers, so they would know that I could speak a bit. That was very thoughtful of her, because I think it might have earned me a little more goodwill among the others.
When coming back from the lunchtime walk, I found Hyunho waiting for me in the office and Gyuseong on the stairs, both wanting to know why I was so late. I hopped upstairs to play UNO, where Twin-Eungyo was yelling (in polite, formal Korean), wanting to know why I was so late.
We played and Jeongmin rolled in late because he had some kind of special book-delivering responsibility today. He joined the game and Hyunho spent most of the time yelling at him and the others. Hyunho's really shouty lately, but he's still very sweet to me and I try to encourage him to be calm and kind. When the games were over, he told me he'd text me sometime and I asked how he had my number. He showed me a paper where he had it written down. He'd gotten it off the list of teacher-numbers on my desk, which is visible but only if you know where to look. Oh well. Hyunho ought to have that number, anyway.
I got gum from a 2nd-grader I don't even know, a student who watched me play UNO then quietly came up to give me a stick of gum where the other kids couldn't see. C-Jeongmin also gave me gum and a sucker today. He's big on multi-gifting. When I was giving out candy to other boys, C-Jeongmin just came up and cutely nudged my arm, like a puppy might do, until I gave him some too.
Final class of the day was good. Got through 2-9, 2-10, 2-11 okay. I'm finding ways to streamline the class and maximize speaking. They don't need nearly as much practice as I think they do. And the final bingo game worked well. No one in class seems rebellious anymore. They're just fun kids and some sleepy-headachy kids, who I let sleep.
Seongwonnie is still practicing the piano. I heard him doing a creditable version of "Balloons" by TVXQ today. But he won't play for me. He just practices, gets good, then pretends he can't do anything when I walk in.
I still see Yeongchang everywhere. I don't write about it, but everyday he bumps into me and I pat his arm. He tells me good morning, etc. We're always in communication.
Baby Minho has grown. I told him so the other day. Peter-Pan Taehoon came by to tell me that he had, in fact dropped a class ranking, but I told him that he was still smart and he has a handsome face, so it all evens out. Taehoon seemed to agree with my assessment.
Went to the first-grade wing, just to visit. They swarmed out, and there was much kiss-blowing and high-fiving until Jeongmook showed up, wrapped my arm around him and announced I was his girlfriend. Then he held my hand all the way up the stairs until I made him go to class. He lost no time in cementing his status as a favorite.
-----------------------------
9 PM: Artist-Joohyun, who dropped a level to B so I don't teach him anymore, asked for my number as I was leaving the school and I gave it to him. I'd love to hear more from him--he's always been a tender soul and ever since I remembered his birthday with a present, he's been my kid.
Minchan texted "thank you for everyday" and I think he means for the conversation, because every day he comes by my desk and I give him candy and he stays to talk for a few minutes; really talk about what he's thinking. Today, he said he was going to exercise right after school because he wants to lose weight. He's a bigger kid and I know how much it bothers the other rounder kids--they can't escape the teasing, so they sometimes take drastic measures. I told him I knew he'd be successful.
Afterschool was great. I had plain cookies, nutella, peanut butter and colored sprinkles, the exact snack from Saturday class, to do for my boys. I made them all a cookie, then if they wanted a second, they could fill out their worksheet and read it to me.
The last snack days, I sat at a table in front while the kids stayed in the back, but that seemed ineffective, so I pushed together a few tables up front then called Jinhyuk up to help me. Well you can't call one trouble-dude without the others. William-Jiyoon, Dongjoon and Wonhye all came up, too, setting up shop around me.
Soon, they were all there. It was a very "kumbaya-all-is-well" kind of class for a half hour. My favorite good-boys had to be dissauded from cookie-snatching, though. They may be smart and good, but they're still sneaky. You think you can trust the good ones not to disobey but they're too full of mischief to just let opportunities pass.
I'd put together a really good worksheet--a gap-fill where they had to choose verbs, nouns and adjectives from a word bank and put together sentences like: "we spread the nutella on the cookie. The cookie is round and crunchy. The nutella is creamy and sweet. We put the sprinkles on the nutella. The sprinkles are small and colorful. The cookie is tan, the nutella is dark brown."
And after every English word in the word bank, I had looked up the Korean equivalent so they didn't have to guess what the new words meant--the translation was right there. I really want them to learn descriptive words, because that's what my tutor is teaching me right now. Then instead of just handing it in, the boys brought them up and read them out loud to me, for extra speaking practice and to make sure they got the vocabulary meanings down pat. I checked pronunciation, too--they were great.
I did get exasperated when the trouble-dudes finally got back to mingling around the room while I listened to kids read their worksheets. I was in the middle of a crowd of ten kids, then I look over to find three boys lifting Dongjoon into the air while he sat on a broom, and doing it in such a violent manner that it could impede his plans for having a family in the future (can't count the times I've stopped kids from damaging each other in similar ways via punching, kicking, umbrella-swords, etc, but this was the first broom-elevation incident).
And Dongjoon was laughing, too. He's not a bullied baby; he's a top dog. Chances are, the whole thing was his idea. But I don't want them hurting each other for fun, even if the person getting hurt also thinks it's funny. I settled them down, then got back to listening to the half-dozen little voices wanting to read me their papers, and the half-dozen other little hands grabbing for cookies. 21 children is rather a lot.
But it didn't stop there. Dongjoon and Jinhyuk ran out of the room and I yelled at them in Korean to come back in. I got to my feet and told them to come to the front. Yechan asked if I was angry, seeming awed at the possibility. I said yes I was. Not furious, but right tired of their antics when they are well and away old enough to not run out of a classroom just because they're not getting attention every second.
I left the quiet boys watching the cookies while I talked with Jinhyuk and Dongjoon. I was calm then, talking to them like adults. I told them the I was their teacher--I was like their mother or their sister. I gestured to the room and said that this, this was difficult. Teaching is hard. I need them to help me. They grinned a little because getting a serious talking-to is kind of amusing, but I think they understood.
Jinhyuk and Dongjoon, more than most of the others, feel like small men. They seem to have a strong core of underlying good sense beneath their ridiculous shenanigans, which makes it all the most frustrating when they do nonsensical little-kid things. Because you know they've got good logic and are capable of way better behavior than they currently produce. Anyhoodle, I love them both and they should know it. I think they do.
Leader-Jaehoon told me before I left, "Teacher, thank you. For teaching every day, thank you." My heart can't take it. It's too kind, too precious. Jaehoon has some capacity to know how much thought I put into their class, and he expresses his appreciation verbally. Thank you, beautiful little person. You are welcome.
Also, pictures of me from today! Bit tired in the first one, but I managed a smile later.
Monday, March 31, 2014
4-1-14 Sad Hyunho, BY Goes Epic, and Joonsung Visits
10:50 AM: It's April Fools and none of the kids have done any fooling yet. Score.
Also, I say "score!" so much when celebrating something, I had to teach it to my 1st-graders yesterday. I explained that "score!" was like when you make a basketball shot or a soccer goal. It's a little moment of victory. So one class of 1st-graders excitedly exclaimed "SCORE!" every time they made some small accomplishment.
1st-graders be darling, yo. Yesterday, I went to visit their wing and got mobbed by dozens of tiny cutie-pies, all wanting high fives and recognition. SG2's homeroom kids are ecstatic that she and I are friends, thus maximizing the possibility that I will come by for a visit.
Today, I went to the 1st-grade wing again because SG2's uncle had passed away over the weekend and I wanted to leave a note at her desk saying that I'd be praying for her and her family, which I've already been doing. She said they were quite close, so it's a difficult time. I left the note, then one of the C-level boys asked me to visit his class, so I went over to meet the little'uns.
Seongmin from my afterschool produced a bingo sheet he had done yesterday and told me he wanted to redeem it for candy. Changho from afterschool chatted happily and SuperTall-Dongmin from across the hall kept shouting that I was beautiful. Some child small enough to fit in a backpack blew me a kiss, and I repeated the gesture. It was lovely.
SuperTall Dongmin (who is my height if not taller) is a kid I only know because we walk to and from home along the same path. He made a habit of yelling compliments to me, so I learned his name. Yesterday, we were walking home and fell in step together, and he quietly asked my name, in complete contrast to his previous loud and proud personality. I'm quite fond of him.
Yesterday, I didn't write much because I was busy putting together stuff for my 2nd round of 2nd-grade classes. I spent three hours putting together a new BINGO game and slide show for the kids...only to forget to download it from my home computer to my USB.
Menboong. (Korean slang for "mental breakdown," more like mental overload, too much to process)
All that effort, all that tiredness and I forgot to bring it. But my only 2nd-class of the day is already over (meaning teaching the same class for the 2nd time), so I'm actually prepared for the rest. This morning with SG2, I improvised an activity for learning "That makes me sad". I gave every kid a piece of paper and a pack of crayon sticks to draw a sentence: "_______. That makes me sad."
3 boys drew killer pictures of our school, complete with proper dimensions and accurate portrayals of the local flora. I made marks on their papers to tell them to come get candy later.
I had a right good time with Dongha and Kyeongwon. Dongha wants to go to America someday and he told me today that he knows a kid who studied in Boston. He was really proud to transmit this info to me. And Kyeongwon wanted to know the words for "electricity" and, get this--"power outage". Because that was the subject of his drawing--power outages make him sad. Dude! That's creative.
I also really love how the boys ask me in Korean to translate Korean words into English. And often, I can do it. I asked them the Korean word for "storm" but they said "taepoong" (태풍), which translates to typhoon or monsoon, a rather specific kind of storm.
And my Hyunho said that the thing that made him sad was being short. Goodness. This morning, I noticed that Hyunho didn't have his glasses on. I told him he looked different, and he immediately asked, "Handsomer?" I told him he looked older, more mature, though I should have just said handsomer because it was true and maybe he needed to hear it.
Because when Hyunho drew a picture of his "sad" topic, he drew himself and his brother, with a line across the middle of the picture, starting above his head and at his brother's shoulder-level. And I realized just how very small Hyunho is and how yesterday, I had to keep stopping Glasses-Minsu and Kyeongwon from hitting him pretty hard while he played cards. In an all-male environment, it can't be easy to be physically small. Maybe that's why he seemed so hard and guarded at the start of the semester, in contrast to his sunny nature last year
Lately, Hyunho's been smiling more, acting confident and having fun, but today was a reminder for me to build him up. To tell him that he's handsome and smart, because he can't hear it enough.
So. BY.'Bout all that...
I heard from KBR that BY told his homeroom teacher that his father was very upset about BY having to attend afterschool and that his father had complained to the education board about it.
The homeroom teacher was referred to an online forum run by the Board of Education, where someone claiming to be BY's father had written a lengthy message about the unfairness of mandatory afterschool.
Now, online comments are handled a bit differently in Korea. In America, I feel like the comments section of any website is usually considered uninformative/silly/obscene etc, and is generally not taken seriously. In Korea, online comments are taken seriously and even important official institutions may change their approach to something in response to online comments. (I think it's because of Korea's rich protest-culture...up until the late 80's, the South was a rigid dictatorship not a democracy, so people got in the habit of protesting things and those protests eventually saw results).
Anyhoodle, the Office of Education sent out a memo to every teacher in our school, saying that kids should not be forced to attend the supposedly optional afterschool classes. The Vice Principal got quite upset at BY's homeroom teacher, and there was much confusion and consternation that a disgruntled parent went around the school and went straight to the top, getting everybody in trouble with one comment when the problem could be solved more directly.
Except BY's dad did not write the comment that launched a thousand ships.
BY did. To get out of a spare 45-minute class, this boy went online while posing as his father, incited action from the local government, angered his vice-principal,confused all the staff at our school, and got his homeroom teacher into enough hot water to boil a lobster.
I can't even.
When KBR told me, I couldn't stop laughing, though. It was too funny. Part of the problem is, BY's got the highest IQ score of the 300 kids in his grade. And he makes a point of studying human psychology so he can tell people what they want to hear while still getting whatever he wants. I'd told KBR I'd had big talks with him about not being manipulative. Perhaps we need to talk yet again. I certainly need to pray for this little genius to go easy on his homeroom teacher, a good woman who does not deserve the blamestorm that has landed on her.
That kid. Oy.
---------------------------
7 PM: Last classes went fine. Tuesday afternoons are a marathon, with two 2nd-grades back to back, followed by afterschool. But the kids were fine. 2-11 is the hardest class period, because they have three classes jammed into the same room and the low-level noise never changes.
But every child said their piece and everybody played bingo and like 7 of them won candy, so a reasonable amount of happiness was obtained by everyone. The "troublemakers" did wonderfully. Jaehyun spends most of the class in the back, drawing detailed tattoos on his arms with sharpie. Today, it was lizard scales in a half-sleeve from wrist to elbow. And may have made him look like a gangster, but it was pretty cool and stylin' and I told him so.
Then 2-7, 2-8 rolled along okay too, and thus NG-Teacher and I had a good day in our back to back 2nd-grades. My little Heekyu was cute and thoughtful, and Yunho played with my hair and everybody said English words. I even started the class with a fun video so they had something enjoyable at the start.
Afterschool was difficult to manage, but good because they are all my boys. The afterschool troublemakers won't hardly do their work, but I did call them all up to have conversation with me. Today, the boys all read their stories to me and I praised them and made a fuss over them. Jinhyuk is one of the trouble-dudes, but he keeps "fainting" in class so I'll come over and worry about him and he's the one who stared at me during "Frozen," so I know he just needs extra care.
This morning, I said "Good morning, Jinhyuk!" on the walk to school and he turned around and repeated it to his friends--Sem knows my name. She said hello to me. He and I had a nice conversation and he seemed happy that I asked about his life, so I think that even when the lil' trouble-dudes don't do their work, I can still have conversation with them and have it make an impact.
And! Eunseong is in afterschool! After asking enough teachers, it was made possible for my guy to switch afterschools and join us. I am so glad to have him in there, truly.
And I have some talented artists and writers. I feel like I'm not just nudging along language-phrase-learning anymore, but encouraging clever thoughts and beautiful ideas. The boys all want and need so much attention and I try to give what I can.
The only April-Fools I got all day long was Leader-Jaehoon's continual roll of "Teacher, Eunseong hates you. ....April Fool's Day!" "Teacher, I don't like English. April Fool's Day!" He was so confident in his jokes, it was beyond delightful.
And my friend O-Teacher is back at school! She was going to go to grad school, but now she's back with us, and I'm so happy. Eee, it's so good to have my buddy back. Now I can visit the special needs' room more often.
Speaking of the special needs students, Joonsung came again this morning to sit in my chair and watch Teletubbies. I was just kinda hanging around with no seat, standing next to him and reading poetry. JY-Teacher saw me standing and a student sitting and began to say, "yah..." but I went over to her and explained that my little guy was autistic. It's okay for him to commandeer my chair because he needs it.
And right before afterschool, Joonsung came back! It's the first time he's visited me twice in one day. But by then I was quite tired and my feet hurt and I did not want to stand, nope I didn't. So I hoped he would just watch Teletubbies and listen to my headphones while standing, allowing me to sit.
But no. When he couldn't get me to stand, he just sat on me. Joonsung sat in my lap for five minutes during cleaning time and though he was pretty heavy, it was still really sweet because it reminded me of my baby brother. The other teachers recognized who he was, so they didn't think it was unusual, though I doubt he sits on anybody else.
Also, Minchan came by to talk with me. He told me that when he was in 1st grade he was A-level, then last year in 2nd-grade he was B, and now in his final year he has dropped to C-level. Oh, my poor boy. But he's doing great in his attempts to chat with me, and I told him his language was good. Minchan wanted my phone number, so I gave it to him. Prince Woobin asked for it two weeks ago also, so there's a small contingent of really nice kids who could send me a Kakao message when they want to.
It was a good day. I got my bangs trimmed, got clothes-shopping done, and got home to relax and study. Huzzah!
---------------------
Also, I say "score!" so much when celebrating something, I had to teach it to my 1st-graders yesterday. I explained that "score!" was like when you make a basketball shot or a soccer goal. It's a little moment of victory. So one class of 1st-graders excitedly exclaimed "SCORE!" every time they made some small accomplishment.
1st-graders be darling, yo. Yesterday, I went to visit their wing and got mobbed by dozens of tiny cutie-pies, all wanting high fives and recognition. SG2's homeroom kids are ecstatic that she and I are friends, thus maximizing the possibility that I will come by for a visit.
Today, I went to the 1st-grade wing again because SG2's uncle had passed away over the weekend and I wanted to leave a note at her desk saying that I'd be praying for her and her family, which I've already been doing. She said they were quite close, so it's a difficult time. I left the note, then one of the C-level boys asked me to visit his class, so I went over to meet the little'uns.
Seongmin from my afterschool produced a bingo sheet he had done yesterday and told me he wanted to redeem it for candy. Changho from afterschool chatted happily and SuperTall-Dongmin from across the hall kept shouting that I was beautiful. Some child small enough to fit in a backpack blew me a kiss, and I repeated the gesture. It was lovely.
SuperTall Dongmin (who is my height if not taller) is a kid I only know because we walk to and from home along the same path. He made a habit of yelling compliments to me, so I learned his name. Yesterday, we were walking home and fell in step together, and he quietly asked my name, in complete contrast to his previous loud and proud personality. I'm quite fond of him.
Yesterday, I didn't write much because I was busy putting together stuff for my 2nd round of 2nd-grade classes. I spent three hours putting together a new BINGO game and slide show for the kids...only to forget to download it from my home computer to my USB.
Menboong. (Korean slang for "mental breakdown," more like mental overload, too much to process)
All that effort, all that tiredness and I forgot to bring it. But my only 2nd-class of the day is already over (meaning teaching the same class for the 2nd time), so I'm actually prepared for the rest. This morning with SG2, I improvised an activity for learning "That makes me sad". I gave every kid a piece of paper and a pack of crayon sticks to draw a sentence: "_______. That makes me sad."
3 boys drew killer pictures of our school, complete with proper dimensions and accurate portrayals of the local flora. I made marks on their papers to tell them to come get candy later.
I had a right good time with Dongha and Kyeongwon. Dongha wants to go to America someday and he told me today that he knows a kid who studied in Boston. He was really proud to transmit this info to me. And Kyeongwon wanted to know the words for "electricity" and, get this--"power outage". Because that was the subject of his drawing--power outages make him sad. Dude! That's creative.
I also really love how the boys ask me in Korean to translate Korean words into English. And often, I can do it. I asked them the Korean word for "storm" but they said "taepoong" (태풍), which translates to typhoon or monsoon, a rather specific kind of storm.
And my Hyunho said that the thing that made him sad was being short. Goodness. This morning, I noticed that Hyunho didn't have his glasses on. I told him he looked different, and he immediately asked, "Handsomer?" I told him he looked older, more mature, though I should have just said handsomer because it was true and maybe he needed to hear it.
Because when Hyunho drew a picture of his "sad" topic, he drew himself and his brother, with a line across the middle of the picture, starting above his head and at his brother's shoulder-level. And I realized just how very small Hyunho is and how yesterday, I had to keep stopping Glasses-Minsu and Kyeongwon from hitting him pretty hard while he played cards. In an all-male environment, it can't be easy to be physically small. Maybe that's why he seemed so hard and guarded at the start of the semester, in contrast to his sunny nature last year
Lately, Hyunho's been smiling more, acting confident and having fun, but today was a reminder for me to build him up. To tell him that he's handsome and smart, because he can't hear it enough.
So. BY.'Bout all that...
I heard from KBR that BY told his homeroom teacher that his father was very upset about BY having to attend afterschool and that his father had complained to the education board about it.
The homeroom teacher was referred to an online forum run by the Board of Education, where someone claiming to be BY's father had written a lengthy message about the unfairness of mandatory afterschool.
Now, online comments are handled a bit differently in Korea. In America, I feel like the comments section of any website is usually considered uninformative/silly/obscene etc, and is generally not taken seriously. In Korea, online comments are taken seriously and even important official institutions may change their approach to something in response to online comments. (I think it's because of Korea's rich protest-culture...up until the late 80's, the South was a rigid dictatorship not a democracy, so people got in the habit of protesting things and those protests eventually saw results).
Anyhoodle, the Office of Education sent out a memo to every teacher in our school, saying that kids should not be forced to attend the supposedly optional afterschool classes. The Vice Principal got quite upset at BY's homeroom teacher, and there was much confusion and consternation that a disgruntled parent went around the school and went straight to the top, getting everybody in trouble with one comment when the problem could be solved more directly.
Except BY's dad did not write the comment that launched a thousand ships.
BY did. To get out of a spare 45-minute class, this boy went online while posing as his father, incited action from the local government, angered his vice-principal,confused all the staff at our school, and got his homeroom teacher into enough hot water to boil a lobster.
I can't even.
When KBR told me, I couldn't stop laughing, though. It was too funny. Part of the problem is, BY's got the highest IQ score of the 300 kids in his grade. And he makes a point of studying human psychology so he can tell people what they want to hear while still getting whatever he wants. I'd told KBR I'd had big talks with him about not being manipulative. Perhaps we need to talk yet again. I certainly need to pray for this little genius to go easy on his homeroom teacher, a good woman who does not deserve the blamestorm that has landed on her.
That kid. Oy.
---------------------------
7 PM: Last classes went fine. Tuesday afternoons are a marathon, with two 2nd-grades back to back, followed by afterschool. But the kids were fine. 2-11 is the hardest class period, because they have three classes jammed into the same room and the low-level noise never changes.
But every child said their piece and everybody played bingo and like 7 of them won candy, so a reasonable amount of happiness was obtained by everyone. The "troublemakers" did wonderfully. Jaehyun spends most of the class in the back, drawing detailed tattoos on his arms with sharpie. Today, it was lizard scales in a half-sleeve from wrist to elbow. And may have made him look like a gangster, but it was pretty cool and stylin' and I told him so.
Then 2-7, 2-8 rolled along okay too, and thus NG-Teacher and I had a good day in our back to back 2nd-grades. My little Heekyu was cute and thoughtful, and Yunho played with my hair and everybody said English words. I even started the class with a fun video so they had something enjoyable at the start.
Afterschool was difficult to manage, but good because they are all my boys. The afterschool troublemakers won't hardly do their work, but I did call them all up to have conversation with me. Today, the boys all read their stories to me and I praised them and made a fuss over them. Jinhyuk is one of the trouble-dudes, but he keeps "fainting" in class so I'll come over and worry about him and he's the one who stared at me during "Frozen," so I know he just needs extra care.
This morning, I said "Good morning, Jinhyuk!" on the walk to school and he turned around and repeated it to his friends--Sem knows my name. She said hello to me. He and I had a nice conversation and he seemed happy that I asked about his life, so I think that even when the lil' trouble-dudes don't do their work, I can still have conversation with them and have it make an impact.
And! Eunseong is in afterschool! After asking enough teachers, it was made possible for my guy to switch afterschools and join us. I am so glad to have him in there, truly.
And I have some talented artists and writers. I feel like I'm not just nudging along language-phrase-learning anymore, but encouraging clever thoughts and beautiful ideas. The boys all want and need so much attention and I try to give what I can.
The only April-Fools I got all day long was Leader-Jaehoon's continual roll of "Teacher, Eunseong hates you. ....April Fool's Day!" "Teacher, I don't like English. April Fool's Day!" He was so confident in his jokes, it was beyond delightful.
And my friend O-Teacher is back at school! She was going to go to grad school, but now she's back with us, and I'm so happy. Eee, it's so good to have my buddy back. Now I can visit the special needs' room more often.
Speaking of the special needs students, Joonsung came again this morning to sit in my chair and watch Teletubbies. I was just kinda hanging around with no seat, standing next to him and reading poetry. JY-Teacher saw me standing and a student sitting and began to say, "yah..." but I went over to her and explained that my little guy was autistic. It's okay for him to commandeer my chair because he needs it.
And right before afterschool, Joonsung came back! It's the first time he's visited me twice in one day. But by then I was quite tired and my feet hurt and I did not want to stand, nope I didn't. So I hoped he would just watch Teletubbies and listen to my headphones while standing, allowing me to sit.
But no. When he couldn't get me to stand, he just sat on me. Joonsung sat in my lap for five minutes during cleaning time and though he was pretty heavy, it was still really sweet because it reminded me of my baby brother. The other teachers recognized who he was, so they didn't think it was unusual, though I doubt he sits on anybody else.
Also, Minchan came by to talk with me. He told me that when he was in 1st grade he was A-level, then last year in 2nd-grade he was B, and now in his final year he has dropped to C-level. Oh, my poor boy. But he's doing great in his attempts to chat with me, and I told him his language was good. Minchan wanted my phone number, so I gave it to him. Prince Woobin asked for it two weeks ago also, so there's a small contingent of really nice kids who could send me a Kakao message when they want to.
It was a good day. I got my bangs trimmed, got clothes-shopping done, and got home to relax and study. Huzzah!
---------------------
Sunday, March 30, 2014
3-31-14 Seonwoo's Birthday, Bingo, and My Favorite Things
10 AM: First class went well. I had spent several hours preparing a big Bingo game for them and it went pretty well. I put a lot of time into getting their lesson ready, and the Lord blessed. My guys did well.
Soonhyuk continues to be the star of 2-1, 2-2. He's quite articulate with his pronunciation and he knows I love him to death. Sometimes we'll just grin at each other in class, knowing that we're both good. Beomjoon's a handful, but he can do his speaking just fine, too.
C-Jeongmin came by to give me gum and he saw me packaging up a little present for Seonwoo. On Friday, Seonwoo told me it was his birthday, so I was determined to have a present ready for him today. I picked a bag of multi-fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls and I started writing out a card for him. C-Jeongmin and Seokyoon wanted to know who I was preparing it for. Neither of them is acquainted with him, but I told them he was my afterschool boy last year.
So strange to think that Seonwoo was once completely non-reactive. I knew he was smart, but he didn't want to talk to me or even want to receive compliments. I thought, okay, this kid just doesn't want to have anything to do with the foreign teacher. We've come a long way, to us joking every day and me giving him food on the regular. I can always count on Seonwoo to brighten my mood with his inside jokes.
Yesterday, I went to lunch with KBR and we had such a good time, we talked for two and a half hours. We talked about our faith and about trusting in God. We counseled each other about tough students and gossiped about cute school stuff, such as BY pulling a prank that involved the Office of Education for our entire city. More on that later because it is epic.
KBR also encouraged me by saying that she'd heard kids in the hall talking happily among themselves in Korean, saying "That teacher knows me! She knows my name!" She said it really matters to them. She also said that when the students came to her to find out who their native teacher would be for 3rd grade, the ones who got assigned to me were dancing and celebrating, so it sure does make me feel appreciated.
----------------------------
11:45 AM: I got the candy to my Seonwoo! He was very happy to get his present and he and others followed me to the office to talk.
He and Minjoon came into the office to chat. They flipped through my book of English poetry and exclaimed over how impossible the words were. Then they started teasing Seunghoon (who is not a big kid) about his weight, then explaining the fat jokes to me in English. I told them to stop being mean, but the jokes were actually pretty witty. I have such a such weakness for cleverness, I really do. I always have to remind myself to follow the moral imperative of the situation, to do the right thing rather than just enjoying the smartness.
Seonwoo also asked, "Teacher, what are we doing in class?" He wants to play games. I hadn't been playing games with the 3rd-graders partly because I thought they were all grown up and done with them, but Seonwoo says otherwise.
I actually think I'm just going to use the "Advice" bingo in 3rd grade because they're learning the same type of thing, and the 2nd graders are LOOOOVING the bingo activity. My last class with NG-Teacher was lovely. I worked out some of the kinks of the game after playing it with SG2 in class this morning. And NG-Teacher was really good at explaining the rules to the kids.
A whole pack of them came downstairs for candy, and I gained a new favorite--Seungyeop is fun and ready to joke and chat a bit.
------------------------------
7 PM: Day went well. in 3rd-grade class, Seonwoo initiated so much conversation. He asked if I knew a certain Korean guy in town who speaks English well and knows B-Teacher--I said I didn't. I also suggested that maybe he could study in America some day and he said that he wasn't good enough at English. Then when Seonwoo had to write a dialogue with his friend about a "problem" and "advice," he wrote about "do you think I should keep studying English?"
I feel like he really is on the verge of learning a lot more, and he's saying so much to me, I think it's been helpful for his language ability that he has someone he might actually want to ask questions of.
And a couple the kids that come and chat/get candy from me are getting bold enough to talk to B-Teacher, too! Hyunho shocked the life out of me this morning by greeting me, then stepping his tiny little body around my chair to go talk to B-Teacher! He said in clear English, "Hello, B-Teacher. How are you today? Yes, I'm fine, too." O_O Whoa. That is a lot of English and bravery from a B-level 2nd-grader. But Hyunho actually told me that he came within a few point-fractions of being A-ban. I believe him. Hyunho's always been sharp.
Lunchtime Games were good. I was trying to be more appreciative of Jeongmin, since I know I've been pulling away from him lately. I'm so happy to see him overcoming his social problems and mixing freely and happily with the other boys, so I know he doesn't technically need me like he once did, which is good for his growth as a person. I made sure to praise him and thank him a lot.
Also, Kyeongwon seems to want more interaction. During the games, he hung around and asked me in Korean how to say things in English. Duck-Subin is brave and happy during the games. Seongho uses all the English he has to joke with me.
1st-grade class was great. I taught them to sing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. It was hilariously wonderful. New guys in that class are : Juha and Beomseok.
Afterschool was okay. It was hard to herd the kids together for our activity, but we survived. I got some video too--Jaehoon helped me take it. I'm trying to get Eunseong into the class too, now that I have room. I talked to JY, SG2, Eunseong and Eunseong's homeroom teacher, just to let them know that there are spots open, and I'd like to have him if he'd like to come.
I walked home with Dongjoon, a 3rd-grader with virtually no English, who wanted to ask me in detail about why I'm not married, when will I get married, who do I want to marry, etc. For Dongjoon, it is very important that I be established in life. Yeongjoon, one of my A-levels, caught up with us just in time to translate some and to calm Dongjoon down when he assumed I wasn't going to visit my parents for several years. Dongjoon has a lot of moral outrage over not visiting parents, it seems. I told him not to worry.
Also, Hyungmin talked to me in Korean for his entire English class, and I understood him.
--------------------------
Soonhyuk continues to be the star of 2-1, 2-2. He's quite articulate with his pronunciation and he knows I love him to death. Sometimes we'll just grin at each other in class, knowing that we're both good. Beomjoon's a handful, but he can do his speaking just fine, too.
C-Jeongmin came by to give me gum and he saw me packaging up a little present for Seonwoo. On Friday, Seonwoo told me it was his birthday, so I was determined to have a present ready for him today. I picked a bag of multi-fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls and I started writing out a card for him. C-Jeongmin and Seokyoon wanted to know who I was preparing it for. Neither of them is acquainted with him, but I told them he was my afterschool boy last year.
So strange to think that Seonwoo was once completely non-reactive. I knew he was smart, but he didn't want to talk to me or even want to receive compliments. I thought, okay, this kid just doesn't want to have anything to do with the foreign teacher. We've come a long way, to us joking every day and me giving him food on the regular. I can always count on Seonwoo to brighten my mood with his inside jokes.
Yesterday, I went to lunch with KBR and we had such a good time, we talked for two and a half hours. We talked about our faith and about trusting in God. We counseled each other about tough students and gossiped about cute school stuff, such as BY pulling a prank that involved the Office of Education for our entire city. More on that later because it is epic.
KBR also encouraged me by saying that she'd heard kids in the hall talking happily among themselves in Korean, saying "That teacher knows me! She knows my name!" She said it really matters to them. She also said that when the students came to her to find out who their native teacher would be for 3rd grade, the ones who got assigned to me were dancing and celebrating, so it sure does make me feel appreciated.
----------------------------
11:45 AM: I got the candy to my Seonwoo! He was very happy to get his present and he and others followed me to the office to talk.
He and Minjoon came into the office to chat. They flipped through my book of English poetry and exclaimed over how impossible the words were. Then they started teasing Seunghoon (who is not a big kid) about his weight, then explaining the fat jokes to me in English. I told them to stop being mean, but the jokes were actually pretty witty. I have such a such weakness for cleverness, I really do. I always have to remind myself to follow the moral imperative of the situation, to do the right thing rather than just enjoying the smartness.
Seonwoo also asked, "Teacher, what are we doing in class?" He wants to play games. I hadn't been playing games with the 3rd-graders partly because I thought they were all grown up and done with them, but Seonwoo says otherwise.
I actually think I'm just going to use the "Advice" bingo in 3rd grade because they're learning the same type of thing, and the 2nd graders are LOOOOVING the bingo activity. My last class with NG-Teacher was lovely. I worked out some of the kinks of the game after playing it with SG2 in class this morning. And NG-Teacher was really good at explaining the rules to the kids.
A whole pack of them came downstairs for candy, and I gained a new favorite--Seungyeop is fun and ready to joke and chat a bit.
------------------------------
7 PM: Day went well. in 3rd-grade class, Seonwoo initiated so much conversation. He asked if I knew a certain Korean guy in town who speaks English well and knows B-Teacher--I said I didn't. I also suggested that maybe he could study in America some day and he said that he wasn't good enough at English. Then when Seonwoo had to write a dialogue with his friend about a "problem" and "advice," he wrote about "do you think I should keep studying English?"
I feel like he really is on the verge of learning a lot more, and he's saying so much to me, I think it's been helpful for his language ability that he has someone he might actually want to ask questions of.
And a couple the kids that come and chat/get candy from me are getting bold enough to talk to B-Teacher, too! Hyunho shocked the life out of me this morning by greeting me, then stepping his tiny little body around my chair to go talk to B-Teacher! He said in clear English, "Hello, B-Teacher. How are you today? Yes, I'm fine, too." O_O Whoa. That is a lot of English and bravery from a B-level 2nd-grader. But Hyunho actually told me that he came within a few point-fractions of being A-ban. I believe him. Hyunho's always been sharp.
Lunchtime Games were good. I was trying to be more appreciative of Jeongmin, since I know I've been pulling away from him lately. I'm so happy to see him overcoming his social problems and mixing freely and happily with the other boys, so I know he doesn't technically need me like he once did, which is good for his growth as a person. I made sure to praise him and thank him a lot.
Also, Kyeongwon seems to want more interaction. During the games, he hung around and asked me in Korean how to say things in English. Duck-Subin is brave and happy during the games. Seongho uses all the English he has to joke with me.
1st-grade class was great. I taught them to sing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. It was hilariously wonderful. New guys in that class are : Juha and Beomseok.
Afterschool was okay. It was hard to herd the kids together for our activity, but we survived. I got some video too--Jaehoon helped me take it. I'm trying to get Eunseong into the class too, now that I have room. I talked to JY, SG2, Eunseong and Eunseong's homeroom teacher, just to let them know that there are spots open, and I'd like to have him if he'd like to come.
I walked home with Dongjoon, a 3rd-grader with virtually no English, who wanted to ask me in detail about why I'm not married, when will I get married, who do I want to marry, etc. For Dongjoon, it is very important that I be established in life. Yeongjoon, one of my A-levels, caught up with us just in time to translate some and to calm Dongjoon down when he assumed I wasn't going to visit my parents for several years. Dongjoon has a lot of moral outrage over not visiting parents, it seems. I told him not to worry.
Also, Hyungmin talked to me in Korean for his entire English class, and I understood him.
--------------------------
Saturday, March 29, 2014
3-29-14 First Saturday Class, Nutella, and Paparazzi
5:30 PM Well, the first Saturday class was a success!
The time I put into preparation last night definitely paid off. I had a culture lesson about Valentines' day, with a Powerpoint (taken from another teacher and modified with my own words and pictures), a video clip of a cutely romantic cartoon called "Paperman," a scrambled-vocab words worksheet, a report-writing and speaking activity, cookies to give the kids at the end, and UNO cards to play with people during the break.
I was prepared. And it soooo paid off.
Well, the 2nd-graders, who I taught first, were really kind of a dead crowd. All quiet, all timid, all hesitant to move or breathe. They finally warmed up to me, mainly after I helped with their word scrambles and played UNO with 5 of the shyest girls, but it was still a very subdued class. I felt like we learned a bit about culture and got some good speaking in, though.
Jeongmin helped me spread Nutella on plain cookies at the end, and we added colorful sprinkles and gave everybody one. But it was like they didn't even want cookies. I've never seen such a non-reaction to snacks before. They had to be encouraged to come and get one. So the first class was academically successful, but not really fun.
The next class, with 1st-graders, was another matter altogether. Fun beyond measure.
No sooner did I step out of the classroom of 2nd graders than from way-far down the hall I heard, "Teacherrrr!" and I made out the shadowy forms of Eunseong and Hyunseo sprinting my way. They dove nearly headlong to give me high-fives and that was when I knew our class would be lovely.
I went into class and the little girls immediately began murmuring happily. They exclaimed over my face and hair, which let me tell you, was flattering in the extreme. Because these little angels were cute and snuggly and fluffy with their tiny hair bows and their big brown eyes...1st-grade girls are like porcelain dolls. The way they felt about me was the same way I felt about them.
They kids also became mini-paparazzi agents and took photos of me all through class. At first it was just the boys, but then the girls whipped out their phones and started taking pictures, too. "Teacher, pose! Pose!" This. This has not happened before. But the babies decided that inaugural Saturday class must be documented, and so it was.
My boys Eunseong and Hyunseo sat in the front row, along with Sangbin, a clever boy from another middle school. Sangbin has an amazing dry sense of humor and he kept cracking me up with his comments. When i mentioned giving the interviewees Reeses back in December, Sangbin said, "Yes, but I didn't eat mine. I just put it in the fridge." I laughed and told him he should have eaten it. Then he said he'd gotten dozens of them for Halloween and had gotten sick of them, which was even funnier.
As for my own boys, their levels of love have entered new categories. The teacher before me had done fancy nametags with the kids, where they got really artsy with it. And there were also categories on the name tags for their favorite things. I was listed as a favorite thing on all three nametags. The girls' interests were K-pop, kittens, and books; Hyunseo's nametag read, "Interests: Table tennis, Leigh-Teacher". And thus, I have become a hobby.
Eunseong kept writing "Eunseong Loves Leigh" on his desk in pencil, then erasing it, then writing it again. I once thought that only girls obesessively doodled their crush's name in notebooks, but that is entirely inaccurate.
The girls had tons of questions about me and I had to go around to the whole room to show them each my eyes, because there was great debate over whether my eyes were gray or green. And the debate still rages, because opinion was divided.
And! One of the girls, Chaeson, has an oppa in my classes! Her brother is a 3rd-grade A-level student and I know him, so this beautiful little girl was incredibly gratified that I remembered her older brother. And most of the girls go to my friend Amanda's school, so when I confirmed that we were friends, they went nuts. I want to get to know the girls better, but the boys were demanding most of my attention, as they do. Hyunseo decided to reach for my hand as often as possible while I was talking, so at different points I just let him hold it while I explained the powerpoint to the class.
Then when I made a comment to Eunseong about wishing he was in afterschool with me and Hyunseo and Jaehoon, Eunseong dropped this surprising bit of news:
Eunseong: I couldn't be in afterschool because I lost rock-paper-scissors.
Me: What?
Eunseong: We did rock-paper-scissors to see who got into your class.
Me: *still confused* I thought your parents picked which afterschool they wanted you to be in.
Eunseong: No, we picked. But too many students wanted to come, so we did rock-paper-scissors. *points to other 2 boys* They won. I lost.
Erm. That's pretty blamfrazzling. I'm certain-positive that last year the kids were just railroaded into afterschool by their parents (judging by just how hardcore apathetic most of them were), but this year, they must have some freewill about the whole thing. And because afterschool didn't start until the 3rd week, the boys had time to see me in the halls and in regular class and decide that extra time with me was worthwhile.
It also makes me see my afterschool boys in a whole new light. They all want to be there. There was an actual competition for it. When I perceived my troublemakers wanting attention/friendship, I was deeply surprised because I assumed they were being fussy because they wished to be elsewhere, but now I understand that a connection was what they were hoping for all along. It reinforces my intention to make afterschool a great place for them.
While in 2nd-grade, the kids had to be nudged and asked to come get a single cookie, the 1st-graders flooded to my table and got about 5 each. I spread Nutella on cookie after cookie after cookie and one of the girls added colored sprinkles while another girl passed them out. The girls were such cute little tyrants, too, telling the boys to stop hogging the cookies and stop hogging Teacher's attention. The boys just danced around, happy to be annoying the girls.
In the end, they all got lots and lots of tastiness and they went home smiling. It was a perfect day with the kids and I look forward to seeing all the little ladies again.
Here are pictures of my with the girls from work, on Friday when 4 of us were wearing jean-shirts and had to take a photo.
And here's the Paperman video that I played for the Valentines lesson today.
The time I put into preparation last night definitely paid off. I had a culture lesson about Valentines' day, with a Powerpoint (taken from another teacher and modified with my own words and pictures), a video clip of a cutely romantic cartoon called "Paperman," a scrambled-vocab words worksheet, a report-writing and speaking activity, cookies to give the kids at the end, and UNO cards to play with people during the break.
I was prepared. And it soooo paid off.
Well, the 2nd-graders, who I taught first, were really kind of a dead crowd. All quiet, all timid, all hesitant to move or breathe. They finally warmed up to me, mainly after I helped with their word scrambles and played UNO with 5 of the shyest girls, but it was still a very subdued class. I felt like we learned a bit about culture and got some good speaking in, though.
Jeongmin helped me spread Nutella on plain cookies at the end, and we added colorful sprinkles and gave everybody one. But it was like they didn't even want cookies. I've never seen such a non-reaction to snacks before. They had to be encouraged to come and get one. So the first class was academically successful, but not really fun.
The next class, with 1st-graders, was another matter altogether. Fun beyond measure.
No sooner did I step out of the classroom of 2nd graders than from way-far down the hall I heard, "Teacherrrr!" and I made out the shadowy forms of Eunseong and Hyunseo sprinting my way. They dove nearly headlong to give me high-fives and that was when I knew our class would be lovely.
I went into class and the little girls immediately began murmuring happily. They exclaimed over my face and hair, which let me tell you, was flattering in the extreme. Because these little angels were cute and snuggly and fluffy with their tiny hair bows and their big brown eyes...1st-grade girls are like porcelain dolls. The way they felt about me was the same way I felt about them.
They kids also became mini-paparazzi agents and took photos of me all through class. At first it was just the boys, but then the girls whipped out their phones and started taking pictures, too. "Teacher, pose! Pose!" This. This has not happened before. But the babies decided that inaugural Saturday class must be documented, and so it was.
My boys Eunseong and Hyunseo sat in the front row, along with Sangbin, a clever boy from another middle school. Sangbin has an amazing dry sense of humor and he kept cracking me up with his comments. When i mentioned giving the interviewees Reeses back in December, Sangbin said, "Yes, but I didn't eat mine. I just put it in the fridge." I laughed and told him he should have eaten it. Then he said he'd gotten dozens of them for Halloween and had gotten sick of them, which was even funnier.
As for my own boys, their levels of love have entered new categories. The teacher before me had done fancy nametags with the kids, where they got really artsy with it. And there were also categories on the name tags for their favorite things. I was listed as a favorite thing on all three nametags. The girls' interests were K-pop, kittens, and books; Hyunseo's nametag read, "Interests: Table tennis, Leigh-Teacher". And thus, I have become a hobby.
Eunseong kept writing "Eunseong Loves Leigh" on his desk in pencil, then erasing it, then writing it again. I once thought that only girls obesessively doodled their crush's name in notebooks, but that is entirely inaccurate.
The girls had tons of questions about me and I had to go around to the whole room to show them each my eyes, because there was great debate over whether my eyes were gray or green. And the debate still rages, because opinion was divided.
And! One of the girls, Chaeson, has an oppa in my classes! Her brother is a 3rd-grade A-level student and I know him, so this beautiful little girl was incredibly gratified that I remembered her older brother. And most of the girls go to my friend Amanda's school, so when I confirmed that we were friends, they went nuts. I want to get to know the girls better, but the boys were demanding most of my attention, as they do. Hyunseo decided to reach for my hand as often as possible while I was talking, so at different points I just let him hold it while I explained the powerpoint to the class.
Then when I made a comment to Eunseong about wishing he was in afterschool with me and Hyunseo and Jaehoon, Eunseong dropped this surprising bit of news:
Eunseong: I couldn't be in afterschool because I lost rock-paper-scissors.
Me: What?
Eunseong: We did rock-paper-scissors to see who got into your class.
Me: *still confused* I thought your parents picked which afterschool they wanted you to be in.
Eunseong: No, we picked. But too many students wanted to come, so we did rock-paper-scissors. *points to other 2 boys* They won. I lost.
Erm. That's pretty blamfrazzling. I'm certain-positive that last year the kids were just railroaded into afterschool by their parents (judging by just how hardcore apathetic most of them were), but this year, they must have some freewill about the whole thing. And because afterschool didn't start until the 3rd week, the boys had time to see me in the halls and in regular class and decide that extra time with me was worthwhile.
It also makes me see my afterschool boys in a whole new light. They all want to be there. There was an actual competition for it. When I perceived my troublemakers wanting attention/friendship, I was deeply surprised because I assumed they were being fussy because they wished to be elsewhere, but now I understand that a connection was what they were hoping for all along. It reinforces my intention to make afterschool a great place for them.
While in 2nd-grade, the kids had to be nudged and asked to come get a single cookie, the 1st-graders flooded to my table and got about 5 each. I spread Nutella on cookie after cookie after cookie and one of the girls added colored sprinkles while another girl passed them out. The girls were such cute little tyrants, too, telling the boys to stop hogging the cookies and stop hogging Teacher's attention. The boys just danced around, happy to be annoying the girls.
In the end, they all got lots and lots of tastiness and they went home smiling. It was a perfect day with the kids and I look forward to seeing all the little ladies again.
Here are pictures of my with the girls from work, on Friday when 4 of us were wearing jean-shirts and had to take a photo.
Cute Pose, Left to Right: JY, SG1, YSR, and Myself.
With B-Teacher Photobombing in the Background.
Fun Pose, B-Teacher Still in the Back,
But No Longer Photobombing.
And here's the Paperman video that I played for the Valentines lesson today.
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