Almost Friday

Thursday June 20th
Long day that went quickly. Gym 2 periods but instead of relaxing, I was working on my report cards. I actually stayed till about 7:15 today working on them and grading diary's, journals, book reports... Oh well.
Sharon cried today. Luckily not a tantrum. She almost started. When I check peoples work, I usually draw a star or a heart or a face. Well sometimes I let the kid pick, other times I just do a random one, or I give everyone the same. Well I was giving everyone a star. She wanted a heart. I still drew a star. She starts crying. I just say I gave everyone a start and turn around and go back up to the front. When a kid cries, normally one of the kids say "(students name) is sad." When they said that to me when she was crying, I just said I know, she wanted a heart but everyone else got a star. So not coddling her or giving her attention, I nipped that in the rear.
Ian in my Australia class cried. He did the work wrong and scribbled all over the next page we were going to do. I tell him to erase which he does not do, so I erase it. Time is always tight and I do not have time. He starts crying. I just say "do you need to go see Christina teacher?" He says no and stops crying. I've seen him cry before.
It often seems like they do it just because they want attention. If they are not getting the attention they want, they stop. There are only a few kids I feel bad for when they cry... but most of them I do not.
Canada was good.
Korea was okay. Vocabulary is tough. I wish I could make it more interesting... I just do not know how to make it interesting for kids that do not want to learn it. Today I played music as they were doing their busy work. It may have helped a little. Then at the end of class I let them watch a music video as a reward. I need to find some fun vocab teaching game for 12 year olds.
Today was the last day with Robs Australia class. I am going to miss them. I only had them for 4 days, but they have the kind of energy I love. It is so easy to play off into it. They laugh and are excited. Funny voices, stories, and being active just holds their attention and engages them. Engaged students are so much more fun to teach than disengages students.
One reason I would never be able to live in Korea for a long time. No actual hardware stores like ACE, Home Depot, Lowes. There are some stores that have a minimal selection of tools or screws... but nowhere has the selection of everything. There are stores that may specialize in one thing, but they do not have the other. From one website for foreigners in Korea, they said "Koreans tend not to do a lot menial work themselves, they'll often call someone even if it's a simple as dropping a blue cleaning puck into the toilet tank." While that is an over exaggeration, I do see many websites talking about the same sentiment with all types of DIY stuff. There is probably a good handyman supply store... but for a person that does not speak Korean, I believe it would be hard to find. I'm lucky that I live near the store that we nicknamed the hardware store... but when it comes down to it.... it is not really a hardware store, more like a junk store that has some random things we need. The reason I speak of this... I am trying to find the last pieces that I need to make and screw on the hooks for the stage... and emart, the hardware store, and home plus do not have what I need.  Pretty frustrating. I know even walmart would have them. Oh well...
Okay, Im going to try to call it an early night so I can finish the week off strong!