Wednesday July 24
Today was pretty much a normal day. Nothing too big happened in terms of events. The only student that cried was Jin from Australia. She did not technically cry under my watch. It was during the speech contest (though not really a contest) when Australia and Denmark were not doing it. She could not remember her lines and teared up a little. I guess that happens.
One amazing thing that really hit me today happened. It was with my first graders. I wrote down everyone's name on the board with 3 stars. If they still had a star at the end of class, they would get candy. Three people had their stars erased. Wendy, May, and Min. So at the end of class, everyone got candy except them. As soon as I gave Ann the little package of candy, the first thing she does is give Wendy, May, and Min a piece, before she even takes one for herself. I loved it. Faith in humanity restored as the saying goes. That gesture said so much to me. Ann can frustrate me sometimes, and she is not the smartest in class. She is always so happy and nice... that just sealed the deal for me with her. She is one of the most ideal students that I have.
We took tests in Greece, so nothing exciting happened there.
We got home from work and sat outside of the GS. Ama said he was going to have quesadillas for dinner. We talked and he invited us all up to his apartment. We had bacon and pepperjack cheese quesadillas. It was pretty amazing. The food was good and so was the company. We sat, listened to music, and talked. I left the group early because I was tired and still not 100%
Thursday July 25
Thursday. GYM DAY! I worked on cleaning my desk during most of my gym breaks today. It has gotten very overrun with papers, treats, and a little of everything. I had France for one hour and Sharon cried. She let Julie draw a picture in her book. Then she tried to tattle on Julie and said that Julie drew in her book. I saw both of them talking and doing it and laughing. I just said okay. So, Sharon started to cry. I said okay and kept on teaching. She stopped before it got into tantrum mode.
I started doing class points with my firstgraders. Basically as soon as they get 50 class points I will do something for them or with them (pizza party or the likes). They seemed to respond really well to it. Hopefully they keep it up.
My Korea class only had 2 people. Erica and Danny. We were supposed to take a test... but with only 2 there, I decided not to give it. So I just say with them and talked... well tried to. Danny is pretty good at answering the questions. Erica... not so much. I was asking questions about what do you want to do when you grow up, what is your favorite subject... etc. Danny tried to answer most things. Ericas answer was almost always I dont know. Both have been at ECC for years. I am not sure if Erica really does not know, or if she is stereotypical and just does not have the confidence to speak. Sometimes when she speaks, she speaks so under her breath I cannot tell what it is she say. Danny tries to put thoughts together. It is just interesting how different they are from the other classes that are the same age. It is like there is something wrong with the class... there was a cancer that took it over and completely changed the kids.... anyway, it was a light hearted and easy day. I got both of them to smile and laugh a lot more than I do on a normal day.
I stayed late as per the norm on Thursdays to grade.
I got home, tried to take a little nap and was unable to sleep. I then skyped with my parents for 3 hours as I did laundry.
Friday July 26
2 criers. Sharon. She cried because she could not find her colored pencils. I asked her if she brought them home (because she does occasionally) she said yes, but they were not in her bad. She had her old ones at school, but she did not want to use them. I still put them in front of her. She started to tear up and cry. I asked her if she needed to go to Korea class to be with the 5 year olds. She stopped crying pretty quickly after that. Amy in Australia also cried. Her workbook had an extra page in it (it is a workbook Christina made). So I was going to cut it out. She put on a fuss about me cutting it out, and she said she wanted to do it (even though it was a repeat of a previous page). It was the vocabulary test page. So the entire class finished the workbook. I told them to put their workbooks away as Amy did the test again. This was enough to make her cry. Denmark was tough at the end of the day, and everyone was tired and wanted to go and do no work. Its tough, cause I really didn't want to either.
We did speakers corner today with my firstgraders. I did not have them write like I did last time, and the kids seemed to enjoy it so much more. I even had the kids speaking full sentences which is normally a pain to do.
We finished our tests in Greece class, and I more or less let the kids have the last 7 minutes to do what they wanted. I was hoping for more time so I could take them to the gym, but it took a bit longer than I thought it would.
After work I picked up some stuff to bring to Jeju. My team/students color is blue. So I bought plastic blue headbands and sunglasses. They were not the cheapest things in the world, but hopefully it is a fun thing for the kids. If not, it wasnt too big of an investment.
I got home and packed. I feel like I packed way too much. I didnt really... But since I am a sweat machine, I am bring more clothes that I really think I should need to, so I can change in to dry clothes at night. I am excited but nervous about the Jeju camp. I think it is going to be a ton of work... but hopefully I can make it fun for the students. It is an honor being selected to do this. But knowing what I know, I am not sure if I would have accepted it. The days are from 7am-9pm, with the students, then we have a teachers meeting at 9pm. So it is one of our longest breaks of the year... and instead of getting to enjoy Korea or go to another country, I am working... and working hard. I do get paid for it... but the amount of time worked vs the paycheck... well it is not that much.
Ama Rob and I played a game of settlers, and Sam and Taylor and Hudson came downstairs too. Rob Ama and I ordered a hot spicy chicken pizza and we demolished it in minutes. These pizzas are 46cm or about 18 inches.
Ama Taylor Hudson and Sam all stayed downstairs, but Rob and I both went to our rooms. Since we have to work tomorrow, we both figured that we needed to get to bed early.
I am not sure if I will be able to update in Jeju. So if I do not update, I might have to wait until Wednesday or Thursday night to post again. It could even be as late as next Saturday, because when I get back from Jeju late Wednesday night, I have to get ready for ECC on Thursday, so I will probably be really tired.
Until next time
Friday, July 26, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
The beginning of the last week before my non-existent break.
Monday July 22nd
I woke up still not feeling the best. I am still not sure if allergies or something else. I do know that I had a good number of sick students last week and some of the teachers have reported not being 100%. It could also easily be a combination of both. While normally I think I have a pretty strong immune system... being around about 50 of my own students every day plus all of the other students... well it is easy to see how things can get passed around.
Today was a fairly stereotypical and simple day. It was a 'good manners' day so I only had France for one class and Australia for one class. Both of those went really well. Denmark also was good. Keeping the kids energetic is hard. The new boy (though I guess more of a month old) now always says I want to go home starting almost immediately after lunch. Once he says it, all of the other kids say it too. There is no real cure for that (at least that I can think of right now).
I am losing the first graders again. Not physically loosing them... just finding it hard to keep them interested. The story we just read was 'Scarcity' like economic scarcity. Now being an economics major, you would think it would be easy for me. Nope. These are first graders learning about scarcity in the US after hurricanes in Florida. Not exactly relevant to a 1st grader in Korea. And while I could tie it in to make it relevant to their lives... I am on a tight schedule, and all of the work that we have for the class is not about Korea. So I could give them more information... but it would more or less just confuse them.*
My Greece class in the afternoon went well. We got the work done and I tried to keep the kids happy doing it. It was a review day... those are pretty tough. There is half of the class that gets it and the half that does not. The ones that get it finish quickly and get bored. The ones that do not get it get frustrated then bored. I even give supplements to the students to give them something to work on... it does not help.
I came home and took a nap. I woke up, tried watching an episode of the West Wing, but could not focus. I read about airplanes on the computer for a while (recently downloaded a flight simulator on my phone), then went to bed still not feeling 100%
*The books we use were made for American children and are used in American classrooms. Not great English as a second language material. They used to have books that were made for ESL students... but for them, it is a bigger selling point to use books that they use in the US. The teachers that worked at ECC before the change hate the new books. Us teachers that came after the switch do not like them. The old teachers say the classes only using the new books preform worse than those that used the old ones. The grammar and phonics rules are laid out horribly. The stories use Latino names and other phrases that are not even common in English. Trying to explain what a third language is and what the word meanings are sucks. The books made for ESL use common phrases and words. The American books do not. The ESL books are made to build on principals. The American books build off principals that are mixed with other subjects taught in American schools. The ESL books were a complete puzzle in one book. The American books are only pieces of a puzzle that the rest of the American school day teaches. These kids are only at ECC for 2 classes, so they do not get everything else.... So they are not great teaching books... Teachers at my ECC and others all complain. But the owners are not that concerned with teaching... they are there to sell the services, and parents like to hear that their students are using the same books as American students. So we do the best we can...
Tuesday July 23rd.
Still not better... but getting there.
I dont want to talk to soon, but I am really thinking Juliet may be out of her weeping phase. She smiles so much more, works more, and talks more. I think she is getting more confidence. She sits next to Fred which I think really helps her out. He is smart and is really nice. He always helps her. He sees when she is having trouble and takes it upon himself to be there for her. Sharon started to get upset today... but got distracted and did not.
I tried a new way to do speech with Australia. Instead of just reading the speech, I tired to have them formulate their own thoughts for speech. Some students were good at it, but in total, it was a crash and burn. I'd like to move them away from just reading the speech... so I will try to figure out the best way to do that. I still have quite a wile to get that figured out.
Denmark... they are a loud energetic bunch that is easily distracted and bored at the end of the day. I wish I could change my schedule. So instead of it being France France Australia Australia (lunch) Denmark Denmark I could have at least one Denmark class before lunch. That way I could go through the more difficult subjects when their minds are still fresh.
The firstgraders were okay today. Still loud. The new girl, Wendy... she is a hand full. I do not know how to handle her. She is very talkative and loud, and is not quite for more than 3 minutes. He attitude level is more on par with some of my kindy students. Part of it I think is her trying to fit in. She has only been with us for less than a month. She sees the quasi acceptance that Billy gets from being loud, but I do not think that she sees his acceptance is that other students are scared of him. I think she sees his misbehavior as something that garners respect... but not knowing that the other students are annoyed with it. I think she is starting to annoy some of the other students. I'm not quite sure how to bring it up with her...
I only had 3 of my Korea kids today. Danny, Angel and Erica.We were not able to do the debate (I was not planning on it anyway). I tried to keep them entertained. I tried to get them to speak. Angel speaks a lot of Korean... Then she tried to ask me something in English... which I did not understand. It was "Take out my eye, and die" So instead of letting her give up, I worked with her to figure out what she was asking. Someone told her that if someones eye pops out, they die. I know what it was like to be 12 and hear all sorts of crazy stuff. So, instead of asking her parents or one of her other teachers that speaks Korean, she asks me, and she tries to do it in English, which was pretty cool. Anyway I told her no, if you lose an eye, you do not die. Erica smiled some in class and giggled a few times. Danny is a much better student without Dylan around. Dylan is a strong personality and often it overshadows Danny. I would really like to change the class... If only the parents would let us.
After work Rob and I went to costco. We had hotdogs for dinner. We bought candy. He bought candy to give out at ECC, I brought candy to give out at Jeju.
Walking back, I smelt a horrible smell. It was me. But not really me. It was my shirt. This really bothered me. I had just washed the shirt on Sunday. So I said something to Rob. He said it happens every several months. We have to clean our washing machine or our clothes will stink. He told me how to clean the rubber gasket in the machine, and told me to do a cycle of it on the hot temperature with bleach. That is what I am doing right now. I will spray all of my clothes with a fabric softener/ water solution (ostensibly a poor mans febreeze) so I do not have to do 2 loads of laundry again.
I am making it another early night so hopefully by the morning I will be over whatever it is I have.
I woke up still not feeling the best. I am still not sure if allergies or something else. I do know that I had a good number of sick students last week and some of the teachers have reported not being 100%. It could also easily be a combination of both. While normally I think I have a pretty strong immune system... being around about 50 of my own students every day plus all of the other students... well it is easy to see how things can get passed around.
Today was a fairly stereotypical and simple day. It was a 'good manners' day so I only had France for one class and Australia for one class. Both of those went really well. Denmark also was good. Keeping the kids energetic is hard. The new boy (though I guess more of a month old) now always says I want to go home starting almost immediately after lunch. Once he says it, all of the other kids say it too. There is no real cure for that (at least that I can think of right now).
I am losing the first graders again. Not physically loosing them... just finding it hard to keep them interested. The story we just read was 'Scarcity' like economic scarcity. Now being an economics major, you would think it would be easy for me. Nope. These are first graders learning about scarcity in the US after hurricanes in Florida. Not exactly relevant to a 1st grader in Korea. And while I could tie it in to make it relevant to their lives... I am on a tight schedule, and all of the work that we have for the class is not about Korea. So I could give them more information... but it would more or less just confuse them.*
My Greece class in the afternoon went well. We got the work done and I tried to keep the kids happy doing it. It was a review day... those are pretty tough. There is half of the class that gets it and the half that does not. The ones that get it finish quickly and get bored. The ones that do not get it get frustrated then bored. I even give supplements to the students to give them something to work on... it does not help.
I came home and took a nap. I woke up, tried watching an episode of the West Wing, but could not focus. I read about airplanes on the computer for a while (recently downloaded a flight simulator on my phone), then went to bed still not feeling 100%
*The books we use were made for American children and are used in American classrooms. Not great English as a second language material. They used to have books that were made for ESL students... but for them, it is a bigger selling point to use books that they use in the US. The teachers that worked at ECC before the change hate the new books. Us teachers that came after the switch do not like them. The old teachers say the classes only using the new books preform worse than those that used the old ones. The grammar and phonics rules are laid out horribly. The stories use Latino names and other phrases that are not even common in English. Trying to explain what a third language is and what the word meanings are sucks. The books made for ESL use common phrases and words. The American books do not. The ESL books are made to build on principals. The American books build off principals that are mixed with other subjects taught in American schools. The ESL books were a complete puzzle in one book. The American books are only pieces of a puzzle that the rest of the American school day teaches. These kids are only at ECC for 2 classes, so they do not get everything else.... So they are not great teaching books... Teachers at my ECC and others all complain. But the owners are not that concerned with teaching... they are there to sell the services, and parents like to hear that their students are using the same books as American students. So we do the best we can...
Tuesday July 23rd.
Still not better... but getting there.
I dont want to talk to soon, but I am really thinking Juliet may be out of her weeping phase. She smiles so much more, works more, and talks more. I think she is getting more confidence. She sits next to Fred which I think really helps her out. He is smart and is really nice. He always helps her. He sees when she is having trouble and takes it upon himself to be there for her. Sharon started to get upset today... but got distracted and did not.
I tried a new way to do speech with Australia. Instead of just reading the speech, I tired to have them formulate their own thoughts for speech. Some students were good at it, but in total, it was a crash and burn. I'd like to move them away from just reading the speech... so I will try to figure out the best way to do that. I still have quite a wile to get that figured out.
Denmark... they are a loud energetic bunch that is easily distracted and bored at the end of the day. I wish I could change my schedule. So instead of it being France France Australia Australia (lunch) Denmark Denmark I could have at least one Denmark class before lunch. That way I could go through the more difficult subjects when their minds are still fresh.
The firstgraders were okay today. Still loud. The new girl, Wendy... she is a hand full. I do not know how to handle her. She is very talkative and loud, and is not quite for more than 3 minutes. He attitude level is more on par with some of my kindy students. Part of it I think is her trying to fit in. She has only been with us for less than a month. She sees the quasi acceptance that Billy gets from being loud, but I do not think that she sees his acceptance is that other students are scared of him. I think she sees his misbehavior as something that garners respect... but not knowing that the other students are annoyed with it. I think she is starting to annoy some of the other students. I'm not quite sure how to bring it up with her...
I only had 3 of my Korea kids today. Danny, Angel and Erica.We were not able to do the debate (I was not planning on it anyway). I tried to keep them entertained. I tried to get them to speak. Angel speaks a lot of Korean... Then she tried to ask me something in English... which I did not understand. It was "Take out my eye, and die" So instead of letting her give up, I worked with her to figure out what she was asking. Someone told her that if someones eye pops out, they die. I know what it was like to be 12 and hear all sorts of crazy stuff. So, instead of asking her parents or one of her other teachers that speaks Korean, she asks me, and she tries to do it in English, which was pretty cool. Anyway I told her no, if you lose an eye, you do not die. Erica smiled some in class and giggled a few times. Danny is a much better student without Dylan around. Dylan is a strong personality and often it overshadows Danny. I would really like to change the class... If only the parents would let us.
After work Rob and I went to costco. We had hotdogs for dinner. We bought candy. He bought candy to give out at ECC, I brought candy to give out at Jeju.
Walking back, I smelt a horrible smell. It was me. But not really me. It was my shirt. This really bothered me. I had just washed the shirt on Sunday. So I said something to Rob. He said it happens every several months. We have to clean our washing machine or our clothes will stink. He told me how to clean the rubber gasket in the machine, and told me to do a cycle of it on the hot temperature with bleach. That is what I am doing right now. I will spray all of my clothes with a fabric softener/ water solution (ostensibly a poor mans febreeze) so I do not have to do 2 loads of laundry again.
I am making it another early night so hopefully by the morning I will be over whatever it is I have.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
치맥 Festival in Daegu
Saturday July 20th and Sunday July 21st
So. Woke up at met Karen and Callum at the Express bus terminal to head down to Daegu. It is about 3.5 hours away from Seoul. The busses are fantastic. We took the luxury bus, which was 10000 more each way than the regular, but well worth it. I have never been in a bus where I fit in the seats and where if the person in front of me leans back I do not get crushed. I fit and I did not get crushed. There were 3 seats in each row. 2 aisle 1. The seats were big and comfy and I was nowhere near smashed by the seat in front of me. So the bus there and back was 50000 won. Got to see some nice scenery driving down there. Mountains and little towns.I never really knew how mountainous Korea was. I know that there are mountains in Seoul, but the mountains go all of the way down.
We got to Daegu and met up with James. He is an English professor at Gyeongbuk University. Basically he has a job that I could get if I had above a bachelors degree. The difference between a hagwon kindergarten and a university. We all go and get a love motel room. A love motel is a cheap motel, where people go to have private time (It is not uncommon for multi generations of Koreans to live together, and many families, (grandparents, parents, and children all sleep in the same room), or what travelers stay in for cheap. The room was cozy, but not bad. Rob came by train. He had a meeting about a job.
We all left to go to the Daegu ChiMaek Festival. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P1BmZlWCws
If you do not remember ChiMaek or 치맥 is chicken and beer. This was the first year of the festival. It has a lot of potential... but it was pretty crazy. There were tons of Chicken places.... but the lines for each one was incredibly long. We literally waited an hour and a half to order our chicken... Now you may be thinking 'what?' instead of making chicken and just selling it. These places were making the chicken fresh. Yes... they fried the chicken per order instead of large batches. Fresh is good... but wow. There was a line for free beer too. So we waited in that line for 30 minutes, where they check out ID and give us a ticket for 3 free beers. They pulled Rob and James and myself out of line and helped up personally, and Karen, whom is Korean still had to go to the tent. Not like it really saved us much time. They did it when we were in the front of the line. Oh, I must mention Daegu is really hot and humid.
But James, Callum, Rob and I waited in line for the chicken together (Karen and another friend did a different line). While it may sound miserable, drinking and talking in line with a concert going on on the stage... well it was a blast.
We all got our chicken and ate some... decided it was time for a beer run... Well, before I left Seoul, I bought a chicken mask. So I put it on and went to get beer. Popular I was. A lot of people wanted to take pictures of me and with me. At one point there was a Dry Finish beer bottle walking around. I wanted a picture with it. You know, ChiMaek (chicken and beer). So after we took the picture, people almost lined up to take pictures with us. I was taking pictures for like 20 minutes. Then I also took pictures with a fake Psy. It was great.
Walking to catch a cab, I was still wearing the mask. Making people laugh, taking pictures, following people, and randomly yelling Beagaaak like when two people were walking toward me, or a couple holding hands, or by people at bus stops. People screamed and jumped. But the people that were walking behind us knew it was going to happen, and everyone just burst out in laughter every time.
We then went to some bar where James's friend was having a concert. Karen and Callum left, then Rob and I left shortly there after.
Sleeping was not great. Rob and I slept on the floor and Karen and Callum got the bed. Normally floor sleeping is not that bad for me... I just could not get comfortable. I think part of it was the allergies/cold was still bothering me, and also the fact that there was a bit of chafing that happened... as I said it was really hot and humid... and then wearing a chicken mask does not help, nor does being overweight and hairy.
I woke up at 9am, and the next person did not wake up till after 10. So I spent the morning reading on my phone. I have started The Count of Monte Cristo.
We met up with James and had pizza for lunch. The name of the place was NY Jets Pizza and they used the Jets logo. The pizza was actually really good. They just used the sweet tomato sauce that most places use in Korea. I am not a big fan of it. But other that that, it was happy.
We took a cab to the bus station, and waited at Starbucks till it was time for our bus to leave. I dozed in and out on the way back to Seoul.
I am spending the night doing laundry. I gave in and orderd McDelivery for dinner. I though about going and getting something... but walking still is sore. I hope I will feel better about walking tomorrow, and just feel better health wise tomorrow. The allergy/cold feels a lot better, but not up to 100% yet. I know 치맥 was not something that would help it... but oh well.
So here are some 치맥 pictures
So. Woke up at met Karen and Callum at the Express bus terminal to head down to Daegu. It is about 3.5 hours away from Seoul. The busses are fantastic. We took the luxury bus, which was 10000 more each way than the regular, but well worth it. I have never been in a bus where I fit in the seats and where if the person in front of me leans back I do not get crushed. I fit and I did not get crushed. There were 3 seats in each row. 2 aisle 1. The seats were big and comfy and I was nowhere near smashed by the seat in front of me. So the bus there and back was 50000 won. Got to see some nice scenery driving down there. Mountains and little towns.I never really knew how mountainous Korea was. I know that there are mountains in Seoul, but the mountains go all of the way down.
We got to Daegu and met up with James. He is an English professor at Gyeongbuk University. Basically he has a job that I could get if I had above a bachelors degree. The difference between a hagwon kindergarten and a university. We all go and get a love motel room. A love motel is a cheap motel, where people go to have private time (It is not uncommon for multi generations of Koreans to live together, and many families, (grandparents, parents, and children all sleep in the same room), or what travelers stay in for cheap. The room was cozy, but not bad. Rob came by train. He had a meeting about a job.
We all left to go to the Daegu ChiMaek Festival. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P1BmZlWCws
If you do not remember ChiMaek or 치맥 is chicken and beer. This was the first year of the festival. It has a lot of potential... but it was pretty crazy. There were tons of Chicken places.... but the lines for each one was incredibly long. We literally waited an hour and a half to order our chicken... Now you may be thinking 'what?' instead of making chicken and just selling it. These places were making the chicken fresh. Yes... they fried the chicken per order instead of large batches. Fresh is good... but wow. There was a line for free beer too. So we waited in that line for 30 minutes, where they check out ID and give us a ticket for 3 free beers. They pulled Rob and James and myself out of line and helped up personally, and Karen, whom is Korean still had to go to the tent. Not like it really saved us much time. They did it when we were in the front of the line. Oh, I must mention Daegu is really hot and humid.
But James, Callum, Rob and I waited in line for the chicken together (Karen and another friend did a different line). While it may sound miserable, drinking and talking in line with a concert going on on the stage... well it was a blast.
We all got our chicken and ate some... decided it was time for a beer run... Well, before I left Seoul, I bought a chicken mask. So I put it on and went to get beer. Popular I was. A lot of people wanted to take pictures of me and with me. At one point there was a Dry Finish beer bottle walking around. I wanted a picture with it. You know, ChiMaek (chicken and beer). So after we took the picture, people almost lined up to take pictures with us. I was taking pictures for like 20 minutes. Then I also took pictures with a fake Psy. It was great.
Walking to catch a cab, I was still wearing the mask. Making people laugh, taking pictures, following people, and randomly yelling Beagaaak like when two people were walking toward me, or a couple holding hands, or by people at bus stops. People screamed and jumped. But the people that were walking behind us knew it was going to happen, and everyone just burst out in laughter every time.
We then went to some bar where James's friend was having a concert. Karen and Callum left, then Rob and I left shortly there after.
Sleeping was not great. Rob and I slept on the floor and Karen and Callum got the bed. Normally floor sleeping is not that bad for me... I just could not get comfortable. I think part of it was the allergies/cold was still bothering me, and also the fact that there was a bit of chafing that happened... as I said it was really hot and humid... and then wearing a chicken mask does not help, nor does being overweight and hairy.
I woke up at 9am, and the next person did not wake up till after 10. So I spent the morning reading on my phone. I have started The Count of Monte Cristo.
We met up with James and had pizza for lunch. The name of the place was NY Jets Pizza and they used the Jets logo. The pizza was actually really good. They just used the sweet tomato sauce that most places use in Korea. I am not a big fan of it. But other that that, it was happy.
We took a cab to the bus station, and waited at Starbucks till it was time for our bus to leave. I dozed in and out on the way back to Seoul.
I am spending the night doing laundry. I gave in and orderd McDelivery for dinner. I though about going and getting something... but walking still is sore. I hope I will feel better about walking tomorrow, and just feel better health wise tomorrow. The allergy/cold feels a lot better, but not up to 100% yet. I know 치맥 was not something that would help it... but oh well.
So here are some 치맥 pictures
Waiting in line for Chicken
Fake Psy and Dry Finish Beer Dancers
Crowd
Crowd
Me and Dry Finish Bottle
Example of the pictures I was taking with a ton of people. Random Stranger. I'm glad Rob took it though so you can see what it was like
Me and Fake Psy.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
The weeks end
Friday July 19
Friday's are tough. I think I post about it every Friday. The Friday classes I teach are boring. It is hard to keep my kids attention on class instead of thinking about the weekend. One crier today. Shawn from Denmark. It was at the end of the day too. Literally 15 minutes until the bell rang. He took out his colored pencils (we were not using them). He said he had no black. I was checking everyones work with a black colored pebcil. His colored pencils are plastic pencil bodies, this one was a paper body (where you have to pull the string to expose more lead). I told him to put the pencils away... he just said no black no black... he puts them away and cries. Kate comes in to tell one of the students to take a different bus... she looks at him, looks at me, and I give her the I have no idea what is going on look. She smiles and leaves. 5 minutes before the bell Louise comes in to make sure everyone is getting all of their stuff. She sees him sobbing and asks what wrong. He says "my colored pencils" and she just nids her head and says okay. I give him the black one I had and he stopped. Almost the same thing happened several weeka ago with Andy in France. He did not have a red and was getting upset. I gave him the red I use to check work and he calmed down. These kids and their colored pencils.
For my 1st graders, they have them fill out sheets now for speakers corner. The kids dont like it. I dont like it. It makes what was normally a more fun and lighthearted class on Friday more of a chore.
The 10 year olds behaved pretty well today. We finished early and I took them to the seminar room and we watched adventure time. They enjoyed it and laughed. They understood it much better than the kindy kids. Not perfectly but enough to not be scared. I think one of thw girls may have a crush on me. She wrote a note in korean to her friend. Then the friend held it up for me to see as I was on the other side of the classroom. The girl who wrote it got really embarrassed, and the friend that held it up was giggling. The friend then put it in my basket with what appeared to be a translation. Needless to say They did not keep it there for long. It could have just been a note saying I hate Eric teacher... but both of them try hard in class and try to give me a hard time. Kind of like what I used to do when I had crushes on teachers.
After work I went home and slept. I did not feel well all say. Very congested. I could not tell if allergies or something else that has been going around. I wanted to rest because of the chicken and beer festival in daegu tomorrow. We all met up at 830 and went to go watch Pacific Rim... interesting movie. They could have made it great... but character development, script, chemistry, and story telling were all sub par. There is so much you could do with robots fighting monsters. They didn't.
I went home and then to bed.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
need sleep
Wednesday July 17th
Pretty standard day except for no crying! Nothing exciting happened in any of my Kindy classes. France did their work really quick. Australia worked quickly too. In Denmark, we actually got as much done as we were supposed to!
Firstgraders acted okay, and we got work done. They are really hit or miss.
My one on one with Chloe went pretty well. I am trying to get her to speak better. A lot of the Koreans will say things like This-uh, and-uh, because-uh and the likes. Part of it has to do with how the Korean language is. There is the restaurant Moms Touch, which I have spoken about before. Well in Korean is pronounced Moms Touch-ee. There are rules about how some things have to end in a vowel sound instead of a consonant sound. I am not exactly sure how the rule works... But the problem with the extra vowel ending can be seen from the Kindy up to the middle schoolers and adults. So I make her repeat the word as it is supposed to be said, and I am starting to count how many times she does it.
My 10 year olds acted much better and didnt speak much Korean at all!
After work, we at at the HoChicken by out apartments for Chicken and Beer. We spent a little time outside just talking.
In all, not an exciting day.
Thursday July 18th
The luck I had with no crying ended... Sharon cried. During play time, the girls in france were taking turns sitting on my knees as I read. Sharon, instead of being in line to do that asked for paper. When I told everyone to pick up, she started crying because she did not get to sit on my knee. So there was the typical "Sharon sad" and I said yes. With her crying there, I basically told her that she chose to draw instead of read. I then asked the 4 four girls that did, one by one, if they had asked for paper to draw. Each of them said no. She then just kept sniffling and weeping. Then Julie cried because she was leaning forward in her chair. We have new rules that if you lean in your chairs, take off shoes, get up, speak korean, you lose stars. It passed pretty quickly though.
The rest of my Kindy classes went well.
My first-graders had a test today. They acted surprisingly well.
For Korea... I brought some candy and some slime for them to play with as we were going over vocabulary. Vocab is tough, I brought up my concerns, and was basically told too bad. Erica loved the slime. She was playing with it the whole time, just laughing and smiling. Everyone played with it except Dylan. He was grossed by it, he even moved so he would not be sitting near it. At one point Erica tossed it to Dylan, and he did what most people do when something is flying toward them. He caught it and screamed like a little girl and threw it down on the table... then he realized it wasnt bad, so he played with it for a few minutes. It was funny to see how happy it made Erica. She was showing Angel different things that you can do with it. She didnt care what anyone thought... she just loved it. She had a smile on almost the entire class. She even answered questions 5x faster than she normally does.
I stayed late today and finished my report cards. Took far longer than I was expecting it to.
I went to pizza school for pizza. Came home, watched west wing... I am going to bed early. I am sooooo tired and I am not sure why...
Pretty standard day except for no crying! Nothing exciting happened in any of my Kindy classes. France did their work really quick. Australia worked quickly too. In Denmark, we actually got as much done as we were supposed to!
Firstgraders acted okay, and we got work done. They are really hit or miss.
My one on one with Chloe went pretty well. I am trying to get her to speak better. A lot of the Koreans will say things like This-uh, and-uh, because-uh and the likes. Part of it has to do with how the Korean language is. There is the restaurant Moms Touch, which I have spoken about before. Well in Korean is pronounced Moms Touch-ee. There are rules about how some things have to end in a vowel sound instead of a consonant sound. I am not exactly sure how the rule works... But the problem with the extra vowel ending can be seen from the Kindy up to the middle schoolers and adults. So I make her repeat the word as it is supposed to be said, and I am starting to count how many times she does it.
My 10 year olds acted much better and didnt speak much Korean at all!
After work, we at at the HoChicken by out apartments for Chicken and Beer. We spent a little time outside just talking.
In all, not an exciting day.
Thursday July 18th
The luck I had with no crying ended... Sharon cried. During play time, the girls in france were taking turns sitting on my knees as I read. Sharon, instead of being in line to do that asked for paper. When I told everyone to pick up, she started crying because she did not get to sit on my knee. So there was the typical "Sharon sad" and I said yes. With her crying there, I basically told her that she chose to draw instead of read. I then asked the 4 four girls that did, one by one, if they had asked for paper to draw. Each of them said no. She then just kept sniffling and weeping. Then Julie cried because she was leaning forward in her chair. We have new rules that if you lean in your chairs, take off shoes, get up, speak korean, you lose stars. It passed pretty quickly though.
The rest of my Kindy classes went well.
My first-graders had a test today. They acted surprisingly well.
For Korea... I brought some candy and some slime for them to play with as we were going over vocabulary. Vocab is tough, I brought up my concerns, and was basically told too bad. Erica loved the slime. She was playing with it the whole time, just laughing and smiling. Everyone played with it except Dylan. He was grossed by it, he even moved so he would not be sitting near it. At one point Erica tossed it to Dylan, and he did what most people do when something is flying toward them. He caught it and screamed like a little girl and threw it down on the table... then he realized it wasnt bad, so he played with it for a few minutes. It was funny to see how happy it made Erica. She was showing Angel different things that you can do with it. She didnt care what anyone thought... she just loved it. She had a smile on almost the entire class. She even answered questions 5x faster than she normally does.
I stayed late today and finished my report cards. Took far longer than I was expecting it to.
I went to pizza school for pizza. Came home, watched west wing... I am going to bed early. I am sooooo tired and I am not sure why...
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
bland day
Tuesday July 16th.
Today was pretty much, simply put, a run of the mill day. Sharon cried, not a tantrum, because I erased a star because she was not paying attention as we read. She started to cry, Julie said "Sharon is sad" and I said, yes, because I erased a star because she was not paying attention and read in the wrong place. Sally and Andy both had already lost stars, so I would like to assume that everyone would pay attention. One funny thing that happened was during snack time. I had the door open, so Ronnie was in the door watching kids walk down the hall and watching my class (as he does). So he is talking to someone, and says 네 (pronounced Nay) which means yes. So, my students say, 'He speaking Korean' because we tell the students all of the time No Korean, English Only. I said who, because I thought they might be talking about eachother, because they always say it about eachother. They respond Ronnie Teacher. To which he walks in the classroom and says "no, I said yes...yes" kinds of shakes his head, and leaves my doorway. I just laughed inside.... but it goes to show that kids are listening all of the time....
I was monitored in my Australia class. Jacks mom watched on CCTV (it is monitoring week). When I spoke to Christina (Korean co-teacher) she said Jacks mom was really happy with how the class went. I made the kids laugh some, work some, I got all of the kids to the front of the room to write, and I kept pretty good control of the class. Denmark was good. At the end of class, I changed the furniture around because I was teaching my first graders right after the Kindy. Ronnie came by and wanted to know why. I told him I was trying something different to keep the first graders under control. I had desks lined up 2 across, 3 deep, but facing the hallway instead of the white board. It actually worked really good. Halfway through the class I changed it to face the white board. Not for me, but for Karen teacher. Having it set up that way keeps the kids further apart and there is less interaction between them, since they are not sitting in only 2 lines across the class.
Korea class was very un energetic today. I tried, but I failed. We are preparing for a debate on using fur imported from China for clothes. Yes, this is a debate for 12 year olds. They do not care about these things. Erica was quite, but Angel... well I was able to get her into it. I am going to talk to Louise to see if I can get a new classroom for them. This one is a bad set up, and is the classroom that the 5 year olds use, so the tables and desks are really small.
The chicken guy was out by my apartment tonight, so I got one of the delicious chickens stuffed with rice. I was even able to put some of my siraccha and BBQ sauce on it. I was a very happy camper.
I am doing laundry and will go to be soon. I slept pretty horrible last night. Tossing and turning. I did not want to sleep with my AC on, but I probably should have.
Today was pretty much, simply put, a run of the mill day. Sharon cried, not a tantrum, because I erased a star because she was not paying attention as we read. She started to cry, Julie said "Sharon is sad" and I said, yes, because I erased a star because she was not paying attention and read in the wrong place. Sally and Andy both had already lost stars, so I would like to assume that everyone would pay attention. One funny thing that happened was during snack time. I had the door open, so Ronnie was in the door watching kids walk down the hall and watching my class (as he does). So he is talking to someone, and says 네 (pronounced Nay) which means yes. So, my students say, 'He speaking Korean' because we tell the students all of the time No Korean, English Only. I said who, because I thought they might be talking about eachother, because they always say it about eachother. They respond Ronnie Teacher. To which he walks in the classroom and says "no, I said yes...yes" kinds of shakes his head, and leaves my doorway. I just laughed inside.... but it goes to show that kids are listening all of the time....
I was monitored in my Australia class. Jacks mom watched on CCTV (it is monitoring week). When I spoke to Christina (Korean co-teacher) she said Jacks mom was really happy with how the class went. I made the kids laugh some, work some, I got all of the kids to the front of the room to write, and I kept pretty good control of the class. Denmark was good. At the end of class, I changed the furniture around because I was teaching my first graders right after the Kindy. Ronnie came by and wanted to know why. I told him I was trying something different to keep the first graders under control. I had desks lined up 2 across, 3 deep, but facing the hallway instead of the white board. It actually worked really good. Halfway through the class I changed it to face the white board. Not for me, but for Karen teacher. Having it set up that way keeps the kids further apart and there is less interaction between them, since they are not sitting in only 2 lines across the class.
Korea class was very un energetic today. I tried, but I failed. We are preparing for a debate on using fur imported from China for clothes. Yes, this is a debate for 12 year olds. They do not care about these things. Erica was quite, but Angel... well I was able to get her into it. I am going to talk to Louise to see if I can get a new classroom for them. This one is a bad set up, and is the classroom that the 5 year olds use, so the tables and desks are really small.
The chicken guy was out by my apartment tonight, so I got one of the delicious chickens stuffed with rice. I was even able to put some of my siraccha and BBQ sauce on it. I was a very happy camper.
I am doing laundry and will go to be soon. I slept pretty horrible last night. Tossing and turning. I did not want to sleep with my AC on, but I probably should have.
Monday, July 15, 2013
July is half over
Saturday July 13
Training today. I had training today for Jeju. Training took place in Bundang, a city outside of Seoul. It took an hour and a half to get to the training place. Training was fun... But wow... this camp is going to be no walk in the park. I initially understood it to be some teaching, but more of a role of camp counselor. Nope. These kids are not getting a camp experience a all. Every day is wake up at 7. Breakfast. Then 3 hours of class, lunch, 3 hours of class, Dinner then 2 hours of class. And the classes are intensives. Not a cake walk. My days are going to be from everyday before 7 till after 9. We lose our classes at 9, then we have a teachers meeting. While the money I get is going to be nice... its not that great. This is one of my longest breaks... and I do not get a break at all. I do not get to explore Jeju.
It is still awesome that I get to go. There are 4 English teachers and we are teaching the top 52 students from all of the ECC's. The class I am teaching is ironically the oldest kids (middle schoolers). I say ironically, because I am a full time Kindy teacher, and out of all of the classes I teach, only one is Middle School. The others are kindergarten and elementary. Next weekend, and throughout the week, I will start preparing material.
One of the classes we are doing is debate. A different format than the one we teach at school. They were going to show a video clip to show the students a debate. It was horrible. The people spoke too fast and it was a different format. So what did we do thanks for some genius... we recorded a mock debate using the format we are teaching. I just hope it turns out good.
I got home. The plan was to go to Ashleys again for the all you can eat. The one we were going to go to has all you can eat crab legs.... much to our misfortune, when we arrived, it was closed. Not because of hours, but because the Han River flooded. The restaurant is on a Barge... but with the river flooding, the gangway had to be closed. We went to another location in Sinchon. Food was still delicious, and the wine was still endlessly flowing. We stayed till they closed.
I then went with Ama and Sarah and one of her friends to meet Luke and Naray (I have no idea how to spell it). We went to a music bar, where we could request songs. We drank. We then went to a 노래방 (Noraebong) which is a karaoke place. We stayed there till late just singing and laughing. Such a great time at those places. Who doesn't love singing. We ate some Monster Pizza and headed home. We were trying to get a cab, but many passed us buy (it was raining and we were white). So I started taking pictures of the cabs that were passing us and not picking us up (Illegal). We were then picked up pretty quickly.
Sunday July 14th
Slept in. Played Computer games. I went to Itaewon. I needed to buy deodorant. Stores do sell some here in Korea, but most are not antiperspirant. If anyone knows anything about me, they know I am a sweaty guy. So I know what I need. I go to Itaewon. I buy Old Spice... but the market I am at has some other things I decided I want. Ranch Dressing. Siraccha (the one nicknamed cock sauce that is popular in the US), American BBQ sauce, Tobasco and Parmesan (while they can be purchased at other places, the international food market markup is less than emarts), and seasoned salt.
In Itaewon I looked at some custom suit places and custom shoe places. I can get 2 pair of custom handmade shoes for 290000 (yes, a lot, but custom handmade, and a guarantee {which doesnt mean much, but this guy had pictures of 2 US generals in his store, and the former joint Korean US military commander, all singing praises about his shoes}. Then I can get a custom hand tailored suit for 270000. Is it an expense I need to have? No. Do I want a suit out here. Yes. Do I need the shoes? Well if they are really guaranteed... yes. I have been here for 4.5 months and have already worn out one pair of dress shoes, put a hole in my SAS shoes, and my Converse are falling apart. I am tough on my shoes (partially because I am a flat footed over pronator).
I got home and ate some street ribs. I think I posted about them last time I got them. They are freaking delicious.
Watched some West Wing then went to bed.
Monday July 15th.
Sally was super tired in France. Before class, she climbed up on my leg, put her head on my arm, and passed out. So I let her sleep there for the 5 minutes before class started. But there were no criers in France Class!!!! Was it going to be one of those rare days with no crying? No. Australia class. We are doing math. Each person comes up to answer a problem on the board. Emily comes up, gets hers wrong, corrects it, sits down, and cries.
Denmark class was okay. They were really slow cleaning up after lunch. When I got to class (the time I am supposed to start teaching) there were still 2 of the 9 kids eating. I am okay because I am a little ahead in math. But as everyone is cleaning, Ronnie comes by and just looks in my window. So he is probably judging me... but I cant help that the teacher before me did not make sure the kids were done and ready when I went to class.
My first graders were okay. Emma had a lot of energy, so I let her act like the teacher, and I could tell she was getting a little frustrated that the kids could not be quiet. I wish I could say it is just because she was the one up there, but those kids are so loud and out of control. As tough as it is for me to say, I actually like the days I have them first (right after I am done with Kindy.) I know I used to complain... but the teacher before me has a hard time putting them on a leash. So they are all riled up when I walk in... When I have them first, they are energetic because they just got to ECC and out of elementary school. With here, I think it is because she has no boundaries or is not good at enforcing the rules.
For my 10 year olds, I explained to them why I acted harsh on Friday, and I think they understood. I almost make Diana cry... It was awesome. Not that I almost made her cry, but the circumstances that led up to it. She was taking with her friend in Korean. I warned them several times to stop. They did not do it constantly but enough to where I had to put a stop it it. I caught them again, and I said If I catch one of you speaking Korean again, I will move them to the back. Diana said 거짓말 almost under her breath. Now I do not know much Korean yet... but I do know that phrase. When Rob, Callum, Karen, Eva and I went to the Board Game room, one of the games we played used that phrase. I remember the phrase because it is pronounced like 'Go Cheat Mal'... Since I am a Firefly fan, it is easy to remember (Mal is a character). Anyway the phrase means, I do not believe you/lie. So I was like "What... you dont believe me, you think I am lying to you, get up, you are moving right now" at which point her eyes get really big, like oh crap. She is like... no no no, I'll stop... dont move me.... etc. I say to bad, and I tell her that even though they may not think I understand Korean, I do know some... And I just talk about how bad that is etc. Well she still refuses to move. So I take her books and move them to the back table, and then I drag her chair with her in it to the back table. Thats when she almost cries. But I had to do it, and I felt awesome. Because besides her eyes getting big that I understood, so did much of the classes. Her feeling of sadness did not last long. Pretty soon after she was moved back, Tomy and Roy started bickering. I asked her if she would mind if I moved her next to Barbie, and I would move Roy next to Tomy. She said okay. I sat Roy and Tomy together, and made them hold hands for the rest of class. Needles to say, that calmed them down quickly.
Came home, played on my Computer for a bit. Sarah was trying to get people together to order McDonalds. Not what I wanted, but I obliged. Sat outside and ate, now I am back in my room and will watch some West Wing or a movie.
Training today. I had training today for Jeju. Training took place in Bundang, a city outside of Seoul. It took an hour and a half to get to the training place. Training was fun... But wow... this camp is going to be no walk in the park. I initially understood it to be some teaching, but more of a role of camp counselor. Nope. These kids are not getting a camp experience a all. Every day is wake up at 7. Breakfast. Then 3 hours of class, lunch, 3 hours of class, Dinner then 2 hours of class. And the classes are intensives. Not a cake walk. My days are going to be from everyday before 7 till after 9. We lose our classes at 9, then we have a teachers meeting. While the money I get is going to be nice... its not that great. This is one of my longest breaks... and I do not get a break at all. I do not get to explore Jeju.
It is still awesome that I get to go. There are 4 English teachers and we are teaching the top 52 students from all of the ECC's. The class I am teaching is ironically the oldest kids (middle schoolers). I say ironically, because I am a full time Kindy teacher, and out of all of the classes I teach, only one is Middle School. The others are kindergarten and elementary. Next weekend, and throughout the week, I will start preparing material.
One of the classes we are doing is debate. A different format than the one we teach at school. They were going to show a video clip to show the students a debate. It was horrible. The people spoke too fast and it was a different format. So what did we do thanks for some genius... we recorded a mock debate using the format we are teaching. I just hope it turns out good.
I got home. The plan was to go to Ashleys again for the all you can eat. The one we were going to go to has all you can eat crab legs.... much to our misfortune, when we arrived, it was closed. Not because of hours, but because the Han River flooded. The restaurant is on a Barge... but with the river flooding, the gangway had to be closed. We went to another location in Sinchon. Food was still delicious, and the wine was still endlessly flowing. We stayed till they closed.
I then went with Ama and Sarah and one of her friends to meet Luke and Naray (I have no idea how to spell it). We went to a music bar, where we could request songs. We drank. We then went to a 노래방 (Noraebong) which is a karaoke place. We stayed there till late just singing and laughing. Such a great time at those places. Who doesn't love singing. We ate some Monster Pizza and headed home. We were trying to get a cab, but many passed us buy (it was raining and we were white). So I started taking pictures of the cabs that were passing us and not picking us up (Illegal). We were then picked up pretty quickly.
Sunday July 14th
Slept in. Played Computer games. I went to Itaewon. I needed to buy deodorant. Stores do sell some here in Korea, but most are not antiperspirant. If anyone knows anything about me, they know I am a sweaty guy. So I know what I need. I go to Itaewon. I buy Old Spice... but the market I am at has some other things I decided I want. Ranch Dressing. Siraccha (the one nicknamed cock sauce that is popular in the US), American BBQ sauce, Tobasco and Parmesan (while they can be purchased at other places, the international food market markup is less than emarts), and seasoned salt.
In Itaewon I looked at some custom suit places and custom shoe places. I can get 2 pair of custom handmade shoes for 290000 (yes, a lot, but custom handmade, and a guarantee {which doesnt mean much, but this guy had pictures of 2 US generals in his store, and the former joint Korean US military commander, all singing praises about his shoes}. Then I can get a custom hand tailored suit for 270000. Is it an expense I need to have? No. Do I want a suit out here. Yes. Do I need the shoes? Well if they are really guaranteed... yes. I have been here for 4.5 months and have already worn out one pair of dress shoes, put a hole in my SAS shoes, and my Converse are falling apart. I am tough on my shoes (partially because I am a flat footed over pronator).
I got home and ate some street ribs. I think I posted about them last time I got them. They are freaking delicious.
Watched some West Wing then went to bed.
Monday July 15th.
Sally was super tired in France. Before class, she climbed up on my leg, put her head on my arm, and passed out. So I let her sleep there for the 5 minutes before class started. But there were no criers in France Class!!!! Was it going to be one of those rare days with no crying? No. Australia class. We are doing math. Each person comes up to answer a problem on the board. Emily comes up, gets hers wrong, corrects it, sits down, and cries.
Denmark class was okay. They were really slow cleaning up after lunch. When I got to class (the time I am supposed to start teaching) there were still 2 of the 9 kids eating. I am okay because I am a little ahead in math. But as everyone is cleaning, Ronnie comes by and just looks in my window. So he is probably judging me... but I cant help that the teacher before me did not make sure the kids were done and ready when I went to class.
My first graders were okay. Emma had a lot of energy, so I let her act like the teacher, and I could tell she was getting a little frustrated that the kids could not be quiet. I wish I could say it is just because she was the one up there, but those kids are so loud and out of control. As tough as it is for me to say, I actually like the days I have them first (right after I am done with Kindy.) I know I used to complain... but the teacher before me has a hard time putting them on a leash. So they are all riled up when I walk in... When I have them first, they are energetic because they just got to ECC and out of elementary school. With here, I think it is because she has no boundaries or is not good at enforcing the rules.
For my 10 year olds, I explained to them why I acted harsh on Friday, and I think they understood. I almost make Diana cry... It was awesome. Not that I almost made her cry, but the circumstances that led up to it. She was taking with her friend in Korean. I warned them several times to stop. They did not do it constantly but enough to where I had to put a stop it it. I caught them again, and I said If I catch one of you speaking Korean again, I will move them to the back. Diana said 거짓말 almost under her breath. Now I do not know much Korean yet... but I do know that phrase. When Rob, Callum, Karen, Eva and I went to the Board Game room, one of the games we played used that phrase. I remember the phrase because it is pronounced like 'Go Cheat Mal'... Since I am a Firefly fan, it is easy to remember (Mal is a character). Anyway the phrase means, I do not believe you/lie. So I was like "What... you dont believe me, you think I am lying to you, get up, you are moving right now" at which point her eyes get really big, like oh crap. She is like... no no no, I'll stop... dont move me.... etc. I say to bad, and I tell her that even though they may not think I understand Korean, I do know some... And I just talk about how bad that is etc. Well she still refuses to move. So I take her books and move them to the back table, and then I drag her chair with her in it to the back table. Thats when she almost cries. But I had to do it, and I felt awesome. Because besides her eyes getting big that I understood, so did much of the classes. Her feeling of sadness did not last long. Pretty soon after she was moved back, Tomy and Roy started bickering. I asked her if she would mind if I moved her next to Barbie, and I would move Roy next to Tomy. She said okay. I sat Roy and Tomy together, and made them hold hands for the rest of class. Needles to say, that calmed them down quickly.
Came home, played on my Computer for a bit. Sarah was trying to get people together to order McDonalds. Not what I wanted, but I obliged. Sat outside and ate, now I am back in my room and will watch some West Wing or a movie.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Another Friday in.
Friday July 12th
Oh Fridays. France class was good. We did science and Cartoon. Ama and I took our classes to watch an Adventure Time... 2 of my girls asked to leave, so I took them back to class. Australia Amy cried because I made her stand up because I wanted her to do a problem on the board, and Emily teared up because her red colored pencil ran out, and we were supposed to be using red. Denmark was good, High energy but I was able to get them to do their work.
At some point, they moved my coffee maker to the teachers room, and even put a table there. In theory it is for snacks etc... but when snacks were brought in earlier in the day... they got put on the paper cutter like they normally are. Hopefully the table gets used for the snacks... it would help the flow of the room.
My firstgraders were wild today. My co-teacher printed paper with our speakers corner questions (speakers corner is just what it is called when the students answer questions in front of the class). So they had to fill those out first. Then they had to do the speaking. I did not feel like a fun teacher during the class. But anytime I get a little fun with the kids, they get out of control. I need to re-tighten my leash on them.
My 3 graders... I got a little angry with them. I took them to the bathroom... though unbeknownst to me 3 stayed behind in my class. One of them slammed the door several times. Normally it is not a big deal, but Ronnie and Louise where right there. So I had to rush back to class and get those 3 students to rejoin the class. I made the kids that slammed the door apologize to another class. He has done that several times. I needed him to learn he cannot do that. So I get everyone back to class and lecture them on how they are not supposed to do and act like that. Though I felt bad later, and will apologize on Monday. The three that stayed did it to hide my books, just to be silly. Normally I would play along with it and I know they expected me to. But since Ronnie and Louise heard the door slam several times... I got the eye from them, so I needed to drop the hammer on the kids. If I would have known their intention I would not have, or I would have done it in a silly way.
After work, I went out and picked up a dry erase board I got on Craigslist. Rob is going to try to start giving us some Korean classes. On the way back, I was gonna take a train, but the train during rush hour is not easy with a big dry erase board. So I took a cab. I was having a hard time getting a cab. A police officer noticed, and came over to help me. He told me where there was an intersection with a lot more cabs. I went and got one instantly. Yay for good cops...
Got home. Was hungry, and nobody wanted anything. It was raining outside so I did not feel like going out. What do I do? Order McDonalds. There is a new burger celebrating McDonalds coming to Korea in 1988. I wanted to get one before it goes away. It was okay. It had the korean red spice sauce. The spice is good, but it is sooooooo salty. (Funny, one of my students said they do not like American food because it is so salty, but there are so many salty foods here-kimchi, ramen, bean pastes....)
I bought bleach earlier this week and am currently doing a load of whites, hoping the bleach whitens them. Im gonna watch a movie then hit the hay. I have to wake up early tomorrow, cause I have training for the Jeju Island Teaching trip. It will take me over an hour to get to the training place. It starts at 9 in the morning. So I am just having a chill night home.
Thats all for now.
Oh Fridays. France class was good. We did science and Cartoon. Ama and I took our classes to watch an Adventure Time... 2 of my girls asked to leave, so I took them back to class. Australia Amy cried because I made her stand up because I wanted her to do a problem on the board, and Emily teared up because her red colored pencil ran out, and we were supposed to be using red. Denmark was good, High energy but I was able to get them to do their work.
At some point, they moved my coffee maker to the teachers room, and even put a table there. In theory it is for snacks etc... but when snacks were brought in earlier in the day... they got put on the paper cutter like they normally are. Hopefully the table gets used for the snacks... it would help the flow of the room.
My firstgraders were wild today. My co-teacher printed paper with our speakers corner questions (speakers corner is just what it is called when the students answer questions in front of the class). So they had to fill those out first. Then they had to do the speaking. I did not feel like a fun teacher during the class. But anytime I get a little fun with the kids, they get out of control. I need to re-tighten my leash on them.
My 3 graders... I got a little angry with them. I took them to the bathroom... though unbeknownst to me 3 stayed behind in my class. One of them slammed the door several times. Normally it is not a big deal, but Ronnie and Louise where right there. So I had to rush back to class and get those 3 students to rejoin the class. I made the kids that slammed the door apologize to another class. He has done that several times. I needed him to learn he cannot do that. So I get everyone back to class and lecture them on how they are not supposed to do and act like that. Though I felt bad later, and will apologize on Monday. The three that stayed did it to hide my books, just to be silly. Normally I would play along with it and I know they expected me to. But since Ronnie and Louise heard the door slam several times... I got the eye from them, so I needed to drop the hammer on the kids. If I would have known their intention I would not have, or I would have done it in a silly way.
After work, I went out and picked up a dry erase board I got on Craigslist. Rob is going to try to start giving us some Korean classes. On the way back, I was gonna take a train, but the train during rush hour is not easy with a big dry erase board. So I took a cab. I was having a hard time getting a cab. A police officer noticed, and came over to help me. He told me where there was an intersection with a lot more cabs. I went and got one instantly. Yay for good cops...
Got home. Was hungry, and nobody wanted anything. It was raining outside so I did not feel like going out. What do I do? Order McDonalds. There is a new burger celebrating McDonalds coming to Korea in 1988. I wanted to get one before it goes away. It was okay. It had the korean red spice sauce. The spice is good, but it is sooooooo salty. (Funny, one of my students said they do not like American food because it is so salty, but there are so many salty foods here-kimchi, ramen, bean pastes....)
I bought bleach earlier this week and am currently doing a load of whites, hoping the bleach whitens them. Im gonna watch a movie then hit the hay. I have to wake up early tomorrow, cause I have training for the Jeju Island Teaching trip. It will take me over an hour to get to the training place. It starts at 9 in the morning. So I am just having a chill night home.
Thats all for now.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
The week flew...
Tuesday July 9th
So. France class was okay. Juliet wept because she did not understand one of the problems we were doing in class. I saw Andy crying later in day and after that I saw Kelly crying. These are just me seeing them cry... I bet at least one other did.... they cry a lot. Australia and Denmark were both pretty good. Denmark was a little rambunctious at the end of the day, but that is expected.
My first graders were pretty good. I was going to try to take them to watch a cartoon, but as always, they were loud and rowdy. So I did not take them.
Korea class... well they were Korea class. Dylan was being really tough in class. Not listening, playing on his cell phone. So I threatened to take him out of class and give him to Louise. He kept it up, so I opened the door and said come with me. He said no. He moved to the front of the classroom and I kept on saying come here. So being creative, I held a vote in class whether I needed to take him out of class or leave him in. The two other boys voted to keep him and the girls voted him out. So I told him to follow me right now. I stood and kept telling him that, and he started to tear up. He sobbed all the while I kept telling him to get out. Then I went over to him and picked him out of the seat and made him come outside. I did not take him to Louise (that would have been counter productive). I did my praising him for being a good and smart student and told him how he was a leader and how everyone in class followed him. Then I talked about what he needs to do to be a better student and what I can do to be a better teacher for him. I had to take him out of class. If I let him stay when he acted like that, that would undermine my authority. I had to show him that he cannot act like that. After all of that, I was playing the music CD i made for them. I included the Macarena. Erica knew the motions, so I praised her with that, and she got happily embarrassed.
After school I went to emart and went shopping. I needed to buy a coffee maker for the office. I spend too much buying coffee every day. Emart did not have any good cheap ones. I then went to home plus. Bingo. There was a 10 cup coffee maker on clearance for 19000. When I looked were the boxes were, they were out. Normally in the states that would not be a problem, I'd just ask. Well I do not speak enough Korean. I eventually motioned that I needed help to an employee. She did not speak English. We had the conversation through miming. She went to the back and found one. Jackpot! I then decided I wanted some wine. So I bought a bottle.
I came home and I took a nap. Why not? Naps are awesome. When I woke up, I poured myself a glass of wine, and sad and watched a movie and relaxed.
Wednesday July 10th.
Field trip day! We went to Kids Park (or something like that). It was in a mall. It was a huge area with giant inflatable things, quasi jungle gyms, kids arcade games, a little pool with paddle boats, jump castles... Amazing. Great fieldtrip. Several injuries. Kids jumping and running... bumped heads and twisted ankles. But it was great. The kids got to run wild. As teachers we could do what we wanted. We could play with the kids or just sit down. I of course opted to play. Even though the kids had bouncy castles and trampolines... they still wanted me to lift them up to jump. Or to push them. Or to push inflatable things. Or to carry them... The airconditioner was not great and I use being uber active. So of course I soaked my shirt with sweat. There was one girl, Rose from Spain class. She is super cute. She always sticks her tongue out at me and I do it back to her. Making silly faces and all of that. I dont teach her, so it is all just in passing in the hallways. So we got to interact more. Of course she had me pick her up and 'jump' but after 20 times that got boring so we decided to make it more fun. I pick her up, we count to three and I jump in the air holding her, and we both fall backwards on our backs. She became the happiest kid. She got such a kick out of it. Of course... I did not really jump, more created the illusion of it and I kept control of her as she was falling... but to her it probably seemed like she was falling from 8 feet in the air and then landing on her back and bouncing. Kids laughing and happy... I just absolutely love it.
On the way back, Jin from Australia class fell asleep on my arm. Her head kept rolling down, so I propped my arm up to make a more comfortable sleep position for her. All of the kids were so worn out.
When we got back to ECC I changed shirts.
Firstgraders were loud and rowdy. My one on one with Chloe went well. Greece class was okay two. 2 of the kids got into a semi fight when the other teacher was teaching... So I was told to watch them. For me, nothing happened. I think some of the kids are too scared to act up. A lot of the Korean teachers do not know how to discipline the kids. Their discipline is to send them to Ronnie or Louise. Us foreign teachers discipline the kids and our discipline does not end with them getting candy. Every incident of fighting or major disrespect that I have heard about has happened with certain Korean teachers. There are definitely some Korean teachers that scare the kids. All kids push boundaries and see what they can get away with. Just like yesterday, we cant cave. If we do, the kid will just push harder next time.
After work, Ama, Rob, Niamh, and myself went to Ashleys. It is an American food joint. A buffet. All you can eat. Ate I did. There was American food, Korean food, and Korean American Fusion. The cost was 19000. For 3000 more it was all you could drink wine. Of course we did that too. The food was AMAZING. I ate and ate and ate and ate.4 full plates of food. When I say full, I mean full. Then the wine. Not great wine, but for 3000 and all you can drink... there were 4 types, and I tried all 4. 2 were good and 2 were types my mom would like (super sweet).
We walked home. Met the rest of the gang at GS, joined them for a beer, then went upstairs to go into food coma.
Thursday July 11th
PE Day. I woke up still absolutely full.Such a great feeling waking up and not being hungry. That does not happen to me very often. Since I only teach really only 2 Kindy classes all day, there is not much to say. Other than it is great. I could catch up on work if I were so inclined. I brewed some coffee. I relaxed. I prepared.
I tried to take my firstgraders to watch a cartoon. The class was on their best behavior all class. Then as soon as we got to the library to watch it, one of the kids shouted. Not just a little should, but an 'Oh my God my ears are bleeding' should. So I turned around and made all of the kids go back to class. The kids all went from being happy good students to depressed. I hated doing it to them, but some things are just unacceptable. The kid that yelled was Billy. Billy needs that attention. He probably did not think that I would actually take the class back to the classroom. Though of course, instead of being upset, he seemed to be happy about it. He still got attention. Allbeit negative attention. I dont know if he can really tell the difference. He is super smart... but there is something a little off about him. I am concerned about what he will become in the future. I am no child psychologist... but I would love for him to see one. Some of the tenancies he shows reminds me so much of the stereotypical traits of people with personality disorders. As I have talked about before, in Korea, nobody admits there are these disorders that we have in the western world. I think ADD and ADHD is thrown around too much in the US, but I definitely have kids that that fit the profile perfectly. I do not think there is anything wrong with having a disorder... but I also believe that treatments and medications can greatly improve living conditions for people. I also think that chemical imbalances, if left unchecked can grow out of control. If I have any child psychologists that read this, let me know. I would love to describe (confidentially of course) about this kid. Not really looking for anything diagnosis wise, just so you can help me find a way to connect and really help this kid succeed.
Korea class. Dylan was on much better behavior today. We had a vocab test. I have not graded them yet. I made a comment to Erica about how I hoped she didnt just fill in one letter for the entire test. She got maybe the biggest smile that I have seen her smile when I brought it up. She was also happy when she turned it in to me... so she may have done it again... She is getting better. Every class there is a small improvement. Hopefully her attitude and outlook are actually improving. With that, I honestly hope her ability to socialize and make friends improve. Going from a person that never smiled to a person that I can get to smile several times each class and sometimes laugh... it feels great.
We were going to all go out tonight to a bar... When I got home I was too tired and pulled out. Figured I would stay in. I hate being boring... but honesty, staying in is great. Just being able to be 'off' is needed.
So. France class was okay. Juliet wept because she did not understand one of the problems we were doing in class. I saw Andy crying later in day and after that I saw Kelly crying. These are just me seeing them cry... I bet at least one other did.... they cry a lot. Australia and Denmark were both pretty good. Denmark was a little rambunctious at the end of the day, but that is expected.
My first graders were pretty good. I was going to try to take them to watch a cartoon, but as always, they were loud and rowdy. So I did not take them.
Korea class... well they were Korea class. Dylan was being really tough in class. Not listening, playing on his cell phone. So I threatened to take him out of class and give him to Louise. He kept it up, so I opened the door and said come with me. He said no. He moved to the front of the classroom and I kept on saying come here. So being creative, I held a vote in class whether I needed to take him out of class or leave him in. The two other boys voted to keep him and the girls voted him out. So I told him to follow me right now. I stood and kept telling him that, and he started to tear up. He sobbed all the while I kept telling him to get out. Then I went over to him and picked him out of the seat and made him come outside. I did not take him to Louise (that would have been counter productive). I did my praising him for being a good and smart student and told him how he was a leader and how everyone in class followed him. Then I talked about what he needs to do to be a better student and what I can do to be a better teacher for him. I had to take him out of class. If I let him stay when he acted like that, that would undermine my authority. I had to show him that he cannot act like that. After all of that, I was playing the music CD i made for them. I included the Macarena. Erica knew the motions, so I praised her with that, and she got happily embarrassed.
After school I went to emart and went shopping. I needed to buy a coffee maker for the office. I spend too much buying coffee every day. Emart did not have any good cheap ones. I then went to home plus. Bingo. There was a 10 cup coffee maker on clearance for 19000. When I looked were the boxes were, they were out. Normally in the states that would not be a problem, I'd just ask. Well I do not speak enough Korean. I eventually motioned that I needed help to an employee. She did not speak English. We had the conversation through miming. She went to the back and found one. Jackpot! I then decided I wanted some wine. So I bought a bottle.
I came home and I took a nap. Why not? Naps are awesome. When I woke up, I poured myself a glass of wine, and sad and watched a movie and relaxed.
Wednesday July 10th.
Field trip day! We went to Kids Park (or something like that). It was in a mall. It was a huge area with giant inflatable things, quasi jungle gyms, kids arcade games, a little pool with paddle boats, jump castles... Amazing. Great fieldtrip. Several injuries. Kids jumping and running... bumped heads and twisted ankles. But it was great. The kids got to run wild. As teachers we could do what we wanted. We could play with the kids or just sit down. I of course opted to play. Even though the kids had bouncy castles and trampolines... they still wanted me to lift them up to jump. Or to push them. Or to push inflatable things. Or to carry them... The airconditioner was not great and I use being uber active. So of course I soaked my shirt with sweat. There was one girl, Rose from Spain class. She is super cute. She always sticks her tongue out at me and I do it back to her. Making silly faces and all of that. I dont teach her, so it is all just in passing in the hallways. So we got to interact more. Of course she had me pick her up and 'jump' but after 20 times that got boring so we decided to make it more fun. I pick her up, we count to three and I jump in the air holding her, and we both fall backwards on our backs. She became the happiest kid. She got such a kick out of it. Of course... I did not really jump, more created the illusion of it and I kept control of her as she was falling... but to her it probably seemed like she was falling from 8 feet in the air and then landing on her back and bouncing. Kids laughing and happy... I just absolutely love it.
On the way back, Jin from Australia class fell asleep on my arm. Her head kept rolling down, so I propped my arm up to make a more comfortable sleep position for her. All of the kids were so worn out.
When we got back to ECC I changed shirts.
Firstgraders were loud and rowdy. My one on one with Chloe went well. Greece class was okay two. 2 of the kids got into a semi fight when the other teacher was teaching... So I was told to watch them. For me, nothing happened. I think some of the kids are too scared to act up. A lot of the Korean teachers do not know how to discipline the kids. Their discipline is to send them to Ronnie or Louise. Us foreign teachers discipline the kids and our discipline does not end with them getting candy. Every incident of fighting or major disrespect that I have heard about has happened with certain Korean teachers. There are definitely some Korean teachers that scare the kids. All kids push boundaries and see what they can get away with. Just like yesterday, we cant cave. If we do, the kid will just push harder next time.
After work, Ama, Rob, Niamh, and myself went to Ashleys. It is an American food joint. A buffet. All you can eat. Ate I did. There was American food, Korean food, and Korean American Fusion. The cost was 19000. For 3000 more it was all you could drink wine. Of course we did that too. The food was AMAZING. I ate and ate and ate and ate.4 full plates of food. When I say full, I mean full. Then the wine. Not great wine, but for 3000 and all you can drink... there were 4 types, and I tried all 4. 2 were good and 2 were types my mom would like (super sweet).
We walked home. Met the rest of the gang at GS, joined them for a beer, then went upstairs to go into food coma.
Thursday July 11th
PE Day. I woke up still absolutely full.Such a great feeling waking up and not being hungry. That does not happen to me very often. Since I only teach really only 2 Kindy classes all day, there is not much to say. Other than it is great. I could catch up on work if I were so inclined. I brewed some coffee. I relaxed. I prepared.
I tried to take my firstgraders to watch a cartoon. The class was on their best behavior all class. Then as soon as we got to the library to watch it, one of the kids shouted. Not just a little should, but an 'Oh my God my ears are bleeding' should. So I turned around and made all of the kids go back to class. The kids all went from being happy good students to depressed. I hated doing it to them, but some things are just unacceptable. The kid that yelled was Billy. Billy needs that attention. He probably did not think that I would actually take the class back to the classroom. Though of course, instead of being upset, he seemed to be happy about it. He still got attention. Allbeit negative attention. I dont know if he can really tell the difference. He is super smart... but there is something a little off about him. I am concerned about what he will become in the future. I am no child psychologist... but I would love for him to see one. Some of the tenancies he shows reminds me so much of the stereotypical traits of people with personality disorders. As I have talked about before, in Korea, nobody admits there are these disorders that we have in the western world. I think ADD and ADHD is thrown around too much in the US, but I definitely have kids that that fit the profile perfectly. I do not think there is anything wrong with having a disorder... but I also believe that treatments and medications can greatly improve living conditions for people. I also think that chemical imbalances, if left unchecked can grow out of control. If I have any child psychologists that read this, let me know. I would love to describe (confidentially of course) about this kid. Not really looking for anything diagnosis wise, just so you can help me find a way to connect and really help this kid succeed.
Korea class. Dylan was on much better behavior today. We had a vocab test. I have not graded them yet. I made a comment to Erica about how I hoped she didnt just fill in one letter for the entire test. She got maybe the biggest smile that I have seen her smile when I brought it up. She was also happy when she turned it in to me... so she may have done it again... She is getting better. Every class there is a small improvement. Hopefully her attitude and outlook are actually improving. With that, I honestly hope her ability to socialize and make friends improve. Going from a person that never smiled to a person that I can get to smile several times each class and sometimes laugh... it feels great.
We were going to all go out tonight to a bar... When I got home I was too tired and pulled out. Figured I would stay in. I hate being boring... but honesty, staying in is great. Just being able to be 'off' is needed.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
The week is already going full swing
Sunday July 7th
Today was pretty much a wasted day. I slept in, which was fantastic. But in terms of accomplishing anything... well it didnt happen. I spent all day in front of my computer. Not even doing anything important on my computer. Just browsing reddit, reading the news (especially about the plane crash- since I love all things aviation).
Nobody wanted to do anything. It was a rainy day and nobody (including myself) really wanted to get out of our apartments.
At night I did want to see a movie. Not just any movie. Jurassic Park in IMAX 3D. I went with Eva. I love that movie. Seeing it on the big screen was amazing. The 3D actually worked too. Some movies it is too much, but with JP it enhanced it just enough without making it too cheesy.
I got home near midnight. Went to be and got ready for school.
Monday July 8th
Monday. It was not as crazy as some... but the day flew by quickly. I think I had a pretty good energy level most of the day. No real drama in any of my classes. I like it. Nobody cried, nor did I see anyone close to crying either! All of the classes when well.
With my 1st graders... I was going to have some extra time, so I was going to take them to the seminar room to watch something, but it was being used. I checked the library, but as soon as I stepped out the kids got loud so I came back. I started them reading... went to the library again, and came back and I caught some people talking. I told them we would not be able to go today because of that.
When I came back, Lucy was upset. Normally she has life. She kept her head down. I called her out to the hall to find out what was up. Ostensibly Billy called her ugly. I definitely can see that happening. I will talk to him tomorrow. But I just talked to her for a minute in the hall reassuring her that she was not ugly. I had her repeat "I am not ugly" and "I am pretty" and told her not to worry about what Billy or anyone else says. I just said a lot of the kids in our class like to get reactions. And the end I took her hand and made the little peace sign that Koreans do when people are taking pictures of them. I put it to her face and said "I'm a pretty princess" which embarrassed her buy made her smile. When she got back in class she was a lot more lively and happy. I figured instead of pulling Billy out immediately, it would just add to his need to get a reaction.
taking care of Lucy and making her happy I felt was more important than scolding Billy either in the class or outside. I can't just throw fuel on the fire. Billy can be really sweet and nice... unless he wants attention.
Came home and was gonna go with Rob to the hardware store- he was gonna get drain cleaner and I was just gonna see what they had... he said his drain was not working. Well before he left school, I told him how to dissemble it and clean it. Well, he let me know that he did not need to go to the hardware store anymore cause he cleaned his drain. I took a little nap. I then watched "The Giant Mechanical Man" on Netflix... I really liked it. Some of the themes in it really struck some cord with me.
For the last few days I have been in a Ramen mood. Yes Ramen noodles. Everyone eats them all the time here. I always associated it with poor college student. But nope. You see businessmen in suits slurping instant noodles just like children. Its cheap, and there are so many flavors of it. I know it is not the healthiest stuff. Buy it is sooooooo delicious. I know I did not like it as a kid. But this is better than the little square packages and cup-o-noodles. Besides being good, it is relatively filling.
Welp, thats all I have for now...
Today was pretty much a wasted day. I slept in, which was fantastic. But in terms of accomplishing anything... well it didnt happen. I spent all day in front of my computer. Not even doing anything important on my computer. Just browsing reddit, reading the news (especially about the plane crash- since I love all things aviation).
Nobody wanted to do anything. It was a rainy day and nobody (including myself) really wanted to get out of our apartments.
At night I did want to see a movie. Not just any movie. Jurassic Park in IMAX 3D. I went with Eva. I love that movie. Seeing it on the big screen was amazing. The 3D actually worked too. Some movies it is too much, but with JP it enhanced it just enough without making it too cheesy.
I got home near midnight. Went to be and got ready for school.
Monday July 8th
Monday. It was not as crazy as some... but the day flew by quickly. I think I had a pretty good energy level most of the day. No real drama in any of my classes. I like it. Nobody cried, nor did I see anyone close to crying either! All of the classes when well.
With my 1st graders... I was going to have some extra time, so I was going to take them to the seminar room to watch something, but it was being used. I checked the library, but as soon as I stepped out the kids got loud so I came back. I started them reading... went to the library again, and came back and I caught some people talking. I told them we would not be able to go today because of that.
When I came back, Lucy was upset. Normally she has life. She kept her head down. I called her out to the hall to find out what was up. Ostensibly Billy called her ugly. I definitely can see that happening. I will talk to him tomorrow. But I just talked to her for a minute in the hall reassuring her that she was not ugly. I had her repeat "I am not ugly" and "I am pretty" and told her not to worry about what Billy or anyone else says. I just said a lot of the kids in our class like to get reactions. And the end I took her hand and made the little peace sign that Koreans do when people are taking pictures of them. I put it to her face and said "I'm a pretty princess" which embarrassed her buy made her smile. When she got back in class she was a lot more lively and happy. I figured instead of pulling Billy out immediately, it would just add to his need to get a reaction.
taking care of Lucy and making her happy I felt was more important than scolding Billy either in the class or outside. I can't just throw fuel on the fire. Billy can be really sweet and nice... unless he wants attention.
Came home and was gonna go with Rob to the hardware store- he was gonna get drain cleaner and I was just gonna see what they had... he said his drain was not working. Well before he left school, I told him how to dissemble it and clean it. Well, he let me know that he did not need to go to the hardware store anymore cause he cleaned his drain. I took a little nap. I then watched "The Giant Mechanical Man" on Netflix... I really liked it. Some of the themes in it really struck some cord with me.
For the last few days I have been in a Ramen mood. Yes Ramen noodles. Everyone eats them all the time here. I always associated it with poor college student. But nope. You see businessmen in suits slurping instant noodles just like children. Its cheap, and there are so many flavors of it. I know it is not the healthiest stuff. Buy it is sooooooo delicious. I know I did not like it as a kid. But this is better than the little square packages and cup-o-noodles. Besides being good, it is relatively filling.
Welp, thats all I have for now...
Sunday, July 7, 2013
3 more days.
Thursday July 4th
Independence Day! Go America.
My Thursdays this month are going to be awesome! Out of the 6 Kindy classes I teach, 3 are gym time. Which means I do nothing. Out of the other 3 classes, one is Cartoon. so that is an easy class. So I pretty much teach 2 Kindy classes, my firstgraders, and Korea class. Not a hard day. Ama and I even went to Subway for lunch. Got a meatball sub and it was delicious. Nobody cried for me... though when I went by the gym to check on my kids, Juliet was crying.
Korea class was okay. I need to talk to Louise and Rachel. We are supposed to go over 2 chapters in one class. Each chapter has 20 words and 3 work pages. That is 40 words and 6 work pages in a 50 minute class. The class would be so much easier to teach if I got to spend time actually defining and giving examples of the words they are supposed to be learning. Brushing over them quickly is not a great thing to do, and it makes the class so hard to teach because the kids have no time to learn the words. I would have a tough time learning 40 new words and definitions in 50 minutes, let alone trying to do all of the other work. I also had the kids write down songs last week that they would want me to play in class. I did. It seemed to make the class go a little quicker because it livened up the students. What I can do to make it fun... well that is what I need to try to do.
Rob and I had a quasi double date. Not a real one. He was going out with a girl and she was bringing a friend. So Rob brought me along. It was obvious that her friend was just there incase Rob was a creeper. As soon as she sat down, she was on her cellphone the entire time. Perfectly okay with me though. We went to a German restaurant. Though we only had Korean food there. I was disappointed. The one good thing they had was beer that they brewed themselves. It actually had flavor, and that made me happy. So Rob, the girl he was there to see, and myself all had a good time. It was raining outside, but I got to see some cool looking buildings in Gangnam. I want to go there some time and look at all of the architecture there. Some parts of Seoul is very boring architecturally. But some the buildings that have been being build in the last 20 years are fantastic.
Rob and I came home and it was just a simple night.
Friday July 5th
School went pretty quickly today. We did cartoon in france class. We have to assign characters in class. All of the other classes are okay with it. They can work out who is who, or if they can, I just assign them randomly and the kids are disappointed, but they accept it. Not with france. They cry when they dont get their way. So I just made them sit quitely for 5 minutes and told them I would have their assignments on Monday. Very frustrating.
I need to change my schedules around to make all of my classes have better schedules on Friday. They kids are all antsy, and my Friday schedules are all boring. I need to have a fun class with good subject matter on Friday.
Firstgrade was good. Billy got mad and threw a pencil. So I sat down and spoke directly to him and had him pick up the pencil. He would not get it. Ronnie came in. He did not say anything! He just stood. I kept asking Billy to pick it up. I took Billy into the hallway and spoke to him. I praised him for being a good and smart student and told him he was a leader of the class and I needed him to act like it. We went in, and he went to pick up the pencil, though the class already picked it up for him. He then apologized to the class. Then William, the person that got Billy mad, I had him apologize to Billy. After class Ronnie asked me what happened, and I told him. He just shook his head. But I appreciated him not taking matters into his own hands. Billy is a student that many people did not like (He was the kid that made another students nose bleed earlier this year). Teachers were afraid of him. I think Ronnie may have just not wanted to get involved. But I praising Billy and treating him like an adult seems to get him to act better than coddling him.
Angela (my coteacher for Greece) was talking to be about getting work done in class. She was telling me everything that I needed to do. So I pulled out one of the things that she wants me to do in class. She is Korean but fluent in English. It took her 5 minutes to figure the answers in one excercise... I am supposed to do 4 of those with my students, plus our reading, plus our workbook, plus listening to our CD. I do not think she realized how difficult these things were. She expects 10 year olds that are just learning the language to be able to do something that she cannot. I'll try to figure out how to do it.
At night we went to Hongdae to meet up with one of Robs friends, James. He lives in the southern part of Korea. He comes up occasionally. We went for BBQ, then went to Joons because we wanted to play beer pong. So it was Rob and James vs me and Ama. We won. then It was Sarah and Bella vs Me and Ama, and we won. Then we played some strangers and won, played against other strangers and won, then finally it was Joon and his friend, vs, Me and one of the people that I previously beat. We won. I was undefeated in 5 games of beer pong. The good thing about winning is you drink less. The other team drinks whatever cups you still have full. Winning you drink a lot less then losing.
Got taco bell and we took a cab home.
Saturday July 6th.
We were going to go to a big water park today. We were going to meet downstairs at 8. Well last night 4 people cancelled. So Sarah, Rob and I all texted. It was just us 3. So we decided that we were not going to do it. Ama texted when he woke up. By then it was already too late. Instead of a water park, we went to a pool. The swimming pools in Korea are pretty horrible. Everyone (including bald me) has to wear a shower cap in the pool. The pool was only about 4 feet deep. And everyone has to get out of the pool for 15 minutes out of the hour. They literally make everyone get out of the water for 15 minutes. Its incredibly weird. We running joke (at least among expats) is that if you are in for longer than 45 minutes, you will drown. There are a lot of Koreans that are scared of the water and scared of drowning. Never the less,there are the mandatory rest breaks. So if I wanted to spend all day in the pool, well, I cant. Even though I could be on my knees and my head still above the water. No diving boards... no deep part. But thats how all pools are here. Also it was comical to see all of the kids in the kid part of the pool with life vests, floaties, interttubes, and evertything. The water there was even more shallow than the adult side. But every kid had a flotation aid of some sort. We left the pool and got back to Bobo.
By the time we got there, the tower itself was cloased so we could not go to the top of that, but we walked around the top of the mountain, looked at the city lights of Seoul.
There is a fence on the tower where people put locks to symbolize their love. We tried to find the lock that Rob put up there with his ex. we could not find it. There are literally millions of locks up there and he loosely remembered the general area.
We walked down the hill. As we were looking at a map, we started talking to 2 girls that were a little confused. 2 Teens from Hong Kong visiting Seoul. So they joind us for the walk down. I think there were a little scared to walk alone. They could speak English, but not Korean. So we ware walking down. Then 2 bikes pass right by me, I could feel the wind from them. They are speeding down the side of the mountain. I say "well thats safe." Then a few seconds later, wack. A bike speeds into my back and hits me hard. I am walking on the walkway, not the road where the bikes are going. I guess he took the turn too wide. I take 2 quick steps and maintain my balance. This guy gets thrown from his bike and slides. My friends said it looked just like him hitting a brick wall. Nobody was hurt. Though if he would have hit anyone else (especially one of the teens from Hong Kong) then someone could have gotten injured pretty bad. We get to the bottom of the mountain, and they catch a cab.
Rob and Sarah and I just keep walking and talking and looking around Seoul. I climbed and sat on a wall with rocks overhanging. I scratched my arm a little, but I was happy I was able to climb it.
We walked and walked. We were walking till nearly 3 in the morning. Then we took a cab back to Bobo.
We did the whole trip not drinking. I think the three of us are strarting to feel like we are getting a little trapped in the same routine. Not only the drinking aspect, but the things we do. So it was refreshing to get out of that. Not that there is a problem with that routine... but going to Hongdae and drinking and dancing, or sitting out in front of the GS mart all night... there is so much more to do. Hopefully we will start doing more things like this.
Independence Day! Go America.
My Thursdays this month are going to be awesome! Out of the 6 Kindy classes I teach, 3 are gym time. Which means I do nothing. Out of the other 3 classes, one is Cartoon. so that is an easy class. So I pretty much teach 2 Kindy classes, my firstgraders, and Korea class. Not a hard day. Ama and I even went to Subway for lunch. Got a meatball sub and it was delicious. Nobody cried for me... though when I went by the gym to check on my kids, Juliet was crying.
Korea class was okay. I need to talk to Louise and Rachel. We are supposed to go over 2 chapters in one class. Each chapter has 20 words and 3 work pages. That is 40 words and 6 work pages in a 50 minute class. The class would be so much easier to teach if I got to spend time actually defining and giving examples of the words they are supposed to be learning. Brushing over them quickly is not a great thing to do, and it makes the class so hard to teach because the kids have no time to learn the words. I would have a tough time learning 40 new words and definitions in 50 minutes, let alone trying to do all of the other work. I also had the kids write down songs last week that they would want me to play in class. I did. It seemed to make the class go a little quicker because it livened up the students. What I can do to make it fun... well that is what I need to try to do.
Rob and I had a quasi double date. Not a real one. He was going out with a girl and she was bringing a friend. So Rob brought me along. It was obvious that her friend was just there incase Rob was a creeper. As soon as she sat down, she was on her cellphone the entire time. Perfectly okay with me though. We went to a German restaurant. Though we only had Korean food there. I was disappointed. The one good thing they had was beer that they brewed themselves. It actually had flavor, and that made me happy. So Rob, the girl he was there to see, and myself all had a good time. It was raining outside, but I got to see some cool looking buildings in Gangnam. I want to go there some time and look at all of the architecture there. Some parts of Seoul is very boring architecturally. But some the buildings that have been being build in the last 20 years are fantastic.
Rob and I came home and it was just a simple night.
Friday July 5th
School went pretty quickly today. We did cartoon in france class. We have to assign characters in class. All of the other classes are okay with it. They can work out who is who, or if they can, I just assign them randomly and the kids are disappointed, but they accept it. Not with france. They cry when they dont get their way. So I just made them sit quitely for 5 minutes and told them I would have their assignments on Monday. Very frustrating.
I need to change my schedules around to make all of my classes have better schedules on Friday. They kids are all antsy, and my Friday schedules are all boring. I need to have a fun class with good subject matter on Friday.
Firstgrade was good. Billy got mad and threw a pencil. So I sat down and spoke directly to him and had him pick up the pencil. He would not get it. Ronnie came in. He did not say anything! He just stood. I kept asking Billy to pick it up. I took Billy into the hallway and spoke to him. I praised him for being a good and smart student and told him he was a leader of the class and I needed him to act like it. We went in, and he went to pick up the pencil, though the class already picked it up for him. He then apologized to the class. Then William, the person that got Billy mad, I had him apologize to Billy. After class Ronnie asked me what happened, and I told him. He just shook his head. But I appreciated him not taking matters into his own hands. Billy is a student that many people did not like (He was the kid that made another students nose bleed earlier this year). Teachers were afraid of him. I think Ronnie may have just not wanted to get involved. But I praising Billy and treating him like an adult seems to get him to act better than coddling him.
Angela (my coteacher for Greece) was talking to be about getting work done in class. She was telling me everything that I needed to do. So I pulled out one of the things that she wants me to do in class. She is Korean but fluent in English. It took her 5 minutes to figure the answers in one excercise... I am supposed to do 4 of those with my students, plus our reading, plus our workbook, plus listening to our CD. I do not think she realized how difficult these things were. She expects 10 year olds that are just learning the language to be able to do something that she cannot. I'll try to figure out how to do it.
At night we went to Hongdae to meet up with one of Robs friends, James. He lives in the southern part of Korea. He comes up occasionally. We went for BBQ, then went to Joons because we wanted to play beer pong. So it was Rob and James vs me and Ama. We won. then It was Sarah and Bella vs Me and Ama, and we won. Then we played some strangers and won, played against other strangers and won, then finally it was Joon and his friend, vs, Me and one of the people that I previously beat. We won. I was undefeated in 5 games of beer pong. The good thing about winning is you drink less. The other team drinks whatever cups you still have full. Winning you drink a lot less then losing.
Got taco bell and we took a cab home.
Saturday July 6th.
We were going to go to a big water park today. We were going to meet downstairs at 8. Well last night 4 people cancelled. So Sarah, Rob and I all texted. It was just us 3. So we decided that we were not going to do it. Ama texted when he woke up. By then it was already too late. Instead of a water park, we went to a pool. The swimming pools in Korea are pretty horrible. Everyone (including bald me) has to wear a shower cap in the pool. The pool was only about 4 feet deep. And everyone has to get out of the pool for 15 minutes out of the hour. They literally make everyone get out of the water for 15 minutes. Its incredibly weird. We running joke (at least among expats) is that if you are in for longer than 45 minutes, you will drown. There are a lot of Koreans that are scared of the water and scared of drowning. Never the less,there are the mandatory rest breaks. So if I wanted to spend all day in the pool, well, I cant. Even though I could be on my knees and my head still above the water. No diving boards... no deep part. But thats how all pools are here. Also it was comical to see all of the kids in the kid part of the pool with life vests, floaties, interttubes, and evertything. The water there was even more shallow than the adult side. But every kid had a flotation aid of some sort. We left the pool and got back to Bobo.
Rob, Sarah, and I instead of staying and drinking, we decided to go out and explore. We walked across the bridge of life at night and got to see the signs light up. We took a cab to Namsan Tower (Seoul Tower). We took a cable car to the top of the mountain.
By the time we got there, the tower itself was cloased so we could not go to the top of that, but we walked around the top of the mountain, looked at the city lights of Seoul.
There is a fence on the tower where people put locks to symbolize their love. We tried to find the lock that Rob put up there with his ex. we could not find it. There are literally millions of locks up there and he loosely remembered the general area.
We walked down the hill. As we were looking at a map, we started talking to 2 girls that were a little confused. 2 Teens from Hong Kong visiting Seoul. So they joind us for the walk down. I think there were a little scared to walk alone. They could speak English, but not Korean. So we ware walking down. Then 2 bikes pass right by me, I could feel the wind from them. They are speeding down the side of the mountain. I say "well thats safe." Then a few seconds later, wack. A bike speeds into my back and hits me hard. I am walking on the walkway, not the road where the bikes are going. I guess he took the turn too wide. I take 2 quick steps and maintain my balance. This guy gets thrown from his bike and slides. My friends said it looked just like him hitting a brick wall. Nobody was hurt. Though if he would have hit anyone else (especially one of the teens from Hong Kong) then someone could have gotten injured pretty bad. We get to the bottom of the mountain, and they catch a cab.
Rob and Sarah and I just keep walking and talking and looking around Seoul. I climbed and sat on a wall with rocks overhanging. I scratched my arm a little, but I was happy I was able to climb it.
We walked and walked. We were walking till nearly 3 in the morning. Then we took a cab back to Bobo.
We did the whole trip not drinking. I think the three of us are strarting to feel like we are getting a little trapped in the same routine. Not only the drinking aspect, but the things we do. So it was refreshing to get out of that. Not that there is a problem with that routine... but going to Hongdae and drinking and dancing, or sitting out in front of the GS mart all night... there is so much more to do. Hopefully we will start doing more things like this.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
First Tuesday and Wednesday in July.
Tuesday July 2nd.
Pretty typical Tuesday. Sharon teared up a little in France because she could not find one of her colored pencils. Found out that over the weekend (not sure if this or last) all of the France kids got together with their parents. Andy hit Fred in the back. This of course shocked all of the parents, and it shocked all of us teachers too. In class Andy and Fred seem to get along really well. Normally it is Andy and David that are physical. So we all have to keep a close watch on them now. Otherwise the parents may pull them. I know I have talked about Andys frustration, but I have not seem him get physical with a person. Normally it is just slapping the desk or shutting a book with force.
Denmark and Australia all went okay. I tried to implement the Citizenship stuff I learned at my training several weeks ago. It seemed to flow better, but bringing the kids to the seminar room ate up a lot of my time to teach the class. I wish all of the classes had computers with big screens. It would make life so much easier.
We took a test in my afternoon Denmark class (formerly Canada class... I may just keep calling them that). I caught 2 girls cheating and am making them retake the test tomorrow.
Korea classes debate was painful. It was Angels first time and she had a difficult time. Most of the students did... Though the closing arguments, Dylan actually was able to put together a decent string of thoughts for it.
I cam home and had to do my progress reports for my Greece class. Those are really not that fun to do. It also makes it tough because we are not supposed to rank or rate the kids poorly. Some of the kids that are below average... I have to call their work satisfactory or above. If kids do poorly, the parents get mad.
I know that almost all teachers face the problem of having students below average keeping the above average students down. It pains me so much to see. Some of this kids in my classes are so far behind, they just really hold most of the class back. There is nothing I can do about it. I'd like to imagine that if I were a parent I would be more concerned about my kids learning that about my pride. I would want to know my kid sucks at something, that way I can find something more appropriate for them... whether it be a tutor, different class, or different school.
After that, I watched a movie and drank a beer.
Wednesday July 3rd
Juliet had a little weep today. Not exactly sure what it was over.... but it came to pass really quickly. Juliet is so interesting. She normally has the weepy look on her face, as if she could weep any minute... but when she smiles she has one of the biggest and shining smiles I have seen. Her complete persona changes. If only she smiled more often. If you are having a tough day, her smile could lighten up even the hardest hearts. I am now a little concerned about Sally. She has been talking less and less. In class that is a good thing, but she now talks less outside of the class. she used to talk to anyone and everyone and now she seems super shy. I am hoping it is just because she lost her 2 front teeth and she doesn't like talking because she cannot pronounce words correctly.
We watched our Cartoon Network cartoon in Australia. We just got Adventure Time to show the kids too. Well I started, and the first episode that we have is Episode 1 of Season 2. An episode where a vampire goes around sucking souls. Scary. So I stopped that episode. I picked another one at random. It starts off showing the Ice King having a princess in a dungeon. So that one was stopped at the request of several students. I love adventure time... but I will not be showing it to my students any more. I'd show it to my older students, but not the Kindys.
Denmark class, the students always call me over to whisper in my ear. Normally it goes something like "Eric Teacher is Good" Or "Eric Teacher is very very very best!" Which I definitely enjoy hearing. I known I do not talk about Denmark class as much as my other classes. But it seems like most of the time I guess I am doing something right. Soo always wants to write on my hand and the kids often write me little notes on scraps of paper that say the same things they whisper. One funny thing that Soo does is draws me, and then draws Eric Teachers wife. She asks me several times a week if I have a girlfriend or am married. She always has a different name for my wife... The wife I had today, she drew a baby in her stomach... I laughed so much on the inside when I saw that.
In Canada class today we are writing an autobiography... So I printed up little cheat sheets. It cause more stress for me than if I had not done it.
Greece I tried acting different... but it did not work so well. I think part of it was that we got a new student. Now that I have my Canada class under control (or able to keep controlled and entertained) I will now find a way for my Greece class.
After school we GS marted it and ordered some really big pizzas from Pizza Heaven. Good pizza and decently priced. We all left incredibly full.
We did not stay at the GS for that long.
I came up stairs and put together a video of my Denmark class from speech (though the audio is really poor and I do not know if it will work). I also burned a music CD to listen to in my Korea Class as we do vocabulary.
Now I am off to bed.
Pretty typical Tuesday. Sharon teared up a little in France because she could not find one of her colored pencils. Found out that over the weekend (not sure if this or last) all of the France kids got together with their parents. Andy hit Fred in the back. This of course shocked all of the parents, and it shocked all of us teachers too. In class Andy and Fred seem to get along really well. Normally it is Andy and David that are physical. So we all have to keep a close watch on them now. Otherwise the parents may pull them. I know I have talked about Andys frustration, but I have not seem him get physical with a person. Normally it is just slapping the desk or shutting a book with force.
Denmark and Australia all went okay. I tried to implement the Citizenship stuff I learned at my training several weeks ago. It seemed to flow better, but bringing the kids to the seminar room ate up a lot of my time to teach the class. I wish all of the classes had computers with big screens. It would make life so much easier.
We took a test in my afternoon Denmark class (formerly Canada class... I may just keep calling them that). I caught 2 girls cheating and am making them retake the test tomorrow.
Korea classes debate was painful. It was Angels first time and she had a difficult time. Most of the students did... Though the closing arguments, Dylan actually was able to put together a decent string of thoughts for it.
I cam home and had to do my progress reports for my Greece class. Those are really not that fun to do. It also makes it tough because we are not supposed to rank or rate the kids poorly. Some of the kids that are below average... I have to call their work satisfactory or above. If kids do poorly, the parents get mad.
I know that almost all teachers face the problem of having students below average keeping the above average students down. It pains me so much to see. Some of this kids in my classes are so far behind, they just really hold most of the class back. There is nothing I can do about it. I'd like to imagine that if I were a parent I would be more concerned about my kids learning that about my pride. I would want to know my kid sucks at something, that way I can find something more appropriate for them... whether it be a tutor, different class, or different school.
After that, I watched a movie and drank a beer.
Wednesday July 3rd
Juliet had a little weep today. Not exactly sure what it was over.... but it came to pass really quickly. Juliet is so interesting. She normally has the weepy look on her face, as if she could weep any minute... but when she smiles she has one of the biggest and shining smiles I have seen. Her complete persona changes. If only she smiled more often. If you are having a tough day, her smile could lighten up even the hardest hearts. I am now a little concerned about Sally. She has been talking less and less. In class that is a good thing, but she now talks less outside of the class. she used to talk to anyone and everyone and now she seems super shy. I am hoping it is just because she lost her 2 front teeth and she doesn't like talking because she cannot pronounce words correctly.
We watched our Cartoon Network cartoon in Australia. We just got Adventure Time to show the kids too. Well I started, and the first episode that we have is Episode 1 of Season 2. An episode where a vampire goes around sucking souls. Scary. So I stopped that episode. I picked another one at random. It starts off showing the Ice King having a princess in a dungeon. So that one was stopped at the request of several students. I love adventure time... but I will not be showing it to my students any more. I'd show it to my older students, but not the Kindys.
Denmark class, the students always call me over to whisper in my ear. Normally it goes something like "Eric Teacher is Good" Or "Eric Teacher is very very very best!" Which I definitely enjoy hearing. I known I do not talk about Denmark class as much as my other classes. But it seems like most of the time I guess I am doing something right. Soo always wants to write on my hand and the kids often write me little notes on scraps of paper that say the same things they whisper. One funny thing that Soo does is draws me, and then draws Eric Teachers wife. She asks me several times a week if I have a girlfriend or am married. She always has a different name for my wife... The wife I had today, she drew a baby in her stomach... I laughed so much on the inside when I saw that.
In Canada class today we are writing an autobiography... So I printed up little cheat sheets. It cause more stress for me than if I had not done it.
Greece I tried acting different... but it did not work so well. I think part of it was that we got a new student. Now that I have my Canada class under control (or able to keep controlled and entertained) I will now find a way for my Greece class.
After school we GS marted it and ordered some really big pizzas from Pizza Heaven. Good pizza and decently priced. We all left incredibly full.
We did not stay at the GS for that long.
I came up stairs and put together a video of my Denmark class from speech (though the audio is really poor and I do not know if it will work). I also burned a music CD to listen to in my Korea Class as we do vocabulary.
Now I am off to bed.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Update of not much
Friday June 28.
This week went really quickly. Like incredibly quickly. I missed another 2 classes. One France and one Australia. We had good manners education. Good manners is where the students learn things in korean. Today we learned about the human body and sex ed. Yes for our kindergarten students.
The class had anatomically correct dolls. A girl and a boy and a man and a woman. Literally anatomically correct. Anus, penis, vagina, breast, pubic hair. As a bonus the teacher could reach into the woman's vagina an pull out a baby with placenta attached.
I did not sit in with france class because I had work to do and I had no idea what it was about. I walked passed to see if they were done and I saw the teacher holding up a doll with a penis. I had to do a double take. I sat in with my Australia class. I had to be incredibly mature. I was. The korea co teacher I was in with giggled a bit... I think its because she understood what the kids were saying. Luckily I could not. I was talking to the other teachers and they were saying that it is actually a good way of doing it. If nobody makes a big deal out of it, then the kids do not think it is a big deal. If you treat the human body just like you treat anything else you learn about, there is less of a "oooh, thats dirty" mentality.
This week went really quickly. Like incredibly quickly. I missed another 2 classes. One France and one Australia. We had good manners education. Good manners is where the students learn things in korean. Today we learned about the human body and sex ed. Yes for our kindergarten students.
The class had anatomically correct dolls. A girl and a boy and a man and a woman. Literally anatomically correct. Anus, penis, vagina, breast, pubic hair. As a bonus the teacher could reach into the woman's vagina an pull out a baby with placenta attached.
I did not sit in with france class because I had work to do and I had no idea what it was about. I walked passed to see if they were done and I saw the teacher holding up a doll with a penis. I had to do a double take. I sat in with my Australia class. I had to be incredibly mature. I was. The korea co teacher I was in with giggled a bit... I think its because she understood what the kids were saying. Luckily I could not. I was talking to the other teachers and they were saying that it is actually a good way of doing it. If nobody makes a big deal out of it, then the kids do not think it is a big deal. If you treat the human body just like you treat anything else you learn about, there is less of a "oooh, thats dirty" mentality.
Not much else happened for the rest of the day, which isnt really a bad thing. Canada was pretty crazy, but that is expected on a Friday, and I had to finish up my tests for Greece class.
At night, we headed to see Soundbox in the park. Soundbox is a very ecclectic group of musicians that play pretty cool music. I have heard a lot about them, but never got to experience them. They have about 12 members playing different things, they also have some people that tapdance. In all it is just good ole fun music to listen to. We had dinner at a Korean BBQ joint. Good as always. We went back to the park for drinks, then we went to B2 and dances and then to FF and danced. Far more exercise than I am used to getting. Got some Taco Bell before we headed back to Bobo.
Saturday June 29
Not much of anything happened today. Woke up and started cleaning my room. We are planning on going to a water park next week and Rob and I did not have swim trunks. So we and Sarah decided to go to the department store to buy some trunks. I got a pair, they fit in the waist, but the legs are a bit skinny. Oh well... thats what I get for being big.
We had cold noodles for lunch.
Headed back to Bobo, and we played 2 games of settlers (one with complicated rules that made the game boring). Then Eva and one of Robs friends came over and we played Apples to Apples and some poker. Just a simple Saturday.
Sunday June 30th
I left bobo to go pick up a Pikachu costume someone was selling. It turns out the person selling it was Paul. Paul used to live in Bobo and work at Mokdong ECC. He knows Ama and Rob. Paul bought it off of a guy named Chris that bought it when he worked at Mokdong ECC. Complete coincidence... but maybe the costume is meant to stay at ECC.
I walked toward home and I walked over Mapo Bridge. No big deal... except it is. Here is a video about Mapo bridge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYMWPSKpRpE I did it during the day. It was so amazing and powerful. I had no idea what most of this was saying... but still. It was a genius thing to do. Just walking across the brigde opens your eyes. Just seeing the signs reminds me of how desperate some people are. I really want to go see it at night.
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I know sometimes we can all be jaded... but this... it gives me so much faith in humanity.
As I was walking along the bridge I found a note with a phone number and a time on it. I snapped a picture of it and sent it to one of my Korean friends. I just wanted to make make sure it was not a persons cry for help. It wasn't. Walking across it, it is such a strange feeling... or it was for me. So awesome and serene at the same time.
I ten walked through Yeuido park, whent back to Bobo, went back to Yeuido where the little wading pools that we go to. We saw this guy. There is supposed to be a class somewhere on the Han that teaches you how to do this and you get to do it for 20 minutes. So we all want to do this... it would be fun.
Ama, Rob, Heyjin, and myself all went to see World War Z. It was entertaining. Not the best movie ever, but I enjoyed it.
I came home, did laundry, talked to my parents, and that was the day.
Monday July 1st
Start off the day, not 15 minutes in the start of it and Sharon cries. No tantrum. We were cutting stuff out in class. She says she is done (the second one done to be exact). After everyone finishes, I take away all of the scissors. She I guess decided she was not done (aka, cutting the paper smaller and smaller). So it was a crying offense. I did not coddle her, I still took the scissors away. Then I told her to pick up all of the trash she just made. I brought the trash can over to her so she could pick it up. When I did that, the crying stopped then she just had sniffles.
Julie was not feeling well. Since she got to school she was holding her stomach and moaning. She was doing this all class. I took her to to Christine, then desk teacher. Then I took her to desk teacher again. Julie, to what I understood, said the desk teacher called her mom, so I was taking her to desk teacher to find out and hopefully lay her down. I guess desk teacher did not call her mom, but did when I took her a second time. Mom calls later and said Julie was not acting sick at home... You can tell when a kid is faking it... she did not seem to be for me. She normally laughs, is talkative, eats her snack and asks for more. She had her head down groaning the whole time. So I didnt get in trouble per se, but I was asked why I took her to desk teacher and asked about calling mom. So if I do nothing I get in trouble, if I do too much I get in trouble.... Maybe ECC should get a school nurse that can decided what to do instead of a teacher (me) or desk teacher (a receptionist).
I did not have lunch with Australia class. I have one month of no lunch with students. It was glamorous. I got to relax, eat at a normal pace, and not be interrupted.
My afternoon Canada class is not my afternoon Denmark class. They moved the kids closer to the teachers room because the kids always get in trouble when there is no teacher present. Its okay, but Denmark class is a lot smaller than Canada class. So everyone is in there a little bit tighter. I also have on MWF a break between Kindy and 1st grade. On TR I go straight from Kindy to 1st. I actually dont mind it. It is a change and will keep things interesting. I like interesting.
I need to work on my afternoon Greece class. I need to find a way to get through to them. I just the the book is not put together well and the way we split up the book is so difficult. to teach.
I came home and ate a big bowl of cereal and then took a nap. Sarah wanted everyone to get together tonight. She sent a message asking what everyone's plans were... but most of us did not want to (Rob was the only one partially interested). She then tried the guilt trip. "I guess I am the only one that wants to be social. sorry" I just responded "I was social Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday". I work with great people, but sometimes sitting in you apartment naked watching a movie is just more appealing than hanging out with the same people I see every day during work and most of the time after work and the weekends. I think most people feel that way. We all need 'me' time.
So that was all of today, now I am going to continue with my plans of sitting naked and watching a movie.
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