Almost Jeju time.

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