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.
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