Tuesday August 6th
Today was a pretty reasonable day. I had several near tear ups in France. Sharon and Juliet. Neither actually achieved a cry... but I was probably several several seconds away from it. Though I did see Sharon crying later in the day... so I feel pretty lucky (I bet there are several other incidences, but I only see France again when I walk by with one of my other classes).
I brought my projector and laptop to school. Since intensives are going on (using the seminar room) and classes have the library booked, I am not able to show my classes videos that need to be shown. My citizenship class for Denmark was built around videos, and without them, the class is useless. Of course the classroom wasn't that dark... but at least I got through my lesson. I used the projector to show an old cartoon to my first graders. It was a cartoon of the Breman musicians by I think Warner Brothers. We read the story in class. The one I showed was not the same one I thought.... but the kids all loved it. Genuine happiness. It was incredible. It is probably nothing like the cartoons they are used to seeing. They were laughing the whole time.
Before my Korea Class Rob Ama and I all talked outside. We decided we were going to do something during our long weekend next week. We did not know what and decided we would meet at night to discuss. When we were outside, who walks by... Erica. Rob used to teach her... and he said hi... no response. I said hi all excitedly and dopely waved. She smiled shook her head and slightly giggled. She may think I am an utter moron... but her reactions are completely different than when we started. Rob said something about how rarely he ever saw her smile.
My korea class started real painfully. It was debate day. Kids eere obviously not prepared. I gave them some time. Dylan behaved and actually worked. So did everyone. The kids hate debate. I gave them nearly the entire class. The debate was painful to watch in terms of a debate. .. but the kids actually spoke more than usual. I think kicking out Dylan last week instilled some fear in them. I could tell they really did not want to do it. I am going to start teaching the read and debate we did in Jeju... it was still a lot of work... but it is not as convoluted as the junk we have right now. It still does not teach debate... but it is better at it than our current book.
Today was a pretty reasonable day. I had several near tear ups in France. Sharon and Juliet. Neither actually achieved a cry... but I was probably several several seconds away from it. Though I did see Sharon crying later in the day... so I feel pretty lucky (I bet there are several other incidences, but I only see France again when I walk by with one of my other classes).
I brought my projector and laptop to school. Since intensives are going on (using the seminar room) and classes have the library booked, I am not able to show my classes videos that need to be shown. My citizenship class for Denmark was built around videos, and without them, the class is useless. Of course the classroom wasn't that dark... but at least I got through my lesson. I used the projector to show an old cartoon to my first graders. It was a cartoon of the Breman musicians by I think Warner Brothers. We read the story in class. The one I showed was not the same one I thought.... but the kids all loved it. Genuine happiness. It was incredible. It is probably nothing like the cartoons they are used to seeing. They were laughing the whole time.
Before my Korea Class Rob Ama and I all talked outside. We decided we were going to do something during our long weekend next week. We did not know what and decided we would meet at night to discuss. When we were outside, who walks by... Erica. Rob used to teach her... and he said hi... no response. I said hi all excitedly and dopely waved. She smiled shook her head and slightly giggled. She may think I am an utter moron... but her reactions are completely different than when we started. Rob said something about how rarely he ever saw her smile.
My korea class started real painfully. It was debate day. Kids eere obviously not prepared. I gave them some time. Dylan behaved and actually worked. So did everyone. The kids hate debate. I gave them nearly the entire class. The debate was painful to watch in terms of a debate. .. but the kids actually spoke more than usual. I think kicking out Dylan last week instilled some fear in them. I could tell they really did not want to do it. I am going to start teaching the read and debate we did in Jeju... it was still a lot of work... but it is not as convoluted as the junk we have right now. It still does not teach debate... but it is better at it than our current book.
After work, I did what seems to be my new tradition. I took a nap. Rob, Ama, and myself all got together to decide what we wanted to do. We first wanted to get out of the country. Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong... but of course waiting till the week before, prices were not cheap... We decided to take the KTX (high speed rail) to Busan. It is cheaper than flying... We will wait to another holiday to go to another country. We are going to start looking for tickets for that now.
Wednesday, August 7th.
I cant believe the week is already half over... Wow this week is going pretty quickly. Tomorrow is Thursday. Yikes. And tomorrow we do not have gym... we have 'pool on the roof' which I only assume to be an inflatable pool on the roof. It will be interesting if it happens.
Today was a fast day with nothing really exciting happening at all. No problems in France. No problems in Australia. No problems in Denmark. My first graders took a test today, and 3 got a 100% and that is by far the best that has happened all year. I think it was because it was finally a fun story instead of a boring irrelevant story. My 1 on 1 with Chloe went well today. She was in a pretty talkative mood. My 3rd graders were pretty good today too. I need to think of a way to make that class more interesting. I wish I could say it was an average, but it really wasnt. I have very few days that are like this. It wasnt a bad day, nor was it a day that was exciting. It is a day that just was.
After school, Ama Rob and I got together to plan a little for Busan. We decided on 2 hostels to stay in. One is a block away from the beach, and the other is in the middle of the town. The one by the beach we will have for 2 days. It is a bed private room. The one in the middle of town is a 6 bed private. So it will be an adventure. While we were looking at hostels, we ordered in. Wow.... the food was cheap, filling, and delicious. It was less Tonkasu (or however we spell it romanized- the pork cutlet) with kimchi, cheese, vegetable croquet, salad, soup, dumplings, rice... I almost couldn't finish it; I did though cause I am a pig.
Got back up to my room and looked on craigslist... shazaam, they had just what I was looking for (and had been for weeks. An external hard drive. It was a 2 terabyte drive for 80 bucks! I have not transferred my files to it yet... but since I am doing more with my laptop (bringing it to school etc.) I would love to have a backup.
Today was a really really hot and humid day... It felt pretty miserable outside.
I'm off to bed.
I'm off to bed.
Hi! I stumbled across your blog whilst I was doing a google search about Mokdong ECC. I have just signed my contract to start on 4th October and should my visa application go swiftly I'll be in Seoul around the 25th September. When does your contract end at Mokdong ECC? I'd love to get some contacts online before I arrive :) and any tips would be welcomed!!
ReplyDeleteAwesomely sweet! My contract ends next March, but there is a good chance I will extend for another year.
ReplyDeleteBut that is awesome and congrats!!! If you need any help or advice or anything, just let me know! Shoot me an email and we can chat!!!
Hey, thanks for your reply. Sorry for the late response I've not used blogger in so long and there have been so many changes, I was expecting some kind of email notification of your reply.. but no.. So anyways yeah thanks, I'm really looking forward to starting kinda nervous though.. its totally new to me but I adapt quite quickly to things so it should be fine. I wondered what the orientation and training is like.. I feel quite under-prepared so wondered if you could suggest anything to do that I can kill my time with now. My email is lmastill91@gmail.com. Look forward to hearing from you.. Thanks again!
Delete