keeping on.

Tuesday August 20th
Today started off pretty strong. Nobody cried in France... usually a good sign! Well that lasted until 2nd hour with Australia. Emily cried. We were doing work in our workbook. She got the top part of the page done really fast. The bottom part of the page, well, not so much. The page had a word bank (a box in which you select the words from). I write the answers on the board. Well, I turn around and she is crying. She got several of her answers wrong. Normally no big deal... but she is one that is sometimes that the smallest thing can set her off. Today, a wrong answer was it. Other times, she gets the answer wrong, and keeps at it as she tries to figure it out. Denmark was pretty good. It is just keeping them interested (as I always say). We did our reading street book at the end of the day and good manners. Good manners after the training is going a little better... but the class still stinks. These just are not fun exciting things, and there is not much to do to really make them too exciting.
My firstgraders behaved for most of the class. So at the end after we finished all of the work, I gave them a word search and connect the dots. It held their interest pretty well.
Korea class... well was Korea class. I was splitting them into groups. I originally had Dylan with Daniel on the For side of the debate topic, and Danny and Erica against. Dylan put on a hissy fit and said he wanted to be against it. With Dannys permission I changed Dylan to the against and Danny for. Then Dylan was upset because he was going to be partners with Erica. Whatever... classes have to get along. Well we start getting into the topic, and Dylan gets mad that he is against. He then wanted to be for. I told him too bad. I went into how I originally had him for and he threw a fit. I brought up that the entire class saw him throw a fit. He accepted it. The subject we are doing it paparazzi. Why do we have 12 year olds debating paparazzi? I dont know... it just goes along with the quality of our read and debate.
At night, Rob and I ordered a pizza from Pizza Heaven. They have a pizza with chocolate cookie crust. We have both been slightly disgusted and yet intrigued by it. It was oddly okay. The crust under the pizza is traditional. The chocolate cookie part was the outside crust... think like a cheese stuffed crust pizza... but instead of cheese crust, it is chocolate, chocolate chip cookie. It was like eating a piece of pizza and immediately eating a chocolate cookie. The cookie would have been great with a milk, and the pizza a beer. I had neither, probably for the best. I do not think I would get it again... It wasnt bad, but if I am paying an extra 3 bucks, I think I would rather just have cheesecrust on the pizza, or order a cookie to eat after the pizza.
Rob and I and a new friend of Rob and Sarah and I sat out and played Apples to Apples. Ama came and joined us a little later. After that, I went upstairs and watched some Wire, then went to bed.

Wednesday August 21st.
Woke up super tired... I was up too late watching the wire. I had science with France class... Science should be fun... sometimes... it is more stressful than it should be. For science, we pass a bag out to each student that has the supplies in it... the supplies are not complicated. So, for example lets say there are 3 pieces of paper. A white one, a black one, and a red one. If I say pull out the black paper... 2 kids will do it with no problem, 1 kid will pull out the red one, 1 will pull out the white one and draw on it or fold it. 3 of them will pull it out, and say "like this?" and the last one wont be paying attention. This turns a simple 8 step science project into a thousand step one.... today we did finger printing with tape and powder... cool project... but I really wish they gave us extra supplies. When you give kids tape... my God kids love tape. So the kids have tape that they are not supposed to touch... hahaha. and giving some of my kids anything that can make a mess... lets just say, some of my kids were covered in powder in minutes....
Australia behaved today. No problems with them. Denmark class... I was going to play a game with them. Games are great, it gives them energy for the rest of the day. So I asked the back row to move their tables back. All of a sudden Shawn starts crying. Why? Chloe moved the desk and he didn't get to help. She move the desk and not me. Needless to say I did not play a game with them. When Shawn realized that I was not going to yell at Chloe, and realized that he ruined it for the class (Several of the students just said 'Shawn' he stopped his crying pretty fast. I dont know what it is with kids, but they sometimes just love trying to get each-other in trouble. I am sure I was probably like that sometimes.... Teacher, so and so is doing this or that... Heck, maybe I even tried crying to get someone in trouble... I am not sure. I cannot remember. If I did...I am sorry. Live and let live is a better philosophy. I know some teaches love and encourage the kids to do that. Most of the time I am just like... okay, and I keep going... Rewarding that behavior is bad (---- in France, I need to start taking my own advice. We have rules about leaning in chairs and standing. Students tattling on eachother keeps students in line a little bit... but I am just conditioning this behavior. I did not start this behavior, but I am continuing what whichever teacher started the new rules philosophy. A philosophy I do not like. So I will tell the students tomorrow that they should not tell me when a fellow student it breaking the rules-------).
My firstgraders were all tired today. They misbehaved a lot at the beginning of class, but at the end they were all tired and behaved.
My one one one one with Chloe was okay. It is fun, and is always a mini workout. She always wants to play games, be lifted up, and all sorts of things. Today, she hung upside down from my arm... But while she is going all of these things, she talks, and that is what the one on one is all about.
Greece was okay. We are almost done with the book we are using, and I can't wait. Hopefully whatever we do next is better. I would like the book so much better if I taught the entire thing instead of just a half of it. No rhythm. I mean, the book definitely could be better... but I wish I could actually lesson plan with it. Just the way it is brought up, it sucks. Like today, I teach 1 page of the book. The one page has 12 sentences (6 questions and 6 answers). Then there are 3 questions about the 12 sentences. We then do two workbook pages. But a lesson about 12 sentences a stretch.
Afterwork I went to Gangnam. There was a person that was selling size 13 shoes on Craigslist, so we decided to meet there for the exchange. I still want to get the hand made shoes sometimes, but a pair of size 13 new balance shoes are good. I do not have a pair of tennis shoes other than my converse... and my converse are starting to fall apart a bit (I wear them a lot). I have a love hate relationship with shoes... I hate shoes.... but as I am getting older, I have seen the difference between comfortable shoes and crap. A comfortable pair of shoes can make all of the difference.
I went by Ho Chicken and picked up a box of fried chicken for dinner. I have been craving it. I at it all (I was hoping to save a few for breakfast).
So, that was my Wednesday. I will have to stay late at school tomorrow... Report cards are due.
joy.