Interesting times

Tuesday September 3rd
Seemed like an ordinary Tuesday at school, which is not a bad thing at all. Nobody cried. I hope this is becoming a trend. If it is, it is definitely a trend that I could get behind. Tuesdays are pretty easy with Australia class. I do speech with them... and we have a new speech book. It took a lot longer that I am used to, it seems like a lot more writing that it does speaking. Then we do reading street, and they are pretty quick (or at least seemingly quick) at understanding the concepts. Denmark was Denmark. We have good manners on Tuesdays, and I am still trying to fine tune how to make it work for class. It seems like we either have too much time, or not enough... no real consistency.
My firstgraders are now re-trying to get back into the swing of things. Since David is back, it is throwing off the balance. I am excited he is back... for all of the trouble he has caused, he does have charisma that the class can sometimes lack.
I met my new Denmark class. (Yes, I have 3 classes in Denmark- so it will start getting hard to tell them apart in the blog... but rule of thumb... I usually start off with Kindy, then First Grade, then the older students). It is some of the kids I had before in Spain class, and it has Angel (who was not there) and Daniel. Erica was going to be, but she dropped out. This made me sad, but it may have been the best for her, though  I really wish she would have given the new class a week. The new class has a lot of energy, and even Daniel seemed to be getting lifted up by it. It was good to see. I am really going to enjoy them. They are smart and energetic. As a teacher, smart and energetic are good things. Rob will also be teaching it, and he is as optimistic as I am. So, I have high hopes.
The class I did not get, the new Spain class, it has some of the students from the Australia class I taught when Rob was gone. It also has Dylan and Danny. Sam is one of their teachers. When I was walking past, the kids called me in (I was done for the day).. They told me they wanted me to be their teacher and that I should leave Denmark class and teach them, and then Sam could go teach Denmark. It made me feel good. I was texting with Rachel later in the day, and she told me that Dylan and Danny asked if they could be moved to Denmark class so I could be their teacher. That was real shocking, but made me feel good too.  If they would have shown initiative in Korea class, and would have listened and participated, then maybe I would have still been their teacher.
After work, we went to Hongdae for Callums going away dinner. He is leaving Korea on Wednesday. It was good. We had BBQ at an egg place. There is some name to it... but the egg places put egg in a ring around the fire, and it cooks right there, and then you can just eat it. It is delicious. Walking, we played a dart game and I won a stuffed animal. Later in the night, I saw a little girl (when I say later, I mean around 1, and when I say little girl, I think maybe about 3). I gave it to her, and her mom was very excited and happy. The girls eyes just lit up as she was taking it out of the package. We went to a little chill Soju bar and had a Soju Mojito. Then we ended up going to a multibang. It is pretty awesome. You pay and you get a room. There are PCbangs, Noraebangs, gamebangs, wiibangs, DVDbangs.... and Bang (방) just means room. So PC Room, Song Room, Game Room, Wii Room, DVD Room. A Multibang is all in one. You get a room, it has a computer, wii, microphones, a song machine, board games you can get at the front... and you just rent the room, and you can use it for any of those. Pretty sweet. We played Wii.
It was bitter sweet seeing Callum go. He was a pretty cool person, and was always a fun person to hang with.

Wednesday September 4th.
Since with France today was okay. I do not think the kids understood a lick of it (it was an optical illusion that was pretty low quality). I think there is some drama brewing. David is starting to cause a lot of trouble. He gets in trouble daily, and does not seem to care about getting in trouble or the consequences. It makes him pretty hard to control. He sometimes bullys people and gets physical and verbal. He is a smart happy kid... but something needs to happen, he seems to be upsetting other students.
My streak of no crying was broken. Australia....I made a girl cry. I made Valeria cry. I hated to do it too. She is smart and really reserved. I started the rule that if a kid drops their pencil, I get to keep it. It stopped so many pencils from dropping (some kids would literally drop the pencil once every 10 minutes). Well, she dropped hers, so I picked it up and brought it to my desk. The water works began. The sobbing began. It continued most of the rest of class.It started back up when I passed out the supplement for Reading Street, and she didnt have a pencil to put her name on it. I did give it back to her at the end of class (I have no intention of keeping what I take (though once the students are used to the rules, I may keep them over night of for the rest of the week). I know I could have given it back to her... but that would have undermined the process. The kids seeing her cry, and seeing me not budge I think sent a stronger message.
Denmark acted pretty well today. I took away several class points yesterday, so today, they behaved.
My firstgraders behaved... but I still took away 5 class points. 1 because people were talking... the other 4 were because I made 4 people stand up in class. 4 smart students. They were looking ahead in our book instead of listening and paying attention. Emma, Chloe, May, and Billy.
My 1 on 1 with Chloe was good. We went up to the roof and talked up there (The weather was too beautiful). We looked at the garden, and talked about ants. She asked me about the points in class, saying that it was easy for people to make mistakes and stand up and talk... I then pointed out that 4 points were taken away because 4 people (including her) were not paying attention. But she did make a good argument. So I will use that tomorrow. Its always fun with her, she always says I am the best teacher ever and the likes... just honest feelings from a 1st grader. She is not sucking up, she is just talking... they brighten my day.
My 3rd grade class went okay today. I had to separate the girls and the boys. All the girls were sitting together, and all of the boys were... I put them girl boy girl boy.... the class was much better after that.
I was going to take the bus home today, and Ama was going to take it with me.... so we walk to the bus, and what happens...... Diana's mom was there to pick up Diana. Diana is the one that lives close to us. So Ama and I ride with her.... Diana was very embarrassed, and Ama was very uncomfortable.  He said that is the most uncomfortable he has felt in Korea. I didnt think it was that bad. I think the mom liked doing it (parents always seem to like showing support for teachers). Of course the girl was embarrassed.  I think the mom thought it was kind of funny.  Ama said he is never taking the bus again (even though he did not take it). It was an interesting experience... honestly if Ama had not been there, it might of been better... I think his uncomfortableness could be felt. I was having a blast. But then again, not often do I feel uncomfortable... I just like living life... I am guessing that Diana has probably talked about me to her mom before, so I am sure that she probably likes being able to put a face to the name... Anyway... weird, but still fun. I would do it again if offered.
I picked up a TV set tonight. It was on sale for 160 bucks (32 inch Samsung LCD TV). Do I need a TV set? No. Not at all. Why did I get one? Well, since I am still intent on buying a recliner.... I think having a TV set might be a good thing to have if I wanted to watch a movie while sitting in my recliner. A recliner and the computer monitor just would not be a good combination. It is the cheapest I have seen a TV that size for. I was worried a little at first.... but it turns out the guy selling it works for Samsung, and he is being shipped off in 6 days, so he is just trying to make a little extra money by selling things off cheaply quickly, and I was lucky because I was the first to respond (always a matter of luck).
I was trying to put the box in my closed... POP. The power goes out. Everything in my apartment is dead. Yikes. My apartment is a mess. I have no power. So I like some candles (I got 3 in the kitchen supply box I bought from Craigslist a month ago) and I clean my room a little. I go downstairs to tell the guy at the desk. He speaks no English.... He calls someone. I tell them. Building guy talks to him. We go upstairs. Another guy (the super) meets at my room. He comes in, tries the circuit breaker. No dice. Comes out. Building guy calls english speaking guy, I talk to english speaking guy, english speaking guy talks to building guy, building guy talks to super, super runs down the hall, I speak to english guy on phone, english guy then speaks to building guy, super comes back, we go in, the lights are on. Crazy ordeal... but I have power again! I think the door on the circuit breaker was loose, so when the box hit the cover, it shifted a wire and shorted (hence the pop) and the super must have gone to the main circuit breakers.
So. that has been my Wednesday. Now time for a shower then bed...! Yay
Fun side note... I started ECC on March 4th. Today is September 4th.

Edit... so, Regina (new girl in Denmark) has not had colored pencils. Any time we need them, she always had to borrow someones. I bought some at emart, wrote her name on them, and put them in her cuvby. I did this on Tuesday.  I wondered if she noticed them. Today when we had to color,  she went to her cubby and pulled them out. The person she sits next to had the exact same ones. I think the only reason she did not have them is that since she started late, I can just imagine ecc forgetting to tell her mom... ecc provides almost everything.  Books,  backpack,  Pencils,  erasers.... so I can imagine a parent thinking colored pencils would come with the pack. It just made me happy to see her engage in the coloring instead of doing the bare bones minimum. Just this one time I have seen her color with the new pencils,  she colors in the lines andcoordinates the colors.  Before it was more of just using 3 colors and not spending time on it.