More or less a regular day. It was a gym day. Instead of having gym 3 times, I only have it two. I no longer have gym with Australia, only France and Denmark. It hit me that gym is one of the reasons that my spelling book was so far behind in France. I have one fewer class periods to do that class. So it all makes sense in a way, and it is something that I cannot do anything about. I hate to say it, the break is nice, but losing the class period adds more stress. I lost gym with Australia... the one class that I have that is actually fast at doing their work and does not fall behind too much. Bleh.
Regina during lunch spilled a lot of water as she was pouring her cup. This in turn meant that students had to tell me that she spilled, which caused Regina to get upset and give a brief cry and scream. I just said I do not care that water was spilt. It does not bother me. So it did not go further than that.
My afternoon kids were okay too. I had the 2 class break before my 4th graders, so I got my grading in. After my 4th graders I waited for Rob so we could go to Hagwon together.
Hagwon was good, but I am already behind everyone else. Not through any fault of my own. 2 of the guys were between level 1 and 2, so they got stuck in level one. One of the girls mothers is Korean, so she knows a bit of Korean. One is a fluent Korean American that cannot read or write Korean. The other girl has already done level one and another hagwon. Then there are 2 Japanese guys that this is their first time learning Korean... but Korean and Japanese are related.... their are the same sounds in Korean and Japanese (both originated in a way from Chinese) so they just have to associate the sounds with letters. Then there is me. My ear cannot hear the subtle differences in the sounds (cause I am not used to them yet), I am not Korean, I have not studied, I have not been living here for over 2 years.... All of that being said, I still like hagwon and I am excited to be learning. After hagwon, Yufei, one of his friends and myself went out for Jokbal... basically pig leg and feet. Absolutely delicious. We had garlic Jokbal.
I came home and Skyped with my parents.
Friday October 11th.
I woke up super tired. I did not sleep well at all last night. I kept waking up because I could not get comfortable.
France class was okay first period. Then snack. So I was playing music... then Kelly starts to cry? Why? Well everyone was dancing, and she said David kicked her.... Well everyone was jumping dancing... I would not be surprised if he kicked someone, but he would most likely kick Andy, not a girl.... so we stopped the music, and instead of cartoon, I made them do some more work. Then when we were about to watch cartoon, Andy and David started arguing and shoving about who was done first. So I put cartoon off again, and we do more work. I let them watch the 7 minute cartoon for the last seven minute period of class.
Australia is where my day went down hill. Not their fault. We worked really hard in Australia this week to catch up and get ahead in everything. A feat we accomplished today. So, I played concentration with them. I played the game for the last 20 minutes of class... on a Friday, after a long week of work. So, after class Louise pulls me aside in the teachers room and wants to know what we were doing, because the kids were loud all period because games should not be that long. First, that was not true... we were in lesson until 12:10. Second... Australia class is right next to the teachers room, so of course it is going to be loud (especially because it does not have a real door, just a glass door with wide gaps). Third, concentration I feel is a good game, because it is fun, but it is also good at helping students recall things they see and words they read... some teachers play games that have no benefit other than fun or show silly youtube videos. Fourth, we completed everything we were supposed to this week. Fifth, I try to keep Denmark and Australia at the same level, because while Australia is fast and Denmark is slow, they are expected to get the same work done. If I worked as fat as Australia could, we would be done 2 weeks before Denmark.
So I am not a happy camper... now it is lunch time. So lunch is going okay... what happens? Kate teacher comes in and spoon feeds one of my students. WTF? She is 7 (Western 6). She has eaten many times on her own. Kate does not come in only once, she stops in 3 or 4 times to had feed this kid. I was very perturbed. The girls was eating too... maybe not as fast as Kate wanted... but there was still 20 minutes left of lunch... so time wasnt a factor for me (I let kids eat until 5 minutes of lunch left). After Kate left one time, I gave the kids a speech about how Korea class makes big messes when they eat and they need the teachers to spoon feed them. That if they needed to be treated like Korea class, I could just take them to Korea class. (Korea class is the 5 year olds). The last time that Kate came in to feed Soo, Soo took the spoon from her and put it in her own mouth.
We worked hard in Denmark after lunch to catch up. I also took them to the bathroom and told them not to speak. We had nine kids there today, 6 spoke. So I took stars away from the 6 and gave extra stars to the kids that didnt. I did the whole are you being good students, bad students, do you make Eric teacher happy or sad when you don't like to listen to him, why do you like to make Eric teacher sad.
I talked to Rob about both things during one of my breaks, and he shared some of his similar stories with me... it helped ease my frustration.
Afternoon went okay. My new England class was good. I am still working on the best way to connect with them since they do not speak much English. My Greece class was good, we watched a few YouTube clips about the birds we were learning about. I rode the bus home...
Rob Scott and I got some Chicken and beer for dinner. Just doing a relaxing night in, because I need to go to bed early, because I am doing my next Adventure Korea tomorrow, and I have to wake up at 6am.
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