I woke up feeling refreshed this morning. I slept for almost 11 hours last night! I came home from the doctor and decided to watch a movie and relax! I woke up half way through the movie and realized I was too tired so I turned it off and went to bed by 8:15! It was so great! It was raining this morning, 2nd day in a row, so that was a bummer! I don't mind the rain, it just makes getting to school a little bit harder! I survived!
I'm not sure I've told you this, but corporal punishment is completely acceptable in South Korea! Other teachers had told me stories, but I thought my teachers were too nice to do that! Welp, I wrong!! I witnessed my first 'attack' today! My teacher was in a roll... she hit 3 boys on the back of their heads and she wasn't playing around! They got their act together though! One of my friends told me that his teacher hit a kid today and another student said, "head shot"... a few moments later she smacked a different student and the same kid yelled "double kill." Gotta love Korean kids... video games are shaping the world, one mind at a time!
Today was my long day and I had 3rd graders all day! I was a bit frustrated today with my teacher! She didn't really use me much! My experiences have taught me that kids are usually smarter then we give them credit for! If you want them to succeed, you need to raise the bar! I was doing 'conversation' with them at the beginning of class and I asked them what day of the week it was, what day was yesterday, and what will tomorrow be. No one answered for a couple of seconds (which I think is totally normal) and she said, "they don't know that" and expected me to answer it for them. I didn't and they answered! They are smart if you allow them to be! I think she uses way too much Korean and not enough English! She totally cut me off when I was trying to teach them the days of the week! I believe that before you can start learning conversation, you need to know the basics and 'days of the week' and 'months of year' are basic! I guess we just see things different! I'm learning to continually be flexible and use the 10 minutes I have per class to get things done! The frustrating part was that I was trying to teach them something they can use and she spent 15 minutes on this chant, "wash, wash your face, wash, wash your hands." To each his own!!
**Okay, that was my rant for the day! I really am enjoying my time here, I promise! I just decided that I am going to be open and vulnerable through this process and help you see what I am experiencing everyday!! Hope this wans't too much of a turn off! :)
I realized through different jobs I have had that the reason I am here is for the students and I can't let other things bother me/ get in the way! I absolutely LOVE my students so I am going to do what I can to help them!
I have this one little boy who just kills me! He totally reminds me of a cross between Simon and Theodore from the chipmunks! He has glasses just like Simon, but it short and chunky like Theodore and for some reason he just looks like a chipmunk! He is so stinking cute!! I'll try to get a picture of him soon! :)
One boy brought us some breakfast that he made at school! He brought it in the middle of class and I was excited to eat it! I saw that it was potatoes and it had a little grilled sandwhich with cheese! Oh how I have missed cheese... they don't really eat cheese here! You can't really find it and if you do, it's pretty expensive! I could taste it! Then, I realized the teacher was giving it out to the students for participating! NOOOOOO!!! was all that was running through my head! It was so close and then I saw it vanishing right before my eyes! She gave away over half of it, but saved about a 1/3 of it for me... guess better then nothing, right?!? It's just so funny how different our taste buds are. She could have cared less to eat that and it didn't bother her to give it away b/c she wasn't a fan of it! I on the other hand cared a lot b/c I love that stuff! But, there's plenty of Korean food I'd give away that she would probably love to have! I did enjoy what I had though! The bread was french toast (obviously without the syprup) and cheese in the middle... great combo!!
I had this other boy named Mick (that's his English name) hang out in my room after school! His English is so good and it was fun to talk with him and ask him questions! I bet he speaks better English then the teacher! He's went to an institute 5 days a week for the past 3 years though!! He's probably becoming one of my favorites! :) Favorites are okay... right?!? As long as the other kids don't find out!!
I did feel a bit uncomfortable for one of the first times today. I have 2 teachers that both teach 3rd graders. One of them came up to me before I was about to teach with the other one and asked "in your opinion and experience from America, which one of us teaches better?" Are you kidding me... who asks that?!? That was definitely a loaded quesiton! I said, "I'll tell you after this class. I'm getting ready to teach with her now." She said, "No, you've already taught with her, what do you think now?" Somehow I avoided the question and she didn't ask again. I don't think she was asking the way I was interpretting it, but still! Oh Koreans!!
I impressed my teachers at lunch b/c I ate Kimchi Bip-m-Bop. It wasn't too bad! They thought it would be too spicy for me! It was spicy, but rice is my old faithful and it was on the rice! Gotta do what you gotta do... survival!
We didn't play volleyball today because the teachers were all busy, bummer, but that's okay b/c I was productive! I had to make lesson plans for my teacher's class! I started them at school, but then had to finish them last night! That is what I spent most of my evening doing! My goal is to get all of the lessons prepared by next Friday though! Then I won't have anything to worry about and I can relax!
We have a visitor outside our building that is quite lively! We're not sure what it is exactly. We've guessed that it could be a frog or a duck or something completly different! It is so LOUD and ANNOYING though! I have to have some type of background noise or I can't sleep! It woke me up at 3am going strong, but thankfully I went right back to sleep! He just randomly showed up 2 nights ago! We can't find him tough... we just hear him!
I made plans last night to go to the beach this weekend! A small group of us are going to head out Saturday and come back on Sunday! I'm so looking forward to it!! It's going to be fabulous! Don't worry... you'll hear all about it!
No comments:
Post a Comment