Today, Charlotte (who was absent the last two days) stands behind my shoulder while I'm grading homework and starts trying to impersonate me. Which consists of holding up one finger and saying "Okay first, get out your activity book!" in the most obnoxious voice. She doubles over laughing her little head off. I think her laughing at herself makes me laugh more than anything she ever says. Later in that class, I'm reading over Kelly's shoulder since I didn't have a scanned copy of the pages we were working on, and she grabs my hand and just holds my hand to her while we are reading. It was half the sweetest thing ever, and half a little creepy. But she was just so cute. I took my hand away for a minute then she grabbed it again. Despite what they may say, I think those girls love me. :)
In my 3SAP class today, Ellie told me that in March she is going to take her hedgehog on a walk. I was totally thrown off my game while grading quizzes because I thought "I must have heard her wrong" then spent a good 3 minutes while she and 2 other girls conferred and attempted to explain to me what she meant. Turns out, she actually did mean she was going to take her hedgehog on a walk. Ellie always talks to me about her pet hedgehog because she knows I have one. In fact, she told me that she got one after I told the class about Rosie. Simultaneously flattered and again, a little weirded out.
Also in that class, I was grading their writing assignments and this girl Erica is probably the worst speaker and speller in the class. Well, she's writing about getting new teachers next week. So she writes some then I come to "Me and Teacher sayt" and then about the new teacher "I want to meet her and know and she fats" - I go over to her desk and ask her to tell me what she means... (please tell me she isn't calling me fat!). She meant to write fast, like she wants the teacher to come quickly. And the first was she wants the teacher to stay. I mean this girl probably makes the most ridiculous spelling errors. I'm suspicious that she is dyslexic.
In my NHK4-4 that I have on Tues/Thurs, the kids have grown on me so much. They were probably my least favorite Tues/Thurs class and now they might be up there in 2nd place. This one student, Clara, she had a dachshund named Julie, and she shows me pictures of Julie every single day. I think she loves hearing me go "AWWWWW!!!!!!" because I do that, every. single. time. She just smiles and clicks to the next photo on her phone. Adorable. And this one student who literally NEVER does his homework, he did it today!! I was so proud and impressed and happy!! And as a bonus, at the end of class every single student wanted to read aloud by themselves (they are usually too shy to do this!) Love those kids...
The other day, Monday maybe, I was in my SH3 class. (This is the class with Alex, the demon-child as Erin and I have nicknamed him. He has gotten somewhat better, or maybe I've learned to ignore him. Either way, I don't hate the class so much. I actually enjoy it somedays, this week especially since the most ADHD kid is not in class.) This girl Julia is also in this class, and she is hands down my favorite student. This girl is hilarious, and she loves to talk to me. Like, even during breaks when they are allowed to eat and speak Korean and play cell phone games, Julia will still sit and talk to me. So on Monday, as we are learning new vocabulary words, Julia starts telling me a story. I don't even remember what story it is, but she suddenly says "so I say" (as in, she was quoting herself). But, on top of saying it exactly in the way many a Texan would say it, she says it with a TEXAS ACCENT! I was simultaneously ashamed I had passed on my accent to a student, but also darn proud! The whole class was rolling with laughter.
In other somewhat related news, our new teachers (Molly and Tanya) have gotten to sit in on a few of my classes. Tanya sat in on a couple that were not so good (namely Henry's SH6 class which is probably on the level of hell itself), but Molly sat in on some of my best behaved classes. When I have someone watching me who is not there to critique my every move, it is kind of fun to be watched. Of course, I'm conscious of every thing I do but it made me realize that I have darn good classes. And they weren't like this in the beginning. I guess I've come to a point with my students where they know what I expect, and I know what to expect from them. And they're pretty awesome. I was proud of my kids and proud of myself. Molly even said that it was impressive.
Tomorrow I'll find out my new class schedule for the rest of my time here. The kids are starting new grades in school since they got 1 year older at the New Year (Korean age is weird... they don't count it by your actual birthday, but everyone turns a year older together on New Years). So, I get a totally new class schedule. I am hoping I keep a few of my classes, namely those mentioned above where I've got legitimate control over them. But, I'm hoping and praying that I get rid of Henry's class. I'm actually not sure how I've made it 6 months with this kid, he is such a BRAT. I will probably miss my 2SAP girls if I don't keep them, and I will DEFINITELY miss my 3SAP kids (I've actually requested to keep them! haha!). Either way, change is coming and it's bittersweet. I will have to start all over with getting my kids in line, but at least this time around I know what I'm doing (more or less).
Anyway, tomorrow is Friday (YAY!) and I've got some last minute things to get before China happens in 2 weeks. Speaking of which, I got my passport back from the Chinese embassy today! Fresh with a Chinese Visa. It's beautiful and has the Great Wall and I'm just so proud! I can't wait for vacation! :D
This aging by a year every New Year thing, how does that work? Do kids born just before the New Year or New Years day automatically turn 1, or do they have to wait to turn 1 until the next New Year?
ReplyDeletehttp://waegukin.com/korean-age-converter.html this should help, i think!
Deleteso when you're born you are 1 year old. then each new year you add another year. So if you're born in July, you are 1. Then in Jan you become 2. If you're born Jan-March i think it's different. Man, its confusing even to me. But basically take American age + 1(or2) years (depending on birthday) = Korean age.
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