Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
This standing wall is from the Chicken Art Museum. Chickens are a bigger deal than I ever knew
I saw this kid playing video games on his little stool outside on a crips morning. He was so adorable! It wasn't until later that I realized this picture was even more awesome. Look at who's on the back of his shirt!
These bugs are crazy! It took me several tries to get them in focus. Crazy bugs!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
culture shocked
Today has been pretty stressful for me. Friday's make me want to tear my hair out! It's not just that I a solid morning of 6th graders but that I have my two worst classes back to back. If I can cleanse my mental/emotional pallette I can handle them but when they're on top of eachother...It wasn't helped that something is bothering Helen so instead of our normal good mood we were both a little tense. The first class went fine. The students played a game with Helen helping them while I finished a PowerPoint to illustrate the winter/holiday words they'd need for an upcoming assignment. For some reason all during class the windows had been open (Have I told you how cold it is here?). During the break I ask her if we can close the windows and we snip at eachother a bit. I guess she wanted fresh air...2nd class started off suprisingly well behaved but within 5 minutes esculated to out of control. We calmed them down enough to play the game and she went about helping them while I polished the PPT. I tried to show them the presentation but they wouldn't calm down enough to listen. I imagine there will be some interesting uses of the words since they won't know what a good quarter of them mean. It's really frustrating when you can tell some of the students want to learn and are behaving but everyone else is ruining it for them. When they left in a cloud of fury Helen locked the door. She told a few representitives of the next class to tell everyone to wait patiently and do what they needed to do before class (go to the bathroom, etc). Instead of waiting quietly in the hall they started banging on the windows. Not little taps or knock but hitting the window. Helen just ignored them. They started opening the windows (now finally closed but unlocked.) I told them they couldn't do that. No, they had to wait in the hallway. No they can't just put their books in. I locked the window and they moved to the next one and opened it. (One of the girls speaks fluent English and knew exactly what I was saying). I shut it, before I could lock it they started it opening it again. One ingenius child went to the next window, opened it and flung his book in. I managed to lock all the windows and confiscated the thrown book. I sat next to Helen and waited for her to open the door which she did a few minutes before class actually started. A handful of children sat peacefully in their seats. Several ran screaming in, dropped off their books and ran screaming out. One (of my favs) apologizes to me for forgetting his English Book. Someone along the line told him there was no English today so he left it at home. Normally when someone forgets their book they have to stand in the back of class (this is mainly for the several students who every day "forget" their books so they won't have to do the work). So, to help prevent that I give him the one I confiscated. He thanks me profusely and I tell him he has to give it back to the boy it belongs too after class. The bell rings. There's only a handful of students sitting. Over the next five minutes not the tardy students come in handfuls and Helen has them head straight to the back of the class. Eventually the class president (who's supposed to be a shining example of right behavior) strolls into class and Helen has a long involved discussion with her, yells at the class and takes her to the home room teacher. I'm left with the misbehaviors and the handful of students who were both on time and remembered their books. I wait a few moments (unsure where Helen went) and start the daily routine (what's the weather like? What's todays date?) Then wait...Finally I have all the kids sitting down come up front and give them a sticker (you can earn stickers for a variety of things and 5 stickers=candy) Waiting...waiting...Finally I explain the homework and show the ppt. Part of the ppt is a video with the christmas lights that blink in time to a song. Helen bursts in and tells me to turn it off, shut if off. I do so and she starts talking to them sternly. The phone rings, it's their home room teacher he wants them all to come back to class. They leave and she sits down and does whatever mystery things on the computer that she does.
The last "real" class for the day rolls in late, and loud. Several students are in the hall when the bell rings, I open the door to tell them to come in and the lie to me. They look me in the eye and lie to me. "Teacher, my homework no." "You don't have your homework?" "Yes" "Where is it?" "Homework classroom. Other classroom." "Well go get it. Hurry up." Their homework was sitting on their desk in my class room. Maybe they were confused? No. They just wanted to keep talking to their friend who really did forget their homework. Then over half of them cheated. GRRRRRR...Finally class is over (the cheaters all had to do double the work while everyone else played game) we open the doors to release them for lunch and their, on their knees, in the sub zero hallway are the main offenders from the class before. Looking down the hall it's the entire class. Many of them are stifling back tears. All of them are extreme discomfort. Some are sweating. Turns out they'd been made to hold their chair above their heads for a good 40 mins before being sent down to wait outside my class. Waiting silently. The spokesperson apologizing for them. All of them bowing. Apologizing. Helen makes them wait. At this point I don't think it's from meanness but shock. She's almost in tears herself to see them in this state. We send them off to lunch, the all get up, bow, apologize, several of them burst into tears...of relief? fear? frustration? I can't say. All I know is I was sick to my stomach for most of the rest of the day.
A bright spot: During my 4th grade after school class we made snowflakes and the kids were great. They were creative and funny and lifted my spirits. One girl (a shy girl named Karen who never raises her hand but always has the right answer when called on) hid something underneath my milk carton when she left the class. I looked...It was a heart. On one side it said "To: Teacher" and was decorated with Korean colors, the back said "Merry Chrismas" (yes there's not 't') I almost cried at the cuteness.
Then back to the grindstone. Correcting 6th grade finals. I worked to make sure the test wasn't to hard. There were definately a couple of freebie questions...and yet...I corrected half the grade and the highest grade was a 95%. There was 1. A single 95% out of over 100 students. (that'd I'd corrected so far) Maybe, MAYBE, there were 5 who earned 90%. This time I really did cry. I felt like an awful teacher. How could I fail so completely to teach these kids. What was I doing wrong that they couldn't tell the date, or the difference between a backache and breakfast...I'm crying and Helen tells me that they probably didn't study as hard as they normally would for this test "Why not?" "Their homeroom teachers say no." "Why?"
"Scores no effect school. Only math, science, Korean. Next year also there will be English" "So there's no purpose to teaching them English? It doesn't matter." "Next Year."
OH THE ANGST!!!!!!!!!!!!
The evening got significantly better in the evening as I went to Miguem, had birthday cake, bought reindeer antlers and a burger, ate said burger while watching "A Nightmare Before Christmas" with my building buddy.
The last "real" class for the day rolls in late, and loud. Several students are in the hall when the bell rings, I open the door to tell them to come in and the lie to me. They look me in the eye and lie to me. "Teacher, my homework no." "You don't have your homework?" "Yes" "Where is it?" "Homework classroom. Other classroom." "Well go get it. Hurry up." Their homework was sitting on their desk in my class room. Maybe they were confused? No. They just wanted to keep talking to their friend who really did forget their homework. Then over half of them cheated. GRRRRRR...Finally class is over (the cheaters all had to do double the work while everyone else played game) we open the doors to release them for lunch and their, on their knees, in the sub zero hallway are the main offenders from the class before. Looking down the hall it's the entire class. Many of them are stifling back tears. All of them are extreme discomfort. Some are sweating. Turns out they'd been made to hold their chair above their heads for a good 40 mins before being sent down to wait outside my class. Waiting silently. The spokesperson apologizing for them. All of them bowing. Apologizing. Helen makes them wait. At this point I don't think it's from meanness but shock. She's almost in tears herself to see them in this state. We send them off to lunch, the all get up, bow, apologize, several of them burst into tears...of relief? fear? frustration? I can't say. All I know is I was sick to my stomach for most of the rest of the day.
A bright spot: During my 4th grade after school class we made snowflakes and the kids were great. They were creative and funny and lifted my spirits. One girl (a shy girl named Karen who never raises her hand but always has the right answer when called on) hid something underneath my milk carton when she left the class. I looked...It was a heart. On one side it said "To: Teacher" and was decorated with Korean colors, the back said "Merry Chrismas" (yes there's not 't') I almost cried at the cuteness.
Then back to the grindstone. Correcting 6th grade finals. I worked to make sure the test wasn't to hard. There were definately a couple of freebie questions...and yet...I corrected half the grade and the highest grade was a 95%. There was 1. A single 95% out of over 100 students. (that'd I'd corrected so far) Maybe, MAYBE, there were 5 who earned 90%. This time I really did cry. I felt like an awful teacher. How could I fail so completely to teach these kids. What was I doing wrong that they couldn't tell the date, or the difference between a backache and breakfast...I'm crying and Helen tells me that they probably didn't study as hard as they normally would for this test "Why not?" "Their homeroom teachers say no." "Why?"
"Scores no effect school. Only math, science, Korean. Next year also there will be English" "So there's no purpose to teaching them English? It doesn't matter." "Next Year."
OH THE ANGST!!!!!!!!!!!!
The evening got significantly better in the evening as I went to Miguem, had birthday cake, bought reindeer antlers and a burger, ate said burger while watching "A Nightmare Before Christmas" with my building buddy.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
A Trip to the Libray
Alas, one of the things lacking in my life in Korea has been easy and frequent access to the library. I've tried the school library but until recently they had a total of ZERO English books. A month or 3 ago it got a small collection of Korean folk tales translated into English and I've been enjoying them. The one time I went to the public library near my home (after 3 hit and misses trying to find it) I was disappointed to find they had no books in English in the adult section. I did find a few shelves in the Childrens Section of the library but there weren't many and were aimed at small children (vs. young adult/junior fiction which I'm actually quite a fan of). However, last friday I was given the opportunity to go to Yatap and the Seongnam Central Library there (Think, county library). It was GLORIOUS! As far as libraries go it was decent, more aimed at giving students a place to study than a huge collection of books but it had rows and rows of English fiction! Oh, how my heart leapt with joy! I just looked at them, ran my fingers down the rows reading a title here in there for the sheer pleasure of being able to (I can read hangul but slowly and usually don't understand what I read). It seemed to be a lot of novelized movies/tv shows and a lot of fiction aimed for younger readers, but there was also a smattering of classics and a large travel section. One title jumped out at me "When I was called Keoko" by Linda Sue Park. I started reading it. Just sitting and reading while the lovely teacher who brought me continued to browse and eventually headed for the Korean books. For a 40 minutes I read this book, devouring the words, pausing only to move out of the stacks to a table. Imagine my joy and delight when this kind, generous teacher, ready to leave offered to check it out for me, not just the one, but I could choose a second book! I hurried back into the stacks and grabbed a second title that had previously caught my eye. "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. The check out machine baffled me. You put the books on a stack on the surface and it scans them all! Magic rays pierce the paper and find the code for each one. I stood all amazed.
As we were leaving Holly (the kind teacher English name) asked if she could look in another room. Imagine, asking my permission when it was she doing the favor for me! In the Non-Fiction room we were both suprised to find a second English section! My excitement dimmed as I realized that 90% of the books were about computers/programming/the internet. However towards the end there were a smattering of histories and biographies that are worthy of future perusal.
Soon I will get a few small pictures of myself (like you need to get a passport) take them and my foriegner ID card to the library and get a card of my own. Imagine, being able to once again go to the library! To read books for free! It shall be Legen... ...wait for it... ...dary!
As we were leaving Holly (the kind teacher English name) asked if she could look in another room. Imagine, asking my permission when it was she doing the favor for me! In the Non-Fiction room we were both suprised to find a second English section! My excitement dimmed as I realized that 90% of the books were about computers/programming/the internet. However towards the end there were a smattering of histories and biographies that are worthy of future perusal.
Soon I will get a few small pictures of myself (like you need to get a passport) take them and my foriegner ID card to the library and get a card of my own. Imagine, being able to once again go to the library! To read books for free! It shall be Legen... ...wait for it... ...dary!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
I am a delicious cookie
Margaret or 마가랫트 cookies are quite popular here in Korea AND they're delicious AND I got a couple packets of 'em from my 'little sisters'. (My co-teacher Helen's daughters who call me 'oni' which means older sister)
Today was a good day. Thursdays are my busiest day and this is the best one so far. Even if it was busier than normal. We're learing the 12 Days of Christmas and luckily I had exactly 12 students! One of my students is also a special Ed student and it's been amazing watching her blossom. At the beginning of the year someone had to drag her into the classroom and she'd sit down and stair at the desk until it was time to go. Eventually she started making eye contact, saying "Hello" to me in the hallways, to mumbling/humming to herself, and today, today she loudly and clearly (and in the right spot!) said "Six Geese a-laying"! I almost cheered out loud! I was so proud/happy! When I had the kids do rounds she would mutter her lines! It wasn't perfect English, it wasn't every time but it was a vast improvement from even last week.
I've had problems with my teacher class...mostly they lack enthusiasm and skip a lot of the time. Today was different. We had real conversations. We talked about how they met their husbands, their dating life, the difference between American and Korean marriages/dating. It was wonderful! and good practice for them.
To make this day even better the toilet paper has been upgraded! Woohoo!
It's the little things :)
Today was a good day. Thursdays are my busiest day and this is the best one so far. Even if it was busier than normal. We're learing the 12 Days of Christmas and luckily I had exactly 12 students! One of my students is also a special Ed student and it's been amazing watching her blossom. At the beginning of the year someone had to drag her into the classroom and she'd sit down and stair at the desk until it was time to go. Eventually she started making eye contact, saying "Hello" to me in the hallways, to mumbling/humming to herself, and today, today she loudly and clearly (and in the right spot!) said "Six Geese a-laying"! I almost cheered out loud! I was so proud/happy! When I had the kids do rounds she would mutter her lines! It wasn't perfect English, it wasn't every time but it was a vast improvement from even last week.
I've had problems with my teacher class...mostly they lack enthusiasm and skip a lot of the time. Today was different. We had real conversations. We talked about how they met their husbands, their dating life, the difference between American and Korean marriages/dating. It was wonderful! and good practice for them.
To make this day even better the toilet paper has been upgraded! Woohoo!
It's the little things :)
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
101 in 1001
Start: 23 November 2009
End: 20 August 2012
To begin with...
1. Publish this list
2. Write a journal entry for every item on the list
3. Get some one else to do this
Reading and Writing
4. Post 25 new items on www.writing.com (0/25)
5. Write 25 short stories (0/25)
6. Write 25 poems (0/25)
7. Finish NaNoWriMo
8. Get published
9. Send and receive 101 postcards from www.postcrossing.com (6/101)
10. List 25 things I really like about myself (0/25)
11. Write every day for six months
12. Keep a dream journal for 6 months
13. Identify 101 things that make me happy (0/101)
14. Journal 101 quotes/poems/passages (44/101)
15. Fill in one of my journals
16. Read 101 new books (0/101)
17. Read 5 biographies of people who inspire/interest me (Eleanor Roosevelt, Tesla, FDR, Thomas Edison, Amelia Earhart）
18. Write and send a letter to five famous people and see if they respond
19. Respond to e-mails or letters within 24 hours everyday for a month
20. Instead of storing them, cut up your old magazines and create inspiration notebooks to refer to. I find this process incredibly relaxing, from destroying the magazine spines (kneel on them &tug) to snipping out bouffant hairdos.
Health-y Habits
21. Meditate twice a week for three months
22. Drink two litres of water a day for 3 weeks
23. Walk to or from work everyday for one month
24. Eat vegetarian for two weeks
25. Go kayaking in the ocean
26. Take a dance class
27. Be able to do 10 pull ups
28. plan and stick to a diet for one month (that includes a couple fancy meals)
29. Completely scrub my entire apartment in one day (including finishing all of my laundry)
30. Keep it that way for at least a month
31. Get rid of 101 material things
32. Lose 25 lbs
33. Deep clean my desk once a month for 4 months (0/4)
34. Use coupons for grocery shopping for a month
35. Clean my e-mail inbox(es)
36. Climb a mountain (Korean style is okay)
37. Do 101 push-ups
Money
38. Make a budget and follow it for one month
39. Fill my froggy bank with change
40. Save $10,000
41. Pay off at least half of my school loans
More than on(c)e
42. View the entirety of all the Star Trek Series (except Enterprise)
43. Go on ten picnics (0/10)
44. Have a cooking experiment once a month (0/33)
45. Learn the U.S. Capitols
46. Watch 101 new (to me) films (1/101)
47. Watch the sunrise, set and rise again, consecutively
48. Donate 1,001,000 grains of rice (www.freerice.com) (110/1,001,000)
49. Watch every season of every version of Doctor Who (0/26, 0/5)
50. Go to five new states (0/5)
51. Go to (at least) one museum a month for six months
52. Cook in a crockpot once a week for three months
53. Bake five different loaves of bread (0/5)
54. Go to the theater 5 times (0/5)
55. Do Project 365
56. Do Thankful Thursday every week for 3 months (0/12)
Other stuff
57. Apply to graduate school
58. Get accepted to graduate school
59. Go on a road trip without a predetermined destination
60. Get a new stamp in my passport
61. Have an entire fondue meal
62. Explore a cave
63. make an item of clothing or a bag
64. Go to a Spa
65. Attend a Bhuddist service
66. Explore an abandoned building
67. Learn a fortune telling method
68. Make a time capsule (with long letter to myself) and bury it under the willow
69. Fill in a coloring book
70. Visit a "haunted" house at night
71. Invent a recipe for something delicious
72. Memorize a speech/sonnet/monologue
73. Make an art I'm proud of
74. Learn to drive a stick shift
75. Get a professional massage
76. Refresh my Spanish or French or Latin
77. Do a photoshoot in a cemetery
78. Learn to do a cartwheel
79. Make someone breakfast in bed
80. Go to a rural part of a country (meaning not U.S.)
81. Fill a collage frame with pics of myself that I like
82. Have a Tea Party or Un-Birthday Party
83. Slow dance ending with a kiss in the rain
84. See one of the Seven Wonders of the World
85. Build a fort and spend the night in it
86. Go scuba diving
87. Finish my scrapbook
88. Play my flute again (learn a new song)
89. Go to Peru
TBD (Because I'm sure in the next two and some years me and my goals will change enough that I should add some new ones)
90. Host Pub Quiz Night
91. [saved]
92. [saved]
93. [saved]
94. [saved]
95. [saved]
96. [saved]
97. [saved]
98. [saved]
99. [saved]
In the end...
100. Donate $5 to charity for everything not done on the list at the end of 1001 days
101. Make a new 101 in 1001 list
End: 20 August 2012
To begin with...
1. Publish this list
2. Write a journal entry for every item on the list
3. Get some one else to do this
Reading and Writing
4. Post 25 new items on www.writing.com (0/25)
5. Write 25 short stories (0/25)
6. Write 25 poems (0/25)
7. Finish NaNoWriMo
8. Get published
9. Send and receive 101 postcards from www.postcrossing.com (6/101)
10. List 25 things I really like about myself (0/25)
11. Write every day for six months
12. Keep a dream journal for 6 months
13. Identify 101 things that make me happy (0/101)
14. Journal 101 quotes/poems/passages (44/101)
15. Fill in one of my journals
16. Read 101 new books (0/101)
17. Read 5 biographies of people who inspire/interest me (Eleanor Roosevelt, Tesla, FDR, Thomas Edison, Amelia Earhart）
18. Write and send a letter to five famous people and see if they respond
19. Respond to e-mails or letters within 24 hours everyday for a month
20. Instead of storing them, cut up your old magazines and create inspiration notebooks to refer to. I find this process incredibly relaxing, from destroying the magazine spines (kneel on them &tug) to snipping out bouffant hairdos.
Health-y Habits
21. Meditate twice a week for three months
22. Drink two litres of water a day for 3 weeks
23. Walk to or from work everyday for one month
24. Eat vegetarian for two weeks
25. Go kayaking in the ocean
26. Take a dance class
27. Be able to do 10 pull ups
28. plan and stick to a diet for one month (that includes a couple fancy meals)
29. Completely scrub my entire apartment in one day (including finishing all of my laundry)
30. Keep it that way for at least a month
31. Get rid of 101 material things
32. Lose 25 lbs
33. Deep clean my desk once a month for 4 months (0/4)
34. Use coupons for grocery shopping for a month
35. Clean my e-mail inbox(es)
36. Climb a mountain (Korean style is okay)
37. Do 101 push-ups
Money
38. Make a budget and follow it for one month
39. Fill my froggy bank with change
40. Save $10,000
41. Pay off at least half of my school loans
More than on(c)e
42. View the entirety of all the Star Trek Series (except Enterprise)
43. Go on ten picnics (0/10)
44. Have a cooking experiment once a month (0/33)
45. Learn the U.S. Capitols
46. Watch 101 new (to me) films (1/101)
47. Watch the sunrise, set and rise again, consecutively
48. Donate 1,001,000 grains of rice (www.freerice.com) (110/1,001,000)
49. Watch every season of every version of Doctor Who (0/26, 0/5)
50. Go to five new states (0/5)
51. Go to (at least) one museum a month for six months
52. Cook in a crockpot once a week for three months
53. Bake five different loaves of bread (0/5)
54. Go to the theater 5 times (0/5)
55. Do Project 365
56. Do Thankful Thursday every week for 3 months (0/12)
Other stuff
57. Apply to graduate school
58. Get accepted to graduate school
59. Go on a road trip without a predetermined destination
60. Get a new stamp in my passport
61. Have an entire fondue meal
62. Explore a cave
63. make an item of clothing or a bag
64. Go to a Spa
65. Attend a Bhuddist service
66. Explore an abandoned building
67. Learn a fortune telling method
68. Make a time capsule (with long letter to myself) and bury it under the willow
69. Fill in a coloring book
70. Visit a "haunted" house at night
71. Invent a recipe for something delicious
72. Memorize a speech/sonnet/monologue
73. Make an art I'm proud of
74. Learn to drive a stick shift
75. Get a professional massage
76. Refresh my Spanish or French or Latin
77. Do a photoshoot in a cemetery
78. Learn to do a cartwheel
79. Make someone breakfast in bed
80. Go to a rural part of a country (meaning not U.S.)
81. Fill a collage frame with pics of myself that I like
82. Have a Tea Party or Un-Birthday Party
83. Slow dance ending with a kiss in the rain
84. See one of the Seven Wonders of the World
85. Build a fort and spend the night in it
86. Go scuba diving
87. Finish my scrapbook
88. Play my flute again (learn a new song)
89. Go to Peru
TBD (Because I'm sure in the next two and some years me and my goals will change enough that I should add some new ones)
90. Host Pub Quiz Night
91. [saved]
92. [saved]
93. [saved]
94. [saved]
95. [saved]
96. [saved]
97. [saved]
98. [saved]
99. [saved]
In the end...
100. Donate $5 to charity for everything not done on the list at the end of 1001 days
101. Make a new 101 in 1001 list
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)