Day 33
Well, I'm guessing that you all might be wondering what happened to me. Well, not much, and a lot. Seoul was good. I really really liked it. We went to the Coex underground (that's where koreans seem prone to putting shopping centers) mall. I bought Goldfish crackers and a Dr. Pepper (which was so sugary to me now that I had to throw it away half full), dippin' dots, and some cheeze pizza. I also bought the book Holes and two books on learning korean. Sadly one is for English speakers and the other is for Japanese speakers. I have to take it back and exchange it for the right one or the workbook is pretty useless. Took the subway, stared at guys with Ash, got a little lost, but finally found my way with some help and got back to Daejeon and ICC.
I'm watching a korean movie btw. I have no clue what's happening really except that there's this pretty girl who doesn't feel pretty and gets upset easily. I think she used to be fat. But she's a good singer and after meeting with an old friend she auditioned for something and now she's famous. I think she has a crush on some guy but I haven't figured out who or what the connection between her and other people are.
What I do know is that this girl needs a backbone.
erm, learning more korean words thanks to my students. I now know (like, can remember after they tell me) the words for book, chair, desk, and jellyfish (their English vocab said back to me in their native tongue). Eh, you hear it enough times and you pick it up. Go figure. :-D
Ah, so yes, monday was alright but hard since I wasn't as prepared for class as I'd been the other days, but I did managed to have lots of flash cards so that was good. The day wasn't VERY good though, frustrating. Tuesday was moreso. I think it's in large part to my attitude. But, I realized how important it was to have a good attitude and be happy to see my students, to not just do it because it's a job. I can't imagine how the girls who just do it to get it over with survive every day. How can people function with no joy? How can you just do a job? I mean, I'm not perfect and there are miserable classes, but there was a general unhappieness on Monday and Tuesday especially that I have no interest in repeating.
Anyway, today was lovely. I looked at the lesson plan they had for the zoology room and figured I could work with it, but of course there're no plans for the phonics students so I made a lengthy powerpoint by myself. I'm actually quite impressed with my aptitude on it, because it took me about and hour and a half and it included pasting in pictures and finding apropriate and interesting clips of the animals on youtube. What I did was a review of nearly all of the animals the students have learned since starting four weeks ago. Showed them the spelling (since they're lacking in their ability to identify lettered words to verbal ones), then the picture, then the picture and the spelling and had a student come up and spell it on the board with magnets. Then I showed the clip and went to the next letter, then they colored a picture. It worked out much better than I anticipated. It's so great when you have a day where you're just spot on in your lesson. I also think that attitude effected it. I wore my favorite shoes today, and my elephant choker, and a nice shirt and my skinnier pants that I now fit and I felt good, even though I didn't have makeup on. The level one went over well too.
Level four...well...they're not as able to speak as I originally thought they were, or at least not all of them. The reading is going much slower than I anticipated, but I've set up the kind of homework I'll give them for their journal, the grading style, and the reward if they do well. I'm hoping it'll be an efficiant motivator.
On the way out two of the other teachers thought I was 'going out' which I thought was nice. Then some guy checked me out on the street. That's the first time that I know of that it's happened here and it was really nice. Um, also my students have started hugging me. And some have taken pictures of me on their cell phone. Who knows what they do with them (is there a site somewhere whre you throw tomatoes at a picture of my face?) but they say 'pretty' and that's nice. One girl drew an unflattering picture of me on the board between classes. I said "nope, that's not me. No." lol, then another girl drew a pretty picture of me. awwww, so sweet!
Eh, then out to dinner at a little place with a cute waiter. Good bulgogi (beef) soup, though their soups are generally more like stews here.
Oh, and I woke up soooo late this morning. I don't know what was up. I went to sleep at a decent hour last night, but I couldn't drag myself out of bed, and I still didn't feel awake for almost an hour after. So I really woke up just in time for work. I didn't work out. I didn't clean my room. I don't know why.
I hope that doesn't happen again tomorrow. I haven't weighed myself in a few days and I've eaten what I want. Hopefully that won't result in me weighing more at the end of the week than I did at the beginning. :-p enough about that.
Well, I suppose that's about all for now. My room is still a mess.
Later people.
I'm watching a korean movie btw. I have no clue what's happening really except that there's this pretty girl who doesn't feel pretty and gets upset easily. I think she used to be fat. But she's a good singer and after meeting with an old friend she auditioned for something and now she's famous. I think she has a crush on some guy but I haven't figured out who or what the connection between her and other people are.
What I do know is that this girl needs a backbone.
erm, learning more korean words thanks to my students. I now know (like, can remember after they tell me) the words for book, chair, desk, and jellyfish (their English vocab said back to me in their native tongue). Eh, you hear it enough times and you pick it up. Go figure. :-D
Ah, so yes, monday was alright but hard since I wasn't as prepared for class as I'd been the other days, but I did managed to have lots of flash cards so that was good. The day wasn't VERY good though, frustrating. Tuesday was moreso. I think it's in large part to my attitude. But, I realized how important it was to have a good attitude and be happy to see my students, to not just do it because it's a job. I can't imagine how the girls who just do it to get it over with survive every day. How can people function with no joy? How can you just do a job? I mean, I'm not perfect and there are miserable classes, but there was a general unhappieness on Monday and Tuesday especially that I have no interest in repeating.
Anyway, today was lovely. I looked at the lesson plan they had for the zoology room and figured I could work with it, but of course there're no plans for the phonics students so I made a lengthy powerpoint by myself. I'm actually quite impressed with my aptitude on it, because it took me about and hour and a half and it included pasting in pictures and finding apropriate and interesting clips of the animals on youtube. What I did was a review of nearly all of the animals the students have learned since starting four weeks ago. Showed them the spelling (since they're lacking in their ability to identify lettered words to verbal ones), then the picture, then the picture and the spelling and had a student come up and spell it on the board with magnets. Then I showed the clip and went to the next letter, then they colored a picture. It worked out much better than I anticipated. It's so great when you have a day where you're just spot on in your lesson. I also think that attitude effected it. I wore my favorite shoes today, and my elephant choker, and a nice shirt and my skinnier pants that I now fit and I felt good, even though I didn't have makeup on. The level one went over well too.
Level four...well...they're not as able to speak as I originally thought they were, or at least not all of them. The reading is going much slower than I anticipated, but I've set up the kind of homework I'll give them for their journal, the grading style, and the reward if they do well. I'm hoping it'll be an efficiant motivator.
On the way out two of the other teachers thought I was 'going out' which I thought was nice. Then some guy checked me out on the street. That's the first time that I know of that it's happened here and it was really nice. Um, also my students have started hugging me. And some have taken pictures of me on their cell phone. Who knows what they do with them (is there a site somewhere whre you throw tomatoes at a picture of my face?) but they say 'pretty' and that's nice. One girl drew an unflattering picture of me on the board between classes. I said "nope, that's not me. No." lol, then another girl drew a pretty picture of me. awwww, so sweet!
Eh, then out to dinner at a little place with a cute waiter. Good bulgogi (beef) soup, though their soups are generally more like stews here.
Oh, and I woke up soooo late this morning. I don't know what was up. I went to sleep at a decent hour last night, but I couldn't drag myself out of bed, and I still didn't feel awake for almost an hour after. So I really woke up just in time for work. I didn't work out. I didn't clean my room. I don't know why.
I hope that doesn't happen again tomorrow. I haven't weighed myself in a few days and I've eaten what I want. Hopefully that won't result in me weighing more at the end of the week than I did at the beginning. :-p enough about that.
Well, I suppose that's about all for now. My room is still a mess.
Later people.