Monday, April 20, 2009

Day 123/124

April 19/20 Sunday/Monday

Sunday was another lazy day around the house. I went to bed around 5:30am and woke up around 4:30pm. I love sleeping in! Saturday and Sunday I didn't even leave the house. Didn't even step out my door. On Saturday all I ate was macaroni and cheese and corndogs and ice cream and candy. On Sunday all I ate was ice cream. Early Monday morning around 1am I ate macaroni and cheese.

Why do I have an intercom in my room? Today someone came over the intercom around 10am and woke me up. They were speaking in Korean so I have no clue what they said.

Now its back to work. I only have 3 classes today.

In my first class one of my students didnt show up until 10 minutes before class was over. Today in that class we talked about characteristics such as having long hair/short hair, wearing glasses, having braces, having dark/light hair. I assigned them the essay. I don't even know what kind of essays I'll get. I explained that Im only going to ask once and thats on Monday. One of the girls wanted help with how to write hers. I was helping her 2-3 mins after class ended.

In my second class 2 of my students were absent. Today in that class we talked about some of the same characteristics like dark hair/fair hair, long or short hair, what color of eyes. There were these people in the book and I got them to tell me what kinds of clothes and what color they were wearing. they did well. I also assigned them an essay. the topic is "what do you want to be when you grow up?" (I'm using the same topic for levels 3-6).

Why are people in South Korea so obsessed with weight. It's perfectly fine over here just to ask someone what they weigh. That's so wrong. Today my students asked me "What's your kilogram?". I told them I didn't know. I know but I'm not going to tell them!! (its rude to ask people what they weigh-esp a woman..i dont care if its acceptable in their culture. Its not acceptable in mine!) One of the students told me he weighed 25 kg (he's 11) and the 13 year old said she was 55kg.

In my 3rd class we did a writing unit. I also assigned him an essay. He's my highest level student. His topic was "school" (favorite and least favorite subjects).

Why must they torture me with making the kids write essays?! I think half of the students won't even turn them in. That's fine. I'll just lower their "assignment" grade. Its not like they are actually learning how to write in the lower levels. I dont have adequate time to teach them. I'm just giving them a topic and they have to figure out how to write about it. When I correct their papers all they are going to do is copy my corrections. Or do what they want. I've actually had 2nd drafts that were worse that the first!! In my higher levels I'm actually behind where I need to be in speaking because there isn't enough time. I teach one writing class and one speaking class a week to my 4 highest levels. I need to cover a unit a week but thats impossible! a writing unit is short, but you can't rush through the speaking. THey have to grasp the concepts. Its useless if you rush through the book but they don't understand a thing.

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