Day 141

May 7 Thursday

So last week one of the Korean teachers told me not to make my monthly test. I was glad because I hate making the test! Today we were recording grades and the other Korean teacher noticed that I didn't have a writing grade. I told her that the other teacher told me not to make them. She says we have to have a writing grade. She asked me if I could give the tests today and tomorrow. I said no. Those tests take time to make. I can't just make the test right before class. So now I have to give the writing test on Monday, Tues, and Wednesday. My students are going to hate me next week. I'm giving them 3 tests. 2 speaking tests and one writing test in my Tues/Thurs class. I have to give them a weekly test. We didn't have class on Tuesday so I didn't give them a weekly test today. So I'm giving 2 next week. This month I'm doing word tests. I give them a list of vocabulary words that we have learned and they have to know how to spell the words.

In my first class some of the students wanted to change their name. They took up about 5 minutes of class asking me about various names. I kept writing various names on the board. Its hard to think of names off the top of my head. They use an English nickname for my class. I had a "new" student in the class. There was this boy who missed the whole month of April and now he's back for May.

In my 2nd class we reviewed our lesson and then we played games for the rest of the class. Today we played 3,6,9. (You have to count and you clap on the numbers 3,6,9..if you dont clap or say the wrong number then we start from the beginning. When someone messes up they hit each other.

In my 3rd class we went over 2 pages of material. Today we were talking about animals and parts of animals like tail, head, leg, fin, etc. In the book there were some animals with the wrong number of body parts. Like a giraffe with 2 necks. They had to correct it. Example: Giraffes don't have 2 necks. They have one neck. Then I let them draw a funny animal.Then we played 3,6,9. We made it all the way to 100 once.

Students in my 4th class were studying for a test during my class. Every time they would get finished with an exercise they would go back to studying words for another class. We started a new writing book in this class.

My last class was being silly as always. One of the students wouldn't say anything half of the time. He would mouth the words, but not say it out loud. Sometimes the boy in front would act like he was translating for him. The boys were drawing in their book as always. They like to do crazy things to pictures in the book. One of them drew horns on a girl in the book. They like to poke out the eyes also. They will punch a hole in the book where a person's eyes should be.

I got my medical card today. I finally have health insurance. Now I need to research what it covers and doesn't cover in case I need it.

I have to meet mk after school tomorrow to sign papers for my salary. This month I'll have extra deductions for medical and pension. This will be the last month that I have the apt fees coming out of my check (like a security deposit).

I'm going to a baseball game this weekend with my new recruiter.

The won is going down! Its currently at the lowest point that its been since I've been here. According to Yahoo's bank rates today's exchange is $1usd=1257 won. That
will be good when I transfer half of my salary to my wachovia account on Monday! (the day I arrived in Seoul it was at 1262 and the highest was 1500). I watch the exchange rates because the lower the won the more my salary is worth in American dollars.

I'm joining a gym on Monday. Its way overpriced, but I want to go to a gym. I've got to try hard to eat healthier.