Day 166

June 1 Monday

I saw my neighbor (the football coach) as I was leaving today. He said "Nice to meet you". He shook my hand and then said "see you again." He's using his basic phrases that he memorized in high school. I think thats about all the English he can speak. Its really limited. I remember the first night I met him. We "talked" for probably about 45 minutes, but most of that time was spent trying to understand each other. He can't understand me and I can't understand him. I would offer to help him as a friendly gesture, but I know his opinion on English. He says "F**k English-I'm Korean". Its a lost cause.

My classes are changing. I have students moving to different levels.

I only had one student in my 1st class. 2 of the students moved up to level 3. So my youngest student (2nd grade) got a one on one lesson today. I covered 3 pages of material and let her play a game. There are 2 other students who were either absent or no longer there. They didn't move to the next level.

In my 2nd class there were 3 students. Its my level 3 class. One student from level 3 is still in the same level. One student moved to level 4 and the other to level 5. 2 students from level 2 moved to this class. 2 of the boys were passing notes to each other during class. They weren't sitting beside each other. They were getting out of their seat and walking to the other person's seat. I made them stop and pay attention. One of the boys kept taking off his shoe and holding it in the other boy's face. These kids are silly. We covered one page of material and then I let them play a game. They said who ever got out in the game had to buy ice cream for the class (3 students). A girl went to the store and bought ice cream for me, herself and the other student. One student didn't want any ice cream.

I caught up on 2 episodes of "House" at work. 3 more and I'm caught up for the summer. I hate summer breaks. I'm caught up on everything except for "the bachelorette" which I can't even watch because I cant find a copy of it!

In my 3rd class I had one student who moved up from level 9 to level 10. Now there are 2 students in the class. We just went over a writing unit. Its crazy. The "new" student just started the writing book 3 weeks ago. He's only completed 3 units. And now all of a sudden he is on unit 14.

I wonder how many of my students from tues/thurs moved up to new levels. I know all of my level 7 students moved up. So in that class it doesn't matter where I start in the book because they haven't been in my class. I might just do half of 9 on tues. writing on thurs (half of unit 1). The other half of unit 9 next week. One of my students from level 5 moved all the way up to level 7. One of my level 3 students moved up to 5. If they can move up 2 levels then their comprehension is good.

I know tomorrow in my level 4 class I have the twins. Last week I accidentally called one by the other one's name. I usually keep them apart because they are in different classes but now they are in the same class.

All the students moving up at the end of a cycle really confuses me on how to test them. I can't test new students on material they don't know. I wont be able to teach enough material in one class to be able to test them on it. Maybe I'll just give 2 tests this month on the new material that we start on June 15.But if they only have 2 tests then they don't have any other grades to factor in if they get a bad grade on one test. Why do they have to make this so complicated?? And now I have to make a few students make up their writing test since they were absent on Thursday/Friday. Thats going to be a pain. I guess they will just have to make it up while I'm teaching the lesson. I can't just stop class and wait for them to finish.

I went to the gym alone tonight. Lesley was sick. I was on the eliptical for 30 mins at a moderate pace and I was on the treadmill for 15 minutes. One of the female Personal Trainers came to talk to me while I was on the treadmill. She guessed that I was 22 years old.haha. She's 25 in Korean age.