Day 231

Wednesday August 5

Today seemed to go by fast. Maybe it was because I had 3 classes back to back and I was finished teaching at 12:25. I like Wednesday!

My first class was good. Its my favorite class. They were all well behaved and all participated. I love how when they see a story they all are telling me who they want to be even before I mention that we are going to read the story.None of my other classes are that enthusiastic! I write all the parts on the board and who wants to read them. I had 2 people who wanted to read the same part so I wrote who would read on the first time and who would read on the 2nd time. We read the story 3 times in all-once as a class and 2 times with the students taking the parts. I was having a hard time trying to describe cinnamon. They wanted to know what cinnamon was. All I knew to tell them was that it changes the flavor of something. Maybe I'll bring some to class if I can find it. A lot of students in that class say that they have an error on their cd. I don't know whether they just dont want to do it or they are telling the truth. I have no way of knowing. I wish they would all do the cd. It would be very beneficial to them.

My 2nd class is still the problem class. They were good for one day. They were bad today. The girl is good and participates but the boys are bad. They won't read. Sometimes its like I'm up there talking and they arent even paying attention. They carry on doing their own thing. They don't even pay attention when I stand right beside their desk to try to get them to do their work. The girl was reading along with me while they were just goofing around.They asked for a game today and I said no because they were bad. I told the Korean teacher that I was having problems with the boys in that class.

The head person at one of our branches sent me a message on MSN. In September our hagwon is changing. I don't know any details, but I know that now the Korean teachers have to teach English in ENGLISH instead of teaching in Korean. The head person wants me to help the Korean teachers and show them how to teach in English. I don't really know what to do. I'm not doing anything special. I'm just basically reading from the book. I guess I'll just do a mock lesson for them although I hate being watched! Maybe I'll pick out a really good lesson and let them see how I would teach it, but my class is geared toward speaking so I don't know how that would help them with teaching grammar or listening or reading.

My 3rd class was good. They were really quiet. Only half of the class was there. I have 10 students. 5 of the students were there in the class. Then one more came in late. I still have one student who hasn't taken their monthly test. He's been absent for 3 classes in a row. We covered a few pages of material. Finished one unit and started a new unit. We had 10 minutes left in class and one of the students asked to play a game so I let them play for the last 10 minutes. We weren't going to be able to finish the next page anyway.

After I was done at 12:25 I still had 3 1/2 hrs to be at work with nothing to do. I planned out all my classes and copied all the homework papers for tomorrow since I don't have much time in the morning. I have to be at work at 9 and class starts at 9:30. All I need to do tomorrow is print out all of my tests. I also went out to lunch with Johnny Depp(a korean guy at my school-thats his english name that he chose). We went to McDonalds.

I burned 315 calories at the gym today. I walked for 52 minutes. I'm gradually increasing my time. soon I'll be up to an hour. I enjoyed watching "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style" while I was walking. Its crazy how I exercise 6 days a week, but I don't lose any weight because I don't eat the right foods. If I really applied myself I could have lost at least 10-15 pounds in the past 3 months that I've been at the gym. It's hard though. I can't find foods that I like so I choose stuff that I do like and they happen to be really bad for you! I haven't weighed myself since June, but I really doubt that I've lost any weight. People say I look smaller. My clothes still fit the same. no big change. Maybe I'm just losing inches or they are delusional. Maybe one day I'll finally get my act together. After I get paid I've got to make myself stop spending on fast food and save up for my life post Korea.