August 6 Thursday
I've been here 33 weeks! wow! 29 weeks left!
My 1st class was good. We had a lot of speaking practice. I love the textbook we are using called "Welcome to America". It offers lots of guided activities for speaking. There are lots of examples and things for them to speak about. One of my students kept talking during the test. I had to keep telling him to turn around and quit talking. That same student was cheating for another class. He paid another girl 1,000 won to copy her homework for dictation class. If they just copy each other's work they aren't really going to learn the material. I see him copying all the time. He never copies for my class. He just doesn't do the homework at all.
My 2nd class was good. Last time I gave the students a small present for doing their homework for the whole month. Today they asked for another present. They were making up lies like "its my birthday-give me a present." Then the person beside them would say "she's lying." I told the Korean teacher about one of my students who is really quiet. She said that the student is quiet in everyone's class. Ok so it's not just my class. I had to get the Korean teacher to write out her name for me so I'd know what to call her in class. I call her by her Korean name since she didn't want to pick out an English name.
I went into my 3rd class and all of the lights were off and there were no students. That was odd. I turned on the lights and put down my materials on a desk. Then I hear giggling coming from somewhere. 2 of the boys were in the back of the classroom hiding under the desks. It was funny. My kids are so silly. Then the other 2 boys came in late to class. We had a good class. We covered a good amount of material. The 4 boys are really well behaved. We always cover a lot and they have free time to play a game. I always let them play a game because they are good.
I hate how my classes are always getting cut short because the Korean teachers can't seem to pay attention to the time. I always end my class on time. The korean teacher took up 5 minutes of my class time in my 4th and 5th class. Class was suppose to start at 12:50 but I didnt get to start until 12:55 and then another class was suppose to start at 1:40 but I didn't get to start till 1:45.
My 4th class always causes problems. Today we were going over a writing unit. No one did their homework so I had to just do those pages in class. I always have a hard time getting the students to write out their answers. I told them that its writing class so they have to write. I was writing notes on their behavior in my notebook and they wanted to see what I was writing. I wouldn't let them see. When I asked them to write in complete sentences one of the students was writing really messy where you couldn't even read what he wrote. Then they were using their cellphone in class. One of them was showing me that he was playing a "lets learn English" game. I don't care if you are learning English on your cell phone-you have to pay attention during my class! They saw in my notebook where I wrote that they were throwing things at each other on Tuesday and one of the students erased it from my notebook. I can't hardly ever get anything accomplished in that class. I have to beg them to do their work so I can't ever cover a whole unit. Then I assign what we don't finish for homework and they don't do it. I've mentioned what problems I have to the Korean teacher but I still have the same problems. At least I only have to put up with it for 3 more weeks. I think all of my students in that class are in 6th grade(except one) so they will be moving up to middle school. Currently, I only teach Elementary students.
My last class was good. Today they were asking me a lot of questions. We were talking about my gym. I told them that I go to Lee Hun's Energy Gym and that I see Mr. Lee all the time(he's a famous actor in Korea). They asked me if I ever talk to him. I've never said anything more than hello. (I dont know if he speaks English and I cant speak Korean).We covered a whole unit in our writing book and they had some free time. The 2 girls in that class are very well behaved and always do their work and homework so I let them have some free time if we finish early. One of the girls wrote a Korean phrase on the board and wanted me to say it. She had to keep correcting my pronunciation. Learning Korean is hard! I always have trouble with the vowels. I can read hanguel but a few of the vowel sounds confuse me. I said in korean "I can't speak Korean" and the girl said "where did you learn that?". I told her I was learning some Korean from the internet. I watch videos from koreanclass101. Yesterday I also signed up for the website koreanclass101. My goal is to be able to carry on a simple conversation before I leave in 7 months. Although i'm afraid I'll forget everything when I go back to the USA. I don't know any Koreans in America so I wouldn't have a chance to use it on a daily basis. I know if you don't use it you lose it. Thats what happened to my Spanish. I studied Spanish for 3 years and I didn't use it so I forgot most of it. I think it would actually be beneficial for me to start studying Spanish again since there is a large population of Latinos in the USA. I'd love to live in a Spanish speaking country for a year, but I don't know if I want to be away from everyone again. I know my family wouldn't be too happy about that!
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