Day 261

Friday Sept 4

My first class was a spelling class with my youngest student. She's a 2nd grader. She was really tired today. I'm teaching her from a book that is equivalant of a kindergarden book. Its really simple. I don't like it! Its way too simple for me. How do I make 5 pages last for 45 minutes? The words are so easy: fin, flag, ran, sit, sat, fill, win, bag, list. I used the model in the book. First you say the word. So we said the words twice. Then We spelled the word together. Then I had her write each word 3 times. We did some pages in the book where she had to write which words had the a sound and which had the i sound. Which ones had the ag sound and which ones didnt. I had her close her book and spell the word for me. She spelled them correctly. Then I gave her a quiz where I called out the words and she wrote them. She got them all right. We still had a few mins left in class and I had no clue what else I should do.The lesson is way too short. I don't know how to drag it out any longer! I just did 2 pages of the next unit also. I would have let her play a game for a few mins but she didnt want to play a game. I think I'll need supplementary activities for this class! I'll find something fun for her to do.

My 2nd class was good. We were reading from an English newspaper. We did 2 articles. One about David Beckham and one about sportsmanship. We read it together and I had a list of questions for them to answer. I told them if they were good I'd give them candy. I have to bribe my students to behave.

My 3rd class was also good. I told them they had to be good to get candy. The boys in this class like to say 'fuck you'. They also like to use 'shut up'. I told them those weren't nice to say. We did the English newspaper in this class also. I taught the same lesson back to back. Then I let them have some free time after we finished the articles.

Actually all my students love to say 'fuck you' and stick up their middle fingers. Why is it that everyone is obsessed with curse words? The students are more interested in the bad words (which I refuse to teach!)

I have to teach spelling at the kindergarten level again. They are 11 and 12 years old and I'm teaching them kindergarten level spelling. I just hate the material because its so simple. They wanted me to rush through the lesson so they could play a game. They kept trying to rush me. They asked what page we would end on. I told them page 5 and they begged me to let them end on page 4 but I made them go to page 5.They had a list of 15 words. 4 or 5 letter words. First we say the words. Then spell the words together. then write the words 3 times each. Then we did exercises in the book. 'which word has the a sound, the e, the i, the o, the u. Then they had to choose the words that ended in a specific letter. That was a little harder for them. They would finish one task and then bring their book up to the podium for me to check. I'd tell them what was wrong and what was right. I let the play a game when we were finished. I told them to be quiet in the game but they always get too loud even though Im constantly telling them to be quiet. The teacher's assistant came in the class and was asking me questions. he wanted to know if the game was part of the lesson (it wasnt). I explained that we finished the lesson and they were having some free time. He said his boss said we were being too loud. I kept telling them to be quiet. now they are going to get me in trouble! Our classroom is right next to the teacher's room so all the teachers can hear us when they are being loud. I'm going to have to stop letting them play games. I want to let them have some fun but they just won't be quiet. THey won't be getting a game on Monday. I'll have to explain that they were too loud.

THe new program sucks! The students complained about the writing book. There's no color and no pictures. I liked the old textbooks better. I especially liked the "Welcome to America" books.

One of the teachers that quit was back today. I don't know what she was doing. Maybe she's coming back to teach, but why quit and then come back? She was printing off a lot of copies on the printer. If she did come back they would probably half the classes between her and the other teacher so they will have just a few classes and i'll be left with my 23 classes. I wish she would come and take my boring spelling classes! I hate the spelling classes! I'm suppose to cover 4 short pages of material and make it last 50 minutes. How? should I make them write each work a 100 times to make sure they can spell it?

I don't even know what I'm suppose to be doing in the ENIE classes. I know its an English newspaper and we will be working in the computer lab next week. I'm so confused! The ENIE website isn't very english friendly either. How am I suppose to teach the kids when most of the website is in Korean? Am I suppose to teach or just let them read and answer questions? Is there a quiz on the site? The articles are in English but the tabs for various activies are in Korean!! I'm just really frustrated this semester.

I need to get someone one to hook me up to the network on Monday. I need to be connected to the printer. I have so many things to print but no access to a printer w/o begging to use someone else's computer. I like to be independant and be able to do things on my own.

I brought all my books home this weekend. I need to study my new books. I think this new semester is going to be a lot harder! Its a ton of more work for me. I hate that I have to create my own homework. There isn't enough material in the books to cover and then leave some for homework. If I had it my way there wouldnt be any homework!