Day 266

Wednesday September 09

Where is my package? I still don't have it! It was mailed using Priority Mail from the USA on August 21st. Almost 3 weeks ago! All my packages have arrived within 10 days! I hope it's not lost!! It was very expensive! The post office sent it the wrong way so I can't get a refund and I don't have insurance on it. The contents plus shipping was around $250.

So I found out that after all that trouble I'm still not connected to a printer. I'll just have to keep begging my co-teacher to print things for me.

Today I had to teach writing and ENIE. The cirriculum is terrible this semester! Why fix something that wasn't broken? I liked my old books!! They could have saved money by using the same books but just move them around to different levels! I sure hope I don't get evaluated this semester. She will definatly not like the way I am teaching. She'll have about 10 pages of tips of things I should do. Its never good enough for her.

In my first class we were suppose to do the ENIE (English newspapers in education). The korean teacher told me that my student might have some problems making an id and password and to come get her if I had trouble. Well the student didn't know her ID number (similar to a SS#). The teacher called her mom to get the number. She entered it in and press the submit button and got an error page. The teacher said the student should sign up at home where someone could help her. She asked me to teach one of my other lessons. So I taught the spelling lesson that I was going to teach on Friday. (I hate teaching spelling to such a low level!)

In my 2nd class we went over a writing unit. I don't know where I should really be in the book. I don't have lesson plans for this class. I'm just taking it as fast as I can. The lessons are long so I think i'm actually still on lesson one. My students are having some trouble with it too so. We are talking about topics and ideas. We talked today about revising details to add more information. They have a hard time adding their own details.

I have the opposite problem in my next class. The lessons are WAY too short. last week I was suppose to only cover lesson 1, but I covered lesson 1 and 2 and still had time left over. Today I just reviewed lesson 1 and 2. They were having a hard time. I gave them a worksheet to do. They were suppose to circle the sentences. They don't know what a sentence is. So I reviewed what a sentence was. and we worked on putting the words in the correct order in a sentence. Today I had 3 11 year boys in my class. The girl was absent. One of them kept saying "God Damn". I looked at him and told him that was bad. He said "It's English". My students love the word "Fuck" and "fuck you". They say it constantly to each other! They don't even know what it means.One student asked me "What does fuck mean?" I told him it was bad. I am not explaining that to kids.

My 4th class was my middle school conversation class. The lessons are too long! I don't have time to cover all the material. They are crazy. Today we were talking about imperatives. I don't think they really grasped the concept. They had some prompts and they had to write imperatives. For example: Someone is talking too loud. You say "Please be quiet". Instead they want to come up with silly answers like "do you want to die?" "Go away" "I kill you" "I cut you". Instead of good answers like "please be quiet", "Please open the door", etc. They don't really pay attention. At least they practice their speaking half of the time. I think this lesson was too hard. Next week's lesson looks easy so maybe I'll have a better class next week.I am still clueless as to how to grade this class. I don't know how to give a test for conversation class. Maybe I'll just write out a conversation and have them fill in the blanks as to how the person should answer. If it makes sense they get the points. Give one test a month plus factor in their participation. I don't know.

I don't know how to give tests in any of my classes! How do I give a test in speaking? We aren't learning any specific vocab or concepts. I could give tests in writing class. I'm so confused!

In my last class we had another ENIE class.I don't really like the ENIE class with the young kids. They keep asking if they can play games. They rush through the articles and guess at the questions. Some of them don't even read the articles. They just go straight to the questions. Some of them skim the article and expect me to tell them the answers. I dont tell the answers. i tell them to read the article again. The answers are in the article. With that strategy they finished early. Then they wanted to play games. Probably not a good idea but I didnt know how to prolong class so I let them play games. I told them next week we are doing the articles as a class and no games. Its so hard to keep up with 5 students esp when you have 3 sitting on one side and 2 on the other. Thats the way the computers are set up. 4 on the left side and 2 on the right side. They can listen to the article but 3 of the computers don't have headphones and there arent any more headphones. I dont really know what we are suppose to do in that class. I just get them to read the article and answer the questions. We will do it together and briefly talk about it next week. I think it will still be hard to keep an eye on all of them and make sure they are all on the same thing. I'll make them read aloud with me, then listen, then answer the questions. I just have to try different things and see what works and what doesn't. I think working on the computers is a bad idea. We would get more accomplished if we just had the paper in front of us and read together in the classroom.

I don't know what we will do if they have more than 6 students in one class. There are only 6 computers in the lab. Actually my class on Friday has 7 students. 2 of them will have to share a computer I guess.

goodness! I feel like I write a book everyday! If you actually make it this far you must really have some time on your hands! Maybe I should write a book about my experiences. That wouldnt work. No one would buy it. My writing is terrible and boring!