Day 280---40 weeks!

Wednesday Sept 23

wow..can you believe I've been writing an entry every day for 280 days? 40 weeks!

First class was good. I only have one student. We just did the online newspaper. Its so easy with one person. We listen, read together out loud, then she answers the questions. If only my other classes were that good.

I had a new student in my 2nd class. Today I sat down with the kids in the circle and we talked about main ideas and paragraphs. We had a good class. Its hard to just pick up in the middle of a lesson with a new student because we are always building on previous writing. I think we had a good class. Everyone was good and they participated and seemed to grasp the concept. They didn't understand one part though. They don't know how to revise a sentence to add more details. I basically just gave them the answers to that part. Then they had to revise their paragraph that they wrote last class. They must be learning "do, re, mi" from sound of music in one of their classes. They were all singing it in class.

My 3rd class was acting up a little bit. They wanted to get out of their seat and not do their work. I had to keep telling them to be quiet. And again they were talking about poo poo. They are hilarious. We finally got finished with our lesson after I had to keep telling them to behave. They werent really bad. They just like to talk about subjects that have no relevance and that prevents me from teaching what I need to teach them. At least we got finished with our one lesson and they seemed to grasp the concept.

My 4th class was my conversation class. In the beginning of class it was funny when one of my students just broke out in a John Denver song. He said "country roads lead me home to the place where I belong". Then he started singing "Kung Fu Fighting". He's the class clown. Later we were reading together and he was making everyone laugh by saying the opposite of what I said. I'd say 'the building is big' and he'd say 'the building is small'. He's always doing something crazy. Class was okay. Sometimes its hard to get them to practice their conversation with each other. I beg them to talk to a partner. Most of the time they don't do it. If they don't excel at conversation its not my fault! I give them time and beg them to do it!Today in conversation class we were talking about describing things like big, small, colors, shapes, etc.

I had a new student in my last class. She was a really good student. She did the work like she was suppose to. The others weren't so good. Today we were in the computer lab doing our online newspaper. I don't know how they finish so fast. They are done with about 9 articles in 10 minutes. They won't listen when I tell them not to open up music players and other websites. When I write questions on the board they won't answer them. I only gave a sticker to the 2 girls. Next week I will have plenty of activities to keep them busy. I'm going to make up questions so they actually have to read the article to find the answer instead of reading it fast and finishing everything in 10 minutes. I know they arent reading it twice, listening and then answering the questions. And I can't keep up with 5 students at one time. I'm suppose to have one more new student in my class. Next week there will be 7 children and 6 computers. Then in my friday class there will be 8 students and 6 computers. What the heck am I suppose to do? And one of the computers is really really slow so I dont know if anyone will be able to work on it. always problems!

I'm buying a printer this weekend. Someone from dave's esl is selling me one. They will sell it to me for 40,000 won (@$40). Now I'll print all my stuff at home. I hate having to ask someone to print for me. I like to do things myself!! And I usually have a lot to print since I have to make my own tests and homework.

When I was on the subway a foreigner was speaking to me. He was a mormon missionary from the USA. Been in Korea for 10 months. He's very excited about sharing his faith. He speaks Korean(he witnesses to Koreans). He said he sees me a lot on the subway. (he lives in Eungam also and we are usually on the subway at the same time). He asked me if I would be interested in meeting with missionaries so they could talk about God with me. I told him I grew up in church but I don't go to church right now because its hard to find an English speaking church. I told him I wasn't interested.(I dont need to be witnessed to!<--I didnt say it that way!) He said he liked my honesty and I seemed like a nice person. I'm not interested in becoming a mormon. sorry. We talked as i was walking out of the subway towards my house.