Day 334

Monday November 16

I finally changed my profile picture on facebook. Recently I'd been using old pictures because I never took a photo of myself that I liked. I took one today and I liked it.

I had a decent day today.

The Korean teacher told me that someone was coming to take photos of the kids today. I think she said its something for the parents.When it was time for the 1st class all the students were in one classroom. The photographer wanted to get them in some natural looking shots so the Korean teacher told me to start teaching the class so he could take pictures. I had to get copies for the 2 students who were in a different level. Then I started teaching and the photographer took a few pictures. Mostly of the kids, but a few of me. I wasn't looking at the camera. Then we took a group photo in front of the chalkboard. Then they wanted to go to the computer lab so we could take more pictures. We all went to the lab. They all sat down at the computers and he took a few pictures. He asked me to pretend like I was showing them something. So I pointed to the screen like I was showing the student to click on that link. Then that student needed help with the headphones so he took a pic of me putting headphones on the student. Then there was a shot of me and the girl looking at each other like she was asking me a question. Then there was a shot of a girl raising her hand to ask a question. THen we took a group photo in the middle of the lab. 2 of the students were beside me and i had my arms around their shoulders.

Then we went back to the classroom. Today in my first class we were talking about the zoo. They had some good answers and some silly ones. One question was "Do you think animals are happy at the zoo? why or why not?" A few students said that the animals are happy because they have free time, they don't have homework, and they get to eat and play. One student said they weren't happy because they were trapped in the zoo. I was going to cover 2 lessons today but with all the picture taking I didn't have time. I let the students have a few minutes of free time.

My 2nd class was pretty good. I only had 2 students today. We covered 2 lessons about "how" and "Why" questions. They begged not to study 2 lessons, but I'm trying to follow the lesson plan so we did it anyway.

My conversation class was hectic as usual. I was heading to my class and I looked in the classroom and saw all these students I didn't know. There was a note on the door saying to go to room 215. I had another new student today. I got him to write down his name. He wrote it in Korean and kinda sloppy so I couldn't read it. I asked him if he could spell out his name and he wouldnt. He doesnt have an English name. The boy beside him said his name was "Eric" so thats what I wrote down. I called him that name in class and he didn't know I was talking to him. Now I have a total of 16 students and they were all present. I only made 14 copies so I had to go make one more. (one student has a book) Today our topic was "What did you do yesterday" We were learning about past tense verbs. One student kept complaining about having a stomachache so he didn't really do anything in class. One student took a picture of me on her cell phone when I wasn't looking. She showed it to me at the end of class and said I was a model. haha. 3 girls in the back didn't pay attention in class. They were constantly playing on their cell phones and not doing their work. Then the girl who never does her work, didn't do her work either. So the 4 girls in the back didn't do their work. Not many people would practice speaking with their partners. Near the end of class they thought it would be funny to say the past tense of the verb when I said the present tense. They were suppose to be repeating after me from the book. They actually made me laugh doing that. I'd said write and they'd say wrote. Then I'd say wrote and they'd say write. There were a few people who were asking to go to the bathroom and drink water. I didn't let them go. If one person goes then everyone decides all of a sudden they need to go so I told them to wait. Only one more class with this group!!

My last class was actually good today. They are usually my worst class. We took a test and they got really good grades today. I let them study for a while. One of them made a 98. The other 2 students made 84 and 56. They asked for a game today. I told them if they had good behavior and studied hard that I would let them play a game. I told them what page I wanted to finish. Then they were ready to start studying and they participated in class. Its funny that they think part of being good includes giving me snacks. One student gave me a handful of snacks then another student gave me some. We covered the 3 pages and I gave them a sticker and thanked them for studying hard today. I let them play a game for 10 mins. They were actually pretty quiet during the game.

I've got some fun activities coming up in November and December:

Nov

I'm going to get out this weekend and take some photos of the Christmas decorations. There are some pretty elaborate ones. Yesterday while I was on the bus I saw 2 huge department stores covered in lights.

22nd--I'm going to the racecourse with a meetup group. I've never been to a horse race before.

28th--Thanksgiving dinner and staying over night in a cabin with the meetup group.

Dec

5th--LotteWorld (outdoor/indoor amusement park) with my recruiter and people she recruited to come to South Korea. She can get a discount for going with a group. Only 20,000 won. (Less than 20 dollars)

12th--DMZ with meetup group

19th--Handal's "Messiah" performed by foreigners...I may go to this to listen.

25th--maybe going somewhere down south...Busan, Jeju? with the meetup group for a week long trip to celebrate Christmas/New Years (I have to make sure I can get this time for my vacation)