Day 359

Friday December 11

My team leader gave me a cake for my birthday. Its a chocolate cake from Paris Baguette.

I had a pretty easy day today. Only 3 classes.

My first class is a bit challenging, but I’m very patient and understanding..so I teach it very slowly.He didn’t do so well on the newspaper test. I gave him the articles so he could look for the answers but he didn’t look for the answers.He didn’t do well on the spelling either.He only attempted 4 words and got 2 of them right.It took him a while to understand what I was saying. I was asking him to repeat the words after me-then he pointed to his book to ask if he was suppose to be doing that.I told him we were going to say the words first..We say the words twice, then spell, then write each word 5 times.Then we covered 4 pages in the book.He did good on those pages…it was finding words that have the short e, o, u sound and words that end with t, d, n. At one point in class he decides he wants to stand to do his work.So he just stood at his desk. I just let him. He's not disrupting class in any way so doesn't matter.He kept pulling up his pants all during class. I guess they ar a little too big.He was wearing one of his school uniforms.That must be uncomfortable for a small child to be wearing dress pants, a vest, dress shirt, and a suit jacket.

2nd class was great…when I first walked in there were only 2 students…then 2 girls come rushing in. They ran to class. Each one gave me a present for my birthday….one girl gave me a SpongeBob pen because she knows I like spongebob…..then the other girl asked me to choose up or down…I chose up and then she gave me my present…maybe she had 2 things picked out…Then she gave me a little blue notebook bc she knows I like blue. They are so sweet. Its a small gift but they took their time picking it out and chose something that I like.…We went over our newspaper articles in class…We talked about a Dog Cashier, Baby born in a Kia, and Brad and Angelina Jolie. I showed them a picture of Brad and Angelina.…The girls said Angelina was ugly and had a big nose…one of the boys said Angelina was handsome..haha…kids are silly.they liked the picture of the dog in the clothes..haha…One of the students said she heard the story about the Kia on TV before. We listened, read together and answered questions…when one person had to read a short sentence they said that person should read another sentence.haha..one girl had trouble pronouncing words so she kept laughing…We had a great class!! Then the girls wanted to listen to “Honey, Honey” on my Itunes (They like ABBA songs that they heard on Mamma Mia. Last week we listened to Mamma Mia).

No students showed up for my 3rd class so I didn’t have to teach it.

My last class was superbad! First, I gave them a test on the newspaper articles we covered on Wednesday. They were all talking during the test and taking their time. Most of the grades were 20,30,40. One person made an 80. Then I was going to be nice and review before the other test. I basically wrote all the answers on the board. I know they didn’t study because they couldn’t tell me most of the answers. Then I gave them the test. They were still talking during the test and taking their time answering the questions. On the test they had to fill in missing blanks from the months like J_n_a_y, tell what month different holidays were in and put the months in order…most of them did really bad…what bothers me is they don’t even try. I do my best to teach them and they don’t even try. I wouldn’t mind if they tried and failed but they don’t even care. Apathetic students are the worst! One person made a good grade on the test a 92. The next highest was a 72. The rest were 50 and below. I gave one student a zero. He just sat there and didn’t write down any answers after I told him over and over to answer the questions. I just took it away and gave a zero. Then I wrote the answers on the board at the end of class. They weren’t even paying attention. Oh well. I didn’t get anything accomplished today because they were being too slow on their tests—talking instead of doing the test. I wanted to do half of unit 2 but that didn’t happen. They don’t have books yet so I made copies. I told them to keep their copies and we will use them on Monday. I bet no one will keep them. I told them no games next week because they were so bad in class. They just sit there and laugh while I am angry at them. They just ignore me. They will still ask.

After class 2 of my students from my Tue/Thur class came by to say they were sorry they didn’t get me anything for my birthday…I told them they didn’t have to get me anything.

After school I went home and ate my cake all by myself. I only ate a small piece. I even lit up the candles and took a picture.