Day 387

January 8 Friday

I got my new passport today. That was quick! They told me it would take two weeks to process, but it only took one week! My picture looks funny though. It looks like I have red circles around my eyes. weird.

1st class was great. My 1st class on MWF is now my biggest(10 students) and my favorite class. I just adore those kids. They are very well behaved. They have so much enthusiasm and they actually put forth the effort. They are all begging to read first. I try to remember who asked first. We went over newspaper articles…they did good and participated…I let them listen to some songs after we were finished…They wanted to hear "Heartbeat" by 2pm. They also wanted to listen to 부른다 by 서인국(He won the Korean version of American Idol). I keep up with all the hottest pop groups. The kids are always talking about the Kpop groups and they are always excited that I like the music too. I love Korean Pop! I'm going to miss being surrounded by it when I move back to the USA. My favorites are : 2pm, Rain, Big Bang, SS501, and Super Junior. I've seen Big Bang, Super Junior, Girl's Generation, and 2NE1 in a mini concert at the Asian music awards. I really want to see Rain. I would also love to see SS501 and 2PM.

My 2nd class was okay.We also went over the newspaper articles. The boys were not paying attention..I played hangman with them for about 5 min beford class….When we were reading one boy kept skipping words that he didn’t know or didn’t want to read. I told him not to skip words.and I had to beg him to write down the answers..

My 3rd class was pretty good. I gave them 2 tests. Their behavior was better today.They were pretty quiet during the tests, but they do like to shout out the answers and I make them stop.…I decided to make the test easier so they could have a chance at getting a good grade. I gave them the articles and they had to just find the answers. Some of them don’t even look for the answers.Then I reviewed for the book test. I wrote all the words on the board and they had to fill in the blanks. They got most of those right. Then I did a review where we looked at the pictures for each of the words..we went over that twice….even after reviewing some of them didn’t do so well. Then I let them have free time…they were being loud some of the time.No matter how much I tell them to be quiet there are a few who like to be loud…im going to have to stop giving games because they wont be quiet…I don’t want to get in trouble…my room is right beside the teachers room and they can hear…

My last class was good. The two boys in the class are so precious. They are my youngest students. I don't know how old they are, but they don't look like they could be older than 2nd or 3rd grade. One of the boys was wearing his little animal hat during class. Its like a toboggan in the shape of an animal head. Its so adorable. A lot of my kids have one. I think I might find one just as a keepsake.hehe. I gave them the newspaper test first. They had to find the answers in the articles. One student got a perfect score and the other student missed a few. Then I told them to study for their test. I just don't know what to do with that one boy. He never retains the information. The newest student does great. He got a perfect score. The other student only attempted 4 of the words and got one of them correct. He could spell boat but couldnt spell any of the others. Then we covered 2 pages in our book. They did good with the activities in the book. The activites were finding patterns in words like begins with ch or ends with ch. At the end of class I said "끝났어" which means "its over". They were so surprised to hear me speak Korean. Then one of the boys kept asking me to say random words. Then he said "bravo!" I said "안녕히 가세요" to the students.

I wish I would have spent more time studying Korean. It would have been nice to actually carry on a simple conversation. My Korean is very limited! But even my small amount of Korean impresses the students.

Today the team leader at my school told me that she needs a copy of all of my bills. I told her I'd find as many as I could. I always had to give them receipts so they could make sure I paid my bills. I gave all my receipts. Why do they need the actual bills? I found the majority of them. I'm missing a few of the bills. No one told me I had to save them. I don't know why they are so anal about having receipts. My last co teacher was telling me I'd get all that money back when I leave, but I wonder if that is true. Why would they give me back the money that I paid for bills?? I'll be extremely happy if I do get it back. I'll just wait and see.

6 weeks left!! I never planned my vacation so I think I'll be leaving a week earlier than I expected. I should be leaving sometime around Feb 20 or so.