Ive been here 8 weeks so far.
Early yesterday morning I got to do Facetime with my 2 year old nephew. I miss him! I sent him some toys so I wanted to watch him open them. He liked the toys. I sent him a die cast police tow truck set and a wind up Tayo bus set. (Tayo is a popular cartoon here). I also sent him a rubber ducky that will swim when you pull its tail. He likes the tow truck, but he kept talking about how much he wanted the ambulance set. There was a picture of the ambulance set on the box. Now I need to look for it! We ended up talking for 2 hours! It was mostly me watching him playing with his toys. I also got to see my new niece on camera. She is only 2 weeks old.
Last night I met someone from the Tinder app. I've been on Tinder for a few months, but most of my matches fizzle out very quickly before we even meet. I was upfront with him that I was only looking for friends. I just want to meet various people to hangout with. I will only hangout in public. None of them will ever see my apartment. He is on Tinder looking for friends and a girlfriend. I let him know that I am not looking for a boyfriend. We met at the subway station after work. We were going to get dinner, but he had to get back on the train about 30 minutes after we met. I don't know why he would want to meet at 10:30pm if he knew he had to be back on the 11PM train so he could get back home before the trains stop running. So we just went to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. I was going to buy mine, but he bought it for me. He is 28 years old and speaks English pretty well. (He is Korean).
Last week was a turning point for me. I was to the point where I almost put in my 2 month notice to leave. A few classes were bothering me and I had enough. I went to talk to my boss with my notice in hand. She gave me a solution and I walked back out with my notice. I was having a tough time with making my own lessons for cooking class and art class. She said I don't have to teach those classes anymore. She asked me why I didn't talk to her first. I didn't think that I had a choice in what classes I would be teaching. In the place of cooking I will be teaching reading and in the place of art I will be teaching writing. I think its better for me.
I'm going to try my best to stick it out for my one year contract. This is my last year teaching. I have finally come to the conclusion that teaching is a poor career choice for me. I will not be coming back again.
I also had a turning point in my relationship. I almost ended it (when I considered putting in my notice). I asked my boyfriend how he felt about the relationship. He said he loves me, but he can't speak English. So he is studying English so he can talk to me. I know he's self conscious about his English skills, but that doesn't matter to me. (I appreciate that he is making an effort. He pays to go to school to learn English) I like him as a person. So I decided to stick it out and see what can happen in our relationship. Its really tough that I never get to see him. He told me he was sorry that he didn't have much time to see me. Last week I asked my boyfriend what would happen to us if I left (this was before I talked to my boss). He seemed upset that I was leaving. His reaction made me think about trying to stick with it. If he would have acted like he didn't care if I left then I probably would have ended it right there. Then later I told him that I wasn't leaving, but that previously I was thinking about it earlier in the day. I wonder how long we will last and what will happen when I decide to leave in May. Will we get married or just end it? Next Thursday, the 17th, will be our 2 month anniversary.
I still have my good days and bad days at school, but for now I'm toughing it out. My worst class of young boys is getting better. The only way I can get them to do any work is to constantly give them rewards. We have this program where we give the students fake money for rewards and they can turn it in for snacks. I usually only give out a small amount of "money" each class to the students, but this class is so bad that I have to reward them for every page they complete. Then they sit there and count the money all during class. Its so frustrating at times. I'm glad I only have them twice a week. I don't think I could take anymore.
My middle school classes are frustrating because the majority of students are always late. There are a few people who show up on time. The students trickle in one by one at various times. I have some students who show up 20 minutes or more after class starts. Class is only 45 minutes long. This makes it hard because I have to stop and let them know where we are in the book. Then they don't really want to study. I ask them to write a summary and they only want to write 2-3 sentences.
One of my speaking classes is a good class. I prepare a lot for that class because they do a good job on the material. I'm glad I have the teacher's guide because it has some helpful information on how to prepare the lesson. There is so much material that sometimes we spend 2-3 classes on one page!
Another class started out good at first, but now they are having worse behavior. Some of the students always want to leave the room to get water or go to the bathroom. I tell them to go before class, but they act like they don't understand. Then getting the whole class to be on the same page is hard some time. They always want to be on different pages or not paying attention. On Wednesday I got angry because one of the students hid my erasers. I kept asking them "where are the erasers?". Then finally one of the boys got them out from behind a box.
There are other classes that I really enjoy. One of my lower level phonics class is really good. I'm starting to see improvement in one of the students who was a little slower. He did a really good job the other day and he usually struggles. That class is my favorite. The kids are younger and they are well behaved. We always end early and play a game. They line up in a straight line for the game and stay pretty quiet.
One of my reading classes frustrates me sometimes. There is one girl who is always lazy. She forgets her book most of the time. Then she doesn't want to look for the answers herself so she copies off of others.
One of my private students is a really good student. She is usually in my middle school reading class, but I'm working with her one on one because she will be attending an English school in China. They only speak English at the school. Right now I'm helping her with spelling. I also help her with building sentences. Some times she has trouble making sentences so I give her some example sentences. Sometimes we laugh at the crazy sentences she makes. We also laugh when I have a hard time trying to describe the meaning of a word.
The other foreign teacher is leaving in about 10 days. I think his replacement will be showing up around the 20th. Then there will be all women teachers in the school. I will be the most senior foreign teacher with only 2 months of experience at the school. So basically its like having 2 new teachers. Don't lean on me for much advice because I'm still fresh off the boat!
8 weeks down.....42 more to go....
3 weeks till vacation!!
