Friday October 30
My Korean teacher IM'd me while I was at work. He has an interesting idea. We are going to start learning Korean by experiencing things in Seoul instead of just sitting in a classroom. That should be neat. Learning Korean through experiencing Korean culture first hand.
Today we only had one class. We were in the classroom from 4-6. Me and the Korean teacher were in the room together. I can't remember how many students were in there, but some of the students brought their friends with them. Maybe about 15 or so.I think they asked the students to bring friends (probably in the hopes that those kids will become students). The students who brought a friend got 10 stickers. From 4-5 we were making crafts. We made a mask, bag, and cup jack o lantern. I helped the students. The Korean teacher and team leader were taking pictures. The TA filmed the students.
The kids are really well behaved and quiet when they are doing fun activities. It was nice to not have to teach for a change and just do something fun.
I'm thinking of some fun ideas for Nov and Dec. I might teach them about Thanksgiving near the end of November. Maybe I'll let them make turkeys from their handprints. I enjoyed that back in my school days. My lessons are so short and I have extra time to do fun things. In December I may teach them some Christmas songs in our speaking class. We may read some Christmas stories also like "The night before Christmas" and maybe "The Grinch". Maybe we will be able to have a Christmas party. I think I'll incorporate fun things into February for Valentines day. They could make holders for valentines and make paper valentines to give their classmates. and maybe even some videos for each holiday.
I was wearing my mask at first but no one else was wearing one. I wore it for a little while. Some of the kids were asking me if I had H1N1. I told them no. I finally just took it off since I was the only fool with it on.
After the crafts they had a song contest and costume contest. I told the Korean teacher that I wanted to watch the song contest. She let me be a judge. She gave me numbers 6-10. The students would sing an English song and we'd rate their performance. I gave one girl a 10. She did a great job of "Let it Be." The others got scores from 7-9 from me. Then they had a costume contest and i was a judge for it too. I mostly gave them 7-8's. Their costumes weren't really original.(Halloween isn't really a Korean holiday) Mostly witch hats and scream masks. I gave a 9 to one boy who had the best (he won). His was a mask and he had this pump in his hand. When he squeezed the pump blood would run down inside the mask. All the kids were fascinated by it. After class we took pictures. I was in the pic with all the kids. Then I was also in the pic with the song contest winners. Class was over around 6pm. I was being nice helping clean up the mess and the korean teacher told me to take a rest.
I think I enjoyed today better than yesterday.
For the next 3 hours I didn't have anything to do. Me and the Korean teacher were both just sitting at our desk wasting time. I was downloading tv programs and watching them. I watched one episode of "18 kids and counting", "Ellen" with Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw, and "Oprah" where there were stories of women who killed children because they were driving while intoxicated.
Then I came home, changed clothes and finished packing.
If there are no posts for the next 2 days don't think that I've died or something..haha....I'm going out of town so I'll be away from my computer...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Day 316
Thursday October 29
I didn't really teach anything today. I had 2 classes with the elementary students and one with the pre middle school.
Today they started making everyone wear masks. This swine flu is getting out of control. If the students dont have a mask we have to give them one. The mask is very uncomfortable and hot.
I didn't really like our "halloween party." All I was doing was watching the kids make masks, paper bags for candy and jack o lanterns on cups for 50 minutes. At the end of class I gave them candy. I helped the students some. I didn't like that the teacher's assistant was in the room the whole time. He was making a video. He was recording the kids doing their crafts. I attempted to stay out of the video. Every time I'd see him coming anywhere near me I'd move out of the way so I wouldnt be in the video. The CCTV is messed up in our room, too. Today we were combining classes. I normally have 5 in the 1st class and 2 in the 2nd class. 2 of the students from the 1st class were present and one of them brought her friend along. Then there was only 1 student from the 2nd class was present. The girl from the 1st class brought along her sister which is in my MWF class. So in first block I only had 5 students.
Then I took a break while the korean teacher was in there doing whatever she was doing.
At 6pm I went back for my 2nd block. I would have only had 3 kids in 2nd block but I ended up having 10. The team leader had some of her math students in my class. Plus some students from MWF showed up for this class. My boss came in during class and checked the kids temperatures. He had an ear themometer. They don't use the things like the doctors do where you cover the tip with a plastic shield. He just put it in their ear and then wiped it with a tissue after each one. Sometimes he would dip it in water to clean it. I saw him check the Korean teacher, but he didn't check me. The TA was recording this class also. Just recording the kids making their crafts. I wore my witch hat during the class. I just watched the kids make things and helped them. We didn't have enough materials for everyone so I had to keep passing things around. Waiting till one person was finished with the glue stick or the scissors. There weren't enough scissors so some of them were using blades similar to a box cutter. I had to keep going back out to my desk to get things because some of the masks broke and they were missing pieces to something. When my team leader was in the room she was telling me to start talking like I was giving some presentation. I don't know what she wanted me to say. I'm glad she left the room actually. Nobody wants to listen to me give a lecture about halloween. I gave them a handful of candy at the end of class.
At 7pm I had to go to my pre middle school class. They all wanted candy so I took my suckers to the class. I told them they could have 2 and most of them complied but there are two naughty boys who got more than they should. At least they didnt try to hide the fact. I saw one of them had 5 in his hand and I asked "you got 5?". He said "No, I got 8". At least he was honest. then he wanted to switch colors and he had a handfull of red suckers. I had a new student today. He didn't actually get to learn anything because I was giving a test. I think it was a waste of money to make him buy the book when the class is over in November. He'll only get to study 3 lessons. I could have made copies for him. whatever. I gave them their test today. They are mischeivous as always. Talking during the test and playing on their cell phones. At least I left out the part where they have to listen to me and fill in the blanks. Last time they would keep having me repeat things and ask me to spell them. I just gave them listening from the cd. I played it a lot of times so they could get it. I gave them situations from the book, but since they apparently don't study or pay attention I had to explain it to them and I still don't think they did it right.
Then I had a break from 8-9.
I went to see "This is It" last night. Lesley found out and wanted to know why I didn't invite her. I didn't even think of it. Plus I wouldn't have known if it was something she would be interested in. And I didn't make plans in advance. It was a spur of the moment thing. really I'm so used to doing everything alone and I don't think about inviting people along. I offered to go with her tonight and see it with her if she wanted. She decided it was a waste of money for me to see it again and she wasn't really a fan of MJ anyway. I had suggested that we get something to eat before the movie so she still wanted to get something to eat. I picked a place in Gusan for samgyeopsal.
We met at 10pm and ate at my favorite samgyeopsal restaurant. It was delicious. I love the corn salad. I actually ate the entire meal with chopsticks! I'm not great at using chopsticks but I made it work. We got 500g of samgyeopsal for 9,900 which is about $9. That's a good price for a meal for 2 people.
Then I went home and started packing for my trip tomorrow. I'm excited to meet new people and see something outside of Seoul. I think there will be about 40 of us on the trip and I don't know anyone! So I'll get to meet other people who like travel and culture. I'm going with a meetup group. I'll be gone all weekend so there won't be any blogs from me until late Sunday when I get home.
I didn't really teach anything today. I had 2 classes with the elementary students and one with the pre middle school.
Today they started making everyone wear masks. This swine flu is getting out of control. If the students dont have a mask we have to give them one. The mask is very uncomfortable and hot.
I didn't really like our "halloween party." All I was doing was watching the kids make masks, paper bags for candy and jack o lanterns on cups for 50 minutes. At the end of class I gave them candy. I helped the students some. I didn't like that the teacher's assistant was in the room the whole time. He was making a video. He was recording the kids doing their crafts. I attempted to stay out of the video. Every time I'd see him coming anywhere near me I'd move out of the way so I wouldnt be in the video. The CCTV is messed up in our room, too. Today we were combining classes. I normally have 5 in the 1st class and 2 in the 2nd class. 2 of the students from the 1st class were present and one of them brought her friend along. Then there was only 1 student from the 2nd class was present. The girl from the 1st class brought along her sister which is in my MWF class. So in first block I only had 5 students.
Then I took a break while the korean teacher was in there doing whatever she was doing.
At 6pm I went back for my 2nd block. I would have only had 3 kids in 2nd block but I ended up having 10. The team leader had some of her math students in my class. Plus some students from MWF showed up for this class. My boss came in during class and checked the kids temperatures. He had an ear themometer. They don't use the things like the doctors do where you cover the tip with a plastic shield. He just put it in their ear and then wiped it with a tissue after each one. Sometimes he would dip it in water to clean it. I saw him check the Korean teacher, but he didn't check me. The TA was recording this class also. Just recording the kids making their crafts. I wore my witch hat during the class. I just watched the kids make things and helped them. We didn't have enough materials for everyone so I had to keep passing things around. Waiting till one person was finished with the glue stick or the scissors. There weren't enough scissors so some of them were using blades similar to a box cutter. I had to keep going back out to my desk to get things because some of the masks broke and they were missing pieces to something. When my team leader was in the room she was telling me to start talking like I was giving some presentation. I don't know what she wanted me to say. I'm glad she left the room actually. Nobody wants to listen to me give a lecture about halloween. I gave them a handful of candy at the end of class.
At 7pm I had to go to my pre middle school class. They all wanted candy so I took my suckers to the class. I told them they could have 2 and most of them complied but there are two naughty boys who got more than they should. At least they didnt try to hide the fact. I saw one of them had 5 in his hand and I asked "you got 5?". He said "No, I got 8". At least he was honest. then he wanted to switch colors and he had a handfull of red suckers. I had a new student today. He didn't actually get to learn anything because I was giving a test. I think it was a waste of money to make him buy the book when the class is over in November. He'll only get to study 3 lessons. I could have made copies for him. whatever. I gave them their test today. They are mischeivous as always. Talking during the test and playing on their cell phones. At least I left out the part where they have to listen to me and fill in the blanks. Last time they would keep having me repeat things and ask me to spell them. I just gave them listening from the cd. I played it a lot of times so they could get it. I gave them situations from the book, but since they apparently don't study or pay attention I had to explain it to them and I still don't think they did it right.
Then I had a break from 8-9.
I went to see "This is It" last night. Lesley found out and wanted to know why I didn't invite her. I didn't even think of it. Plus I wouldn't have known if it was something she would be interested in. And I didn't make plans in advance. It was a spur of the moment thing. really I'm so used to doing everything alone and I don't think about inviting people along. I offered to go with her tonight and see it with her if she wanted. She decided it was a waste of money for me to see it again and she wasn't really a fan of MJ anyway. I had suggested that we get something to eat before the movie so she still wanted to get something to eat. I picked a place in Gusan for samgyeopsal.
We met at 10pm and ate at my favorite samgyeopsal restaurant. It was delicious. I love the corn salad. I actually ate the entire meal with chopsticks! I'm not great at using chopsticks but I made it work. We got 500g of samgyeopsal for 9,900 which is about $9. That's a good price for a meal for 2 people.
Then I went home and started packing for my trip tomorrow. I'm excited to meet new people and see something outside of Seoul. I think there will be about 40 of us on the trip and I don't know anyone! So I'll get to meet other people who like travel and culture. I'm going with a meetup group. I'll be gone all weekend so there won't be any blogs from me until late Sunday when I get home.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Day 315....."This is It" opening night...
Wednesday October 28
I wore my new shirt and shoes today. I was more dressed up than usual. Most of the time I just wear a nice tshirt, tennis shoes, and jeans. Today I had on a nice tshirt and black pants and dress shoes. I got tons of compliments from students. They said I was beautiful. My team leader also told me I looked beautiful today.
My first class was good. I found out that my student in my first class will no longer be at the hagwon after next month. I don't know if that means she will quit at the end of October or November. She was actually a good student. She's in the lowest level by herself so its like she was getting private English lessons. I mostly taught her spelling. Today we did our online newspaper.
My 2nd class was good. I gave them their writing test today. They had a few mins of free time then I made them study 2 pages. We were studying about retelling a story. They didn't really understand at first. I asked them if they knew about "Cinderella." So I told them to tell me what happens. Then I explained that is what retelling is. Telling someone what happens in the story. Their homework was to think of their favorite story and write down the main idea and three details about the story.
My 3rd class was good. All we did was our writing test. 2 of the boys were practicing their song for the song contest. They'd ask me to pronounce words for them. One of the boys was playing the song on his psp. They were singing "You Gotta Be" by Des'ree.
In my 4th class I gave them a test. It was my pre middle school students. They all did pretty good. The student who has only been in my class for 2 weeks got the highest grade. She only missed 4 questions. After the test I just gave them free time. We wouldnt have been able to cover much anyway.
My 5th class was in the computer lab. It was okay, but they do the activities too fast. I gave them a worksheet to keep them busy but they dont read the article. They just skim for the answer or beg me for the answer. I tell them to read to find it. I have to keep begging them to read and quit playing with their phone.
Tomorrow I don't think I'll be doing any real teaching. The Korean teacher said we will combine the classes and I can help them make halloween masks and tell them about Halloween. We are going to give them candy like trick or treating. Me and the Korean teacher will wear witch hats. My team leader was telling me to wear a dress and ghost paint. I dont have any ghost makeup but I can wear my black dress to go along with the witch theme.haha.
Tonight I was browsing the internet to see if "This is It" (the movie about Michael Jackson) was playing in Bulgwang at CGV. I found out it was playing at 10:50pm. It was opening night and I thought it might be sold out but I'd still check. I wanted to see it soon because its only open for 2 weeks. I went after I got finished at the gym. I got there at 10:30 and they had tickets. The 10:50 showing was pretty empty. I'd say less than 20 people.
The movie was really good. It is sad that he died an untimely death. MJ was a great singer. He got caught up in the fame and lived a troubled life, but he had a good long career. I can't think of one song that I didn't like! It would be hard to pick one as a favorite. I like "Billie Jean", "Earth Song", and "Smooth Criminal" the best.He was planning on the "This is It" tour to be his comeback. I never got to see one of his concerts! The movie showed rehearsal footage of the upcoming tour. The rehearsal footage was really good. I think it would have been a great tour! I liked the dancing, songs, videos, special effects. The movie was over at 12:50. 2 hours long, but it was good. Its not one of those movies where you sit there thinking 'how much longer till this is over?'
Afterwards I walked home since the subway doesn't run that late. I love Seoul. Its one of the biggest cities, but I feel its very safe. I'd never walk around Charlotte at 1am alone and its much smaller! I walk around Seoul at 1am without a care in the world. I don't even worry or 'watch my back'. The street is lit up very well so you can see what's going on around you. The weather was so nice also. I'd say it was around 60 degrees. It was a refreshing walk. I need to do it more often instead of relying on the subway so much. Its only about a 15 minute walk.
I wore my new shirt and shoes today. I was more dressed up than usual. Most of the time I just wear a nice tshirt, tennis shoes, and jeans. Today I had on a nice tshirt and black pants and dress shoes. I got tons of compliments from students. They said I was beautiful. My team leader also told me I looked beautiful today.
My first class was good. I found out that my student in my first class will no longer be at the hagwon after next month. I don't know if that means she will quit at the end of October or November. She was actually a good student. She's in the lowest level by herself so its like she was getting private English lessons. I mostly taught her spelling. Today we did our online newspaper.
My 2nd class was good. I gave them their writing test today. They had a few mins of free time then I made them study 2 pages. We were studying about retelling a story. They didn't really understand at first. I asked them if they knew about "Cinderella." So I told them to tell me what happens. Then I explained that is what retelling is. Telling someone what happens in the story. Their homework was to think of their favorite story and write down the main idea and three details about the story.
My 3rd class was good. All we did was our writing test. 2 of the boys were practicing their song for the song contest. They'd ask me to pronounce words for them. One of the boys was playing the song on his psp. They were singing "You Gotta Be" by Des'ree.
In my 4th class I gave them a test. It was my pre middle school students. They all did pretty good. The student who has only been in my class for 2 weeks got the highest grade. She only missed 4 questions. After the test I just gave them free time. We wouldnt have been able to cover much anyway.
My 5th class was in the computer lab. It was okay, but they do the activities too fast. I gave them a worksheet to keep them busy but they dont read the article. They just skim for the answer or beg me for the answer. I tell them to read to find it. I have to keep begging them to read and quit playing with their phone.
Tomorrow I don't think I'll be doing any real teaching. The Korean teacher said we will combine the classes and I can help them make halloween masks and tell them about Halloween. We are going to give them candy like trick or treating. Me and the Korean teacher will wear witch hats. My team leader was telling me to wear a dress and ghost paint. I dont have any ghost makeup but I can wear my black dress to go along with the witch theme.haha.
Tonight I was browsing the internet to see if "This is It" (the movie about Michael Jackson) was playing in Bulgwang at CGV. I found out it was playing at 10:50pm. It was opening night and I thought it might be sold out but I'd still check. I wanted to see it soon because its only open for 2 weeks. I went after I got finished at the gym. I got there at 10:30 and they had tickets. The 10:50 showing was pretty empty. I'd say less than 20 people.
The movie was really good. It is sad that he died an untimely death. MJ was a great singer. He got caught up in the fame and lived a troubled life, but he had a good long career. I can't think of one song that I didn't like! It would be hard to pick one as a favorite. I like "Billie Jean", "Earth Song", and "Smooth Criminal" the best.He was planning on the "This is It" tour to be his comeback. I never got to see one of his concerts! The movie showed rehearsal footage of the upcoming tour. The rehearsal footage was really good. I think it would have been a great tour! I liked the dancing, songs, videos, special effects. The movie was over at 12:50. 2 hours long, but it was good. Its not one of those movies where you sit there thinking 'how much longer till this is over?'
Afterwards I walked home since the subway doesn't run that late. I love Seoul. Its one of the biggest cities, but I feel its very safe. I'd never walk around Charlotte at 1am alone and its much smaller! I walk around Seoul at 1am without a care in the world. I don't even worry or 'watch my back'. The street is lit up very well so you can see what's going on around you. The weather was so nice also. I'd say it was around 60 degrees. It was a refreshing walk. I need to do it more often instead of relying on the subway so much. Its only about a 15 minute walk.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Day 314
Tuesday October 27
I called customer service for Fedex. I actually got up before noon to call! I told them it was okay to leave my package with the guard if they couldn't deliver it by 1:30pm.While I was at school someone from fedex called me and was asking me for my address and asking if there was a guard at my offictel. When I got home I saw a box with the usps sticker on it on the guard's desk and I just pointed to it and held up my fingers for 302. Then I got my package!
I tried on my clothes. They fit pretty well. The camisole is super tight and doesn't really offer much slimming capabilities, but I don't want to take time to send it back so I'll keep it. I love my new shoes! I ordered them from Walmart.com. They are black flats. They are cute and comfy. They are really soft. I may wear them to school tomorrow. I ate a few of my oatmeal creme pies! yum!
In my first class we had 2 tests and a quiz. I gave the writing test first. They all did pretty well. I gave the speaking test next. They all did well on it also. Then they had free time.I had one absent student so I'll have to get her to do a makeup test.
My 2nd class was good. The boy who likes magic had another magic trick today. Then I gave them their writing test. One boy didn't do so well. It was easy stuff like underlining the months or days, underline a place, circle the titles. I think his grade was a 44. The other student made a 74. Both of them say they've been studying English since they were 5, but they are still on a low level. They both did okay on the speaking test.
My 3rd class was in the computer lab.The girls were doing their work, but the boys like to talk and goof off. They didn't finish their questions that I gave them to do. They will have to do them for homework.
During my break I got all my tests together for the rest of the week. I copied all of them and stapled and sorted into classes and put post it notes so I'd know which class they were for. At least I'm finally finished making all the tests that I have to give this week!
My 4th class was good. I had one student absent in this class so I'll have to give her a makeup test. She has missed 3 Tuesdays in a row. I gave them their writing test first. The grades ranged from a 76 to a 92. They were saying that it was hard. I just copied exercises from the book. One student asked why there were so many questions. There were 25. I was trying to explain that if there are a lot of questions then they don't count as much when you miss one. I'm trying to give them a chance at making a good grade.I made a mistake on one of the writing tests. I gave the girl a 92 because I thought that she only missed 2. She really missed 3 and should have made an 88. The boy told on her. She was just not going to tell me. I kept asking her to show me her paper. She didn't want to. At least I have one honest person in my class. I think he just liked being a tattletale, but it wouldn't have been fair to give her a higher grade than she received. Then I gave them their speaking tests. They all did a good job.
I skipped the gym tonight because I wanted to go home and get my package. I saw the Mormon guy on the subway(that I met a few weeks ago) and we talked briefly. I probably won't be seeing him anymore. He lives in Eungam now, but is moving to a different area tomorrow.
I called customer service for Fedex. I actually got up before noon to call! I told them it was okay to leave my package with the guard if they couldn't deliver it by 1:30pm.While I was at school someone from fedex called me and was asking me for my address and asking if there was a guard at my offictel. When I got home I saw a box with the usps sticker on it on the guard's desk and I just pointed to it and held up my fingers for 302. Then I got my package!
I tried on my clothes. They fit pretty well. The camisole is super tight and doesn't really offer much slimming capabilities, but I don't want to take time to send it back so I'll keep it. I love my new shoes! I ordered them from Walmart.com. They are black flats. They are cute and comfy. They are really soft. I may wear them to school tomorrow. I ate a few of my oatmeal creme pies! yum!
In my first class we had 2 tests and a quiz. I gave the writing test first. They all did pretty well. I gave the speaking test next. They all did well on it also. Then they had free time.I had one absent student so I'll have to get her to do a makeup test.
My 2nd class was good. The boy who likes magic had another magic trick today. Then I gave them their writing test. One boy didn't do so well. It was easy stuff like underlining the months or days, underline a place, circle the titles. I think his grade was a 44. The other student made a 74. Both of them say they've been studying English since they were 5, but they are still on a low level. They both did okay on the speaking test.
My 3rd class was in the computer lab.The girls were doing their work, but the boys like to talk and goof off. They didn't finish their questions that I gave them to do. They will have to do them for homework.
During my break I got all my tests together for the rest of the week. I copied all of them and stapled and sorted into classes and put post it notes so I'd know which class they were for. At least I'm finally finished making all the tests that I have to give this week!
My 4th class was good. I had one student absent in this class so I'll have to give her a makeup test. She has missed 3 Tuesdays in a row. I gave them their writing test first. The grades ranged from a 76 to a 92. They were saying that it was hard. I just copied exercises from the book. One student asked why there were so many questions. There were 25. I was trying to explain that if there are a lot of questions then they don't count as much when you miss one. I'm trying to give them a chance at making a good grade.I made a mistake on one of the writing tests. I gave the girl a 92 because I thought that she only missed 2. She really missed 3 and should have made an 88. The boy told on her. She was just not going to tell me. I kept asking her to show me her paper. She didn't want to. At least I have one honest person in my class. I think he just liked being a tattletale, but it wouldn't have been fair to give her a higher grade than she received. Then I gave them their speaking tests. They all did a good job.
I skipped the gym tonight because I wanted to go home and get my package. I saw the Mormon guy on the subway(that I met a few weeks ago) and we talked briefly. I probably won't be seeing him anymore. He lives in Eungam now, but is moving to a different area tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Day 313
Monday October 26
My package came today, but I wasn't at home. They attempted to deliver it at 5pm. I was at work. They left a note. I'll have to call customer service and see if they can deliver it before 1pm. I have been waiting so long!! I think it was suppose to originally be here 2 weeks ago!
My first class was good. We just went over spelling. She made a 60 today. She does good in class, but she doesn't study for her tests. Even though she could spell them all on Monday, by Friday she has forgotten when I give her the test.
My 2nd class was good. I gave them a quiz on the online news we did on Friday. Then we had our speaking test. I was more organized this time. They all did a good job. I think the lowest grade was a 91. Then they had free time. This class actually makes an effort and wants to do good on their tests.
My 3rd class was pretty good. I gave the quiz to the 2 boys who were in class on Friday. They were trying to cheat. I gave them the test then they decided they wanted to study so I took the test away. Then they wanted to look at the test, then study again. Then we had our speaking test. They all got either a 91 or 92.
I didn't have to teach my Monday conversation class. I'm not really getting anything accomplished in this class. On the last week of the month my class is always cancelled because of their monthly tests so Ive lost 2 classes. Plus I can't really teach anything on test day. I was planning to give them their test this week. I'll just have to give it to them next week. In November I'll have to give them their test on the 3rd week because they will have their monthly test on the last week. It will only be on 2 lessons. Oh well. I only have a few more classes! I hate teaching unmotivated students. I think I could be a big help to people who actually want to learn instead of children who are wasting their parents money.
My last class was bad. One boy never brings his book. I have to make a copy every class. Then after I got back from making his copy a girl let me know she didn't have her book so I had to make another copy. I was going to give them time to study and they weren't really studying. Today all of the students thought it would be funny to just write nonsense on their tests. 4 of them got a zero. 1 student who was doing well got a 28. Oh my. When their parents see their grades for this month they are going to wonder why I'm such a bad teacher. I'm not a bad spelling teacher. They are terrible students. One of my students has only been in class once this month. His only grade is a 49. The highest average is a 75. The rest of the class is between 26 and 47. That's the average of 7 tests. They don't even try. Today the students just wanted to talk and not pay attention. I was yelling a lot. We were learning new words and I kept asking them to repeat the words after me and no one would. I yelled at one student and asked him to pay attention and he just laughed. One student had a scream mask and he kept putting it on in class. I only got one page covered. I'm never going to get caught up!! Now because of the "new alphabet" (cursive) I have to write all the words on the board for them in regular writing. Today I made the students write the words 10 times each. No one got finished. One boy kept writing the words big and couldn't fit many on one page and wasn't writing half of the time. I assigned 2 pages for homework and to complete writing their words. I bet no one will do it. I mentioned homework right before it was time to go and no one wrote it down. I was announcing it and they were all like "okay" while packing up their books and not really paying attention. I just don't know what to do with these kids. They have no interest in spelling and their grades make me look like a bad teacher. I'm doing all that I can. At the beginning of class one of the students asked me if they could have a Halloween party on Friday. I didn't give them an answer. They don't deserve a party. I'm not going to let them. If you want me to do good things then you have to earn it! Definitely no game this week based on their behavior today. I know they will misbehave on Wednesday. They always do in the computer class.
My package came today, but I wasn't at home. They attempted to deliver it at 5pm. I was at work. They left a note. I'll have to call customer service and see if they can deliver it before 1pm. I have been waiting so long!! I think it was suppose to originally be here 2 weeks ago!
My first class was good. We just went over spelling. She made a 60 today. She does good in class, but she doesn't study for her tests. Even though she could spell them all on Monday, by Friday she has forgotten when I give her the test.
My 2nd class was good. I gave them a quiz on the online news we did on Friday. Then we had our speaking test. I was more organized this time. They all did a good job. I think the lowest grade was a 91. Then they had free time. This class actually makes an effort and wants to do good on their tests.
My 3rd class was pretty good. I gave the quiz to the 2 boys who were in class on Friday. They were trying to cheat. I gave them the test then they decided they wanted to study so I took the test away. Then they wanted to look at the test, then study again. Then we had our speaking test. They all got either a 91 or 92.
I didn't have to teach my Monday conversation class. I'm not really getting anything accomplished in this class. On the last week of the month my class is always cancelled because of their monthly tests so Ive lost 2 classes. Plus I can't really teach anything on test day. I was planning to give them their test this week. I'll just have to give it to them next week. In November I'll have to give them their test on the 3rd week because they will have their monthly test on the last week. It will only be on 2 lessons. Oh well. I only have a few more classes! I hate teaching unmotivated students. I think I could be a big help to people who actually want to learn instead of children who are wasting their parents money.
My last class was bad. One boy never brings his book. I have to make a copy every class. Then after I got back from making his copy a girl let me know she didn't have her book so I had to make another copy. I was going to give them time to study and they weren't really studying. Today all of the students thought it would be funny to just write nonsense on their tests. 4 of them got a zero. 1 student who was doing well got a 28. Oh my. When their parents see their grades for this month they are going to wonder why I'm such a bad teacher. I'm not a bad spelling teacher. They are terrible students. One of my students has only been in class once this month. His only grade is a 49. The highest average is a 75. The rest of the class is between 26 and 47. That's the average of 7 tests. They don't even try. Today the students just wanted to talk and not pay attention. I was yelling a lot. We were learning new words and I kept asking them to repeat the words after me and no one would. I yelled at one student and asked him to pay attention and he just laughed. One student had a scream mask and he kept putting it on in class. I only got one page covered. I'm never going to get caught up!! Now because of the "new alphabet" (cursive) I have to write all the words on the board for them in regular writing. Today I made the students write the words 10 times each. No one got finished. One boy kept writing the words big and couldn't fit many on one page and wasn't writing half of the time. I assigned 2 pages for homework and to complete writing their words. I bet no one will do it. I mentioned homework right before it was time to go and no one wrote it down. I was announcing it and they were all like "okay" while packing up their books and not really paying attention. I just don't know what to do with these kids. They have no interest in spelling and their grades make me look like a bad teacher. I'm doing all that I can. At the beginning of class one of the students asked me if they could have a Halloween party on Friday. I didn't give them an answer. They don't deserve a party. I'm not going to let them. If you want me to do good things then you have to earn it! Definitely no game this week based on their behavior today. I know they will misbehave on Wednesday. They always do in the computer class.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Day 312.....Seoul Design Olympiad
Sunday October 25
I got up around 2:30 pm. I actually woke up a few mins before the alarm so I got up and started getting ready.
Today I went to the Seoul Design Olympiad. It was in Jamsil at the Olympic stadium. It was really crowded. When you first enter you have to go through the "clean zone". You have to wash your hands. you stick your hands under this little machine and some water squirts out. Then they spray some kind of mist on you as you walk past.
Click on the album to view
There were lots of things to see at the exhibition. And a lot of chaos. Everyone was constantly bumping in to everyone. It was hard to take pictures sometimes because of all the people. There were so many people in such a cramped place. There were a lot of interesting things to see and take photos of.
I had a lot of work to do today! I had to make tests for all of my classes. Its that time of the month where I have to give monthly tests. I'm almost finished. I still have to make my test for Wednesday's conversation class.
I also have to make classwork for my online classes. Lots of work this week. Lots of papers to grade.
I got up around 2:30 pm. I actually woke up a few mins before the alarm so I got up and started getting ready.
Today I went to the Seoul Design Olympiad. It was in Jamsil at the Olympic stadium. It was really crowded. When you first enter you have to go through the "clean zone". You have to wash your hands. you stick your hands under this little machine and some water squirts out. Then they spray some kind of mist on you as you walk past.
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| Seoul Design Olympiad 2009 |
Click on the album to view
There were lots of things to see at the exhibition. And a lot of chaos. Everyone was constantly bumping in to everyone. It was hard to take pictures sometimes because of all the people. There were so many people in such a cramped place. There were a lot of interesting things to see and take photos of.
I had a lot of work to do today! I had to make tests for all of my classes. Its that time of the month where I have to give monthly tests. I'm almost finished. I still have to make my test for Wednesday's conversation class.
I also have to make classwork for my online classes. Lots of work this week. Lots of papers to grade.
Day 311
Saturday October 24
I always need a day to just do nothing. That's what I did today!
I was planning on waking up at 2pm and going to the Seoul Design Olympiad. Then I ended up sleeping till 4pm. Then I just didn't want to go anywhere.
There's always tomorrow..
I caught up on a lot of tv shows. I watched a few episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress." Its a show on TLC about Kleinfeld. Its where you can get a ridiculously expensive wedding dress. One of the dresses that someone tried on originally costed $17,000. The people on that show usually have a budget of $2,000 to $10,000 that they want to spend on their wedding dress. I'm hoping to have my whole wedding cost less than that! I mean if there ever is one. Its getting less likely day by day. If I do ever have a wedding the most I'd probably spend is around $400-500 which is a bit extravangant for something I'll only wear once!
I watched an episode of "18 kids and counting." In the episode the Duggers wanted to renew their vows and they got the woman's dress from Klienfeld.
I also watched 2 episodes of the 2nd season of "Tool Academy." I think that show is crazy!! It's full of people in bad relationships. A lot of the guys confessed that they had cheated on their girlfriends. One guy had been with 3 other girls while he was with his girl.I just don't understand why women stay with these douchebags. Do they think thats the best they can do?
My only meal today was from Pizza School. I love that pizza.
I always need a day to just do nothing. That's what I did today!
I was planning on waking up at 2pm and going to the Seoul Design Olympiad. Then I ended up sleeping till 4pm. Then I just didn't want to go anywhere.
There's always tomorrow..
I caught up on a lot of tv shows. I watched a few episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress." Its a show on TLC about Kleinfeld. Its where you can get a ridiculously expensive wedding dress. One of the dresses that someone tried on originally costed $17,000. The people on that show usually have a budget of $2,000 to $10,000 that they want to spend on their wedding dress. I'm hoping to have my whole wedding cost less than that! I mean if there ever is one. Its getting less likely day by day. If I do ever have a wedding the most I'd probably spend is around $400-500 which is a bit extravangant for something I'll only wear once!
I watched an episode of "18 kids and counting." In the episode the Duggers wanted to renew their vows and they got the woman's dress from Klienfeld.
I also watched 2 episodes of the 2nd season of "Tool Academy." I think that show is crazy!! It's full of people in bad relationships. A lot of the guys confessed that they had cheated on their girlfriends. One guy had been with 3 other girls while he was with his girl.I just don't understand why women stay with these douchebags. Do they think thats the best they can do?
My only meal today was from Pizza School. I love that pizza.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Day 310
Friday October 23
I called the woman at Fedex just to make sure she got my fax. She received it and my package is now going through customs inspection. If everything passes inspection then I should have my package on Monday. Its crazy!
Everybody is talking about the swine flu in Korean. I don't know what they are saying. They will be talking to someone on the phone then when they get off they start talking about swine flu. I guess they are talking about kids who have it. One of the bosses was asking all the teachers about swine flu. He'd ask them something then he'd make a comment on his paper. I know at least 3 of my students have had it. They were out multiple days from my class.
I just hoping I don't catch it. I've never had any kind of flu in my life and I've never been cautious about not catching something. I have been washing my hands like crazy!! I don't think I've ever washed my hands so much in my life. I also have hand santizer that I use. I've decided I'm not going to get the flu shot. I've heard that it is dangerous for your health because of the mercury levels.
My first class was good we just went over spelling. Learned 2 sets of words.
My 2nd class was okay. It was our class in the computer lab. 1 student was absent so everyone had their own computer. Its hard to get one boy to stay at his computer. He gets the rolling chair and likes to be all over the room. All the students had snacks and their snacks were all over the floor when they left. Then everyone wants to go to the bathroom and drink water in my class. I told them to go before my class and quit asking. Once one person asks then everyone wants to go. Some of them finish too fast so I ask them to do comprehension questions, but they don't do it.
My 3rd class was better. 2 students were absent so I only had 2 students in class. It was so much easier to manage. They were actually doing their work. One of them seemed to be sick. He was coughing some. One of them depends on me to give him the answers to the worksheet. I told him if he read then he'd find the answers. I'm tired of them begging me for the answer and they won't even read to search for the answer!
My 4th class was better than normal. They actually did their work! We actually had a productive class and I got 4 pages done. In our lesson now the words are being written in cursive. The students tried to get me to stop before that page because they needed time to study the "new alphabet." Its not a new alphabet. Its just written in cursive. why?? This is a textbook that is used in America when kids should be learning cursive. Its not my job to teach cursive. Now its harder for them because they don't know how to read cursive. I had to write all the words on the board in normal handwriting. I didn't have to yell any in class today!! One of the boys kept begging for a game, but we are still behind. We don't have time for a game. Since they were so good I may give them a game on Friday, but only if they can behave all week long!!
Its so funny how the guy at Mcdonalds knew what I was going to order before I even ordered. I heard him whisper to someone as I walked in the door. He said "big mac set." Its sad that I go there so often. Really they should know me on a first name basis. I always get the Big Mac set. Its fast, convenient, and cheap. I get a big mac meal for $2.93. You can't beat that!
I've really got to work hard when I get home to lose this weight! I know I've put on a few pounds since I've been here and I've got a long way to go to get to where I need to be!!
I called the woman at Fedex just to make sure she got my fax. She received it and my package is now going through customs inspection. If everything passes inspection then I should have my package on Monday. Its crazy!
Everybody is talking about the swine flu in Korean. I don't know what they are saying. They will be talking to someone on the phone then when they get off they start talking about swine flu. I guess they are talking about kids who have it. One of the bosses was asking all the teachers about swine flu. He'd ask them something then he'd make a comment on his paper. I know at least 3 of my students have had it. They were out multiple days from my class.
I just hoping I don't catch it. I've never had any kind of flu in my life and I've never been cautious about not catching something. I have been washing my hands like crazy!! I don't think I've ever washed my hands so much in my life. I also have hand santizer that I use. I've decided I'm not going to get the flu shot. I've heard that it is dangerous for your health because of the mercury levels.
My first class was good we just went over spelling. Learned 2 sets of words.
My 2nd class was okay. It was our class in the computer lab. 1 student was absent so everyone had their own computer. Its hard to get one boy to stay at his computer. He gets the rolling chair and likes to be all over the room. All the students had snacks and their snacks were all over the floor when they left. Then everyone wants to go to the bathroom and drink water in my class. I told them to go before my class and quit asking. Once one person asks then everyone wants to go. Some of them finish too fast so I ask them to do comprehension questions, but they don't do it.
My 3rd class was better. 2 students were absent so I only had 2 students in class. It was so much easier to manage. They were actually doing their work. One of them seemed to be sick. He was coughing some. One of them depends on me to give him the answers to the worksheet. I told him if he read then he'd find the answers. I'm tired of them begging me for the answer and they won't even read to search for the answer!
My 4th class was better than normal. They actually did their work! We actually had a productive class and I got 4 pages done. In our lesson now the words are being written in cursive. The students tried to get me to stop before that page because they needed time to study the "new alphabet." Its not a new alphabet. Its just written in cursive. why?? This is a textbook that is used in America when kids should be learning cursive. Its not my job to teach cursive. Now its harder for them because they don't know how to read cursive. I had to write all the words on the board in normal handwriting. I didn't have to yell any in class today!! One of the boys kept begging for a game, but we are still behind. We don't have time for a game. Since they were so good I may give them a game on Friday, but only if they can behave all week long!!
Its so funny how the guy at Mcdonalds knew what I was going to order before I even ordered. I heard him whisper to someone as I walked in the door. He said "big mac set." Its sad that I go there so often. Really they should know me on a first name basis. I always get the Big Mac set. Its fast, convenient, and cheap. I get a big mac meal for $2.93. You can't beat that!
I've really got to work hard when I get home to lose this weight! I know I've put on a few pounds since I've been here and I've got a long way to go to get to where I need to be!!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Day 309
Thursday October 22
I called Fedex today. Anyway My package got rejected by customs. She said that customs rejects packages with food in them. None of my other packages have gotten rejected and I think every single one had food in it! The woman asked me what kind of food was in there. I told her it was snacks from America-(mom was sending oatmeal creme pies and fudge rounds). The woman asked me what kind of nuts were in there. Huh? I told her I didn't know that nuts were in there. My mom didn't tell me. She says I need to call customs and explain what is in my package. She asked questions about the nuts. What kind of nuts? are they salted?, etc. I dont know. I told her last time I got nuts it was honey roasted peanuts. So apparently they are concerned over the nuts. Maybe we shouldnt send any more nuts. She said she would call customs to release my package, but I had to send her a copy of my passport first. I didn't know how i was going to send it. She wanted me to send it by email but I dont have access to a scanner. I told her just to give me her fax and I'd try to find a fax machine.
When I got to school I walked down to the post office to see if they do faxes. I walked into the post office but I didn't see any signs saying they offered that service so I left. While I was crossing the street I saw the restaurant that I've been searching for. I've been wanting to know where that don gas comes from that the school calls for. I knew it was a kimbab heaven so everytime I see one I check out the phone number. Those restaurants are all over the place. I saw this one and it had the phone number of the one that delivers to our school. score!! I went in there and ate lunch!! Their don gas tastes the best out of all the ones I have tried from the same chain and now I know where it is! That was fate! I can go there more often now..its not the most healthy food but I bet its a lot better than fast food and its cheap. only 3,500 won which is about $3.00. Its a nice serving size.
The Korean teacher faxed my passport for me from the school fax machine. So I should be getting my package soon. Its been sitting at customs all week long.
My first class was pretty good. They are learning "twinkle, twinkle little star". They were singing it in my class. One of the girls wanted me to sing along with her so I did. Another girl was asking me if I knew a song called "Try to Remember." I hadn't heard it. I guess they are learning it also. Only one person did their homework. Today we reviewed what we've learned so far. I was telling them about thier writing test next Thursday and they informed me that it was the day that we were having a halloweeen party. I asked her "during my class?" and she said yeah. So apparently they are having a halloween party during classtime and they aren't going to tell me until last minute. Maybe I'll actually get a break from teaching! That would be nice. So I told the students that they will have their writing and speaking test on Tuesday. They will also have their other test for what we do online.
My 2nd class was good. We covered 2 writing lessons and an extra activity.
I had my 3rd class in the computer lab. One of the students kept complaining that she couldn't hear the sound on her computer. The computer she was at is crazy. I told her to move to another computer. We had one other free computer. Then when she got to it she wasn't even listening. She was spending way too much time on one article. She thought all she had to do was the one with the questions. I told her to do all of them. Everybody wants to go to get water and to the bathroom during my class. Water is right beside the bathroom. One girl goes to get water and comes back to class then she immediately turns around and goes back because she has to go to the bathroom. Then another girl wants to leave class again. I say no. Then she says "I hate you."
I hate my conversation class!! Its a waste of my time. Today we were talking about asking for help in a store or returning an item for a refund or exchange. I told the students to practice the conversation and they wont do it right. I give them examples then they just do their own thing. I have to keep showing them what they should be doing in the book. Then the 2 guys at the back arent paying attention. They are on the wrong page and looking at a comic book or playing with their cell phone. One of the girls practices but she's always drawing during class. They have a test in our next class. I should make the test hard. If they arent going to make an effort then why should I care what grade they get?
When I walked into my last class I was feeling so tired. We did a writing lesson. I didn't like today's lesson! It was about retelling a story in your own words. We covered a few pages and then they had a little bit of free time. They didn't do their homework from last time so I assigned it again. They have to pick a topic and write 5 sentences about that topic. One of my students was wearing a face mask in class. I wonder if he was sick or just trying to keep from getting sick.
I skipped the gym tonight. I was just too tired to go. I took a 40 minute nap at home. I don't know why I was so tired today. And it hit me all of a sudden around 8pm. I probably didn't get enough sleep. I need to start getting in the bed earlier.
I called Fedex today. Anyway My package got rejected by customs. She said that customs rejects packages with food in them. None of my other packages have gotten rejected and I think every single one had food in it! The woman asked me what kind of food was in there. I told her it was snacks from America-(mom was sending oatmeal creme pies and fudge rounds). The woman asked me what kind of nuts were in there. Huh? I told her I didn't know that nuts were in there. My mom didn't tell me. She says I need to call customs and explain what is in my package. She asked questions about the nuts. What kind of nuts? are they salted?, etc. I dont know. I told her last time I got nuts it was honey roasted peanuts. So apparently they are concerned over the nuts. Maybe we shouldnt send any more nuts. She said she would call customs to release my package, but I had to send her a copy of my passport first. I didn't know how i was going to send it. She wanted me to send it by email but I dont have access to a scanner. I told her just to give me her fax and I'd try to find a fax machine.
When I got to school I walked down to the post office to see if they do faxes. I walked into the post office but I didn't see any signs saying they offered that service so I left. While I was crossing the street I saw the restaurant that I've been searching for. I've been wanting to know where that don gas comes from that the school calls for. I knew it was a kimbab heaven so everytime I see one I check out the phone number. Those restaurants are all over the place. I saw this one and it had the phone number of the one that delivers to our school. score!! I went in there and ate lunch!! Their don gas tastes the best out of all the ones I have tried from the same chain and now I know where it is! That was fate! I can go there more often now..its not the most healthy food but I bet its a lot better than fast food and its cheap. only 3,500 won which is about $3.00. Its a nice serving size.
The Korean teacher faxed my passport for me from the school fax machine. So I should be getting my package soon. Its been sitting at customs all week long.
My first class was pretty good. They are learning "twinkle, twinkle little star". They were singing it in my class. One of the girls wanted me to sing along with her so I did. Another girl was asking me if I knew a song called "Try to Remember." I hadn't heard it. I guess they are learning it also. Only one person did their homework. Today we reviewed what we've learned so far. I was telling them about thier writing test next Thursday and they informed me that it was the day that we were having a halloweeen party. I asked her "during my class?" and she said yeah. So apparently they are having a halloween party during classtime and they aren't going to tell me until last minute. Maybe I'll actually get a break from teaching! That would be nice. So I told the students that they will have their writing and speaking test on Tuesday. They will also have their other test for what we do online.
My 2nd class was good. We covered 2 writing lessons and an extra activity.
I had my 3rd class in the computer lab. One of the students kept complaining that she couldn't hear the sound on her computer. The computer she was at is crazy. I told her to move to another computer. We had one other free computer. Then when she got to it she wasn't even listening. She was spending way too much time on one article. She thought all she had to do was the one with the questions. I told her to do all of them. Everybody wants to go to get water and to the bathroom during my class. Water is right beside the bathroom. One girl goes to get water and comes back to class then she immediately turns around and goes back because she has to go to the bathroom. Then another girl wants to leave class again. I say no. Then she says "I hate you."
I hate my conversation class!! Its a waste of my time. Today we were talking about asking for help in a store or returning an item for a refund or exchange. I told the students to practice the conversation and they wont do it right. I give them examples then they just do their own thing. I have to keep showing them what they should be doing in the book. Then the 2 guys at the back arent paying attention. They are on the wrong page and looking at a comic book or playing with their cell phone. One of the girls practices but she's always drawing during class. They have a test in our next class. I should make the test hard. If they arent going to make an effort then why should I care what grade they get?
When I walked into my last class I was feeling so tired. We did a writing lesson. I didn't like today's lesson! It was about retelling a story in your own words. We covered a few pages and then they had a little bit of free time. They didn't do their homework from last time so I assigned it again. They have to pick a topic and write 5 sentences about that topic. One of my students was wearing a face mask in class. I wonder if he was sick or just trying to keep from getting sick.
I skipped the gym tonight. I was just too tired to go. I took a 40 minute nap at home. I don't know why I was so tired today. And it hit me all of a sudden around 8pm. I probably didn't get enough sleep. I need to start getting in the bed earlier.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Day 308
Wednesday October 21
Well I still don't have my package. I found out what that letter was in the KT envelope. I was talking to my friend at the gym and I asked him to help me. (He looked so handsome today in his pink and white gingham shirt. I actually liked it. Men shouldn't be afraid of pink). The letter was in Korean so I needed to know what it said. I found out the letter was from Fedex about my package. I have to call them. I wonder why? Why would Fedex send me a letter in a KT envelope? (KT is a telecommunications company-phone, internet, etc) There were no Fedex logos or anything. My friend looked up the tracking number on the fed ex website and showed me. I'll have to see if I can call them tomorrow. Hopefully someone speaks English!! It probably has to do with that stupid clearance delay. It must be causing a problem at customs. I dont understand why though. Its just normal stuff in the package. Nothing suspicious. crazy!
Today was an okay day.
I finally got my cable bill. Its due on the 25th and I get it in the mail on the 21st. Yes Korea is really the land of the last minute. I'll have to get out early on Friday and go pay it at the bank.
My first class was good. We were doing our computer lab activities.
My 2nd class was good. We were doing a writing lesson. It was basically a review of what we have done so far. We finished early and they played a game. Its funny to watch them play the 'ghost game.' They put something over their head and try to find the other students while the students are constantly moving around.
My 3rd class was good. 2 of my students were absent so I only had 2 boys in the class. They were actually good by themselves and did their work. We only had to do one lesson today. It was very short. I also brought an extra activity to do and we still finished early. 1 of my students was absent on Monday because he had the swine flu. He was back in class today. During class one of the boys told me I was very smart. He told me on Monday that I was very good at English. (well I should be..I've been speaking it all my life!!) We had time left over so I suggested we play the English game where you start a new word with the last letter of the last word. apple-ear-rabbit, etc. We actually played that until the end of class.
My conversation class wasn't very good which is normal. I made them all close their vocab books. They like to have them open to study during my class. I asked them to practice conversation and they didn't want to. There was one student who was actually making an effort. THe others just didn't want to. Some of them wouldn't fill in the answers to the questions. Everyone is always asking me to go to the bathroom and get water during my class. I told them they need to go before my class. I'm tired of one persong asking then everyone else wants to go also. Only 5 more weeks!
My last class was terrible as always. I hate having the class in the computer lab. 2 of the students asked to go to the bathroom during my class. I let them go. Then when one boy went another boy followed him out although I told him not to. I told them that they need to quit asking during my class. I had to keep begging the students to do their work. They keep talking to each other and not doing their work. I am constantly yelling. I keep getting frustrated also that they only want to do what is on the sheet. I told them to read everything even if I didnt have a question on the sheet. I pick out certian topics and put questions on a worksheet just as a way to keep them busy. They can't answer basic comprehension questions. I get so frustrated!! They just want me to tell them the answers without reading it themselves. Everybody wants to play on their cell phone during class. I told them no cellphones in class. I hate this class!!!!!!! I told them that Friday we are having 2 tests and they need to study at home. I can't keep giving them class time to study. We are so far behind!!
I went to the gym tonight. I walked on the treadmill for 52 minutes while watching "RuPaul's Drag Race". Haha. Its a competition for drag queens. Reality tv is getting crazier and crazier. And all my hard work was for nothing. I ruined it by going to Burger King.
Well I still don't have my package. I found out what that letter was in the KT envelope. I was talking to my friend at the gym and I asked him to help me. (He looked so handsome today in his pink and white gingham shirt. I actually liked it. Men shouldn't be afraid of pink). The letter was in Korean so I needed to know what it said. I found out the letter was from Fedex about my package. I have to call them. I wonder why? Why would Fedex send me a letter in a KT envelope? (KT is a telecommunications company-phone, internet, etc) There were no Fedex logos or anything. My friend looked up the tracking number on the fed ex website and showed me. I'll have to see if I can call them tomorrow. Hopefully someone speaks English!! It probably has to do with that stupid clearance delay. It must be causing a problem at customs. I dont understand why though. Its just normal stuff in the package. Nothing suspicious. crazy!
Today was an okay day.
I finally got my cable bill. Its due on the 25th and I get it in the mail on the 21st. Yes Korea is really the land of the last minute. I'll have to get out early on Friday and go pay it at the bank.
My first class was good. We were doing our computer lab activities.
My 2nd class was good. We were doing a writing lesson. It was basically a review of what we have done so far. We finished early and they played a game. Its funny to watch them play the 'ghost game.' They put something over their head and try to find the other students while the students are constantly moving around.
My 3rd class was good. 2 of my students were absent so I only had 2 boys in the class. They were actually good by themselves and did their work. We only had to do one lesson today. It was very short. I also brought an extra activity to do and we still finished early. 1 of my students was absent on Monday because he had the swine flu. He was back in class today. During class one of the boys told me I was very smart. He told me on Monday that I was very good at English. (well I should be..I've been speaking it all my life!!) We had time left over so I suggested we play the English game where you start a new word with the last letter of the last word. apple-ear-rabbit, etc. We actually played that until the end of class.
My conversation class wasn't very good which is normal. I made them all close their vocab books. They like to have them open to study during my class. I asked them to practice conversation and they didn't want to. There was one student who was actually making an effort. THe others just didn't want to. Some of them wouldn't fill in the answers to the questions. Everyone is always asking me to go to the bathroom and get water during my class. I told them they need to go before my class. I'm tired of one persong asking then everyone else wants to go also. Only 5 more weeks!
My last class was terrible as always. I hate having the class in the computer lab. 2 of the students asked to go to the bathroom during my class. I let them go. Then when one boy went another boy followed him out although I told him not to. I told them that they need to quit asking during my class. I had to keep begging the students to do their work. They keep talking to each other and not doing their work. I am constantly yelling. I keep getting frustrated also that they only want to do what is on the sheet. I told them to read everything even if I didnt have a question on the sheet. I pick out certian topics and put questions on a worksheet just as a way to keep them busy. They can't answer basic comprehension questions. I get so frustrated!! They just want me to tell them the answers without reading it themselves. Everybody wants to play on their cell phone during class. I told them no cellphones in class. I hate this class!!!!!!! I told them that Friday we are having 2 tests and they need to study at home. I can't keep giving them class time to study. We are so far behind!!
I went to the gym tonight. I walked on the treadmill for 52 minutes while watching "RuPaul's Drag Race". Haha. Its a competition for drag queens. Reality tv is getting crazier and crazier. And all my hard work was for nothing. I ruined it by going to Burger King.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Day 307
Tuesday October 20
This morning at 11:30am my doorbell rang. I thought it may have been my package. (NO!) It was just the mailman hand delivering a letter. why? why did he have to wake me up to give me something he could have put in my mailbox? I was sleeping good and only 30 mins before my waking up time. It was a letter from KT and I don't know what the heck it says since I can't read Korean. I'll have to get someone to help me. Whatever it is its printed on nice stationary. It has a person's name, a phone number and maybe a bank acct number. It could be my phone bill that I never paid because no one would tell me how much I owed. I don't know.
I still don't have my package. It should have been here yesterday by their "4 day guarantee (which is suppose to offer money back if it doesn't arrive on time)" which now with all their screw ups has turned in to 10+ days now I think. I'm paying tons of money so the post office can screw it up. I looked at the tracking and there was some "clearance delay" on Monday and Tuesday. 'clearance delay' is probaby some secret code for 'its late, but its not our fault.' There isn't anything in there that should hold it up. Its clothes, shoes, books, and snacks. I'm entitled to a refund, but my mom doesn't want to apply for it and I can't because I'm not in the USA. I want my refund. I paid for it with my hard earned money. I am tortured day in and day out by Korean children so I can afford to pay for expensive packages.
The whole balloon boy saga is getting out of hand....its crazy! I hope both of them go to jail for tying up the police department on a fake case.
My first class was okay. The boy who is always sleepy in my class was sleeping when I came in. The students called his name and hit him but he wouldn't wake up. So I just let him sleep during class. He woke up near the end of class when students were messing with him again. Then I had a student who was late. She came in right as we were finishing up. She said school let out late. (It was 4:30pm when she arrived). We had a good class and they had good answers to the questions. Today we were talking about agree or disagree and reasons. We finished early and they had free time. They were doing their grammar homework during free time. One girl wanted me to give her answers. I wouldn't just give the answers. I helped her with a few then she caught on to how it should be done.
My 2nd class was good. Those 2 boys are constantly laughing and making me laugh. Most of their answers don't make sense and they like to play around with each other in between questions. We covered one lesson today. One of the boys told me he lost his book. He shared with the other boy.
My 3rd class was okay. Ok I have the computer lab class every Tues-Thurs. I don't know why they don't just open the lab at the beginning of the day. I always have to find someone to open it for me. I have one guy who is always late to the lab class and never wants to do his work. He didn't do anything in my class. I wrote questions on the board for the students to answer. One student finished. If the others didnt get the questions then that's just too bad. They were up there all class long. I'm still giving them the quiz on Thursday whether they did the questions or not. I kept reminding them that the questions were on the board and that we were having a quiz.
My 4th class was good. We went over 2 speaking lessons. They all did a good job. I gave them all stickers at the end of class. The boy didn't want his. okay. I've never had someone give it back before. Most students are usually begging for more. (FYI: when they get 100 stickers they get a prize).
I finally went back to the gym. I saw my friend talking to some girls at a desk. He said hey to me when I walked past him then he left them and came to talk to me. He said he had'nt seen me in a long time. He wanted to know why. I said that I was tired and busy. (I didn't want to say I just didn't feel like coming!) He said "I hope you feel better soon." He mentioned that I didn't have much time left on my contract. He wanted to know if I was going to renew. He wants me to renew, but I'm still undecided. I'm leaning more towards not renewing. I told him "maybe." I like going to the gym to see him, but is it really worth 90,000 a month to walk on the treadmill for 30-40 mins a day? Its not going to help if I can't get my eating under control. Tonight I just walked on the treadmill for 42 minutes while watching "Scrubs". Afterwards I just felt like I was in a daze because I was tired from work. Then I went to burger king and ate a chicken sandwich meal.
It's cold outside and I still haven't started wearing my coat. It was in the lower 50's when I left work and I wasn't wearing my coat and it didn't feel bad to me. I see everyone else all bundled up and wearing scarves. Maybe my hot natured temperment is coming back. I used to not wear a coat until it got really cold. Then last year I was really sensitive to cold. I definatly would have been wearing a coat in this weather. I haven't been using my air con at night. Its not really cold in my room so I dont need the heat either. I'm actually a little hot right now and its 54 degrees outside.
I still haven't gotten my cable bill. Its due on the 25th.
This morning at 11:30am my doorbell rang. I thought it may have been my package. (NO!) It was just the mailman hand delivering a letter. why? why did he have to wake me up to give me something he could have put in my mailbox? I was sleeping good and only 30 mins before my waking up time. It was a letter from KT and I don't know what the heck it says since I can't read Korean. I'll have to get someone to help me. Whatever it is its printed on nice stationary. It has a person's name, a phone number and maybe a bank acct number. It could be my phone bill that I never paid because no one would tell me how much I owed. I don't know.
I still don't have my package. It should have been here yesterday by their "4 day guarantee (which is suppose to offer money back if it doesn't arrive on time)" which now with all their screw ups has turned in to 10+ days now I think. I'm paying tons of money so the post office can screw it up. I looked at the tracking and there was some "clearance delay" on Monday and Tuesday. 'clearance delay' is probaby some secret code for 'its late, but its not our fault.' There isn't anything in there that should hold it up. Its clothes, shoes, books, and snacks. I'm entitled to a refund, but my mom doesn't want to apply for it and I can't because I'm not in the USA. I want my refund. I paid for it with my hard earned money. I am tortured day in and day out by Korean children so I can afford to pay for expensive packages.
The whole balloon boy saga is getting out of hand....its crazy! I hope both of them go to jail for tying up the police department on a fake case.
My first class was okay. The boy who is always sleepy in my class was sleeping when I came in. The students called his name and hit him but he wouldn't wake up. So I just let him sleep during class. He woke up near the end of class when students were messing with him again. Then I had a student who was late. She came in right as we were finishing up. She said school let out late. (It was 4:30pm when she arrived). We had a good class and they had good answers to the questions. Today we were talking about agree or disagree and reasons. We finished early and they had free time. They were doing their grammar homework during free time. One girl wanted me to give her answers. I wouldn't just give the answers. I helped her with a few then she caught on to how it should be done.
My 2nd class was good. Those 2 boys are constantly laughing and making me laugh. Most of their answers don't make sense and they like to play around with each other in between questions. We covered one lesson today. One of the boys told me he lost his book. He shared with the other boy.
My 3rd class was okay. Ok I have the computer lab class every Tues-Thurs. I don't know why they don't just open the lab at the beginning of the day. I always have to find someone to open it for me. I have one guy who is always late to the lab class and never wants to do his work. He didn't do anything in my class. I wrote questions on the board for the students to answer. One student finished. If the others didnt get the questions then that's just too bad. They were up there all class long. I'm still giving them the quiz on Thursday whether they did the questions or not. I kept reminding them that the questions were on the board and that we were having a quiz.
My 4th class was good. We went over 2 speaking lessons. They all did a good job. I gave them all stickers at the end of class. The boy didn't want his. okay. I've never had someone give it back before. Most students are usually begging for more. (FYI: when they get 100 stickers they get a prize).
I finally went back to the gym. I saw my friend talking to some girls at a desk. He said hey to me when I walked past him then he left them and came to talk to me. He said he had'nt seen me in a long time. He wanted to know why. I said that I was tired and busy. (I didn't want to say I just didn't feel like coming!) He said "I hope you feel better soon." He mentioned that I didn't have much time left on my contract. He wanted to know if I was going to renew. He wants me to renew, but I'm still undecided. I'm leaning more towards not renewing. I told him "maybe." I like going to the gym to see him, but is it really worth 90,000 a month to walk on the treadmill for 30-40 mins a day? Its not going to help if I can't get my eating under control. Tonight I just walked on the treadmill for 42 minutes while watching "Scrubs". Afterwards I just felt like I was in a daze because I was tired from work. Then I went to burger king and ate a chicken sandwich meal.
It's cold outside and I still haven't started wearing my coat. It was in the lower 50's when I left work and I wasn't wearing my coat and it didn't feel bad to me. I see everyone else all bundled up and wearing scarves. Maybe my hot natured temperment is coming back. I used to not wear a coat until it got really cold. Then last year I was really sensitive to cold. I definatly would have been wearing a coat in this weather. I haven't been using my air con at night. Its not really cold in my room so I dont need the heat either. I'm actually a little hot right now and its 54 degrees outside.
I still haven't gotten my cable bill. Its due on the 25th.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Day 306
Monday October 19
I don't have my package yet :( It has arrived to South Korea and was picked up at 2:03 in Incheon, South Korea. Its on its way to the destination. I should be getting it very soon!! I'm hoping it is at my house on Tuesday before I go to work! I can't wait to get my little debbie cakes! Oatmeal cream and fudge rounds. yum! I also have some new clothes! and books to read!
I left my house early today so I could pay some bills. I was wishing I had brought my coat with me and didn't have time go back and get it. It was cool today. But later at night it was in the upper 40's and I was walking around without a coat and it didn't feel all that bad. You'd think it was winter by the way some of the Koreans were dressed! They had on their big coats and I saw one person with a warm scarf on. Then there was me walking around in short sleeves. The only person not wearing a coat.haha.
My 1st class was good. We covered a few pages in spelling. We learned 2 new sets of words.
My 2nd class was good. We talked about "do you think.." questions..One of our questions was "Do you think rich people are happier than poor people?". One student answered that poor people were happier because they believe in Heaven and its harder for a rich person to get to Heaven. A few of my students say they are Christians so that's pretty cool. We had a good class. They all participated and had good answers. I asked every question to every student. We finished 10 mins early. I'm trying to get them in the habit of speaking in complete sentences so I write prompts on the board and correct them when they don't speak in complete sentences. Next week we have a speaking test. I made up a sheet that I'm going to use to grade the speaking test. There are going to be 11 questions. 9 points each. (yeah its 99 points-i'll give them one free point). I'm going to grade on speaking in complete sentences, correct answers, and correct grammar. The students in class are always asking me if I know about certain songs. They were asking me about "heal the world" and "Let it be" today. I didn't understand what they were saying at first until they sang it and I figured out it was 'let it be'. One student likes Avril Lavigne and is always asking me if I know her songs. I'm not too familiar with them.
My 3rd class was okay. 2 students were absent so only 2 were in class today. I had to keep telling them to stay in their seats. They like to get up and talk to each other and write on the white board. They like to ask me off topic questions. Today one of them was wanting to know the ages of all the people in my family. Then he told me about the ages of people in his family.
My conversation class is always difficult. It's full of students who just don't care. Half of them are talking while I'm talking. They won't do their work. They are always studying for vocabulary during my class. I made them close their vocab books today. I can't get them to practice conversation. Only a few people actually make an effort. One of the girls is never on the right page and she won't do her work no matter how much you ask her. Most of the others wont fill in their answers either. Today we were talking about personality traits like shy vs outgoing, angry vs calm, etc. Next week I'm giving them a test on 3 units that we've covered since last test. I only have 5 more weeks of that class!!
My last class is difficult also. All the students were eating in my class. All of them gave me some of their snacks. One of the boys kept begging to go get water during my class. He thinks if he keeps giving me some of his snack that I will let him go. I didn't. They need to get water before my class. Once you let one person go the whole class wants to go. They wouldn't pay attention today. I was talking and they kept talking to each other like I wasn't there. On one activity I just wrote the answers on the board because no one would give me an answer. I tried to get them to read along with me and they didn't want to do that either. I can't ever get anything accomplished in that class. I don't think I'll get caught up. There's no way. I never get more than 2-3 pages done. They don't study so most of their grades are low. One student does really well. The rest don't make good grades.
I skipped the gym again tonight. I was planning on going back. I just didn't want to go. I think I shouldn't renew in November. I'll miss the friends I made there but its expensive and I think I've lost my passion for working out.
My cable bill is due on the 25th, but I still haven't got the bill! Why do they wait till the last minute? I should be used to it. South Korea is the land of the last minute. They are expert procrastinators.
I don't have my package yet :( It has arrived to South Korea and was picked up at 2:03 in Incheon, South Korea. Its on its way to the destination. I should be getting it very soon!! I'm hoping it is at my house on Tuesday before I go to work! I can't wait to get my little debbie cakes! Oatmeal cream and fudge rounds. yum! I also have some new clothes! and books to read!
I left my house early today so I could pay some bills. I was wishing I had brought my coat with me and didn't have time go back and get it. It was cool today. But later at night it was in the upper 40's and I was walking around without a coat and it didn't feel all that bad. You'd think it was winter by the way some of the Koreans were dressed! They had on their big coats and I saw one person with a warm scarf on. Then there was me walking around in short sleeves. The only person not wearing a coat.haha.
My 1st class was good. We covered a few pages in spelling. We learned 2 new sets of words.
My 2nd class was good. We talked about "do you think.." questions..One of our questions was "Do you think rich people are happier than poor people?". One student answered that poor people were happier because they believe in Heaven and its harder for a rich person to get to Heaven. A few of my students say they are Christians so that's pretty cool. We had a good class. They all participated and had good answers. I asked every question to every student. We finished 10 mins early. I'm trying to get them in the habit of speaking in complete sentences so I write prompts on the board and correct them when they don't speak in complete sentences. Next week we have a speaking test. I made up a sheet that I'm going to use to grade the speaking test. There are going to be 11 questions. 9 points each. (yeah its 99 points-i'll give them one free point). I'm going to grade on speaking in complete sentences, correct answers, and correct grammar. The students in class are always asking me if I know about certain songs. They were asking me about "heal the world" and "Let it be" today. I didn't understand what they were saying at first until they sang it and I figured out it was 'let it be'. One student likes Avril Lavigne and is always asking me if I know her songs. I'm not too familiar with them.
My 3rd class was okay. 2 students were absent so only 2 were in class today. I had to keep telling them to stay in their seats. They like to get up and talk to each other and write on the white board. They like to ask me off topic questions. Today one of them was wanting to know the ages of all the people in my family. Then he told me about the ages of people in his family.
My conversation class is always difficult. It's full of students who just don't care. Half of them are talking while I'm talking. They won't do their work. They are always studying for vocabulary during my class. I made them close their vocab books today. I can't get them to practice conversation. Only a few people actually make an effort. One of the girls is never on the right page and she won't do her work no matter how much you ask her. Most of the others wont fill in their answers either. Today we were talking about personality traits like shy vs outgoing, angry vs calm, etc. Next week I'm giving them a test on 3 units that we've covered since last test. I only have 5 more weeks of that class!!
My last class is difficult also. All the students were eating in my class. All of them gave me some of their snacks. One of the boys kept begging to go get water during my class. He thinks if he keeps giving me some of his snack that I will let him go. I didn't. They need to get water before my class. Once you let one person go the whole class wants to go. They wouldn't pay attention today. I was talking and they kept talking to each other like I wasn't there. On one activity I just wrote the answers on the board because no one would give me an answer. I tried to get them to read along with me and they didn't want to do that either. I can't ever get anything accomplished in that class. I don't think I'll get caught up. There's no way. I never get more than 2-3 pages done. They don't study so most of their grades are low. One student does really well. The rest don't make good grades.
I skipped the gym again tonight. I was planning on going back. I just didn't want to go. I think I shouldn't renew in November. I'll miss the friends I made there but its expensive and I think I've lost my passion for working out.
My cable bill is due on the 25th, but I still haven't got the bill! Why do they wait till the last minute? I should be used to it. South Korea is the land of the last minute. They are expert procrastinators.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Day 305...Hwaseong Fortress, Butterfinger Pancakes
Sunday October 18
Today I got up early to go out and explore.
I left around 11:30am. I was heading out to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon. Its a long trip. It took about an hour and 20 mins to get there by subway. I had to transfer once.
Hwaseong (Brilliant Fortress), the wall surrounding the centre of Suwon, the provincial capital of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, was built in the late eighteenth century by King Jeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty to honour and house the remains of his father Prince Sado, who had been murdered by being locked alive inside a rice chest by his own father King Yeongjo having failed to obey his command to commit suicide. Located 30 kilometres south of Seoul and enclosing much of central Suwon including King Jeongjo's palace Haenggung, UNESCO designated the fortress a World Heritage site in 1997. The Suwoncheon, the main stream in Suwon, flows through the centre of the fortress.
I walked around and looked at Suwoncheon first. Its a stream that runs through the fortress. Then I went into the fortress. Its massive. I think I was there for about 3 hours. Its a lot of walking. You can take a trolley around but its hard to take pictures from a moving object.
When you get around to one side of the fortress it is quite a hike straight up the mountain. There were tons of stairs. I had to stop about 4 or 5 times on the way up. I'm glad I brought some water with me. I needed it! There had to be over 100 stairs and it was very steep. The way down was easy. I think I got enough exercise today to make up for not going to the gym.ha.
How to get to Hwaseong: Line 1 (Dark blue) Suwon station, Exit 4 or 5, walk to the first bus stop. Buses 11, 13, 13-3, 20, 32, 58 stop near the fortress. I took bus 13 and got off at the "Paldalmun" stop.
Cost: 1,000 won (less than $1!)
Hours: 9:00-6:00PM
here are some pictures: (click on the album to view)
When I was done it was around 5pm. There was no way I was going to make it to Jamsil in time to have time to view the Seoul Design Olympiad. Actually I would have had time. I just realized it stays open till 9pm on the weekend. (Its good that its still open till the 29th! I'll go next Saturday while I'm in the area for my Korean lesson in Sinchon or Hongdae)
I decided to just go to Gangnam to try out a restaurant. It's called "Butterfinger Pancakes". I read a lot of blogs saying that it was the happening place to be for an American style brunch. They serve Brunch all day long sorta like Dennys in the US. When I got there around 7pm it was busy. I waited for probably 10-15 mins to be seated. After I was seated I looked at the massive menu. Took me a while to figure out what I wanted.Its really expensive. A big breakfast like what you could get at dennys for $7-8 would set you back $11-15 not including drink. I didn't want to spend a lot so I just got buttermilk pancakes and a coke. You could choose what kind of syrup-I chose maple, butter-honey vanilla, and compote-strawberry. I got 2 small pancakes. The pancakes were really good. The combination of the syrup, butter and strawberry compote was awesome.
FYI: Compote is a dessert made of whole or pieces of fruit in sugar syrup.
The 2 pancakes and a big glass of coke was @$9. Really expensive! But it was good to have pancakes. I love pancakes! I havent had any since 2008!
In case you're wondering--There are no items on the menu that contain 'butterfinger' candy...no relation to the candy bar
Today I got up early to go out and explore.
I left around 11:30am. I was heading out to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon. Its a long trip. It took about an hour and 20 mins to get there by subway. I had to transfer once.
Hwaseong (Brilliant Fortress), the wall surrounding the centre of Suwon, the provincial capital of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, was built in the late eighteenth century by King Jeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty to honour and house the remains of his father Prince Sado, who had been murdered by being locked alive inside a rice chest by his own father King Yeongjo having failed to obey his command to commit suicide. Located 30 kilometres south of Seoul and enclosing much of central Suwon including King Jeongjo's palace Haenggung, UNESCO designated the fortress a World Heritage site in 1997. The Suwoncheon, the main stream in Suwon, flows through the centre of the fortress.
I walked around and looked at Suwoncheon first. Its a stream that runs through the fortress. Then I went into the fortress. Its massive. I think I was there for about 3 hours. Its a lot of walking. You can take a trolley around but its hard to take pictures from a moving object.
When you get around to one side of the fortress it is quite a hike straight up the mountain. There were tons of stairs. I had to stop about 4 or 5 times on the way up. I'm glad I brought some water with me. I needed it! There had to be over 100 stairs and it was very steep. The way down was easy. I think I got enough exercise today to make up for not going to the gym.ha.
How to get to Hwaseong: Line 1 (Dark blue) Suwon station, Exit 4 or 5, walk to the first bus stop. Buses 11, 13, 13-3, 20, 32, 58 stop near the fortress. I took bus 13 and got off at the "Paldalmun" stop.
Cost: 1,000 won (less than $1!)
Hours: 9:00-6:00PM
Tip: if you plan to walk the course its going to take a while. Wear some good shoes! Bring some water with you. There are a ton of steps to go up and down!!
here are some pictures: (click on the album to view)
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| Hwaseong Fortress |
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| Suwoncheon |
When I was done it was around 5pm. There was no way I was going to make it to Jamsil in time to have time to view the Seoul Design Olympiad. Actually I would have had time. I just realized it stays open till 9pm on the weekend. (Its good that its still open till the 29th! I'll go next Saturday while I'm in the area for my Korean lesson in Sinchon or Hongdae)
I decided to just go to Gangnam to try out a restaurant. It's called "Butterfinger Pancakes". I read a lot of blogs saying that it was the happening place to be for an American style brunch. They serve Brunch all day long sorta like Dennys in the US. When I got there around 7pm it was busy. I waited for probably 10-15 mins to be seated. After I was seated I looked at the massive menu. Took me a while to figure out what I wanted.Its really expensive. A big breakfast like what you could get at dennys for $7-8 would set you back $11-15 not including drink. I didn't want to spend a lot so I just got buttermilk pancakes and a coke. You could choose what kind of syrup-I chose maple, butter-honey vanilla, and compote-strawberry. I got 2 small pancakes. The pancakes were really good. The combination of the syrup, butter and strawberry compote was awesome.
FYI: Compote is a dessert made of whole or pieces of fruit in sugar syrup.
The 2 pancakes and a big glass of coke was @$9. Really expensive! But it was good to have pancakes. I love pancakes! I havent had any since 2008!
In case you're wondering--There are no items on the menu that contain 'butterfinger' candy...no relation to the candy bar
How to get to Butterfinger Pancakes: Line 2 (green) Gangnam Station, Exit 6..walk straight, turn left at 'the body shop' and walk straight. Its beside Burger King on the left side of the street.
Hours: 7am-3am
Price: expensive!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Day 304
Saturday October 17
Today was just a lazy Saturday. I want to get out every weekend, but I think I need at least one day a week to recharge and just relax.
My lunch/supper today was from Pizza School. I got a combination pizza with cheese crust for 7,000 won. ($5.99usd). I love Pizza School. That might be one thing I actually miss when I'm gone.
Its finally getting chilly at night. I put on my sweatshirt when I went out tonight. Its currently in the 50's. I'm saving money on energy at night. I havent been running the air con all night long. I can't sleep if I'm hot. At home in the us, I usually always run a fan at night.
I may get around to washing a load of laundry later.
I think I'm going to fit as much as I can into tomorrow's schedule. Right now the tenative plan is to go to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon and check out the Seoul Design Olympiad in Jamsil. Good thing is going to both of these events only cost 1,000 won. The fortress costs 1,000 won and the design olympiad is free. I may try to see how much more I can fit into one day! I think I'll get out early.
Today was just a lazy Saturday. I want to get out every weekend, but I think I need at least one day a week to recharge and just relax.
My lunch/supper today was from Pizza School. I got a combination pizza with cheese crust for 7,000 won. ($5.99usd). I love Pizza School. That might be one thing I actually miss when I'm gone.
Its finally getting chilly at night. I put on my sweatshirt when I went out tonight. Its currently in the 50's. I'm saving money on energy at night. I havent been running the air con all night long. I can't sleep if I'm hot. At home in the us, I usually always run a fan at night.
I may get around to washing a load of laundry later.
I think I'm going to fit as much as I can into tomorrow's schedule. Right now the tenative plan is to go to Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon and check out the Seoul Design Olympiad in Jamsil. Good thing is going to both of these events only cost 1,000 won. The fortress costs 1,000 won and the design olympiad is free. I may try to see how much more I can fit into one day! I think I'll get out early.
Day 303 I'll remember you forever
Friday October 16
The Korean teacher found the key to the computer lab. To celebrate she bought drinks for me and 2 other teachers from Dunkin Donuts. She got me a strawberry smoothie.
I had a good first class. We had 2 tests first. She didn't do so good on the spelling test. She only made a 30. We covered 4 pages in class. After reviewing and doing lots of activities we still had a few mins leftover in class. She showed me her invisible pen. It writes invisible and when you shine a purple light on it you can see what she wrote. She also gave me half of a chocolate candy bar.
My 2nd class was in the computer lab. One student was absent today so everyone had a computer. They were good and did their work. Some of them didn't finish, but some finished too early. One of my students told me "When you go home in March I'll never forget you. I'll remember you forever" ah. Then another student said "me too."
My 3rd class was in the computer lab. This class only has 4 people but its a little harder to manage. The boys don't want to do their work. They just want to talk to each other. The girl does her work but the boys like to talk and mess around with the settings on the computer. I tell them to stop changing stuff but they don't listen. They were changing the mouse settings to make it look like there was a trail of mouses. and they always change the background. I get frustrated with these students. They can't answer basic comprehension questions. They won't read the article and they expect me to just tell them the answer. I tell them that if they read the article the answers are easy to find. They don't even care about doing well on the question part of the article where they get a grade. They just pick the answers really fast without reading the question and act excited when they only get 1 question right. I told them the goal was to get all 5 questions right.
My last class was better than normal but still not how I would like for it to go. The student who the kids told me was gone is back. He missed 5 classes in a row. I think he had the swine flu. He's the 2nd person in that class to have it. The test today didn't take as long as normal so that's good. I didn't have any big problems today. I had to get the boys to pay attention at times.3 students told me they didn't have their book. I asked the class a question. I said "we have spelling class every Monday and Friday why don't you bring your book?" I brought 2 extra copies of what we were doing just in case. then another student didn't have his book so I went outside to make copies. Then 2 of the girls come out and tell me that the 2 students that said they didn't have their book really do have their book. So I was making a copy for nothing. I asked them why they lied to me. They said they didn't lie.(yes they did! they said they didn't have a book then wait till i leave the room to get out their book) I told them I don't like liars. After class I graded the papers. One student got a zero. He added extra letters to every single word. Most of the words were right but he added something on the end like 'stage' was 'stageo'. Another student only got 1 right for a score of 7. That student always does poorly. His current average is a 30. At first I was impressed that he spelled librarian correctly even though it wasn't on our spelling list then I realized that librarian was written on the whiteboard behind him. Not so impressed anymore.
I hate teaching students who just don't care. I think I'd actually enjoy it if I had students who actually wanted to be there. I want to help people who are going to actually attempt to make progress.
I was hoping to make a difference. I don't ever see any big progressions in my student's English skills. I'm just another person they can torture. I think its a lost cause.
The Korean teacher found the key to the computer lab. To celebrate she bought drinks for me and 2 other teachers from Dunkin Donuts. She got me a strawberry smoothie.
I had a good first class. We had 2 tests first. She didn't do so good on the spelling test. She only made a 30. We covered 4 pages in class. After reviewing and doing lots of activities we still had a few mins leftover in class. She showed me her invisible pen. It writes invisible and when you shine a purple light on it you can see what she wrote. She also gave me half of a chocolate candy bar.
My 2nd class was in the computer lab. One student was absent today so everyone had a computer. They were good and did their work. Some of them didn't finish, but some finished too early. One of my students told me "When you go home in March I'll never forget you. I'll remember you forever" ah. Then another student said "me too."
My 3rd class was in the computer lab. This class only has 4 people but its a little harder to manage. The boys don't want to do their work. They just want to talk to each other. The girl does her work but the boys like to talk and mess around with the settings on the computer. I tell them to stop changing stuff but they don't listen. They were changing the mouse settings to make it look like there was a trail of mouses. and they always change the background. I get frustrated with these students. They can't answer basic comprehension questions. They won't read the article and they expect me to just tell them the answer. I tell them that if they read the article the answers are easy to find. They don't even care about doing well on the question part of the article where they get a grade. They just pick the answers really fast without reading the question and act excited when they only get 1 question right. I told them the goal was to get all 5 questions right.
My last class was better than normal but still not how I would like for it to go. The student who the kids told me was gone is back. He missed 5 classes in a row. I think he had the swine flu. He's the 2nd person in that class to have it. The test today didn't take as long as normal so that's good. I didn't have any big problems today. I had to get the boys to pay attention at times.3 students told me they didn't have their book. I asked the class a question. I said "we have spelling class every Monday and Friday why don't you bring your book?" I brought 2 extra copies of what we were doing just in case. then another student didn't have his book so I went outside to make copies. Then 2 of the girls come out and tell me that the 2 students that said they didn't have their book really do have their book. So I was making a copy for nothing. I asked them why they lied to me. They said they didn't lie.(yes they did! they said they didn't have a book then wait till i leave the room to get out their book) I told them I don't like liars. After class I graded the papers. One student got a zero. He added extra letters to every single word. Most of the words were right but he added something on the end like 'stage' was 'stageo'. Another student only got 1 right for a score of 7. That student always does poorly. His current average is a 30. At first I was impressed that he spelled librarian correctly even though it wasn't on our spelling list then I realized that librarian was written on the whiteboard behind him. Not so impressed anymore.
I hate teaching students who just don't care. I think I'd actually enjoy it if I had students who actually wanted to be there. I want to help people who are going to actually attempt to make progress.
I was hoping to make a difference. I don't ever see any big progressions in my student's English skills. I'm just another person they can torture. I think its a lost cause.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Day 302
Thursday October 15
The tracking on the USPS.com site says my package was 'returned to sender' on October 13. What the heck? --My mom researched it and the post office screwed up. They left out some kind of form so it got sent back. Now I have to wait another 4 days for it to get here. So I ended up paying a lot of money to get it here fast and its going to take just as long as the one that is $15 cheaper.
Today was an okay day..
My first class was good. Last class they wanted free time so they asked if they could have one page that I wanted to do in class as homework. Well no one did it. Today we were talking about a biography. We only covered a few pages. I gave them 3 pages for homework. I bet no one will do it again.
My 2nd class was good. We covered 2 short lessons in writing. We went over titles, interviews, riddles and names of places. We finished early so they had free time. One of the boys was copying the other boy's homework for grammar. They copy each others homework all the time.
When it was time for my 3rd class the lab was locked. The Korean teacher lost the key. Then we waited 10 minutes while the teacher assistants tried to find a spare key. They kept bringing keys and none of them were the right one. Finally someone found a key after the Korean teacher told me I'd have to print out something to do in class. Then we went to the lab. I gave them a worksheet to keep them busy. They thought they were finished when they finished the worksheet. I told them to finish doing the rest of the articles like we always do. One of the students was telling me she had already done one of them for the Korean teacher's class. I don't care if they have already done it. Its my class and I want them to do it again! Why are both of us teaching that class?
Conversation was crazy as always. First the boys were late to class because they went to home plus during their 5 minute break. They were reading along most of the time. Sometimes I catch the 2 boys sitting in the back looking under their desk when they should be reading. One of them is always playing a game on his cell phone. When I ask them to practice speaking the boys never do it right. They practice but they do it wrong. Today I gave them extra examples to practice just to take up extra time in class. Today we were talking about making plans with someone. The class was decent, but not how I would like for class to go.
My last class was really good. We did a few pages in our writing book. They did a good job and everyone wanted to write the answers on the board. The exercises in the book were a practice test. I'm actually going to use questions from the book for the real test at the end of the month and add some of my own questions.
The tracking on the USPS.com site says my package was 'returned to sender' on October 13. What the heck? --My mom researched it and the post office screwed up. They left out some kind of form so it got sent back. Now I have to wait another 4 days for it to get here. So I ended up paying a lot of money to get it here fast and its going to take just as long as the one that is $15 cheaper.
Today was an okay day..
My first class was good. Last class they wanted free time so they asked if they could have one page that I wanted to do in class as homework. Well no one did it. Today we were talking about a biography. We only covered a few pages. I gave them 3 pages for homework. I bet no one will do it again.
My 2nd class was good. We covered 2 short lessons in writing. We went over titles, interviews, riddles and names of places. We finished early so they had free time. One of the boys was copying the other boy's homework for grammar. They copy each others homework all the time.
When it was time for my 3rd class the lab was locked. The Korean teacher lost the key. Then we waited 10 minutes while the teacher assistants tried to find a spare key. They kept bringing keys and none of them were the right one. Finally someone found a key after the Korean teacher told me I'd have to print out something to do in class. Then we went to the lab. I gave them a worksheet to keep them busy. They thought they were finished when they finished the worksheet. I told them to finish doing the rest of the articles like we always do. One of the students was telling me she had already done one of them for the Korean teacher's class. I don't care if they have already done it. Its my class and I want them to do it again! Why are both of us teaching that class?
Conversation was crazy as always. First the boys were late to class because they went to home plus during their 5 minute break. They were reading along most of the time. Sometimes I catch the 2 boys sitting in the back looking under their desk when they should be reading. One of them is always playing a game on his cell phone. When I ask them to practice speaking the boys never do it right. They practice but they do it wrong. Today I gave them extra examples to practice just to take up extra time in class. Today we were talking about making plans with someone. The class was decent, but not how I would like for class to go.
My last class was really good. We did a few pages in our writing book. They did a good job and everyone wanted to write the answers on the board. The exercises in the book were a practice test. I'm actually going to use questions from the book for the real test at the end of the month and add some of my own questions.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Day 301
Wednesday October 14
I've been here 43 weeks so far. 19 left. It still seems so far away. I feel like the time is passing too slowly!
My mom sent me a package last wednesday and it isn't here yet. She sent it by international express mail which is expensive but is suppose to be really fast and has a guaranteed date. Its supposed to take 3-5 days. Its been 5 business days not including the day it was sent off. I'm hoping it gets here soon. I don't know why my mail is being delayed recently. I think something funny is going on in the mail system. I'm paying about $15 dollars extra just to get it here faster. If they can't deliver it on time then they shouldn't promise a certian date. If its past the 'guaranteed date' I'm going to apply for a refund.
My first class was good. We were doing the online newspaper class. I wish all of my classes were as good as that class. She listens and she reads out loud repeating after me.
My 2nd class was good. We did a few pages in our writing book. It was basically a review of what we've covered so far in writing. One of the students asked if we could have a halloween party on the day before halloween. I told her maybe. They want to wear costumes and have a party. My students asked me if I liked our school. I just said yes to make them happy. I can't tell my students that I don't really like it. (this class is actually one of my best classes. I never have any problems). They asked me if I liked teaching. (they were trying to figure out if I was going to continue teaching after I left)I told them "not really". I was honest. It's not something I plan to continue after I leave.
My 3rd class was okay. Its always hard to get them to focus on the classwork. They want to do other things like talk about poo poo. They like to play with the board erasers and pretend like they are smoking when they hit the erasers together. They also like to run their fingers down the chalkboard which is one of the worst sounds to me. Today we were throwing erasers around the room. One student wanted to borrow my eraser. He wanted me to throw it to him. Then they are so amused when I can catch the eraser that they throw from a short distance. Today we only had to do one lesson so I didn't mind their interruptions. We talked about questions and sentences about places. We finished early and they had free time. They all wanted to write on the board during that time.
Conversation class was okay. I had one new student which brings the total to 7 students. They were pretty good today. Sometimes they don't like to do the conversations the right way. They pretend to be practicing the conversations. 4 of the boys changed their name. (it happens every class). Their new names were: Lincoln, Obama, George Washington, and Lee Myung Bak. All Presidents. The girls never change their names. At times I can't get the boys to pay attention. They like to talk and not do their work. Today we were talking about comparatives and superlatives.
My last class was a nightmare but thats not unusual. I have to beg them to only have the online newspaper site open, to close their cellphones, and turn off their music. I don't think they read the articles.They finish too fast. Maybe I need to make a worksheet with 20 questions instead of 10 to keep them busy. But the articles are so simple and short. I don't know if I can come up with 20 questions!! 2 of the girls were doing their phonics homework in my class. I told them that wasn't part of my class and to close it. I have to keep yelling all class. I asked them why they were so mean to me. They didn't give me an answer. They don't even care how I feel. Even if I am getting angry they don't care. They do what they want to do. I've decided that if they can't behave I'm taking away their study time. They don't utilize it anyway. When we come in the class I'm giving the test right away. I was being nice to give them study time, but they can't behave so I'm taking it away. I think I might make them write the words ten times each as a punishment. Last class I made them write each word (15 words) 5 times each instead of the normal 3 times each. One of my students in that class no longer comes to the hagwon. The students were all telling me about it today. One student would tell me. Then as if I didn't understand 2 more students would explain it to me. I understood when the first student told me.
I skipped the gym again because I just didnt feel like going. I think my motivation is dwindling!
I really need to lose weight but I just can't stop eating fast food. I also eat when I'm stressed. I can't recall a time when I haven't been stressed out in South Korea. Its definatly not the experience I was hoping to have. Its really hard living in a country where all I like is the fast food that I know. I don't like Korean food. They dont have any options like lean cusine. They don't have healthy options on their fast food menu. I might just need to start taking a 30 min ride to subway a few times a week and bring back enough subs to last a few days.i wonder if it would stay fresh. I just hate that its so far away. Its not really worth the 1 hr plus round trip journey just to get healthy food. I hate the way I feel and look!!
I've been here 43 weeks so far. 19 left. It still seems so far away. I feel like the time is passing too slowly!
My mom sent me a package last wednesday and it isn't here yet. She sent it by international express mail which is expensive but is suppose to be really fast and has a guaranteed date. Its supposed to take 3-5 days. Its been 5 business days not including the day it was sent off. I'm hoping it gets here soon. I don't know why my mail is being delayed recently. I think something funny is going on in the mail system. I'm paying about $15 dollars extra just to get it here faster. If they can't deliver it on time then they shouldn't promise a certian date. If its past the 'guaranteed date' I'm going to apply for a refund.
My first class was good. We were doing the online newspaper class. I wish all of my classes were as good as that class. She listens and she reads out loud repeating after me.
My 2nd class was good. We did a few pages in our writing book. It was basically a review of what we've covered so far in writing. One of the students asked if we could have a halloween party on the day before halloween. I told her maybe. They want to wear costumes and have a party. My students asked me if I liked our school. I just said yes to make them happy. I can't tell my students that I don't really like it. (this class is actually one of my best classes. I never have any problems). They asked me if I liked teaching. (they were trying to figure out if I was going to continue teaching after I left)I told them "not really". I was honest. It's not something I plan to continue after I leave.
My 3rd class was okay. Its always hard to get them to focus on the classwork. They want to do other things like talk about poo poo. They like to play with the board erasers and pretend like they are smoking when they hit the erasers together. They also like to run their fingers down the chalkboard which is one of the worst sounds to me. Today we were throwing erasers around the room. One student wanted to borrow my eraser. He wanted me to throw it to him. Then they are so amused when I can catch the eraser that they throw from a short distance. Today we only had to do one lesson so I didn't mind their interruptions. We talked about questions and sentences about places. We finished early and they had free time. They all wanted to write on the board during that time.
Conversation class was okay. I had one new student which brings the total to 7 students. They were pretty good today. Sometimes they don't like to do the conversations the right way. They pretend to be practicing the conversations. 4 of the boys changed their name. (it happens every class). Their new names were: Lincoln, Obama, George Washington, and Lee Myung Bak. All Presidents. The girls never change their names. At times I can't get the boys to pay attention. They like to talk and not do their work. Today we were talking about comparatives and superlatives.
My last class was a nightmare but thats not unusual. I have to beg them to only have the online newspaper site open, to close their cellphones, and turn off their music. I don't think they read the articles.They finish too fast. Maybe I need to make a worksheet with 20 questions instead of 10 to keep them busy. But the articles are so simple and short. I don't know if I can come up with 20 questions!! 2 of the girls were doing their phonics homework in my class. I told them that wasn't part of my class and to close it. I have to keep yelling all class. I asked them why they were so mean to me. They didn't give me an answer. They don't even care how I feel. Even if I am getting angry they don't care. They do what they want to do. I've decided that if they can't behave I'm taking away their study time. They don't utilize it anyway. When we come in the class I'm giving the test right away. I was being nice to give them study time, but they can't behave so I'm taking it away. I think I might make them write the words ten times each as a punishment. Last class I made them write each word (15 words) 5 times each instead of the normal 3 times each. One of my students in that class no longer comes to the hagwon. The students were all telling me about it today. One student would tell me. Then as if I didn't understand 2 more students would explain it to me. I understood when the first student told me.
I skipped the gym again because I just didnt feel like going. I think my motivation is dwindling!
I really need to lose weight but I just can't stop eating fast food. I also eat when I'm stressed. I can't recall a time when I haven't been stressed out in South Korea. Its definatly not the experience I was hoping to have. Its really hard living in a country where all I like is the fast food that I know. I don't like Korean food. They dont have any options like lean cusine. They don't have healthy options on their fast food menu. I might just need to start taking a 30 min ride to subway a few times a week and bring back enough subs to last a few days.i wonder if it would stay fresh. I just hate that its so far away. Its not really worth the 1 hr plus round trip journey just to get healthy food. I hate the way I feel and look!!
Day 300
Tuesday October 13
300 days...wow
Well it was a mixture of good and bad today....
My first class was good. We went over 2 lessons. One about "What should you do?" and one about choices like would you rather go on vacation in the mountians or the beach, etc. They came up with some good answers. We were talking about sports and they were telling me they liked "foot baseball". I asked them what that was. They described it and drew a picture on the board. I told them that in America we call that "kickball." We finished early and they had a little free time.
My 2nd class was good. One of the boys likes magic. He showed us a magic trick. Then his classmate tried to figure out how he did it. He showed his him how he did it. tricky! haha. We had a good class. Some of their answers don't make sense and I have to remind them to speak in complete sentences. I put prompts on the board so they will know how to answer. One of the questions was "When did you start learning English?" One of them said they started at age 4 and the other at age 5. I think they are both 11 or 12 now. They've been studying for a long time but they haven't really progressed that much. Maybe one day it will finally sink in. I've heard that Koreans study English for a long time, but they are still bad at speaking.
My 3rd class was the bad class for a little while. We were in the computer lab. It started out good. There were 4 students and some of them were doing their work and others were goofing off as always. Then one student came in late. I have to beg him to do his work all the time. He was talking to the girl beside him. Then all of a sudden he hit her. He got up and hit the other girl also. I pulled him away and told him to stop. Then he sat down. Then he starting arguing with the girl next to him. I told them to stop talking to each other. They were quiet for the rest of class. One of the girls called her mom on her cell phone and the boy talked to her mom on the phone. After the incident he actually sat down and completed his work quietly.
After class the girl and the boy were still angry at each other. I don't know why. They were arguing in Korean! When they were in their next class I had a break. I was sitting at my desk and I could hear them yelling back and forth.
The students were back to normal in my class. We had a good class. 2 out of 3 students didn't bring their book. While I was copying there was a paper jam. When I took the paper out of the machine I got ink on my hands. I didn't notice it until I was in the classroom and I didn't have anything to get it off my hands and I didnt want to leave class.We covered 2 lessons about cybercafes and restaurants. The kids weren't mad at each other anymore they were getting along with each other. We finished early and I let them play a game. They played the english game on the chalkboard.
When I was leaving one of the teachers told me I had something on my face. I knew I had the ink on my hands and I touched my face. I can't believe my students didn't tell me!!
I still haven't went back to the gym. Where is my motivation??
I went to the store and got some pepero sticks. I tried the kind with chocolate and almonds. Its really yummy! (a pepero is a cookie stick dipped in chocolate). Actually Pepero day is coming up soon. November 11th is Pepero Day. Its a South Korean "holiday" where people give pepero to each other.
I found this picture on google images...
300 days...wow
Well it was a mixture of good and bad today....
My first class was good. We went over 2 lessons. One about "What should you do?" and one about choices like would you rather go on vacation in the mountians or the beach, etc. They came up with some good answers. We were talking about sports and they were telling me they liked "foot baseball". I asked them what that was. They described it and drew a picture on the board. I told them that in America we call that "kickball." We finished early and they had a little free time.
My 2nd class was good. One of the boys likes magic. He showed us a magic trick. Then his classmate tried to figure out how he did it. He showed his him how he did it. tricky! haha. We had a good class. Some of their answers don't make sense and I have to remind them to speak in complete sentences. I put prompts on the board so they will know how to answer. One of the questions was "When did you start learning English?" One of them said they started at age 4 and the other at age 5. I think they are both 11 or 12 now. They've been studying for a long time but they haven't really progressed that much. Maybe one day it will finally sink in. I've heard that Koreans study English for a long time, but they are still bad at speaking.
My 3rd class was the bad class for a little while. We were in the computer lab. It started out good. There were 4 students and some of them were doing their work and others were goofing off as always. Then one student came in late. I have to beg him to do his work all the time. He was talking to the girl beside him. Then all of a sudden he hit her. He got up and hit the other girl also. I pulled him away and told him to stop. Then he sat down. Then he starting arguing with the girl next to him. I told them to stop talking to each other. They were quiet for the rest of class. One of the girls called her mom on her cell phone and the boy talked to her mom on the phone. After the incident he actually sat down and completed his work quietly.
After class the girl and the boy were still angry at each other. I don't know why. They were arguing in Korean! When they were in their next class I had a break. I was sitting at my desk and I could hear them yelling back and forth.
The students were back to normal in my class. We had a good class. 2 out of 3 students didn't bring their book. While I was copying there was a paper jam. When I took the paper out of the machine I got ink on my hands. I didn't notice it until I was in the classroom and I didn't have anything to get it off my hands and I didnt want to leave class.We covered 2 lessons about cybercafes and restaurants. The kids weren't mad at each other anymore they were getting along with each other. We finished early and I let them play a game. They played the english game on the chalkboard.
When I was leaving one of the teachers told me I had something on my face. I knew I had the ink on my hands and I touched my face. I can't believe my students didn't tell me!!
I still haven't went back to the gym. Where is my motivation??
I went to the store and got some pepero sticks. I tried the kind with chocolate and almonds. Its really yummy! (a pepero is a cookie stick dipped in chocolate). Actually Pepero day is coming up soon. November 11th is Pepero Day. Its a South Korean "holiday" where people give pepero to each other.
I found this picture on google images...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Day 299
Monday October 12
wow..299...tomorrow I'll be in the 300's.....and I still have around 139 days left..
I know one thing--I definitely know why I never wanted to be a teacher!! I will never be a teacher again! These kids have no respect for authority. They make me so angry and I hate being angry!
My first class was good. We just did our spelling as always.
My 2nd class was good. I hate short lessons! We did 2 lessons. We asked "how often" questions and "Can you.." questions. I asked every single question to all 7 students. Then I had them speak with their partners. The boys didn't want to talk to each other but everyone else was cooperative. When I asked them to speak to partners one girl claimed me as her partner. After we finished I let them play a game. Watching them play the game is funny. They put a coat over their head and try to find the other people in the room who are constantly moving around to keep from being found. Sometimes they like to hide behind me.
My 3rd class is not good. We were suppose to cover 2 lessons today. I have to keep telling them to pay attention and that took up a lot of my time. I didn't get finished with the lessons. Next week we'll have to pick up where we left off.
My conversation class isn't so good either. When I got to the room they wanted to move to another class. It was too hot in that classroom. We moved to another class. I had one new student today. Now my total is up to 14 students. 13 were present today. Today we were talking about likes and dislikes. A few of the students just won't participate. I had 4 students don't pay attention. They hardly even fill in the answers in their book. One of the students was never on the right page. Some of the students are always doing other work in my class. I just hate that class! There are a few who actually pay attention and always do what I tell them to. Then there are others who just don't care. I feel like I'm wasting my time with this class! I just don't know what to do!
My last class was bad also. I told the students to study for their test. 2 of the students didn't have their book. Why do they constantly not bring their book? They only have one book for my class. Its not like they forget what book they need to bring for what day like my other classes which have 2 books. Then the test took forever. Nobody was studying and I knew they'd do bad on a test where there were silent letters involved like gnat, gnaw, etc. They did poorly. There was one student who only got one right. The others got 2 or 3 right and one girl got 11 right. The girl that made a 77 actually has been making good grades. I think she is the only one who is taking it seriously. The others just don't care. Seriously I have students who have an average of 30. I'm doing my best, but I can't help apathetic students. I give them notice of tests days in advance and I give them time to study in class but they don't use that time. We covered a few pages in class. I think its going to be impossible to ever catch up to where I need to be. We can't ever get past 3 pages in class.
wow..299...tomorrow I'll be in the 300's.....and I still have around 139 days left..
I know one thing--I definitely know why I never wanted to be a teacher!! I will never be a teacher again! These kids have no respect for authority. They make me so angry and I hate being angry!
My first class was good. We just did our spelling as always.
My 2nd class was good. I hate short lessons! We did 2 lessons. We asked "how often" questions and "Can you.." questions. I asked every single question to all 7 students. Then I had them speak with their partners. The boys didn't want to talk to each other but everyone else was cooperative. When I asked them to speak to partners one girl claimed me as her partner. After we finished I let them play a game. Watching them play the game is funny. They put a coat over their head and try to find the other people in the room who are constantly moving around to keep from being found. Sometimes they like to hide behind me.
My 3rd class is not good. We were suppose to cover 2 lessons today. I have to keep telling them to pay attention and that took up a lot of my time. I didn't get finished with the lessons. Next week we'll have to pick up where we left off.
My conversation class isn't so good either. When I got to the room they wanted to move to another class. It was too hot in that classroom. We moved to another class. I had one new student today. Now my total is up to 14 students. 13 were present today. Today we were talking about likes and dislikes. A few of the students just won't participate. I had 4 students don't pay attention. They hardly even fill in the answers in their book. One of the students was never on the right page. Some of the students are always doing other work in my class. I just hate that class! There are a few who actually pay attention and always do what I tell them to. Then there are others who just don't care. I feel like I'm wasting my time with this class! I just don't know what to do!
My last class was bad also. I told the students to study for their test. 2 of the students didn't have their book. Why do they constantly not bring their book? They only have one book for my class. Its not like they forget what book they need to bring for what day like my other classes which have 2 books. Then the test took forever. Nobody was studying and I knew they'd do bad on a test where there were silent letters involved like gnat, gnaw, etc. They did poorly. There was one student who only got one right. The others got 2 or 3 right and one girl got 11 right. The girl that made a 77 actually has been making good grades. I think she is the only one who is taking it seriously. The others just don't care. Seriously I have students who have an average of 30. I'm doing my best, but I can't help apathetic students. I give them notice of tests days in advance and I give them time to study in class but they don't use that time. We covered a few pages in class. I think its going to be impossible to ever catch up to where I need to be. We can't ever get past 3 pages in class.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Day 298
Sunday October 11
Just another unproductive day. The only thing I accomplished was 2 loads of laundry, grocery shopping, getting McDonald's delivered to my house and cleaning the toilet. Yep that's the only cleaning I was motivated to do.
I decided to sleep in today so I skipped church. I just didn't feel like getting up at 9am.
I'm going to try my best to eat better this week. I found the pasta that I like. They moved it for about 2 weeks because of all the Chuseok gift sets they put in its place. I also bought some grape juice to take to school with me instead of drinking so much coke. My eating habits have been terrible! I don't even want to know how much weight I've gained!
I went to the gym 1 time in 3 weeks. I've got to start going back! Everyone is probably going to make a big deal out of not seeing me for so long. I just had to give them time to miss me. Really I was just too lazy and tired to go. I have exactly one month left on my contract at the gym. I've got to decide whether I want to keep going there or if I want to try something closer to home and cheaper.
Just another unproductive day. The only thing I accomplished was 2 loads of laundry, grocery shopping, getting McDonald's delivered to my house and cleaning the toilet. Yep that's the only cleaning I was motivated to do.
I decided to sleep in today so I skipped church. I just didn't feel like getting up at 9am.
I'm going to try my best to eat better this week. I found the pasta that I like. They moved it for about 2 weeks because of all the Chuseok gift sets they put in its place. I also bought some grape juice to take to school with me instead of drinking so much coke. My eating habits have been terrible! I don't even want to know how much weight I've gained!
I went to the gym 1 time in 3 weeks. I've got to start going back! Everyone is probably going to make a big deal out of not seeing me for so long. I just had to give them time to miss me. Really I was just too lazy and tired to go. I have exactly one month left on my contract at the gym. I've got to decide whether I want to keep going there or if I want to try something closer to home and cheaper.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Day 297
Saturday October 10
Well it was just a boring unproductive day. I left my house twice. Once to go to Pizza School and once to go to GS 25.
I watched a lot of programs today. I went ahead and signed up for the $30 a month plan so I can keep up with everything. I can use 500gb of bandwidth.
I am all caught up with "How I met your mother", "House", and season 6 of "The Office". I'm currently catching up on "More to Love" which I missed when it originally aired.
I slept in today. I decided to skip my Korean lesson this week. I really wanted to sleep in and I was really tired so I didn't actually want to go anywhere.
Well it was just a boring unproductive day. I left my house twice. Once to go to Pizza School and once to go to GS 25.
I watched a lot of programs today. I went ahead and signed up for the $30 a month plan so I can keep up with everything. I can use 500gb of bandwidth.
I am all caught up with "How I met your mother", "House", and season 6 of "The Office". I'm currently catching up on "More to Love" which I missed when it originally aired.
I slept in today. I decided to skip my Korean lesson this week. I really wanted to sleep in and I was really tired so I didn't actually want to go anywhere.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Day 296...한글날 day
Friday October 9
안녕하세요!
Today was Hangul day. 한글 is the written form of the Korean language was created by King Sejong the Great. It used to be an actual public holiday. Its legal status as a holiday was removed in 1991 because of pressure from major employers to increase the number of working days. (that's too bad...it would have actually been a day off from work instead of another Saturday holiday).
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Hangul is pretty easy to learn. It didn't take me long to get the hang of it. I can read Korean. I just can't speak it very well! When I'm reading Hangul I find it funny that some words are just English words that are 'koreanized'. Example: 맥도날드 홈 서비스--it literally says 'Mcdonald home service'. maek do nahl deu hom seo bi seu (that's my attempt at romanization)
Well my first class was same as always. We did spelling.
In my 2nd class we did the online newspaper. I gave them a worksheet to answer about one of the articles. One boy just wrote down random answers. All of them were wrong. I made him do it again and he still got it wrong so I just wrote the answers. Some of these kids can't answer the questions because they don't want to read the article. They just want me to give them the answer.
We also had the online newspaper in our 3rd class. They weren't so cooperative. They don't like it when I interrupt them to tell them to do their work. They are talking and not doing their work.. I am so tired of these students ignoring me. I know their Korean teachers wouldn't let them act that way and I bet they don't ignore them. Why do they treat me this way? They don't understand that they are at a school setting and it isn't play time. The 3 boys didn't even make it to the questions because they were goofing off too much. I just told them to do it for homework. (they won't do it!)
My 4th class was okay. We had 2 tests first. A spelling test and a test on the online news content. One student does well on the spelling tests and one student always does poorly. I always give them time to study and they know about the test days in advance so they have a chance to do well. Then we learned our new words. Some of the students start writing their words before I tell them to. Then some of them have already completed page 39 when I tell them to do page 38. I think the silent letters will trick them on the test on Monday.
안녕하세요!
Today was Hangul day. 한글 is the written form of the Korean language was created by King Sejong the Great. It used to be an actual public holiday. Its legal status as a holiday was removed in 1991 because of pressure from major employers to increase the number of working days. (that's too bad...it would have actually been a day off from work instead of another Saturday holiday).
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Hangul is pretty easy to learn. It didn't take me long to get the hang of it. I can read Korean. I just can't speak it very well! When I'm reading Hangul I find it funny that some words are just English words that are 'koreanized'. Example: 맥도날드 홈 서비스--it literally says 'Mcdonald home service'. maek do nahl deu hom seo bi seu (that's my attempt at romanization)
Well my first class was same as always. We did spelling.
In my 2nd class we did the online newspaper. I gave them a worksheet to answer about one of the articles. One boy just wrote down random answers. All of them were wrong. I made him do it again and he still got it wrong so I just wrote the answers. Some of these kids can't answer the questions because they don't want to read the article. They just want me to give them the answer.
We also had the online newspaper in our 3rd class. They weren't so cooperative. They don't like it when I interrupt them to tell them to do their work. They are talking and not doing their work.. I am so tired of these students ignoring me. I know their Korean teachers wouldn't let them act that way and I bet they don't ignore them. Why do they treat me this way? They don't understand that they are at a school setting and it isn't play time. The 3 boys didn't even make it to the questions because they were goofing off too much. I just told them to do it for homework. (they won't do it!)
My 4th class was okay. We had 2 tests first. A spelling test and a test on the online news content. One student does well on the spelling tests and one student always does poorly. I always give them time to study and they know about the test days in advance so they have a chance to do well. Then we learned our new words. Some of the students start writing their words before I tell them to. Then some of them have already completed page 39 when I tell them to do page 38. I think the silent letters will trick them on the test on Monday.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Day 295
Thursday October 8
Well I had a decent Thursday.
My first class was good. No one was trying to rush me or tell me that the material was boring today. They did want to end class early. They asked if we could end on one page and do the other page for homework. I agreed. Today was basically a review of what we've been learning in writing. We talked about using transition words to revise sentences. They studided their vocabulary when I gave them free time. They asked me to help them prounounce some words.
My 2nd class was good. They like to talk a lot in between activities but it doesnt interupt the flow of class and the lessons are really short. Today we talked about nouns, lists, one and more than one and dialogues. They did a good job. They enjoyed the dialogue part once they completed it. I told them to talk to each other and then write down what each other said. So one of them would say "say something". Then they'd say something funny and then the other person would write it down. Then they traded books and read their dialogue as a conversation.
My lab class was pretty good. I gave them a worksheet to keep them busy. They are better at finding the answers than my lower level class. No one asked me to show them the answer to every single question. I'm going to give them a multiple choice test on Tuesday. It should be easy if they study. I have to keep them busy so they won't try to do other things. ha. They all did the worksheet first and then they did the rest of their articles.
My conversation class was a small improvement over last week. They all read together when we were reading and repeating as a class. The boys didn't practice the conversation the right way most of the time. The girls were going above and beyond what I asked them to do. We also have listening exercises. 2 of the boys actually pay attention and remember what I talk about. I only read it one time and I ask questions about what the conversation was about. 3 of the boys were playing on their cell phones and not paying attention half of the time. They hide their cell phones under their desk and they keep looking down instead of looking at their book. I have to tell them to pay attention. At least this class participates more than the other classes.
We had a productive class in my last class of the day. It was a writing class. We basically reviewed what we have learned so far. They did a good job with all the activities.
I was on my way to Mcdonalds after work and I got stopped by the "God the Mother" nuts. Oh my. They will not take no for an answer. These 2-a guy and a girl-actually spoke really good English. I told them I had already talked to someone and filled out their survey. I told the guy I wasn't interested so he walked away but the woman was not giving up. She went through this brochure she had and tried to get me to let her show me stuff in the bible. I said no. I finally got away. All they ever talk about is "God the Mother". That must be the major belief in their church. She told me that her church is the only church that believes in "God the Mother". I've read some information about this church and I think its crazy! They don't belive in the cross because they consider it to be an idol. They believe you must be baptized to be saved. You have to get baptized then you can be saved.Followers are baptized in the name of the Father (Jehova) the Son (Jesus) and of the Holy Spirit (Ahn Sahng Hong) They believe Saturday is the real sabbath. It was founded in Korea by Ahn Sahng-hong who believes he is the second coming of Jesus.The members pray in the name of Ahn Sahng Hong, whom they believe as the scriptures testify is the Second Coming of Christ.Zang Gil-Jah is "God the Mother" (who they believe is referred to in the Bible as the New Jerusalem Mother) and that Ahn Sahng-Hong is God the Father. Ahn Sahng-hong believes all men were angels who come to Earth after sinning in Heaven.
I downloaded a program to watch movies and tv shows online. I watched a lot of stuff. I saw season 6 episode 1 of "The Office" and "House". I really liked the 1st episode of the new season of "House". I also watched the first episode of "more to love." (I missed the whole show bc it doesnt play here..this site has the whole show that I can watch!) I watched a episode of "18 kids and counting". Right now I've got a free 30 day trial. I've found some good stuff. I think I might sign up for premium membership. With the free trial I can use 4 gb of bandwidth and I almost used that up in one day! The most expensive option is only $30 a month and you can use 500gb of bandwidth. They have a good selection. I saw lots of things I'd like to watch. I think it would be beneficial since I don't have access to those shows over here. I don't have to download the shows. I can just watch them on the site, but I do have the option to download to my computer.
Well I had a decent Thursday.
My first class was good. No one was trying to rush me or tell me that the material was boring today. They did want to end class early. They asked if we could end on one page and do the other page for homework. I agreed. Today was basically a review of what we've been learning in writing. We talked about using transition words to revise sentences. They studided their vocabulary when I gave them free time. They asked me to help them prounounce some words.
My 2nd class was good. They like to talk a lot in between activities but it doesnt interupt the flow of class and the lessons are really short. Today we talked about nouns, lists, one and more than one and dialogues. They did a good job. They enjoyed the dialogue part once they completed it. I told them to talk to each other and then write down what each other said. So one of them would say "say something". Then they'd say something funny and then the other person would write it down. Then they traded books and read their dialogue as a conversation.
My lab class was pretty good. I gave them a worksheet to keep them busy. They are better at finding the answers than my lower level class. No one asked me to show them the answer to every single question. I'm going to give them a multiple choice test on Tuesday. It should be easy if they study. I have to keep them busy so they won't try to do other things. ha. They all did the worksheet first and then they did the rest of their articles.
My conversation class was a small improvement over last week. They all read together when we were reading and repeating as a class. The boys didn't practice the conversation the right way most of the time. The girls were going above and beyond what I asked them to do. We also have listening exercises. 2 of the boys actually pay attention and remember what I talk about. I only read it one time and I ask questions about what the conversation was about. 3 of the boys were playing on their cell phones and not paying attention half of the time. They hide their cell phones under their desk and they keep looking down instead of looking at their book. I have to tell them to pay attention. At least this class participates more than the other classes.
We had a productive class in my last class of the day. It was a writing class. We basically reviewed what we have learned so far. They did a good job with all the activities.
I was on my way to Mcdonalds after work and I got stopped by the "God the Mother" nuts. Oh my. They will not take no for an answer. These 2-a guy and a girl-actually spoke really good English. I told them I had already talked to someone and filled out their survey. I told the guy I wasn't interested so he walked away but the woman was not giving up. She went through this brochure she had and tried to get me to let her show me stuff in the bible. I said no. I finally got away. All they ever talk about is "God the Mother". That must be the major belief in their church. She told me that her church is the only church that believes in "God the Mother". I've read some information about this church and I think its crazy! They don't belive in the cross because they consider it to be an idol. They believe you must be baptized to be saved. You have to get baptized then you can be saved.Followers are baptized in the name of the Father (Jehova) the Son (Jesus) and of the Holy Spirit (Ahn Sahng Hong) They believe Saturday is the real sabbath. It was founded in Korea by Ahn Sahng-hong who believes he is the second coming of Jesus.The members pray in the name of Ahn Sahng Hong, whom they believe as the scriptures testify is the Second Coming of Christ.Zang Gil-Jah is "God the Mother" (who they believe is referred to in the Bible as the New Jerusalem Mother) and that Ahn Sahng-Hong is God the Father. Ahn Sahng-hong believes all men were angels who come to Earth after sinning in Heaven.
I downloaded a program to watch movies and tv shows online. I watched a lot of stuff. I saw season 6 episode 1 of "The Office" and "House". I really liked the 1st episode of the new season of "House". I also watched the first episode of "more to love." (I missed the whole show bc it doesnt play here..this site has the whole show that I can watch!) I watched a episode of "18 kids and counting". Right now I've got a free 30 day trial. I've found some good stuff. I think I might sign up for premium membership. With the free trial I can use 4 gb of bandwidth and I almost used that up in one day! The most expensive option is only $30 a month and you can use 500gb of bandwidth. They have a good selection. I saw lots of things I'd like to watch. I think it would be beneficial since I don't have access to those shows over here. I don't have to download the shows. I can just watch them on the site, but I do have the option to download to my computer.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Day 294
Wednesday October 7
Today was no so great.
My first class was in the computer lab. We did the exact same articles that we did last week! Why haven't they updated the website? The newspaper for the intermediate level was updated this week but the lower level one was the same. The student noticed that it was the same. She told me we had already done it. I told her we were going to read it again.
My 2nd class was a writing class. Today we were talking about beginnings and middles. They grasped the concept and we had a good class.
My 3rd class was a writing class. We only had to cover one short lesson today so we had some free time. These short lessons are driving me crazy! There is no way it would take 50 minutes to do 2 pages!
My 4th class is one of my non-cooperative 6th grade conversation classes. Today we were talking about numbers and money. They wouldn't do their work. They wouldn't speak to each other. One of the boys kept tearing off a piece of paper, chewing it up and spitting it at another student. Then every one of the boys needs to go to the bathroom. I make them go one at a time. They change their name every class. I can't keep up with who is who so I have to refer to my notebook all the time! I'm up there explaining things and they are just talking and not paying attention. Its like I'm talking to myself. I asked one of the girls a question and she wouldn't even answer. I stood there for a while waiting on the answer but she wouldnt answer so I just told the answer to the class. I just don't know what to do with these students. Well its not my problem when they get to test time and they don't know what the heck it is because they didn't write any answers or pay attention. I actually like the books in the class. I think they are very helpful for conversation practice, but the students won't even cooperate with me!!
If I leave and they haven't improved its not my fault!! It's their fault for not trying! Teaching at my hagwon is a lost cause. Its full of students who don't want to learn. All they want to do is beg to play games and have free time.
My last class is always out of control on the day when we go to the computer lab. I have to tell them to turn off their music and stop looking at other websites. I kept yelling at one of the students to turn off his music on his cell phone. Then I told him to go to the website and he keeps telling me to wait. I'm tired of them finishing too early so I made a worksheet for them to do to keep them busy. On friday Im going to test them on what was on the worksheet. They are driving me crazy! They act like they can't find the answers. Its simple questions that are easy to find right out of the article. They still act confused after I basically point it out to them. Example: Recently an electric bus was introduced. Then i ask the question-What was introduced recently?. Its so simple if you will take the time to read it!! Its not like I'm asking questions that aren't right in front of their face. I'm asking basic comprehension questions. They don't understand because they arent taking the time to find the answer. WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE THIS CLASS BE IN THE COMPUTER LAB????(with crappy old slow computers) All they want to do is play around on the computer. If we had the articles and just read them in class we would get a lot done.
Today was no so great.
My first class was in the computer lab. We did the exact same articles that we did last week! Why haven't they updated the website? The newspaper for the intermediate level was updated this week but the lower level one was the same. The student noticed that it was the same. She told me we had already done it. I told her we were going to read it again.
My 2nd class was a writing class. Today we were talking about beginnings and middles. They grasped the concept and we had a good class.
My 3rd class was a writing class. We only had to cover one short lesson today so we had some free time. These short lessons are driving me crazy! There is no way it would take 50 minutes to do 2 pages!
My 4th class is one of my non-cooperative 6th grade conversation classes. Today we were talking about numbers and money. They wouldn't do their work. They wouldn't speak to each other. One of the boys kept tearing off a piece of paper, chewing it up and spitting it at another student. Then every one of the boys needs to go to the bathroom. I make them go one at a time. They change their name every class. I can't keep up with who is who so I have to refer to my notebook all the time! I'm up there explaining things and they are just talking and not paying attention. Its like I'm talking to myself. I asked one of the girls a question and she wouldn't even answer. I stood there for a while waiting on the answer but she wouldnt answer so I just told the answer to the class. I just don't know what to do with these students. Well its not my problem when they get to test time and they don't know what the heck it is because they didn't write any answers or pay attention. I actually like the books in the class. I think they are very helpful for conversation practice, but the students won't even cooperate with me!!
If I leave and they haven't improved its not my fault!! It's their fault for not trying! Teaching at my hagwon is a lost cause. Its full of students who don't want to learn. All they want to do is beg to play games and have free time.
My last class is always out of control on the day when we go to the computer lab. I have to tell them to turn off their music and stop looking at other websites. I kept yelling at one of the students to turn off his music on his cell phone. Then I told him to go to the website and he keeps telling me to wait. I'm tired of them finishing too early so I made a worksheet for them to do to keep them busy. On friday Im going to test them on what was on the worksheet. They are driving me crazy! They act like they can't find the answers. Its simple questions that are easy to find right out of the article. They still act confused after I basically point it out to them. Example: Recently an electric bus was introduced. Then i ask the question-What was introduced recently?. Its so simple if you will take the time to read it!! Its not like I'm asking questions that aren't right in front of their face. I'm asking basic comprehension questions. They don't understand because they arent taking the time to find the answer. WHY DID THEY HAVE TO MAKE THIS CLASS BE IN THE COMPUTER LAB????(with crappy old slow computers) All they want to do is play around on the computer. If we had the articles and just read them in class we would get a lot done.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Day 293
Tuesday October 6
My first class never wants to study for long. The boy wants to sleep all the time. Today he was sleeping in my class. I kept waking him up but it didn't help much. He only participated a little. Today we were talking about excuses. They participated and came up with some good excuses for the exercises in the book. When we got finished with one lesson they didn't want to do the second lesson. They begged to just do the 2nd lesson with their partner and not as a class. I try to do the lesson as a class first so they can come up with the right answers so they will be able to give me reasons when they have a speaking test. If I just let them do it on their own the speaking test will come up and they won't understand what I mean. I just let them do the 2nd lesson with their partner. I was going to be the boys partner but he wouldn't say anything. The other students weren't doing the activity the right way. Oh well. when the test time comes along it will be their loss for trying to rush me so they can have free time. They were all copying each others homework for grammar class.
In my 2nd class I only had one student. Now the other student has missed 2 speaking classes in a row. My lesson plan said I was suppose to only do lesson 11 so that's what I did. I wrote prompts on the board so he'd know how to answer in a complete sentence. Then I had him read the questions and answers. We were done in 25 minutes. I didn't know what else to do. I gave him a word search to do. He did it for a while, but got bored with it and played a game on his cell phone. I hate that class was boring but there isn't much you can do with only one student. We went over the whole lesson twice.
My 3rd class was in the computer lab. They were all doing their work. The boy was moving very slowly. Everyone seemed to be doing their work slower. I think only one person actually finished reading all the articles. One boy came in really late. Then he didn't want to do his work. I had to keep begging him to do it and I don't think he even read any of it.
I hate having to give up makeup tests because students miss test day. I gave one to a boy in my last class. He didn't want to do it. I told him I was going to give him zero points. He wanted to know why he had to do it. I told him because the rest of the class had already taken theirs. 2 of the students didn't bring their book to class. Why do these students constantly forget their books? Today we were talking about Amusement parks and shopping. They want to have free time so they tell me to hurry. I try to stretch the lesson so I won't finish too early and they are begging me to go faster. I told them we needed to finish our lesson. After we finished I asked them to speak with a partner. There are 4 people so each person had a partner, but one girl and one boy won't cooperate. I was upset that they keep trying to rush me when Im just trying to do my job. I asked them "do you tell your Korean teacher to hurry up?" and they said "no". I said "then why do you make me rush through the lesson?". They said "because its the last class of the day". I told them "I have to teach my lesson, too" They said they were sorry. They wrote on the board that they were sorry and they said sorry again at the end of class..
I hate this semester! I'm so ready for it to be over! I'm stuck with these crappy books till I leave. ugh! The textbooks are horrible and boring and I don't even have an organized system for giving tests. The lessons are too short or too boring or too difficult! I don't even know what to assign for homework. Why couldn't we just use the books we had last semester? I actually liked them!! The students are driving me crazy! No one wants to study. No one wants to practice speaking with a partner. They beg me to give the kids time to speak. how is that going to work if the kids won't cooperate??
My first class never wants to study for long. The boy wants to sleep all the time. Today he was sleeping in my class. I kept waking him up but it didn't help much. He only participated a little. Today we were talking about excuses. They participated and came up with some good excuses for the exercises in the book. When we got finished with one lesson they didn't want to do the second lesson. They begged to just do the 2nd lesson with their partner and not as a class. I try to do the lesson as a class first so they can come up with the right answers so they will be able to give me reasons when they have a speaking test. If I just let them do it on their own the speaking test will come up and they won't understand what I mean. I just let them do the 2nd lesson with their partner. I was going to be the boys partner but he wouldn't say anything. The other students weren't doing the activity the right way. Oh well. when the test time comes along it will be their loss for trying to rush me so they can have free time. They were all copying each others homework for grammar class.
In my 2nd class I only had one student. Now the other student has missed 2 speaking classes in a row. My lesson plan said I was suppose to only do lesson 11 so that's what I did. I wrote prompts on the board so he'd know how to answer in a complete sentence. Then I had him read the questions and answers. We were done in 25 minutes. I didn't know what else to do. I gave him a word search to do. He did it for a while, but got bored with it and played a game on his cell phone. I hate that class was boring but there isn't much you can do with only one student. We went over the whole lesson twice.
My 3rd class was in the computer lab. They were all doing their work. The boy was moving very slowly. Everyone seemed to be doing their work slower. I think only one person actually finished reading all the articles. One boy came in really late. Then he didn't want to do his work. I had to keep begging him to do it and I don't think he even read any of it.
I hate having to give up makeup tests because students miss test day. I gave one to a boy in my last class. He didn't want to do it. I told him I was going to give him zero points. He wanted to know why he had to do it. I told him because the rest of the class had already taken theirs. 2 of the students didn't bring their book to class. Why do these students constantly forget their books? Today we were talking about Amusement parks and shopping. They want to have free time so they tell me to hurry. I try to stretch the lesson so I won't finish too early and they are begging me to go faster. I told them we needed to finish our lesson. After we finished I asked them to speak with a partner. There are 4 people so each person had a partner, but one girl and one boy won't cooperate. I was upset that they keep trying to rush me when Im just trying to do my job. I asked them "do you tell your Korean teacher to hurry up?" and they said "no". I said "then why do you make me rush through the lesson?". They said "because its the last class of the day". I told them "I have to teach my lesson, too" They said they were sorry. They wrote on the board that they were sorry and they said sorry again at the end of class..
I hate this semester! I'm so ready for it to be over! I'm stuck with these crappy books till I leave. ugh! The textbooks are horrible and boring and I don't even have an organized system for giving tests. The lessons are too short or too boring or too difficult! I don't even know what to assign for homework. Why couldn't we just use the books we had last semester? I actually liked them!! The students are driving me crazy! No one wants to study. No one wants to practice speaking with a partner. They beg me to give the kids time to speak. how is that going to work if the kids won't cooperate??
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Walking on Right Causes Confusion
From Korea Times
Public transportation hubs, such as subway stations and airports, and public institutions started a campaign for walking on the right, Thursday.
The campaign is a rehearsal for the “walking on the right” drive that will start in July 2010 nationwide, said the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.
However, the hasty switch of the walking direction is causing a jumble among pedestrians, including the visually impaired.
Subway stations in Seoul have gone through or are currently changing the direction of escalators and posting informational signs to promote the campaign.
But guiding blocks with Braille for the blind and the visually-impaired are still leading them to walk on the left side.
“The guiding blocks are eyes for us. Unless the direction does change for the visually-impaired, we might bump into pedestrians,” said an official of the Korea Blind Union.
“The guiding blocks for the blind are regulated by separate laws and it is not included in this pilot campaign,” a Seoul Metro official said.
Some transfer stations, such as the Yeongdeungpo District Office Station on Lines 2 and 5, need to undergo an overhaul of facilities. At some places at these stations, areas for walking on the left and on the right coexist, causing confusion.
Pedestrians are also adapting to the new system.
Hong Shin-young, a university student, mistakenly walked into an escalator going the opposite direction at Hyehwa Station on Subway Line 4 while text messaging her friend, Tuesday.
“The person coming from the opposite direction looked at me wide-eyed and I backed up,” Hong said.
Some question the effectiveness of the drive.
“Seoul Metro has been campaigning for lining up two-by-two at escalators for a while, but it has not been very successful. I think similar things might happen to this campaign,” said Lee Sun-min, a 25-year-old office worker.
“At subway stations, some people walk on the left as they did before and the others walk on the right according to the campaign. Sometimes, I get stuck in the middle of people coming from both my left and right.” (My comment:I can totally relate..I want to push them out of the way and say "youre on the WRONG SIDE!")
“Whether right or wrong, we have been accustomed to walking on the left for the past decades,” said Kim Ki-bok of the Citizen Traffic Safety Association.
=======================================================
Its absolutly crazy!! They have arrows everywhere in the subway. Do Koreans pay attention? NO!
Sometimes I just wish I could yell and say 'hey look at the arrows! Walk on the right side!!!! and get out of my way!'
Public transportation hubs, such as subway stations and airports, and public institutions started a campaign for walking on the right, Thursday.
The campaign is a rehearsal for the “walking on the right” drive that will start in July 2010 nationwide, said the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.
However, the hasty switch of the walking direction is causing a jumble among pedestrians, including the visually impaired.
Subway stations in Seoul have gone through or are currently changing the direction of escalators and posting informational signs to promote the campaign.
But guiding blocks with Braille for the blind and the visually-impaired are still leading them to walk on the left side.
“The guiding blocks are eyes for us. Unless the direction does change for the visually-impaired, we might bump into pedestrians,” said an official of the Korea Blind Union.
“The guiding blocks for the blind are regulated by separate laws and it is not included in this pilot campaign,” a Seoul Metro official said.
Some transfer stations, such as the Yeongdeungpo District Office Station on Lines 2 and 5, need to undergo an overhaul of facilities. At some places at these stations, areas for walking on the left and on the right coexist, causing confusion.
Pedestrians are also adapting to the new system.
Hong Shin-young, a university student, mistakenly walked into an escalator going the opposite direction at Hyehwa Station on Subway Line 4 while text messaging her friend, Tuesday.
“The person coming from the opposite direction looked at me wide-eyed and I backed up,” Hong said.
Some question the effectiveness of the drive.
“Seoul Metro has been campaigning for lining up two-by-two at escalators for a while, but it has not been very successful. I think similar things might happen to this campaign,” said Lee Sun-min, a 25-year-old office worker.
“At subway stations, some people walk on the left as they did before and the others walk on the right according to the campaign. Sometimes, I get stuck in the middle of people coming from both my left and right.” (My comment:I can totally relate..I want to push them out of the way and say "youre on the WRONG SIDE!")
“Whether right or wrong, we have been accustomed to walking on the left for the past decades,” said Kim Ki-bok of the Citizen Traffic Safety Association.
=======================================================
Its absolutly crazy!! They have arrows everywhere in the subway. Do Koreans pay attention? NO!
Sometimes I just wish I could yell and say 'hey look at the arrows! Walk on the right side!!!! and get out of my way!'
How to live to 100
What is the big deal about living to be 100? Seriously I could care less if I made it to 28. I'm not trying to intentionally die or anything. I just have no goal of living to some old age.
Lifestyle habits that age you most quickly
1. Poor diet
2. Lack of exercise
3. Stress and worry
4. Exhaustion
5. Unhappiness
6. Lack of love
7. Toxic overload
8. Blockages and congestion of the transportation highways within our bodies.
I should be dead any day now!!
To live to 100 you should:
1. drink more water (I just can't drink much water! It has no taste. I really like coke though. Actually, I haven't drank any water today..only coke)
2. Eat a boring diet full of fruits, veggies, nothing unhealthy (I guess that means no more big macs)
3. get 7-8 hours of sleep every night (There's someting I can actually do!)
4. Take the stairs. (there are plenty of stairs in South Korea)
5. Manage your stress (yeah thats a problem)
6. Detoxify your surroundings (buy organic, use recycled materials, etc)
I am definatly not living to be 100 and I'm okay with that!
Lifestyle habits that age you most quickly
1. Poor diet
2. Lack of exercise
3. Stress and worry
4. Exhaustion
5. Unhappiness
6. Lack of love
7. Toxic overload
8. Blockages and congestion of the transportation highways within our bodies.
I should be dead any day now!!
To live to 100 you should:
1. drink more water (I just can't drink much water! It has no taste. I really like coke though. Actually, I haven't drank any water today..only coke)
2. Eat a boring diet full of fruits, veggies, nothing unhealthy (I guess that means no more big macs)
3. get 7-8 hours of sleep every night (There's someting I can actually do!)
4. Take the stairs. (there are plenty of stairs in South Korea)
5. Manage your stress (yeah thats a problem)
6. Detoxify your surroundings (buy organic, use recycled materials, etc)
I am definatly not living to be 100 and I'm okay with that!
Day 292 God the Mother??
Monday October 5
I had to go back to work today! I wish the break were longer!
I got my computer fixed last night. When I was transferring over my files from the saved folder to the desktop I lost one of my most important folders! I don't know where it went. I've searched for it but its gone. I must have put it on the desktop before everything was final and it got lost. That really sucks! It had all of my attendance and grades!! I had some of the grades written down so for a few classes I still have my grades. but for a few classes . I know about their performance and participation. Its not like the grades actually mean anything anyway.
My first class starts at 2:30. Well the student was 10 minutes late so we only had a 35 min class. It was actually good because I didn't have to stretch out the ridiculously short lesson.
My 2nd class went really well. At the beginning of class I write some sample answers or prompts for how to answer the questions. We just listened to the questions then I stretched it out by asking every question to every student. We were talking about cybercafes and restaurants. Everyone was participating and making an effort to talk in complete sentences. It really helps to put the prompts on the board because some students look at the board and try to find out how they should answer the question.
My 3rd class is okay but they won't pay attention. The boys are constantly talking to each other and checking messages on their cell phone and going off topic and interrupting class flow. Today they were talking about orifices and poo poo hole air. Class is hard when they don't want to answer the questions. I have to stand right beside their desk and beg them to write down the answers. I just basically gave them the answers. There wasn't much speaking practice going on. At the end of class I only gave a sticker to the girl. She wasn't exactly perfect but she was doing more work than the boys. The boys begged for a sticker but I told them no because they wouldn't be quiet and pay attention.
My 4th class was my weekly conversation class. Today I had a new student so now my class is up to 13 students. One was absent today. We took a test. Then we covered a short unit on family. At least everyone was participating today. Because of the test I didn't have adequate time to give them time to practice conversation. I don't know what I'll use out of that unit for a test since we didn't cover much. Its hard only meeting once a week. They keep complaining to me that the air conditioner doesn't work. I don't know what they want me to do about it. I don't know why the school won't just fix it. Surely the other teachers notice it also. We won't be needing much longer. its starting to get cool.
All the students in my last class were late to class. 5 mins late. They go to home plus before my class. We had a test today. 1 student did really good. another student did a decent job. The other 2 students are still having trouble. They were actually good in class today. They stayed in their seats, they were quiet, they did their work. I think they are starting to realize that if they are bad they don't get stickers. They all want their stickers. I gave them all one for being good today. I also gave one student 2 stickers because she made above an 80 on the spelling test. She made an 84. She made a 93 on the test I gave today. If only the other students had her enthusiasm. She wants stickers so she studies hard. We actually had a good class today.
I had a funny encounter in Mcdonalds today. I'm trying to eat and this man comes up and starts talking to me. He was Korean and he lived in Pennsylvania. I kept just shaking my head at everything he said. He thought I couldn't hear or talk. Then I said something and he's like "you can talk". He thought I was deaf or mute because I wasn't saying anything. I wasn't saying anything because I was trying to get back to my meal. Then he sat down and talked to me.
Then on the way back to school from mcdonalds I got stopped by these Korean women who wanted me to fill out some kind of survey about my religious beliefs. I didn't know how to answer the questions. I looked at them a long time before choosing what I thought could be the answer.(I was raised in church..I should know the answers, but these questions were crazy!) There was one question where I was thinking that none of the answers were right!! There was one about "Do you know about God the Mother?".(what?) The answers were "yes", "no", and "I'd like to know". I responded with "no". These women didn't really speak English. They had a paper that was in English so they could just show it to you and get you to read it. One of their phrases said "our church is near here. lets go get baptized." On their notebook there was something about "elohim academy". I googled it when I got home. They are affiliated with World Mission Society Church of God. It originated in Korea. (people think its a cult-every article I wrote was full of reasons why people think its a cult).
I had to go back to work today! I wish the break were longer!
I got my computer fixed last night. When I was transferring over my files from the saved folder to the desktop I lost one of my most important folders! I don't know where it went. I've searched for it but its gone. I must have put it on the desktop before everything was final and it got lost. That really sucks! It had all of my attendance and grades!! I had some of the grades written down so for a few classes I still have my grades. but for a few classes . I know about their performance and participation. Its not like the grades actually mean anything anyway.
My first class starts at 2:30. Well the student was 10 minutes late so we only had a 35 min class. It was actually good because I didn't have to stretch out the ridiculously short lesson.
My 2nd class went really well. At the beginning of class I write some sample answers or prompts for how to answer the questions. We just listened to the questions then I stretched it out by asking every question to every student. We were talking about cybercafes and restaurants. Everyone was participating and making an effort to talk in complete sentences. It really helps to put the prompts on the board because some students look at the board and try to find out how they should answer the question.
My 3rd class is okay but they won't pay attention. The boys are constantly talking to each other and checking messages on their cell phone and going off topic and interrupting class flow. Today they were talking about orifices and poo poo hole air. Class is hard when they don't want to answer the questions. I have to stand right beside their desk and beg them to write down the answers. I just basically gave them the answers. There wasn't much speaking practice going on. At the end of class I only gave a sticker to the girl. She wasn't exactly perfect but she was doing more work than the boys. The boys begged for a sticker but I told them no because they wouldn't be quiet and pay attention.
My 4th class was my weekly conversation class. Today I had a new student so now my class is up to 13 students. One was absent today. We took a test. Then we covered a short unit on family. At least everyone was participating today. Because of the test I didn't have adequate time to give them time to practice conversation. I don't know what I'll use out of that unit for a test since we didn't cover much. Its hard only meeting once a week. They keep complaining to me that the air conditioner doesn't work. I don't know what they want me to do about it. I don't know why the school won't just fix it. Surely the other teachers notice it also. We won't be needing much longer. its starting to get cool.
All the students in my last class were late to class. 5 mins late. They go to home plus before my class. We had a test today. 1 student did really good. another student did a decent job. The other 2 students are still having trouble. They were actually good in class today. They stayed in their seats, they were quiet, they did their work. I think they are starting to realize that if they are bad they don't get stickers. They all want their stickers. I gave them all one for being good today. I also gave one student 2 stickers because she made above an 80 on the spelling test. She made an 84. She made a 93 on the test I gave today. If only the other students had her enthusiasm. She wants stickers so she studies hard. We actually had a good class today.
I had a funny encounter in Mcdonalds today. I'm trying to eat and this man comes up and starts talking to me. He was Korean and he lived in Pennsylvania. I kept just shaking my head at everything he said. He thought I couldn't hear or talk. Then I said something and he's like "you can talk". He thought I was deaf or mute because I wasn't saying anything. I wasn't saying anything because I was trying to get back to my meal. Then he sat down and talked to me.
Then on the way back to school from mcdonalds I got stopped by these Korean women who wanted me to fill out some kind of survey about my religious beliefs. I didn't know how to answer the questions. I looked at them a long time before choosing what I thought could be the answer.(I was raised in church..I should know the answers, but these questions were crazy!) There was one question where I was thinking that none of the answers were right!! There was one about "Do you know about God the Mother?".(what?) The answers were "yes", "no", and "I'd like to know". I responded with "no". These women didn't really speak English. They had a paper that was in English so they could just show it to you and get you to read it. One of their phrases said "our church is near here. lets go get baptized." On their notebook there was something about "elohim academy". I googled it when I got home. They are affiliated with World Mission Society Church of God. It originated in Korea. (people think its a cult-every article I wrote was full of reasons why people think its a cult).
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