Grade 3 - Tory, Hana, Uju, Tina, Yea Yea Yea!!!

My third-graders listened to a chant for Lesson 1: Hi, I'm Tory!  for their listening period yesterday, and chanted to it for another five repetitions. I have four Grade 3 classes, and by the final 24th repetition, I was reborn into a new life in which I would never have to listen to that infernal chant ever again.

We played the snatching card game with the book characters and the key phrases:

Hello, I'm _________.
Nice to meet you!

I had to remind students constantly to sit down, stop cheating, and don't fight. I think they had fun though.
I think I definitely improved in terms of preparing games that are both fun and useful compared to last year's ridiculous board games, lip-syncing, and pictionary messes. My goal is to set a high standard of English level for this year's crop of third-graders so that they can get as much as possible out of their weekly classes with me.

Their group names. I think we have a girl boss in 3-3.

Mafia Fifth-Graders and Detective Sixth-Graders

My sixth-graders were on the speaking period of Lesson 1: What Grade Are You In?.

I prepared a detective game in which my students each had a "new identity" card, and went around interviewing other students to find out some new information about their classmates. When the music stopped playing, they had to return to their seats, and hide their playing cards.

I then gave clues about these "suspects", and they had to match the identity of the suspect with one of their classmates.

For another detective-inspired game last year, I used music from Saw and had students tell me they were scared. So we used the Pink Panther Theme instead.

These are all the "suspects".

The class has to guess who has the Ben 2nd Grade playing card for the point.

I thought it was a successful with the 6-2 and 6-3 classes, but not so much with the 6-1 class. It was probably to be expected, since there are a lot of students with attitude problems in that particular class. 

Before I came to Korea to teach, I thought that teachers should be fair and unprejudiced in the way they think about and act around their students. After I started teaching, I realized that all my co-teachers have favorites, whether they be individual students or entire classes, They act more lenient, strict, or defeated depending on the class. 

Of course, the class that she bullies a lot of the time refused to participate during her observed lesson (out of revenge, I think).

Nonetheless, I try to treat all of the students the same, but I definitely like rewarding my more obedient classes with stamps and treats.

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My fifth-graders were on the speaking and reading period of Lesson 1: I'm From Canada!

After some textbook work, we played two rounds of Mafia with the target vocabulary and key expressions. 

Students who didn't clear the mission got bopped on the head with a squeaky hammer toy. Groups who cleared the mission got to bop me once on the head. I think it doesn't need to be said that I gave the hammer to the group member with the greatest conscience and the least violent tendencies.

The randomized playing cards.

Another good class with great kids.

Health Goals

One of my goals for 2016 is to get fit by working out 3-4 times a week, cooking healthy meals at home, and staying away from fast food. I fell off the wagon this week and got McDonald's twice, but today I'm starting afresh.

Breakfast: one banana with plain yoghurt
Snack: Hershey's mild chocolate milk, some Macadamia nuts, coffee with milk

Lunch: Korean school lunch
Snack: two clementines

Dinner: tuna with soy sauce and wasabi, sweet potato salad, egg salad

Workout Plan: 30 mins light cardio

Tomorrow:

Breakfast: Inari sushi

Lunch: Korean school lunch
Snack: coffee with milk

Dinner: with other teachers after volleyball game in the afternoon

Our Principal Just Came In

Our principal just came in while I was writing my previous post, and 10 mins before she came in, my two co-teachers became busy bees cleaning up, vacuuming, and wiping down all the surfaces. I was mildly puzzled but did not help.

Now I understand why. We must keep up appearances for the principal.

She came in, and everyone hollered for the homeroom teachers of grades 5 and 6 to come into the teacher preparation room as well. We bowed and stood around the glass table waiting for her to speak, and I thought it was going to be a lengthy speech.

She had bought us Kamu and Maxim instant coffee, and told us to enjoy it.

That's it.

How anti-climatic.

That didn't stop all the teachers from applauding though.

And then she left, and I resumed working at my desk while the teachers mingled and chatted.

Recap of First Week Back At School

Grade 3 started on a good note. I'm teaching grades 3 and 4 with a new co-teacher this year, and she's super well-organized and well-prepared. We spent the first class doing introductions, instructions, classroom rules, and I did a mini-presentation on why we should learn English.

I tried to highlight on topics of interest to the students, and included pics of my friends and I with little bubble flags above our heads to show that despite multiculturalism, we can all communicate through common language or languages.

This year we had an increase in school enrollment, and there's four classes of third-graders instead of the usual three. As usual, there were kids in each class determined to show-off their English proficiency, no doubt acquired from English hagwons from the very first day to impress the English teacher.

I feel that due to it being my second year of teaching, it's much easier to gauge their English and interest levels. I've already seen some of the kids from afternoon classes all of last year to not feel like a total stranger to them, and I picked up enough Korea to translate single words so that they could understand almost 100% of what I'm saying.

I'm very fond of the fifth-graders this year, since they were my angels from last year. I'm a little nervous about them not enjoying this year of English classes as much though, since they have double the amount of classes and there would be less games. Not to mention, they're not with Miss Lee this year, but with Miss Kim, whose teaching style is extremely different. Not that she's strict or mean, She's a very kind teacher who just doesn't prepare any additional material in addition to the textbook, which makes lessons more about rote repetition.

I'm determined to push for games and fun activities though to keep up morale. I prepared the Mafia game for Wednesday's English class with my 5-3's, so hopefully it goes well.

My sixth-graders, predictably, varied from individual to individual. It sucks that I already implemented a stamp system with them. I only did it to bribe them into doing actual work, and they just care about trading in the stamps for candy and chocolate. I would much rather reward my other grades for being good than bribing the awful ones so that they would do work.

I don't really have another choice though. When they're bad, they're awful and don't do anything. Discipline varied from wonderful to non-existent on their homeroom teachers' part, and this year hopefully they won't be brats much. The group of really bad boys in 5-3 was separated into different classes this year thankfully, but it won't be long until they band and form new groups of badly behaved baboons...

I'm seeing my 4th-graders tomorrow, and while I love that they're lively, I'm hoping that my new co-teacher will be strict on them this year so that they're only loud during games and activities.

En garde!

Much Disappointment

So I bought my flight ticket for Vancouver around Christmas time, because

a) it was on sale
b) I was wholly optimistic that I would be able to take days off
c) I'm a giant dumbass for being so optimistic

So basically, I need 6 school days off.

And I got a firm no.

I don't even want to delve into it; it's depressing and irksome. I'm currently waiting for a callback from Air Korea to refund my ticket, with a penalty fee if I'm lucky enough to get a refund.
A part of me wants to be nonchalant, laid-back, and take this as a learning experience of what not to do in the future.
Another part of me wants to stay pissed off and upset at the fact that I'm missing Melissa's wedding, because they refuse to be flexible. This petty part of me wants to skip all future staff dinners, and be stony-faced all the time, but I have to remind myself that I'm a grown-up now, and how I conduct myself is a reflection of my upbringing.

I spent a year sucking up and not taking any sick days, but apparently it's not a two-way street.

I hate that I'm still so spoiled, self-indulgent, and irresponsible.

I'm mad at the whole situation, including myself.

While we're on the topic of life's disappointments, I went to Olive Young last night, and the Sailor Moon compacts were nowhere to be found. Boo-hoo.

Another thing, friends flaking out on after-school plans has become routine. You keep asking to do stuff together. Forget about vacation plans, you're so not coming to basketball.

S is for Sailor Moon and Spaghetti

I was inspired by Instagram users who cook and then post their culinary accomplishments. So I made this for last night's dinner.

The portion is actually huge; you just can't really tell from the slimming angle.

It was kind of salty, but I still ate it. Definitely shouldn't have sauteed that onion with a chicken bouillon cube.

Yesterday, we had sulbing with Carolyn before her flight back to Texas, and we did some last minute shopping in Seomyeon before she left for her grandparents' place. We went into Watsons, and I saw this.

I saw it, and then I saw the price tag (70 k won), and then I decided against it, and now I regret it, and I can't think about anything else, and I'm getting after school today. OMG OMG OMG OMG 

Actually, I can't remember exactly whether it was the star one or this one.

It doesn't even matter; I just want it.