My first week of school.

My first week of school.

After much classroom observation, I was ready for my classes to start. Because of the holiday weekend our week was only going to be three days long, which I was grateful for.  Starting day one I met my kindergarteners. They walked into my room looking very scared and confused.  They all had their backpacks, coats, and shoes on so I had to show them where to hang their coats and where to put their shoes and backpacks. They didn’t understand me so I had to take my own coat off and show them. I had to hang most of their coats because they couldn’t figure out how to work the hanger. I also had to take off some of their coats. Those zippers and buttons are tricky when you’re six years old. We went through the day’s lesson very, very, very slowly. I think I’m going to struggle with this class. It is soooo hard to get anything across. And even if they do respond the way I want, I have no way of knowing if they know what they just said. Example: We have learned “What is your name?” and the response “My name is _______.” We also learned “How old are you?” and response “I am _____ years old.” The kids know the responses, but I don’t think they know what they mean. When I asked Monica how old she was, she said her name was Monica. 

On Thursday we had "science." We made balloon propelled trucks. It was fun until the kids started getting frustrated that their straws wouldn't fit in the truck. I pretty much had to make most of them for the kids. 

The second half of the day flies by. I love it. I have kinder’s in the morning, and then I have first graders. These kids were kindergarteners last week. They have had a year of English under their belt so it is like night and day communicating with them. It is soooo much easier when the kids understand me. They understand most of what I say. My next classes are second or third graders, depending on the day of the week. One of my classes on T/TH is actually pretty old, 10 I think. They speak English better than I do! We were talking about idioms and going over some pretty tough vocabulary.

In my MWF 4:00pm class I have a very stinky kid. He is definitely poor compared to the other kids. He looks dirty and his clothes are pretty nasty. I can’t describe the smell. I had to open a window and turn on a fan. The kids complained it was cold, but I couldn’t close the window or else I would puke!

By Friday I kiiind of felt like I had a grasp of things. It really isn’t that difficult of a job. The kindergarteners will be a struggle for me, at least for a few months, until they learn enough so I don’t have to do charades every time I say something. The older kids are fun to teach for the most part and like I said, the day goes by pretty fast with them. We’ll see how this full week goes. I was so incredibly exhausted by the end of classes on Friday. 

After work five of us went to Jukjeon to a place called Gecko’s for a burger and a beer. The burger was amazing. Gecko’s is a chain restaurant and is very western. After dinner we went to Steve’s apartment, which is freaking massive compared to the little hole I live in.  All the teachers eventually showed up there. It was fun having everyone together since it seems like people are always off doing their own thing. I called it a night at 1:30am but most of the others went to noreabong (noreabong is a private karaoke room that a group of people can rent out. Norea = sing, bong = room) until god knows when.  

Sorry if this post is short and not very coherent. I am extremely tired. I had a long day yesterday that I will share in my next blog.