Slightly better Tuesday

Today was slightly less awful than yesterday, but not by much. Things that made today better:

1) I was determined not to lose my cool. I stayed calm and smiled through a lot of crap today.

2) The spy wasn't there, so I didn't feel like I was being watched and judged the whole time. Normally I don't mind observed teaching, but it was a serious blow to my pride to be watched during my worst teaching failures to date!

3) I ended up sending the two main troublemakers (one boy and one girl) to my co-teacher. This was a pretty serious move, and had a few benefits: it got them out of my hair, told the rest of the class I was serious about involving Mr Beak, and maybe might make the kids in question a little better tomorrow. I don't hold my breath though - they are truly awful. Some of these kids are just so oblivious! Talk right over the top of me, interrupt lessons and activities to ask if we can watch Justin Beiber, they even physically fight sometimes. I've read that this is pretty common stuff. I feel like a total failure for not being able to deal with it! I tried a whole slew of behaviour management today - points systems, warning systems, clear punishments, on and on. I reduced the number of handouts to make the class more verbal and interactive, I made some of the activities more active so they weren't stuck at their desks, I had a 'naughty seat', I rearranged the room so they all faced forward, and more. Nothing worked. It was shitty.

I read yesterday that with a 'bad' class like this, you shouldn't try to tackle the whole class, just pick the main leaders, get them under control and the rest will follow. Well, I tried, I really did. Different kids just emerged as new pain-in-the-ass leaders. I tried to engage the really misbehaving kids in positive ways by giving them responsibility - like handing out sheets and stuff. They did it, and the resumed messing around.

So what do I do now? Endure the week until I get a new class next week? I guess so.

One nice thing was one lovely Korean teacher came up to me in the staffroom and told me that the girl I had sent out of class was in her home-room, and that the girl was always misbehaved, never studied, and was hard to deal with. She was trying to tell me it wasn't just me, and wasn't my fault. It was so, so nice of her to do that. and, honestly, a bit heartening.

Anyway, I ended up going to dinner with Jen, Courtney and Nayasha last night, which was great. I was a very nice end to a crap-tastic day :) Jen, Nayasha, and I are planning a trip to Busan this weekend, so we can go this kind of beach party thing for New Years. Yeah, in the middle of winter on the beach, but whatever :) And speaking of winter, I have taken to wearing two pairs of pants - it really works. As long as you have one pair of pants big enough to fit over the other. I'm considering buying some of the awesomely hideous snowflake and reindeer kintted leggings to wear underneath :)

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And to end on a good note: A big package from Brook was waiting outside my door when I got home! With a box of the best Chocolate in the World inside! Awesome!!

What a Monday

Ok, I know, long time no update :) Well, I will try to fix that!

Right, starting from Thursday. It was a great day! I taught the same lesson five times, and every time it worked like a dream! We were making 3D snowflakes to hang in the classroom. I had an example on to show the kids before we started, and every time they were like "Oh, teacher, that is too hard!", but by the end, everyone had made a snowflake :) The English component of the lessons was very light, which is why I think it worked so well. It didn't work well as an actual English lesson, only a a fun fill in time before Christmas lesson. Mr Beak said it was a great lesson, which leads me to question how great of a teacher he is. Sure, everyone participated, and everyone learned to make a craft project, but no one learned English. It was a crap lesson from that point of view. But it was fun, and now the classroom is pretty too :)

After school on Thursday I got off the bus really early and took a short and freezing walk by the Osan river. The I went to city hall to investigate rumours of an ice-skating rink, which turned out to be true! I am totally going skating one of these days. Then, in honour of it being really very cold, I had an ice cream in Baskin Robbins. I had Caramel Praline Cheesecake flavour, and it was delicious. Marscapone tasting ice cream with a caramel swirl and lumps of praline covered toasted walnut. Pretty great!

The Osan river

Friday was a long day. I only had one class to teach, as it was the last day of school. I just showed Mr Bean's Christmas, as I didn't hold out much hope for getting any actual work done. They did have to answer some questions after the episode, which went well. Then, Mr Beak made me move all my stuff into the teachers room for the afternoon. I'm not sure why, because normally I have to stay in the English classroom. It was a bit annoying because it meant I couldn't play my game! So, I tried to look busy for 6 hours. I managed to spend over an hour cutting out parts of an animal board game for winter camp (Which the thought of using now makes me want to jump off a bridge... see below and imagine that with heaps of small bits of paper they've been instructed not to lose). Then I did all my winter camp day 1 photocopying, and made a powerpoint game I have no intention of really using. Then I ran out of busy work and just read Alice in Wonderland on my computer for the last few hours. Finally it was home time!!

Now, Friday night was like a day all of its own. An awesome, day of epic awesomeness. I got together with Jen, Courtney and Nyasha at 10pm, and we got some snakcs from E-mart and then headed to Courtney's house to eat them. While trying to catch a taxi, it started to snow pretty hard, and it was pretty and cool! We ate and hung out at Courtney's place, and played a hilarious game of monopoly for a few hours. I guess monopoly isn't usually hilarious, but Jen is really hardcore and kept giving everyone (probably very good) advice, which everyone refused to take, and it was all just pretty funny. At some point someone looked out the window, and it was still snowing! I had snowed for maybe four hours, and was a good 4 inches deep! So, we did what any self-respecting 20-somthing yeard olds would do: went out and played in it like children. There was snow kicked, thrown, licked, and fallen in. It was the most snow I've ever seen (not counting on mountains), and I was really excited! There really was a lot of snow!

By this point it was about 3am, and we decided that it was still a good idea to go to norebang (private karaoke). We eventually found one (they are everywhere here. if you wanted long enough, you will find one), and spent a couple of hours singing our hearts out. Nayasha actually almost lost her voice :) I started to get pretty tired about 4am, but we kept singing, and left the norebang about 5am. A very slow taxi back home (the roads hadn't been cleared of snow yet) and I got to bed at about 5.30. I slept for about an hour and a half, then got up and had my Saturday!

All the snow hung around on Saturday and I went for a big walk in it, for about an hour. It started to melt though, and got all slushy and slipper, and my shoes and jeans got soaked. It was fun, though. The rest of the day I just napped, played to computer, and made a really nice pot of vegetable soup.

And then it was Sunday - Christmas! And the weirdest Christmas I've ever had :) I got up at 7am to Skype mum and dad, which was really nice. I had a good chat to both of them, and even a word to Matt. Then, I played the Sims 3 pets expansion, watched some TV, and had some cheese on toast (with real NZ vintage cheese which Courtney gave to me because she thought it was mouldy, but actually it just had those crystals in it that 'vintage' cheese gets that make it tastier... score for me!!). The Jen messaged me to say I should come round to her place to play some board games, so I hopped in a taxi and sped over to her place and spent a pretty funny afternoon/evening with her, Nayasha, and some of their co-workers playing an incredible long and complicated story board game called 'Arabian Nights', which I'm convinced it is actually all but impossible to win. We ate fried chicken and pizza and I had a great time :) Jen played Christmas carols in the background to make it seem more like Christmas, but it really didn't :-D

I left about 9pm so that I could get some sleep before starting to teach winter camp in the morning. I was excited about all the teaching I'd get to do and all the fun stuff I had planned. Joke's on me for that :(

Well, I had my first 'English Camp' class this morning. Four hours of English for kids who are used to 45 mins a day at the most was pretty intense for them. I assume it was anyway, since most of the class completely ignored me the majority of the time. The class was awful. I have never had a lesson go so badly. They wouldn't listen, they wouldn't respond, and they literally tore it to shreds.  Like, they scribbled and ripped up the handouts and work sheets. These are 13 and 14 year olds, and they acted like 5 year olds. I had such grand plans - I had a reward a discipline schedule all laid out, lessons planned out in detail, and they just destroyed everything. More than once I'd go up to a kid, be kneeling right in front of them to explain what they were supposed to be doing (because they weren't doing it) only to have them refuse to even look at me.

It was a disaster right from the ice-breakers. I was told I'd have a class of 12-14 students, so that's all the materials I prepared. Well, turns out it's actually a class of 20. Yeah, 20. So, ok, I improvise until I can copy some more sheets. Luckily, the first period I wanted them to make a poster to introduce themselves. I had all the language on the board, they just has to substitute words in the right places "I like ____", "I am ______", and so on. I wanted to put them up on the wall to make the classroom more 'student centred'. Well, the scribbled, ripped holes in the paper, wrote only in Korean, or did absolutely nothing. What got handed in at the end of the lesson was an embarrassment. I didn't know what to do! I ended up telling them it wasn't good enough, and they all had to do it again. It went a little better the second time around, but only just.

To make matters worse, the nice Korean lady, who I'm beginning to think is actually a spy, sat through a random selection of the four periods I was teaching. No one said anything about her being there, or what she was doing. She just sat at one of the tables and helped the student at that table.

All in all, the lessons totally sucked, and I never want to teach them again. But I have to for the next four days :( I really don't know what to do with them. Half of me wants to abandon my careful plan and teach them a random selection of lessons that mostly involve doing no work and playing games where they learning focus is really light. But then, I want to also see if perseverance will pay off. If I keep punishing them in the same way, will they realise that behaviour is unacceptable and stop? Or will they continue to have no respect and treat me like crap? I just don't know. I'm pretty unhappy right now though. Perhaps this afternoon is a good time to have the banana split I didn't have on Christmas :( I am so disappointed and frustrated I want to cry.

Note to self: No matter how tempting it seems, DO NOT TAKE A PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHING JOB EVER AGAIN. And maybe stick with adults.

Anywho, the principal bought everyone lunch at school, too. Which was nice of him. He skimped a bit though... it was fried rice with an egg, and a super spicy soup with one prawn in it. Better than nothing, though - and free food :)

*Sigh* I am over my little pity party now. This morning sucked donkey balls, though. I think I'll spend the afternoon researching ways of getting students to listen to me, without having to yell. I hate getting angry in class.. I feel like a pretty crappy, ineffective teacher today.

Also, I discovered after it was already too late that the American way of pronouncing 'zebra' (zee-bra) sounds an awful lot like the Korean word for 'shit' :( Fail, Sam.

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Ok, I'm home now, and am going out to a late dinner with 'the girls'. I did some reading into some classroom management techniques, and am now feeling much more positive about tomorrow :)

And, here's a selection of the kids' letters to Santa (some of them are sideways - has something to do with Blogger and Conon cameras - I can't fix it, sorry):

This girl went all out!

And on the inside too.

Worrying...

Traffic Jam Wednesday

Phew - so I was suck in the worst traffic jam I've ever been in this morning! It snowed lightly overnight, and I'm not sure if that was the cause, or what, but it was major. The bus trip to school usually takes between 30-40 minutes, but this morning, it took just under three hours. Yes, three hours. And I didn't have a seat, so I had to stand. At one point, they made us get off one bus and get on another one behind us, so there was two bus loads of passengers on the one bus. It was hot, cramped, and took forever. Needless to say, I was super late for work! However, Mr Beak got stuck in the same traffic and arrived at school just after me, so it didn't turn out to be a problem at all. That was one loooong bus ride, though :(

It has snowed a couple more times today, but the ground cover is minimal. It has made walking outside a bit of a slippery process though - but I really love the snow! As long as my bus get to work on time.

My 'write a letter to Santa' competition finished today, and I have maybe 9 letters from students... all very cute. I'll put some photos up. One girl wants Santa to help her become a police officer by giving her 'passion and tenacity' for Christmas, one girl would like makeup, another would like an i-pad and a new camera, while some of the others tell Santa he is handsome and that they love him. Because so few students wrote letters, I'm going to give them all prizes. I did a bit of shopping at Daiso (like the $1 shop) and got a whole lot of really cute stuff - stickers, note books, hair ties, etc (all the letter writers are girls), and all for a dollar each! I had a lot of fun picking all the stuff out. For myself I couldn't resist some black cotton buds... white cotton buds are so last year, and so un-sexy. How to make ear cleaning sexy? Make the cotton buds black! Wooo! Um, yeah.

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Oh, I just got given a ton more letters! I have about 26 now! And I want to give them all something... Oh no! I am totally turning into a 'give them all a prize just for showing up' teacher! But I know they worked on it when they didn't have to, and some of them are so sweet. One girl wants a warm jacket for Christmas, while another would like a 3D computer and the power to be invisible. I'm going to buy a big bag of sweets to give out, and give bigger prizes to the kids who really did well :)

Monday Madness

Wow, what a weekend!

I'll start at Thursday:

My work week ended really well! I got to do lots of teaching, and the students seemed to be really enjoying all the Christmas activities and games. We learned carols, made cards, and started to watch the Christmas TV specials I got for them. Friday was much the same, only all the lessons were pushed forward so school could end early because the students were having  some sort of rummage sale. It was pretty fun :) I got bullied into buying cookies and a plant! They all loved it!

Friday night saw me with the girls from Osan in the Big Chill bar in Suwon again. We went for dinner first at this buffet restaurant, where they had smoked salmon, which I ate a lot of.. If you're going to a buffet, you haven't paid to eat the salad! The night was a lot of fun, but I didn't get to be until 3.30am - and then I had to wake up at 6.30am to skype with mum! So, I did my whole Saturday on three hours of sleep :)

It started out well. Skyping mum is always great. We had a good chat, and then I left to catch the train to Seoul. It was another totally freezing day, but I wrapped up warm and braved it. I went into Hongdae first, for a stroll around and to have lunch at Taco Bell. It was yummy! Then I got a new ice cream flavour at BR. They have some special Christmas ones on, so I had 'Snow White' - vanilla ice cream with candy cane swirl, and mint choc-chips. It was so nice! By this time it was about 2pm, so I hopped back on the train to go check into the hostel I was staying at.

When I got there, it was in such an awesome location! Like 1 min from the subway, right in the middle of town - really good. BUT there was no one there. I figured that maybe they'd just gone for a long lunch, and would be back by 3pm, which is when I told them I'd be there. So, I went for a walk and came back at quarter to three. Still no one there. Just a sign saying to call them. Well, that's pretty dumb, because most travellers in Korea don't have a phone that works here! I figured they'd be along soon, so I'd just wait. Well, one hour in a freezing concrete lobby later, and no sign of anyone.... only a few other guests looking for the attendant too - none of whom had a phone. I was so cold, so I went and had a coffee in Starbucks to warm up, then came back at 4.15 and still nothing. So, I wrote a note to tell them I had been, and how long I'd waited, but that I had to go now.

So, I caught the train to Seoul City Hall to meet up with the ice skating group, only to get totally lost and not be able to find the meeting place. Finally, 15 minutes after the meet up time, I gave in to cold and exhaustion and just stopped looking. So, I had no ice skating, and no hostel! I had planned on getting to the hostel at 2pm, getting a couple of hours sleep and then going out again, but nothing had worked out! So, I gave up, and went somewhere I'd stayed before, had some quick street food for dinner, and went to bed!

Sunday went much better! I went to Gangnam for a look around before meeting Jen to go to Ballet. I went to a big Daiso store there and got a cute plant pot that looks like a teacup and saucer to put my new plant in. While I was waiting for the train to go to where Jen I were meeting, she found me by chance! So, that was cool :) We travelled the couple of stops to the Seoul Arts Centre, picked up our tickets and then found some lunch. We had Vietnamese noodles, and it was pretty nice :) Then we went and had a look around the Art Centre.

It was really big and impressive! Flash elevators and architecture, beautiful water fountains, and a big display of locally made crafts and art. Before the show a small brass band set up in the lobby and played some Christmas carols. It was nice.

Inside the theatre itself was just as nice. Good sized comfy chairs, and they had special big red cushions for the short children, so they could see. There was a live orchestra, and all the costumes, sets, and lighting were just amazing. I especially enjoyed the sets, they really made it magical. I enjoyed the ballet a lot, though I thought that they ended it a bit suddenly. I felt like they had tried to showcase the dancing over telling the story. All in all, though, I was really impressed. Jen and I caught the bus back to Osan, which was SO much faster than the train would have been, I grabbed some dinner and went to bed.

Now, Monday morning, and I feel like I have finally recovered from Friday! I'm wondering if super late nights are worth it when it takes me days to recover. The others are ok, they don't have to wake up to go to work until 1pm of so, but it's a bit different for me :) Anyway, there was some mention of possibly doing Norebang (Karaoke) this Friday, so if that goes ahead, it should be interesting!

And FYI: It was so cold walking to school from the bus this morning that up my nose was freezing when I breathed in. Weird feeling.

Finally bought a new jacket Wednesday

So, I've been wearing the same purple jacket for about three months now. I didn't bring another jumper with me, and have been too cheap to buy anything else. However, I wear it literally everyday, and I'm starting to feel a bit too cheap. So, I went to the market and got two new tops - one jacket and one long sleeved top. Guess how much I spent? $23. Not each, but both. They are super crappy quality, but they should see me through the work day (at least I hope so). I went kind of Korean in the styling too (though for those of you who know me, you'll probably be like 'Sam, that is so "you"' :-D). Also, those of you who know me will also know my purple jacket... poor thing is taking a real beating. Here some picture of my new tops, anyway:

Today's been pretty good work wise. Mr Beak still was a pain in the bum, taking over classes (even mistranslating in some cases), interrupting me in the middle of sentences, and so on. I got so frustrated at one point that I wanted to cry! But I got over it. Just breathe, right? Well, he got really involved in something he was doing on the computer for the last lesson of the day, and I got to go it totally alone - and it rocked! We learned 'Jingle Bells' and then played a game. They got sooooo into the game! It was a lot of fun :) Here's a picture of me with the winning team! I was TRYING to take a video of them saying "Merry Christmas New Zealand", but Mr Beak though he knew what was going on (despite me trying to explain) and took a photo instead. Then acted all surprised when I said about video... I'd just finished telling the whole class video! Breathe...

And I'm going to Jen's house for dinner tonight, so that'll be nice :).

Fine wool and horns Tuesday

Well, I have actually had some teaching time today!

It started off poorly, but better than yesterday, with me getting two lots of half an hour with both 3rd grade classes. This meant that I was actually able to do my power-point and two of the vocab exercises (but not the game). My relationship with Mr Beak is so... I don't know. On the one hand he infuriates me! Like, he will walk in to the class over five minutes late, and I've started without him, but he walks in and interrupts with his own stuff. Like, excuse me, but you're late and I'm teaching here! Or, the students were taking forever to go to their seats, so I started counting backwards from 5. This actually got everyone moving nicely and by '2' the students were all almost down. So, by '0' I've got them all seated and am about to start, when he takes over and spends 2 minutes speaking in Korean and rearranging their seating positions. Um, I've just taken (albeit slight) disciplinary measures to get them all seated, and you are now disrupting my class with getting them moved again. Grrr!

But then, on the other hand, he is endlessly helpful. He backs me up without question in my lessons. Like, he very quickly will translate what I'm saying into Korean if the kids aren't getting it. This is a bit annoying as it doesn't help me improve as a teacher, or help them improve at listening to spoken English instructions, but it IS very kind of him to help. He also delivered my Korean to English dictionaries this morning. And seriously, I only mentioned that I'd like some once! And he ordered me a whole lot for the English room. So, I find him a very annoying, confusing person, but also feel guilty because he is so helpful. He also nearly always tells me about schedule changes before they happen, which is more that I've heard about some other co-teachers. Ah well, like Dad says: you can't have fine wool without horns. I can't have information without annoyance.

Ok, so other than that, my second two lessons were awesome! I got to teach the whole time

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I taught them about Santa and introduced a letter writing competition where they have to write a letter to Santa and give it to me in about a week, and then I'll judge them and the awesome ones will get prizes :) I hope at least a few actually hand in a letter. I'm going to feel a bit lame if they all just ignore me. Haha, when I was talking about Santa, they told me Santa brings presents to kind children. I asked what he does for bad children, and in nearly every class one of the boys has suggested that Santa beats up bad kids! I hate to think where that's coming from :s One kid also told me that Santa lives in 'Santa's Kingdom' which is possibly in Thailand (?!). Not sure where that came from either.

I taught two classes on 2nd graders the EXACT same lesson today, and the classes were soooo different. I can do the lessons almost word for word, so the difference has to be the students. In one class they were interested and engaged, funny, and answered my questions with enthusiasm. I read out this kids Christmas  letter, and they found it really funny.

The other class? Nothing. Zip. Zero. Silence. I waited, I prompted, I talked, I stayed quiet... the only thing I could get answers to were closed or one word answer questions. They seemed completely unable to think on their own. It was a weird contrast. But, I got through it :)

And now it's an hour till home time!

Slightly miffed Monday

Phew, so today was supposed to be the beginning of my Christmas lessons, and I guess it was. However, Mr Beak failed to tell me that he was going to take up over half of each lesson himself with administration stuff. 

I should have heard the alarm bells when I came in this morning and told him I needed to do some photocopying for class. He said "Oh, no, no, no...". Not like 'no, you can't', but like 'no, you don't need to do that, it's unnecessary'. I just looked confused and told him it was for class, so he went and got it copied. He refuses to let me know how to get the office ladies to do mass amounts of class copying. It's annoying, because it means I have to bother him EVERY time. Like, you can give a starving kid a fish and it'll feed him for a day, but teach him how to fish.... Well, it's the same with photocopying, right? Yeah, it's nice of you to do it for me, but if you'd show me how, I could do it without bugging you. But, perhaps he wants to oversee my copying? I don't know. He probably doesn't even consider that there are more efficient ways of doing ANYTHING. It sure seems that way :)

Anywho, the copying did get done. But then, my first class rolls around and he says he needs 20 minutes of it... which turned into 35 minutes. So, I got 10 minutes. This is incredibly unprofessional and annoying. I had prepared a full 45min lesson including vocabulary presentation, two practice games, and then a review competition. I only had time for the presentation in the first class. He took up the whole of the second class, so I didn't get to teach at all. Then, he gave me the first 20 minutes of the last two classes, again, only time for the presentation. *Sigh*. There is absolutely no point in me every trying to plan lessons that follow some kind of building block structure in this school, as I'd never get past the first base level. They cancel my classes, give 10 or 20 minutes when I have 45 planned. During one of my lessons today, Mr Beak actually stopped me from doing a planned activity so he could talk some more himself. So, all that photocopying he did has no been used at all. I am working hard at going with the flow, but it is seriously disrespectful to my teaching and really unprofessional. I don't want to sound all up on my high-horse... but I know I can do better.

And speaking of doing better, I am hopeful that nothing will destroy my winter camp classes. After going to the TESOL conference two weekends ago I have been thinking about how I can consciously work towards growing as a teacher. All the things to do and areas for improvement are seriously overwhelming, so I figured that just focusing in on one area at a time is the way to go. My area for winter camp is behaviour management (yeah, a big 'little focus'!). I want to work on some simple methods for motivating students to behave well and do their work. Some things I plan on doing are:

- Have a clear set of rules for the class that we will go over before the course starts.

- Have clear consequences for breaking these rules.

- Have a reward system for doing well.

- Have a simple, effective routine to get students attention (mine is a clap + response type thing).

I've written these up as a set of guidelines that I'll go over with the students and also put on the wall of the class throughout camp. I've also made a cute chart for their stamps to go on, and hopefully this encourages some participation. 

They get different treats to eat while watching the end of camp movie depending on how many stamps they get. 4 stamps = a lollipop, 5 = a small chocolate bar, 6 = lollipop and chocolate, while 7-8 = a doughnut. I'm sure that making the prizes food is setting them up for uncontrollable weight-gain in the future (you know, seeing food as a reward is reportedly a bad thing), but what the heck. Who doesn't want a doughnut while watching a movie??

And that is all for today :) Only one hour till home time.