Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sniffing...
The things kids do are strange - if you've been reading my blog, you probably have gathered that! Anyways, in the past week, I have had two kids sniff me. One kid was walking around me running his nose all over my back and arms (yeah kinda gross, I know) and today one little girl wouldn't stop sniffing my arm. Other teachers have told me they've had kids do this as well. I wonder why they do it? It's not a bad smell thing (I think??) - I wonder if they just do it to foreign teachers, because they're curious about us? One of my classes that I teach - I'm the only foreign teacher they've ever had - today the boys were full on trying to lift up my shirt. I had to make them put their hands up and apologise to me for it... It's a strange line to walk with kids, because you want to let them know that certain behaviour isn't okay - but on the other hand, they don't mean anything malicious by it - they're just curious!
Monday, March 26, 2007
Magic Weapon
I have been in Korea now teaching for over 4 months (WHAT?! where does time go!)... And far from being an expert teacher, I have learned tricks - had bad classes and good, and discovered many ways of filling those extra 10 or 15 (or 30 - hahaha) extra minutes at the end of the class...
Lately I have discovered a new magic weapon. My super-duper interesting life ;) I have a little book of photographs from home - some from when I was younger, some of my house, some of my family, some of different places in Canada, and some of me playing rugby and baseball. I whip that out when I run out of things to do.. "Want to see teacher playing baseball? Want to see teacher's cat?"
In one of my afternoon classes I have all the smart kids that I taught in kindergarten until they graduated a month ago. Anyways the last few classes I've found myself off on some WILD tangents from the material we're supposed to be studying (which sucks anyways, so I don't feel bad). Like talking about the diets of elephant seals and sea lions. Or today, talking about all the different kinds of rays I've seen scuba diving and the different types of sharks - and the ones I've swam with. The other day, the kids sat silently as I regailed them with tails of how my brother and I used to play "car crash" in the living room - sitting across the carpet from one another, smashing toy cars into each other - the kids even had me draw the toy cars we'd play with on the board. (What?!)
I've promised this class I'll bring them pictures of my trip to the Galapagos as well to show them. So anyways, this is my new magic weapon. I figure it is interesting to them because it is so far removed from their lives. I don't know - but anyways, keeps me... and them occupied!
Lately I have discovered a new magic weapon. My super-duper interesting life ;) I have a little book of photographs from home - some from when I was younger, some of my house, some of my family, some of different places in Canada, and some of me playing rugby and baseball. I whip that out when I run out of things to do.. "Want to see teacher playing baseball? Want to see teacher's cat?"
In one of my afternoon classes I have all the smart kids that I taught in kindergarten until they graduated a month ago. Anyways the last few classes I've found myself off on some WILD tangents from the material we're supposed to be studying (which sucks anyways, so I don't feel bad). Like talking about the diets of elephant seals and sea lions. Or today, talking about all the different kinds of rays I've seen scuba diving and the different types of sharks - and the ones I've swam with. The other day, the kids sat silently as I regailed them with tails of how my brother and I used to play "car crash" in the living room - sitting across the carpet from one another, smashing toy cars into each other - the kids even had me draw the toy cars we'd play with on the board. (What?!)
I've promised this class I'll bring them pictures of my trip to the Galapagos as well to show them. So anyways, this is my new magic weapon. I figure it is interesting to them because it is so far removed from their lives. I don't know - but anyways, keeps me... and them occupied!
Phone Teaching
Part of my contract is that I have to phone teach once a month. This means phoning each of the kids in any class I have above a certain level and asking them simple questions for about 3-5 minutes, just as a way to show the parents that their kids can actually speak in English on the phone.
Anyways, most of the kids dread it - most are way quieter on the phone then they are in class - and I struggle to fill 3 minutes talking to them. I had one girl to call today and I was really worried about talking to her on the phone - in class she is very quiet and I get the impression that out of my class of 10 kids, she never really knows what's going on. So in class today, she is looking at me and saying, with a big smile, "Teacher, you me tonight." Finally I figured out she was reminding me to call her tonight...
So after the day of teaching, I pick up the phone to call her. Usually I have a list of several questions to ask the kids, then I say good bye and hang up.. So Ruth gets on the phone. I'm about to ask her some questions, and she says, "Teacher, how old are you?" Then she cycles through my family -"Teacher have brother? How old? How old is your father?" Etc. Etc.
Then she is asking me if I like pizza.. and hamburgers.. then she asks me if my brother likes hamburgers. And I tell her he'd eat hamburgers for every meal if he could. And she says, "Me too!" Then she asks me if I like apples. Then potatoes.
At this point, I'm ready to go - I've been on the phone for the requisite 5 minutes and beyond - so I tell her that that's all the questions I have for her and I have to go. She says "No. Now speak Korean!" So I ask her what she wants to hear - (hajima - stop it). So I oblige, and I say, "Goodnight Ruth - I have to go call some other children now." And she keeps saying no, no matter what I say!! At this point, all the other teachers in the staff room are in stitches as I try and get off the phone with this girl!!
Finally I end up hanging up on her! I can't believe I had to hang up on a student, I feel quite bad - I think she'll take it in good humour, right?? But MAN I just couldn't get her off the phone! It turned into about a 10 minute long conversation... But it was quite funny!!
Anyways, most of the kids dread it - most are way quieter on the phone then they are in class - and I struggle to fill 3 minutes talking to them. I had one girl to call today and I was really worried about talking to her on the phone - in class she is very quiet and I get the impression that out of my class of 10 kids, she never really knows what's going on. So in class today, she is looking at me and saying, with a big smile, "Teacher, you me tonight." Finally I figured out she was reminding me to call her tonight...
So after the day of teaching, I pick up the phone to call her. Usually I have a list of several questions to ask the kids, then I say good bye and hang up.. So Ruth gets on the phone. I'm about to ask her some questions, and she says, "Teacher, how old are you?" Then she cycles through my family -"Teacher have brother? How old? How old is your father?" Etc. Etc.
Then she is asking me if I like pizza.. and hamburgers.. then she asks me if my brother likes hamburgers. And I tell her he'd eat hamburgers for every meal if he could. And she says, "Me too!" Then she asks me if I like apples. Then potatoes.
At this point, I'm ready to go - I've been on the phone for the requisite 5 minutes and beyond - so I tell her that that's all the questions I have for her and I have to go. She says "No. Now speak Korean!" So I ask her what she wants to hear - (hajima - stop it). So I oblige, and I say, "Goodnight Ruth - I have to go call some other children now." And she keeps saying no, no matter what I say!! At this point, all the other teachers in the staff room are in stitches as I try and get off the phone with this girl!!
Finally I end up hanging up on her! I can't believe I had to hang up on a student, I feel quite bad - I think she'll take it in good humour, right?? But MAN I just couldn't get her off the phone! It turned into about a 10 minute long conversation... But it was quite funny!!
Monday, March 19, 2007
How Can I Ever Trust Girls?
So I walk into class one day last week, and one of the little boys had crumpled up the syllabus his Korean teacher gave him into a ball. I go, "Kyle, Annie Teacher worked very hard on that. How do you think she would feel if she saw what you had done?" And he gets all sad and tries to tell me that the girls somehow tricked him into doing it. So I give the classic line, "You've got a mind of your own. Would you do anything just because the girls in class told you to do it?"
Halfway through my lesson, Kyle, who's had his head down for most of it, sits up and leans over to the little boy next to him. "Robert, how will I ever trust girls again?" He asks. Hahahahaha... sometimes I can't even believe the stuff that comes out of this little guy's mouth!
Halfway through my lesson, Kyle, who's had his head down for most of it, sits up and leans over to the little boy next to him. "Robert, how will I ever trust girls again?" He asks. Hahahahaha... sometimes I can't even believe the stuff that comes out of this little guy's mouth!
Thursday, March 15, 2007
A Reminder...
Today the air raid sirens went off. Just a reminder, I guess, that Korea is still technically in a war. And then from time to time I see convoys of military trucks with Korean soldiers decked out in combat gear with weapons. It's so weird - to be in one of the more developed and nicer of Asian nations, but this is the reality.
A friend at school was telling me he was here during the time when North Korea was setting off their missiles. Anyways he said that the day North Korea detonated their bomb, there were about 3 air raid sirens, and that the atmosphere was really quiet and tense. Even on the streets...
And the other thing is that life just goes on... people keep on living. In my afternoon kindy class, I asked them if they heard the sirens, then I asked them what they were. One kid suggested a fire truck. Then I asked if it was a practice for when the planes (I mimed out some war planes firing bombs) came. And a few of the girls said, "Yes! That's it."
Even the little kids know... I wonder what it would be like to grow up in that... not that it's super prevalent - as growing up in somewhere like Iraq or Afghanistan must be... but it's definitely built into the national psyche, I think...
A friend at school was telling me he was here during the time when North Korea was setting off their missiles. Anyways he said that the day North Korea detonated their bomb, there were about 3 air raid sirens, and that the atmosphere was really quiet and tense. Even on the streets...
And the other thing is that life just goes on... people keep on living. In my afternoon kindy class, I asked them if they heard the sirens, then I asked them what they were. One kid suggested a fire truck. Then I asked if it was a practice for when the planes (I mimed out some war planes firing bombs) came. And a few of the girls said, "Yes! That's it."
Even the little kids know... I wonder what it would be like to grow up in that... not that it's super prevalent - as growing up in somewhere like Iraq or Afghanistan must be... but it's definitely built into the national psyche, I think...
45 Minutes in the Life
Disclaimer: Before reading this, wanted to let you know that I only teach 1-3 year old class so for the most part, class does NOT go like this....
So the bell rings to start class. I dawdle a little in the teachers room but eventually muster up the strength to go into deer class. When I walk in, three of the kids have climbed way up onto a ledge by the window. I frantically yell "No!" as I run in and pick them all up and off the ledge (about 5 feet off the ground). One little boy scratches me as I lift him up. When I set him down, he wraps his arms around my leg and bites.
Finally I calm the kids down, and then two of them run out of the classroom. When I eventually get them all back in, I get them all settled down colouring for a bit. Things seem to be looking up. After a while, they start to lose interest in colouring so I get up and attempt to engage them in an actions song but the kids are only half paying attention. I hear a noise and I look over and one boy is half on the table. I firmly tell him "No." and put him back in his chair. A moment later, he is standing on the table and has kicked everything off onto the floor.
I pick him up and say, "Michael, NO! Stop it!!" (In Korean) and he is kicking me and scratching and whatnot, so I remove him to the corner of the room. I put a little chair and try and get him to sit. He's screaming and throws the chair over across the room - pretty strong for a 3 year old. Then he starts to scream, "YA YA YA" over and over (I think it means something along the lines of hey you! And one of the little girls starts screaming it back at him, taunting.
So I'm yelling trying to get everyone to quiet down, and then Michael starts to scream at the top of his lungs. Meanwhile I'm running around trying to clean everything up.... Finally everyone calms down and I give out stickers and Michael seems all sad and worn out. I know kids need to break down once in a while... but man is it stressful!! So I give him a few stickers, and everything seems all good.
By the end of the class I get the kids smiling and laughing again, until Michael grabs my leg again and bites.. and the little girl thinks it looks cool so she does the same.
Finally after what seems like 14 hours of heavy warfare, the dismissal bell rings and I run out like a bat out of hell...
So the bell rings to start class. I dawdle a little in the teachers room but eventually muster up the strength to go into deer class. When I walk in, three of the kids have climbed way up onto a ledge by the window. I frantically yell "No!" as I run in and pick them all up and off the ledge (about 5 feet off the ground). One little boy scratches me as I lift him up. When I set him down, he wraps his arms around my leg and bites.
Finally I calm the kids down, and then two of them run out of the classroom. When I eventually get them all back in, I get them all settled down colouring for a bit. Things seem to be looking up. After a while, they start to lose interest in colouring so I get up and attempt to engage them in an actions song but the kids are only half paying attention. I hear a noise and I look over and one boy is half on the table. I firmly tell him "No." and put him back in his chair. A moment later, he is standing on the table and has kicked everything off onto the floor.
I pick him up and say, "Michael, NO! Stop it!!" (In Korean) and he is kicking me and scratching and whatnot, so I remove him to the corner of the room. I put a little chair and try and get him to sit. He's screaming and throws the chair over across the room - pretty strong for a 3 year old. Then he starts to scream, "YA YA YA" over and over (I think it means something along the lines of hey you! And one of the little girls starts screaming it back at him, taunting.
So I'm yelling trying to get everyone to quiet down, and then Michael starts to scream at the top of his lungs. Meanwhile I'm running around trying to clean everything up.... Finally everyone calms down and I give out stickers and Michael seems all sad and worn out. I know kids need to break down once in a while... but man is it stressful!! So I give him a few stickers, and everything seems all good.
By the end of the class I get the kids smiling and laughing again, until Michael grabs my leg again and bites.. and the little girl thinks it looks cool so she does the same.
Finally after what seems like 14 hours of heavy warfare, the dismissal bell rings and I run out like a bat out of hell...
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
I'm a Rockstar!
It's funny - while I'm teaching the little kids, I can tell they like me... more or less... at least I think they do? But as soon as I stop teaching them, I become like a rockstar! I walk through the halls when class has been let out and I have kids screaming my name... Kids that rarely said two words to me in class now come running when I pass, hold my hand, give me hugs, give me candy and treats as I go by!
There's one little girl - she was my youngest student before the class switch-up, she's so tiny! Anyways, she was one that would cry and cry for the first few classes... then eventually I got her to be okay with the classroom setting... But I still never heard so much as a few words out of her... Now I see her during the breaks and she's all talk! Smiling, and saying things to me! It's so weird to see this big change in her!
These other kids, I taught for about a month when I first arrived. I see them now in the halls and the amount they like me seems to grow exponentially as the time I actually taught them gets further and further away! At first they would shyly wave at me in the halls. Now it's been about 2 or 3 months since I taught them, and I'm getting hugs and my name yelled three or four times when I pass by.
It's nice to be appreciated ;)
There's one little girl - she was my youngest student before the class switch-up, she's so tiny! Anyways, she was one that would cry and cry for the first few classes... then eventually I got her to be okay with the classroom setting... But I still never heard so much as a few words out of her... Now I see her during the breaks and she's all talk! Smiling, and saying things to me! It's so weird to see this big change in her!
These other kids, I taught for about a month when I first arrived. I see them now in the halls and the amount they like me seems to grow exponentially as the time I actually taught them gets further and further away! At first they would shyly wave at me in the halls. Now it's been about 2 or 3 months since I taught them, and I'm getting hugs and my name yelled three or four times when I pass by.
It's nice to be appreciated ;)
Deer Class Continued...
If you read my previous post, you'll read about "Deer Class," my class of kids that are around 3 years old. Thankfully, my attacker was moved to another class - he's either older or younger than the other kids, I'm not sure!
Anyways, earlier in the day, I make a friendly wager with the other foreigner that teachers this class. He guesses that it will only take 3 minutes before the kids start to cry, I guess 6 minutes. It takes 2...
So I walk into class and before the other teacher leaves (she's Korean and very good with the little kids), two kids start bawling... One runs out and the other stays but is sobbing and pushing me away. After a little while, the president of the school brings the little guy back and I sit with the crying girl. I draw her a happy face and colour it green. I can see she's getting interested, so I draw here a cat and an orange sun. After this, she decides she is interested too so she stops crying and starts to colour with me.
The little boy keeps being brought in by the president or Korean teachers but keeps running out as soon as they leave. At one point, he comes back by himself and I see his eye peering in through a crack in the door. When he catches sight of me, the door slowly closes... And this is the last I see of him until he opens the door and one of the other little boys roars at him like a dinosaur... and he didn't come back!!
I got a good tip from a friend who reminded me just how young these kids are... I can't really be expected to teach them, can I? I mean at this age, they learn by osmosis! They already started repeating some words after me, and understood if I asked them questions like "Do you like dogs?" or "Do you like green?"
After, we played on the play mat with some toys - which of course caused a big problem when the two little boys wouldn't share - And when one wouldn't give back the toys at the end of class. I solved that by giving the good little kids stickers for giving back the toys, so eventually he did as well.
I think I am learning just as fast as the kids! Steep learning curve!!
Anyways, earlier in the day, I make a friendly wager with the other foreigner that teachers this class. He guesses that it will only take 3 minutes before the kids start to cry, I guess 6 minutes. It takes 2...
So I walk into class and before the other teacher leaves (she's Korean and very good with the little kids), two kids start bawling... One runs out and the other stays but is sobbing and pushing me away. After a little while, the president of the school brings the little guy back and I sit with the crying girl. I draw her a happy face and colour it green. I can see she's getting interested, so I draw here a cat and an orange sun. After this, she decides she is interested too so she stops crying and starts to colour with me.
The little boy keeps being brought in by the president or Korean teachers but keeps running out as soon as they leave. At one point, he comes back by himself and I see his eye peering in through a crack in the door. When he catches sight of me, the door slowly closes... And this is the last I see of him until he opens the door and one of the other little boys roars at him like a dinosaur... and he didn't come back!!
I got a good tip from a friend who reminded me just how young these kids are... I can't really be expected to teach them, can I? I mean at this age, they learn by osmosis! They already started repeating some words after me, and understood if I asked them questions like "Do you like dogs?" or "Do you like green?"
After, we played on the play mat with some toys - which of course caused a big problem when the two little boys wouldn't share - And when one wouldn't give back the toys at the end of class. I solved that by giving the good little kids stickers for giving back the toys, so eventually he did as well.
I think I am learning just as fast as the kids! Steep learning curve!!
Monday, March 5, 2007
Little Kids: 1, Hilary Teacher: 0
This week for Korean kids is the first week of the new school year. For me, this means that all the classes got restructured, a bunch of kids graduated and we got a bunch of new kids. Today at work it was semi-chaos with new kids showing up, classrooms being double booked, kids not knowing where to go, and a bunch of kids who have never been in a school environment before (oh and two brand new classes of Korean age 5 year old kids - that means they are most likely 3 years old!)... Anyways you can guess how "awesome" my day was - to make matters worse, one of the other teachers got into a fight with the head teacher so went home... extending my day by about an hour... so teaching from 9:30-7 pm with no breaks (aside from the 5 minutes between class, and the 15 minutes times two in the afternoon).. and because it was so chaotic, those breaks in between classes were basically non-existent...
After lunch, for 45 minutes I teach Deer class. It's the afore-mentioned brand new class of kids that are about 3 years old. So I get into class, and one kid is bawling. He runs out of class, all the other kids run out after him, so the president of the school has to escort them all back in. One little boy sits beside me and glares at me angrily out of the corners of his eyes. Then he starts to hit me, so I try to be nice but stern and tell him to stop. During all this, about every 5 or 10 minutes, some kids get up and run out of the room. The crier comes back in but quickly breaks down into tears again, leaving class, after which about 2 other kids leave class too. Including glary-mcpunch, who leaves class. When I try to stop him he starts to physically fight with me to open the door. At this point, I let him go because I don't want to have a fight with a 3 year old on his first day of school, besides I don't speak Korean and have no idea what's going on. This carries on in a loop for the rest of class.... I have no idea what to do! So stressful.. one of the longest and worst 45 minutes of my life! Who knew that it would be so hard!!
After lunch, for 45 minutes I teach Deer class. It's the afore-mentioned brand new class of kids that are about 3 years old. So I get into class, and one kid is bawling. He runs out of class, all the other kids run out after him, so the president of the school has to escort them all back in. One little boy sits beside me and glares at me angrily out of the corners of his eyes. Then he starts to hit me, so I try to be nice but stern and tell him to stop. During all this, about every 5 or 10 minutes, some kids get up and run out of the room. The crier comes back in but quickly breaks down into tears again, leaving class, after which about 2 other kids leave class too. Including glary-mcpunch, who leaves class. When I try to stop him he starts to physically fight with me to open the door. At this point, I let him go because I don't want to have a fight with a 3 year old on his first day of school, besides I don't speak Korean and have no idea what's going on. This carries on in a loop for the rest of class.... I have no idea what to do! So stressful.. one of the longest and worst 45 minutes of my life! Who knew that it would be so hard!!
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