all day the one thought that continued to run through my head was that it is only tuesday. for some reason i felt like it was at least wednesday... but no... my first five class day of the week and it went on forever.
my first two classes of the day were great - well-behaved, attentive, and smart. i had third period off and went for a little walk. fourth class was pretty bad. they kept pretending like they didn't know anything - i don't know if they just don't understand me, or if they just really don't know the answers, but we're doing some pretty basic stuff that other classes already had a great handle on. anyway, it wasn't the best... but it wasn't the worst.
my lunch break was destroyed by a "meeting" of some group that i'm a member of just because of where i sit in the office. of course, no one speaks english, so the conversation was lost on me for over an hour. not to mention that i couldn't eat most of what was available at the restaurant. i managed to eat some fish and brocolli and a little soup, but when the main part of the meal is rice, i'm screwed. it did nothing to put in a good mood. i've taken to going for a twenty minute walk at lunch as well, it gets my blood flowing, gives me some time away from all the korean and the kids - but today there was no walk - which put me in an even worse mood. we got back to school four minutes before class started - not even enough time to check email, let alone gain some composure - and i still had two classes to go.
i have made it very clear to all of my classes that they have to be in their teams and ready to go when i arrive. since i go to each class, they have plenty of time to get ready for me, but of course they weren't. no skin off my back, right? they'll just lose a sticker. but i expect them to at least settle down once i arrive. but no. they just kept on acting like the crazy little monsters they are. my korean "co-teacher" didn't do anything to make matters better. she did nothing, actually. i have specific instructions from the doctor to use my voice as little as possible... yet, i had already taught three classes that day. i wasn't feeling great. she was still under the impression that i just have a "sore" throat and not a serious throat infection. anyway, she didn't do anything to calm the class down and i had to take control.
one girl wouldn't stop chatting with her friend so i sent her to the back of class to stand with her hands in the air. that didn't deter any of them. i asked them a simple question - "what are the days of the week?" they are in first grade middle school - this is easy stuff that they learned a long time ago - we were doing a refresher. but not a single one of them answered. they just kept on chatting with eachother in kroean and fooling around. so i stopped the lesson. i told them if they didn't want to learn, then we could do something else - and then had the entire class raise their hands above their heads. a few minutes later i asked them what they liked better... learning english or being punished. of course they said learning, so we continued the lesson (hands down). i re-asked them for the days of the week and got all the answers in seconds... so what was wrong the first time around? anyway, i eventually had to make one of the teams stand up and raise their hands - about ten minutes to the end of class. and they stayed that way til the end. i need them to know that i'm serious and they need to give me the respect that they would their korean teachers... this is an on-going theme, is it not?
anyway, it was a really bad class, my throat was killing me, but sixth period made up for it. i was still with the same co-teacher, but now she was mad at me because i punished the previous class! WTF??? anyway, sixth went really well, then my co-teacher (not the good one) says, "we need to have a meeting about that class."
so what does she tell me? that she thinks i shouldn't punish them at all and that i was wrong and she's very angry about it. well, what does she expect, i say. she's the one who is supposed to be dealing out the punishments and keeping them in line... so where was she when i needed her? not to mention that i shouldn't even be speaking and that i didn't get a lunch break, and that i always do everything for all the classes, when i'm supposed to be assisting... not creating lesson plans and doing it all on my own. she was speechless - almost - finally after ten minutes of her trying to make me feel bad for punishing the rotten buggers, she decides to try and make me feel bad about being sick and her going to class without me yesterday! will it NEVER end with that? like i'm making myself sick on purpose. what does she think i am a middle school student? so then i get pissed and tell her that there is no way i'm having this conversation with her, that i don't need to justify my illness to her and that if she felt so rotten yesterday then why did she insist that i stay behind and rest. i offered several times yesterday to go to class anyway, and she always said no... don't come back a day later and try to make me feel bad about it. argh! anyway, sorry this is such a rant... i just really need to vent somewhere, and where better than here?
i just hope she gets over it and doesn't give me any more trouble... i teach more than half my classes with her... but i've been at the school longer than her, and she doesn't know me at all. she hasn't even tried to get to know me. hasn't asked me a single question about myself or anything... so who's really got the problem? i think she just doesn't like me cause i speak english and hers sucks and i make her realize that... anyway, will update with more as it becomes available... probably tomorrow... for now, have a great tuesday...
my first two classes of the day were great - well-behaved, attentive, and smart. i had third period off and went for a little walk. fourth class was pretty bad. they kept pretending like they didn't know anything - i don't know if they just don't understand me, or if they just really don't know the answers, but we're doing some pretty basic stuff that other classes already had a great handle on. anyway, it wasn't the best... but it wasn't the worst.
my lunch break was destroyed by a "meeting" of some group that i'm a member of just because of where i sit in the office. of course, no one speaks english, so the conversation was lost on me for over an hour. not to mention that i couldn't eat most of what was available at the restaurant. i managed to eat some fish and brocolli and a little soup, but when the main part of the meal is rice, i'm screwed. it did nothing to put in a good mood. i've taken to going for a twenty minute walk at lunch as well, it gets my blood flowing, gives me some time away from all the korean and the kids - but today there was no walk - which put me in an even worse mood. we got back to school four minutes before class started - not even enough time to check email, let alone gain some composure - and i still had two classes to go.
i have made it very clear to all of my classes that they have to be in their teams and ready to go when i arrive. since i go to each class, they have plenty of time to get ready for me, but of course they weren't. no skin off my back, right? they'll just lose a sticker. but i expect them to at least settle down once i arrive. but no. they just kept on acting like the crazy little monsters they are. my korean "co-teacher" didn't do anything to make matters better. she did nothing, actually. i have specific instructions from the doctor to use my voice as little as possible... yet, i had already taught three classes that day. i wasn't feeling great. she was still under the impression that i just have a "sore" throat and not a serious throat infection. anyway, she didn't do anything to calm the class down and i had to take control.
one girl wouldn't stop chatting with her friend so i sent her to the back of class to stand with her hands in the air. that didn't deter any of them. i asked them a simple question - "what are the days of the week?" they are in first grade middle school - this is easy stuff that they learned a long time ago - we were doing a refresher. but not a single one of them answered. they just kept on chatting with eachother in kroean and fooling around. so i stopped the lesson. i told them if they didn't want to learn, then we could do something else - and then had the entire class raise their hands above their heads. a few minutes later i asked them what they liked better... learning english or being punished. of course they said learning, so we continued the lesson (hands down). i re-asked them for the days of the week and got all the answers in seconds... so what was wrong the first time around? anyway, i eventually had to make one of the teams stand up and raise their hands - about ten minutes to the end of class. and they stayed that way til the end. i need them to know that i'm serious and they need to give me the respect that they would their korean teachers... this is an on-going theme, is it not?
anyway, it was a really bad class, my throat was killing me, but sixth period made up for it. i was still with the same co-teacher, but now she was mad at me because i punished the previous class! WTF??? anyway, sixth went really well, then my co-teacher (not the good one) says, "we need to have a meeting about that class."
so what does she tell me? that she thinks i shouldn't punish them at all and that i was wrong and she's very angry about it. well, what does she expect, i say. she's the one who is supposed to be dealing out the punishments and keeping them in line... so where was she when i needed her? not to mention that i shouldn't even be speaking and that i didn't get a lunch break, and that i always do everything for all the classes, when i'm supposed to be assisting... not creating lesson plans and doing it all on my own. she was speechless - almost - finally after ten minutes of her trying to make me feel bad for punishing the rotten buggers, she decides to try and make me feel bad about being sick and her going to class without me yesterday! will it NEVER end with that? like i'm making myself sick on purpose. what does she think i am a middle school student? so then i get pissed and tell her that there is no way i'm having this conversation with her, that i don't need to justify my illness to her and that if she felt so rotten yesterday then why did she insist that i stay behind and rest. i offered several times yesterday to go to class anyway, and she always said no... don't come back a day later and try to make me feel bad about it. argh! anyway, sorry this is such a rant... i just really need to vent somewhere, and where better than here?
i just hope she gets over it and doesn't give me any more trouble... i teach more than half my classes with her... but i've been at the school longer than her, and she doesn't know me at all. she hasn't even tried to get to know me. hasn't asked me a single question about myself or anything... so who's really got the problem? i think she just doesn't like me cause i speak english and hers sucks and i make her realize that... anyway, will update with more as it becomes available... probably tomorrow... for now, have a great tuesday...
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