Last night, I received a letter in the mail from my father with a card and some tea. Regular tea. Korean tea has herbs, bitter things and ball bearings in the tea-bag. It's not a pleasant morning drink, so I drown it in lemon juice. But today I had regular tea. What a difference that makes! No sourness, just that pleasant Orange Pecot taste. Coming into school, listening to "The Ballad of John and Yoko" I can't help but feel great as I danced through the halls.
For the first class, I was teaching the lesson from the previous day. The first class is one of the low classes. From the start I knew the class would be off the rails. I think I learned 8 things that are excruciatingly important in Teacher's College, one of which is keep your kids in their seat and occupied with something as long as you can, then give them free time after. The first thing my co-teacher does is return the exams they completed yesterday - biggest faux-pas ever. I have never seen a class turn absolutely insane: everyone is running around and shouting, kids are sliding on the floor celebrating a 75 while the genius hold back there tears, hit themselves in the head with books, and scream with anger looking at their 90. I look at my co-teacher while this is happening and she's onto marking the next set of exams. So as I jam my whole body into this crumbling dam literally placing children in their seats one at a time, we manage to get the lesson rolling. Next, one student at the back, who has very poor speaking skills is reading a book at the back. I go on as if nothing is wrong. Something was wrong though, apparently seriously wrong, with this blatant act of defiance. My co-teacher methodically marches over to the student's desk at the back of the class; every head follows her until we’re all fixed on the back corner. She grabs the book out of the student’s hands, opens the window, and throws the book out the window into the court yard. The teacher goes on a rampant tangent in Korean, then returns to the lesson as if nothing happened. Crazzzzzy. After the class she explained that this student does this every class and today was the straw to break the camels back. The rest of the lesson went reasonably well, we played Simon says as a cool down and then let the kids out.
The second class was a lot of fun, they had tons of energy and enthusiasm towards all the games we played and the videos we watched.
Half way through the third class something happened I didn't expect what so ever. Busan is cold but it usually never snows, or so I’m told. And guess what happens, snow. One kid notices and points to the window, "Teacha, SNOW!" That's the first time he's said something in English via his own will, thank goodness for our lesson on weather. Before I knew it no one was at their desk and crowding at the window. It was a very nostalgic moment imagining my young, Korean, self transfixed on the marvel of fluff dropping from the heavens. Then I remembered, I'm the teacher, I have a lesson to teach, and I will stand by this B+ lesson until I die. Unless it snows. I look at the clock, ten minutes left, I look to my co-teacher she shrugs, so, using youtube, we watched a couple of Disney sing-along Christmas carols until the bell rang.
The same process was implanted for the final class of the day. I shortened my lesson to fit in the Christmas Carol time and then everyone was off to lunch.
Now I'm here blogging away listening to exerts of Conan and the
TGIF Everybody!
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