Progress

Teaching this week has been remarkable. First of all, on Tuesday I got my quiet class (even the Troublesome Trio of boys) to participate and talk in class by playing a vocabulary game. This class actually turned out to be pretty fun once you get them out of their shell.

Second of all, I've been doing report cards. I finished two of my classes' report cards last night-- it took me an hour to do each class. This proved to be challenging in some ways. It was hard to think of something to write for the students who don't stand out in my mind. It was also hard to think of a nice way to say that certain students were awful and deserve F's but our school can only give D's. I enjoyed doing the report cards for my good, favorite students.

I had to choose two "students of the month" which was very hard. At first, I chose Tom and Joan. Tom is this incredibly sweet 6th grader who is extremely smart, always does his homework, always answers in class. He is such a sweetie, always asking me questions about my life and seeking every opportunity he can to speak English. Joan is the "lifesaver" in my class of dead middle schoolers (the Stephanie Morel clone, actually)...she's the only one who talks so she always answers my questions, she's very smart and a very hardworker. So I turned their names in yesterday and today I was told that I can't have Joan because she was student of the month last month (I guess everybody loves her!). So I debated for a long time and finally ended up choosing Christina, one of my 4th graders. She is probably the nicest girl ever, always smiling, and she is so eagar to participate in class that it comes down to her standing up and jumping up and raising her hand. She has gotten perfect scores on all her tests too. So...I think she was a good choice. :)

Today we talked about why Koreans (or other people) come to America. There were the answers like "to study English" or "to work" or "because America is rich." My favorite answer, however, came from my student Jane who said, "Because that's where Melissa teacher lives, and she is very famous!" Cracked me up. This particular class is insane but so sweet. Another girl in class, Sarah, asked me about this exchange program that YES is putting on in Canada. She asked how close Ontario is to Michigan (my students are all convinced that Michigan is part of Canada)and I said that it was the province that was directly above Michigan and that I had been there many times. She got very excited and told me that she will do the program if and only if I'm back in America at that time so she can come see me. Ohhhh kids. Definitely made my day.

In my second class of the day, my students gave me my Korean name. My name in Korean is "Emily" apparently. Except it's pronounced "Eee-mah-ree." I don't know Korean characters on this computer, otherwise I could write it out in Korean. So that is what they are calling me now.

More of my lion-ness came out today. There is one boy in my first class that always talks to his friends instead of paying attention in class. Today I handed out the vocabulary test and told everyone to be quiet and work on their exams. This kid was playing with a little finger skateboard and totally ignoring his test, and occasionally turning around to talk to his friend behind him. I told him four times to turn around and work on his test. After each time, he would turn around and work on part of his test, then turn back around. Finally after the fourth time when he turned around again, I took his test away. Everyone else in the class was finished with their test by this time. He turned and his jaw dropped and he went, "Teaaaacccherr I'm not finisssshhhheed." I said, "Yes you are. I told you four times to work on your test and you didn't. So you're done." He pouted and said, "Teacher is bad." A few minutes later he was completely undaunted by this act again. Oh well. Hopefully this will teach him a lesson. Hopefully.

That's all the stories for today. :)