Luckily, today was a better day. Plus, I received the good news that I get to help out with the local high school English debate team. I’ve been assigned to the local girls high school and I’m excited to team together and establish absolute dominance over everyone. Not to mention, I’ve seen girls from this school before in the days when I rode the bus to my travel school. They seemed chatty and good-natured. I look forward to learning about them over the next six months. My fourth grade lesson was well received, too. I printed out our noun vocab words, just three, and for our new verbs I had…

I’m not taking back what I said about the travel school but… the feeling comes in waves. Fifth grade was noisy and the first sixth grade class acted like they didn’t want to be there. I structured the lesson with plenty of background knowledge stimulation, pre-reading group questions, listening, choral reading, and comprehension questions. There was a moment where I looked out at my students’ expressionless faces and thought, “I don’t like you”. The feeling was jarring and I had to shake it off quickly before they sensed my irritation. That’s a slippery slope to becoming a bad teacher. Like I once felt in Seoul, I thought to myself, “I…

“Teacher can you draw a heart around my name?” I was in the middle of teaching sixth grade about the months and had streamlined the lesson so that we wrote the months together and I wrote the names of students with birthdays in those months. The catch was I wrote their names in Korean which they found amusing or engaging depending on the class, and everyone was happy to practice “My name is…” if it meant I would write it on the board. I conceded and drew a heart around this student’s name. When I turned around, ten more hands shot up, boys and girls alike, asking for the same.…

One of the 6-1 girls recently got a very cute bob. She and her tall friend (two of the three that back hug tackled me) shouted hello at me and she said “hello teacher I love you!” before I even got a hello out. “Is this a new haircut?” I asked. “Uh… Yes!” “I love it. It’s pretty!” “Omg thank you so much!” Funny enough neither of these girls are this talkative in class so I try to keep in mind that kids see me even if I don’t see them. I’ve come to really like the sixth grade teachers. I had to catch one in the hallway to put…

I finally embarked and set out to hike the mountains in my back yard. After a few hours I had taken pictures and burnt out my quads, but mountains don’t work like sidewalks and I had to continue for another hour to find a descent. A gang of three retires were catching up to me with the hiking superpowers all Koreans magically gain at 65. I sped up, jogging down the soft trail covered in pine needles, careful not to trip on the extremely narrow path since the side was a steep decline straight to the bottom. But I skidded to a comical halt at one particularly narrow spot. There…

Amidst the chaos that was yesterday, I found myself enjoying my travel school more and more. Maybe it was the fact that half the students were sent home since they all attended a taekwondo school where one kid tested positive for COVID. (The taekwondo school manager came to have words with the principal for ruining their image). Or rather, it’s because Yana and I continue to develop our teaching relationship. Yana is strong where I am weak. She swoops in where I can’t explain or where she sees there is a better way to do something. Siri, please play “You raise me up”. For example, I had printed out various…

Today made me want to quit. I had to emotionally check out and put on “autopilot pleasant teacher mode”: in these situations, I don’t get angry or try to lecture the class. I simply slow the lesson down and let nothing bother me. I’m rubber, you’re glue. 5-6 was rude: the three usual boys and the two chatty girls. 5-5 was rude: three boys who couldn’t pay attention and held the class up. I mentioned offhandedly to Jack that 5-6 was a little rude and asked if he has similar behavior issues; I imagine this will probably make it back to the 5-6 homeroom teacher which I’d be lying if…

I talk to my kids in a mix of Korean and English, often incorrectly mixing them when I don’t know words: “students, 9 moods 그리세요”. I ask my kids all the time to translate and teach me words; they know I’m not trying to disrespect our languages. In fact, they are exuberantly happy to help this old teacher. Earlier this week I misspoke when trying to explain “tired” and the kids were quick to correct. “Sorry sorry my bad,” I replied. One absolute legend said “it’s okay, it’s okay, no worries,” with a certain feeling of recognizing that I made an effort and the mistake was not serious. She said…

One impossibly sweet boy with round glasses and a broken arm in a green cast walked next to me as Jack and I exited the cafeteria. I asked him in Korean what happened and if his arm hurt. “Oh… is it okay if I speak to you in Korean?” He asked. “Yes, but I’m not very good so please speak slowly.” This kid listened and proceeded with a delicacy most adults lack. Kids are so intuitive and I just love them. Unfortunately, I still didn’t really know what he was saying; I think he was just trying to ask if it was okay to pose questions in Korean. I didn’t…