I had another fabulous day with the fourth graders which makes me think maybe I just really enjoy the fourth grade age. They’re still young enough to be cute but just old enough to be sarcastic. They are on the cusp of preteen-hood and it’s right time, if I were fluent in Korean and their homeroom teacher, to instill good values and start having important conversations. I walked into 4-1 and felt a little frustrated, though: I had prepared for the second section of the chapter but it seems that Jack hasn’t started the chapter with them yet so I had to throw out all of my higher level activities…

I saw a group of tiny third grade boys crouched around a perforated fabric box, quite similar to my laundry hamper, in the hallway. Inside was a plant but their total concentration implied something more interesting. “Is it a butterfly?” I asked in Korean. Three of them looked at me with huge, dark eyes. I crouched down next to them peering around the cage. “Where is it?” I murmured. They directed my eyes with their tiny fingers to the top where a plain yellow butterfly hung upside down. “Wow, it’s so small!” I commented but the boys stayed frozen next to each other in shyness. The shock of a real…

I’m living on a sine wave. 6-6 was challenging, has always been a little challenging due to their immaturity. It took a lot of wrangling and I even had to snap in front of a boy to get his attention for the fifth time. Thinking back, maybe that wasn’t the best way to handle the situation; I’m a little embarrassed. However, I can’t help feeling disrespected when 26 twelve years olds talk over me. Kids, I have 35 minutes with you a week and you’re wasting it! I recalled that time S shattered her glass top desk banging a metal bell to get the kids to quiet down and was…

My fourth grade lesson went amazingly. The kids responded well and were actively involved. It makes me feel on top of the world when my teaching goes well. The kids were also incredibly energized from the long holiday weekend, and many of the homeroom teachers who normally leave stayed behind to reel the kids in. I didn’t mind– if their energy is directed towards participation I’m happy, as I explained to one fourth grade teacher in the lounge. I can’t say the same for fifth grade. The truth is, I can’t be excellent all the time. There is a learning curve for me, too. Unfortunately, 5-4 is my first fifth…

It has been an adventure and a half. The morning started with a delayed taxi ride hosted by an older man who asked if my husband was Korean and told me that I was smart for speaking Korean at the level I do. “Miss Korea,” he threw in. Is it even a taxi ride if I don’t get asked about my marriage status? I eventually made it to Suwon, bought the first used car I test drove, explored the famous fortress walls (“built in 1795 and reconstructed in 1977 after destruction from Japanese invasion and Korean War” much to my disappointment), and crashed at a $15 hostel. I drove nearly…

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…