A good day
Today has been a good day. Productive. Creative. Content. Nothing much out of the ordinary happened, but this feeling of quiet satisfaction sits solidly in my core. Today I went to work, planned for three classes, graded some quizzes, taught the classes, left work, went out for a beer with my fellow teachers and two of the Korean counselors at work, and went home. Fairly routine. Hrm.
I had a great conversation during break today with one of my students from January whom I no longer teach. She told me how much better she likes this hagwon than her previous one, because here she learns conversation. At her old school, she only studied grammar. Oh, I miss my students from last month so much. Two of them wave whenever they walk by my door. I love it. (All about hagwons here.)
It's easier to remember my students' names than I expected. I am still hoping to have a Captain Crunch someday, but for now the most unusual name in my classes is Ace. One of my co-workers has a student named Bread. !! I would love to call on a Bread in class.
I like making my students laugh. I feel so badly for them sometimes, they have so much pressure to be perfect - perfect test scores, perfect high grades, perfect bodies, perfect everything. (Intro to the Korean education system here.) It's a cultural difference, so I shouldn't feel badly, I guess. Too bad. I do. Hell. It's culturally acceptable to hit kids here - if they don't do well in school, some of them have parents who will hit them. Their teachers in public school can smack them on the head with rulers. I am having a really hard time understanding this.
Oi, they have so much homework, too. I asked my youngest students (age 8-12) last month what time they go to bed. Most went to bed around 1 am. 1 am! These kids have to do homework for their public school, plus any hagwons, plus most practice some kind of musical instrument, and then they want to read or play computer games or watch tv or something in order to have at least a little bit of time not spent on homework. Oi. It's nice to try and make them laugh. I haven't figured out how to make every class fun yet. Soon, though. At least part of every class has to be fun.
I guess this is the first day I've felt mostly prepared for teaching every class. That explains the satisfaction. I want to find Mr. Schleh, Ms. Oslund, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Holmes, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Davis, Mr. Murphy, Janet, Dean, Mr. Johnson-W., and bunches of other teachers to say thank you. And ask for teaching tips. ~lol~
Hope you all have a content, creative, ordinary, happy day soon, too. It feels so lovely.
love,
~sara
I had a great conversation during break today with one of my students from January whom I no longer teach. She told me how much better she likes this hagwon than her previous one, because here she learns conversation. At her old school, she only studied grammar. Oh, I miss my students from last month so much. Two of them wave whenever they walk by my door. I love it. (All about hagwons here.)
It's easier to remember my students' names than I expected. I am still hoping to have a Captain Crunch someday, but for now the most unusual name in my classes is Ace. One of my co-workers has a student named Bread. !! I would love to call on a Bread in class.
I like making my students laugh. I feel so badly for them sometimes, they have so much pressure to be perfect - perfect test scores, perfect high grades, perfect bodies, perfect everything. (Intro to the Korean education system here.) It's a cultural difference, so I shouldn't feel badly, I guess. Too bad. I do. Hell. It's culturally acceptable to hit kids here - if they don't do well in school, some of them have parents who will hit them. Their teachers in public school can smack them on the head with rulers. I am having a really hard time understanding this.
Oi, they have so much homework, too. I asked my youngest students (age 8-12) last month what time they go to bed. Most went to bed around 1 am. 1 am! These kids have to do homework for their public school, plus any hagwons, plus most practice some kind of musical instrument, and then they want to read or play computer games or watch tv or something in order to have at least a little bit of time not spent on homework. Oi. It's nice to try and make them laugh. I haven't figured out how to make every class fun yet. Soon, though. At least part of every class has to be fun.
I guess this is the first day I've felt mostly prepared for teaching every class. That explains the satisfaction. I want to find Mr. Schleh, Ms. Oslund, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Holmes, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Davis, Mr. Murphy, Janet, Dean, Mr. Johnson-W., and bunches of other teachers to say thank you. And ask for teaching tips. ~lol~
Hope you all have a content, creative, ordinary, happy day soon, too. It feels so lovely.
love,
~sara
posted by smochs at 1:51 AM
5 Comments:
way to go sara. and cool that you can document/journal these moments or days. easy to let them get lost in the madness of life. charcoal line is going really well. it came together (energy and artistic wise) and tonight we are sold out. exceeded my expectations, and so now i can actually enjoy myself instead of being a little korean stress ball. just wanna give you a big hug.
jen
jen! ohohohohoh, hope the show was awesome!!!! how'd the weekend go? am so excited the show was sold out!!!!! extra excited you could relax & just have fun. :) big huge gigantic huge back to you! i miss you! am home watching the super bowl right now and wishing i was at home watching it with all of my friends who don't like football. ~lol~ happy night to you!
Yay for happy days! And good teachers who made it look easy, huh? I must say I had a pretty lovely weekend that involved winning 2nd place in a poker tournament, seeing 4 different shows (from Wed-Sun), LOTS of sleep, lazy lounging on the couch in the middle of a weekend day (which I never do), much progress on props for CVS, 3 parties, and getting semi-prepared for work and yoga tomorrow.
It's so interesting hearing about your stories and experiences and the inner workings of your mind and your days. Happy sigh. On my sidebar of bookmarked sites on my home computer I have friend's blogs from the Twin Cities, New York, Korea, Europe, and Iraq. I feel like I get an in-depth world update every time I log on. And the good personal stuff, not just the horrific stuff that news seems to focus on.
Hope that things continue to get easier and that you have more and more time to explore.
Here's to a great week!
Oh, I'm pleased that you're having job satisfaction. I know that you had your doubts before you left, but you're good at having fun even when the work is hard. It's hard to understand coporal punishment when you're faced with kids that behave themselves. There were some brats in my stagecraft classes who needed a smack upside the head, but once they figured out that I really didn't care if they passed or not, they were suddenly really interested in passing. Funny how that goes. :P
Have to go update my blog before I write 50 million pages here. Hugs to you!!
stephanie ~ dang, girl! how did you have time for lots of sleep with everything you did on the weekend?! ~lol~ awesome, sounds like you had a really fantastic time! i am jealous of all of the blogs you get to read. they sound pretty cool. :) the one downside to teaching is that i'm not in front of the computer all day, am feeling a little behind on world news and other info. oh well. here's to a great week, yes yes yes yes yes!
melinite ~ am going to go read your blog right now. ~grin~ hug!
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