I feel like I have a million and one things to tell you, but I'll try and be brief tonight. I still have to finish deciding what I'm doing for the 6th graders tomorrow. :D Well, since it's recent, let me start with today. I taught my "first" class today. Mondays I have 5 classes of 3rd graders :D They are so cute and so... curious. I had a very ambitious lesson plan today, but my coT opened the class up to questions after my 20 minute introduction powerpoint (which included 2 cities I've lived in, and a couple of videos about the US, some pictures of my family, pets and a slide dedicated to animals in MT). The class is only 40 minutes long, so we had 20 minutes of questions! They are soooo curious. Most of the questions I expected: some questions about my family, how old I am, what blood type I am, if I like Korea. Some questions I DIDN'T expect: what my horoscope is, what my birthday is, how tall/how much do I weigh, why I came to Korea, if I like my dad or mom better, do I like flowers, what is my favorite food, favorite color, singer, actor, book, movie, fruit, flower... The kids that were asking about the favorite things asked the questions in English (hence the highly repetative nature of the questions), so pretty much any other noun they could think of, they asked... teehee.
The classes themselves were all different. For instance class 3-1 (that's how they number and know the different classes), were fairly quiet until we got to the slide with my pets. When we asked for questions, almost 75-85% of the questions were related to my pets. Do they fight, which one I like better, does my cat eat mice, how big they really are, etc. Class 3-2 was more confused about my family and a lot of questions had to do with what was going on with the pictures... They didn't understand the pictures and kept asking for my "Korean" name and one kid even asked me when I started learning English... Adoption is not really a concept these kids have ever had to deal with. In fact, one kid actually said that the fact that I don't speak Korean makes him a bit uncomfortable... I told him I'd learn some Korean and he'd learn some English so it would be okay. I hope that helped. Class 3-1 never even mentioned my family once. LOL. Class 3-3 was the class of favorites. Almost every question was about favorites. I can't tell how well the other kids spoke but at least 5 kids asked me in English "What is your favorite...?" So they're going to be the ones to watch. And the ones who might get bored... Did I mention that my school is well-known for our soccer team? Well, one of the kids (who was dressed in a soccer uniform, so I was pretty sure I knew what sport he liked) asked me what sport is my favorite... and of course... I'm not good at any sport and I don't really like any sport that well, so I should have just said soccer... But I was worried that the next question would be "Who's your favorite soccer player?" ... Which I don't know any soccer player's names... So I said basketball, which is true. I like basketball a bit more than other sports, but he looked a bit disappointed, so I felt bad... I should've just said soccer... LOL.
Class 3-4 was asking about my blood type, birthday, and zodiac sign. They also asked about my lunar year animal. They got all excited when I was the same sign as them (blood and zodiac sign). Class 3-5 also got excited about my pets, but also asked the typical questions. Almost every class asked me how old I was (standard for Korea) and questions about my pets. :D
There was also at least one student in every class who was very outgoing and asked a lot of questions. I tried to choose students who hadn't asked a question yet first, but the outgoing students asked at least 10 questions each. Probably more. LOL One kid asked why I chose their school out of all the other schools... And I think in class 3-2, there was even one boy who asked me what I wanted to know about them. :D Pretty clever.
Let's see... what else?
My coTs and I are getting along well. Some awkward moments and still the language barrier, but I like them and I don't mind not knowing exactly what's going on all the time. LOL. It gives me an excuse to zone out alot. :D I think that it will even be better now that I've started to teach. I've decided to also go for badminton here. Apparently last year the school club was volleyball, but this year they've changed it to badminton and ping-pong. One of my coTs have requested yoga, but... I think I'll do badminton. The all staff dinner was nice. We had shabu shabu (which I think this is the first time I've had it, but it's so similar to bulgogi that I'm not sure) in which you cook the meat in boiling broth along with vegetables and other ... stuff. Like odeng... Bleh. Anyway, we sat at the table next to the principal's table. There was a couple of people talking at the beginning of the dinner, but mostly it was just a regular meal out with friends. Of course, the main difference is the language spoken this time around. O_O LOL. At one point I heard someone say, "Jodi! Jodi!" and I looked over and guess who?... the VP! He said something in Korean, which all I got was "alcohol" and something about "drinking". I wasn't sure if he was asking if I was drinking alcohol or if I wanted some or if he was saying he liked it or what. Turns out he wanted to pour some for me. ... I asked for a little, since I don't drink but I didn't want to seem rude. So he poured me a little, then I turned my head to drink (Korean etiquette for drinking with seniors), but apparently he wanted a toast... LOL, so we toasted and I drank again... Then later... It happened again, this time with my principal. Amazingly, I forgot what had happened earlier and drank again before I was told I needed to toast again... *sigh* Someday I'll figure out this stuff.
I think that's enough for tonight. Now to tweak my 6th grade lesson plan. We'll see how I enjoy teaching after I've taught 6th grade... O_O
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