#but not quite getting JTE's easy confidence

[coreancitizen]

"I thought I wouldn't be fooled, but that face is my one weakness." "What do you mean?" "You have a look of anxiety. Something that Jeong Tae Eul doesn't have. You're not Jeong Tae Eul."

[astormyknight]

1st-4th Period today; 

I arrived to a stack of letters on my desk. I recently started an open letter box for the students to ask questions and practice their English. One of the teachers had been off sick so this one class of 2年生 had an extra English lesson. They're ahead of where they need to be so for review apparently they were given  a chance to start on the letter project. The whole class took advantage of it apparently. 

 So I have like 30-35 letters to reply to. Most of them want to know which teacher in the office is youngest/oldest/cutest/the sleepiest/the scariest as that is the grammar point that we were doing the other day. One of the 3年生 had also written to me, so they got priority as they graduate soon.  

The 3年生 kids are either rehearsing or completing the debate section of the year. Basically it was full on from 8.40am-12.30pm. I'm super stoked to see how far these kids have come, and how all bar one of the reluctant kids have stepped up and done their best. The majority of them have gained a decent amount of confidence in the last two or so weeks. I know most of them won't maintain it past the unit, but I hope a few of them do. A bunch of the boys could work on their 'audience skills' though, we spent the better part of debates threatening to deduct points from their teams as they were egging on their mates who were in the hot seat.

Monday is when we do the unit in front of a bunch of teachers from other schools with my JTE's home room kids. This class is a bit more reserved than my favourite, but the level of grammatical English is higher. They have actually had the biggest leap in confidence though, there was some heated counter arguments thrown out today. 

Lunch time;

I biked to my ES in the wind and made it in time to have the lunch break with the kids. I joined in with a game of 'hand base' which is basically baseball played with your arm and one of the soft dodgeballs. 

That was going great until a bunch of 6th Graders came flying up to me in a panic. One of their classmates had been dodging and weaving through the hedge and playground equipment while they were playing cops and robbers. As they drag me over I see this kid just sitting on the ground all calm and cool, while his mates are by him looking white as sheets and shaking. 

Then I notice his wee hat is on the ground next to him. It's COVERED in blood. He sees me and stands up and comes over to try and tell me he's ok, but the little dude doesn't seem to realize he's got a skull flap going on. Since he's up and it's not an artery we convince him to walk to the nurses office. He's pissed about it. But agrees because his classmates are refusing to go back to playing the game. He swears it doesn't hurt. We're halfway to the nurses office when kids that ran off after I told them to get an actual teacher meet us with his homeroom teacher and he takes over. I saw the kid during the cleaning time and he told me that it hurt now and he was sorry for being stubborn. He was not allowed to leave the nurse office for a good long while. I'm not sure if he needed stitches or not. 

  5th and 6th Period;

5th and 6th Period; less stressful than my morning, until one of the Vice Principals walks in with the "Orphan Class". Basically we had a homeroom teacher retire/quit at the start of the academic year and leave a bunch of 5th graders without a home room teacher. The VP and one of the other teachers usually share. Usually I team teach with the other teacher. Thankfully I had a lesson plan roughed out and the unit is super easy to teach. But boy did the pressure kind of hit me - even though this guy is the most relaxed person out there. The lesson went well and nobody got injured so that was nice.

My last lesson of the day was my favourite class. Usually they're pretty gung ho about trying stuff, but today even the rough kids in this class were determined to beat out the smart kids. So that was cool. One of the sweeter (but still a little bit rough) boys was paired with the selectively mute kid today for an activity, and they were both laughing and finding ways to communicate without the one boy talking. They both managed to score points for their team in a later game too which was fantastic as they usually freeze up or refuse to participate. 

It's been cool to watch this class and particularly the one boy with selective mutisim change over the last couple of weeks too. They're at an age where they're changing rapidly in terms of...wel everything. I see them two and a half days a week and teach them once, but as the EE room is next to their classroom I get to interact with them a lot more. The wee boy never used to make eyecontact with anyone or join in with anything, but since 2017 started he's been surprising us all. (He even joined in the spontaneous mini sumo tournament that happened the other day after cleaning time and nearly beat me...).

So yes. I'm more than ready for a weekend at home and a bunch of junkfood. There's been a few rough spots this week, so even though today was full on, it was a good way to end. Also if I haven't been responding to IMs/emails ect in the last couple of weeks it's because there's been a bunch going on at work and I usually come home, eat and go to bed/go to karate and then straight to bed. I'm up at 6.00am, at school by 7.30am and usually finish between 4pm and 4.30/4.45pm depending on what's happening. By the time I bike home I'm not really in a fit state to message anyone.