Day 14 - 17 of 293

Tuesday!  The first full of day teaching.  Not only was it the first full day of teaching, but some of us teachers were covering for Caleb Stokes, who had to wait ridiculously long on paper work.  Curse you FBI background checks, as well as, snow storms, olympics, and government shutdown.  We probably could have all come together otherwise.  But that would have be awkward, because we all didn't have jobs after Mokkdong closed.  Anyway, another story another time.  Rabbit chased and found its way back home.

So back to the first day of school.  I felt totally unprepared.  In fact, while i was not totally unprepared, I was certainly not prepared to teach a math class, much less 5 math classes and some random other class.  Thank goodness, our fearless leaders, knew our plight, and said, "for the first week, just get to know the kids!"  Pressure off.  Then I thought... How do I manage a class of students for 50 minutes, with no plan."  Back to feeling the pressure.  So here is where I have to point out that God had prepared me for this situations.  Back home, I planned activities for youth at our church, included in those plans were, get-to-know you games, or icebreakers.  So I pulled out the ones that I thought would work and used them on every class.  I very quickly learned who were the talkers, who were the quiet ones, who were mature, who were not, who liked to have a good time, who thought everything was boring.  I was really able to get to know personalities, at least.  The first day, I wanted them to get to know me, as well as me get to know them.  So, I had a list of questions that I asked each class, and then I would tell them the same things about myself.  With the bigger classes, it took up the whole time.  With the smaller classes, not so much.  I immediately had some students that I really liked and none that I didn't.  Good start, huh!

One of the more memorable moments of that day, was when one of the kids stayed in my classroom during lunch and we got to talk a little.  He saw my Bible on my desk (Yay! that I get to have my Bible on my desk) and asked me about it.  He looked inside and realized it wasn't in Korean.  He reads English pretty well, so it wasn't that big of a deal, I just think he is used to it being in Korean, quite a shock.  It was a shock for me when I saw it in Korean the other day.  Anyway, he asked me what my favorite verse was.  I told he it was "Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid."  He told me his favorite one was, as he flipped through the pages to find it, "how do you say..."  I said, "Psalm."  He said "yeah that, 23, The Lord is my Shepherd..."  Then I started saying it with him, and then quoted the rest while he looked on.  He was amazed!  He said, "You didn't miss a word!"  I said, "I went to a Christian school, too.  We got to learn memory work there."  He said, "Do you know the Lord's Prayer, I like that one?"  I quoted it to him.  He was amazed.  Honestly, I was a little too.  They just came out.  It has been forever since I quoted either of those to anyone.  Again, God prepared me for that moment.  I was quick to tell him, that I couldn't do that with all the verses that he could pull out, that I just got lucky that those were the ones he asked about.  But that is just one of the things that I love about being here.  I can talk freely about God's Word.  In fact it is appreciated.  Needless to say, that kid is one of my favorites.  After the conversation, He went and laid on the desk, that I told you about last time.  The ones over in the corner of the room.  They have a pretty brutal schedule.

After making it through all my classes for the day.  I tried decided what to do the next day.  The next day was going to be breaking out the games.  Except for one class, that I had not done the introduction with, because I do not have them on Tuesdays.  Rauni, you will appreciate this.  We did the Numbers game.  Huge hit. They still want to play it.  Every class caught on much quicker than any other group I have taught it to.  They actually got me out.  (Which sorry to brag, but NEVER happens.  That's why I love the game.  JK!)  Let me just say, that it was because I couldn't understand the number, I thought he said two, and he said twelve.  I was twelve.  I never actually made it to the beginning.  So that was Wednesday.  Games and getting to know them.  Plus, I was supposed to have 2nd and 3rd graders for one period.  They never showed.  I also had a 7th grade class, which was fine, because they are my homeroom.
Thursday, we got the instructions that we needed to give out homework.  Which was difficult because I had not taught them anything but games. Assignment for the day for all of my classes, Write an introductory paragraph telling me something about yourself that you think I should know.  I got some interesting papers. Kids wanted to be everything from dancers to diplomats.  One kid even wanted to be a business worker, because some one has to be a worker in a business, so why not him.  Many of them wanted to go to University in American, some of them didn't want to at all.  A couple of them had been to America,  A few had been to other places like China, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, New Zealand, Malaysia, England, and others that I can't remember.  One of them, even had a dad that worked in Saudi  Arabia, just like my dad.  Some of them told me about their bad traits, while more of them told me about their good ones.  Needless to say, for the most part.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading them.  The older they were, the better the paragraph.  Partly because they think in English better, and partly, I'm sure, because they have more to say.  Two of the more memorable ones were 1. The boy I was talking about earlier, asked me in his paragraph, to watch out for one of the younger kids, because he doesn't know English very well, and he is not smart, and he is slow at learning.  He said he loves the kids enough to spend money on him, no problem.  2.  Another kid, from the same class, took the time in his paragraph to tell me cultural differences between Koreans and foreign teachers.  He didn't want me to get offended by things that they did.  I thought both of them were very sweet.  I will add, that the second kid, is also one of my favorites.

BTW, they were both on the bus today, going home for the weekend.  And I said, I have all my favorites on the bus today, and one of them, was like, do you mean me.  I nodded.  He beamed.  Good ending to a week!

So back to Thursday, I taught all my classes how to play the Couch game.  They caught on super quick.  I mean, I was impressed with the Number game, I was floored by the Couch game.  There were a few that didn't quite catch on, but the majority were amazing!  I even tried out the Human Knot game with one class, but they kept letting go of hands, so that game didn't work out so well.

On Friday, I was feeling pretty ridiculous, not having an school work yet, so I quizzed them over what they knew.  I, of course, made it a game.  I was exceedingly impressed by them.  They might not understand all of the words that I say, but they have gotten most of the math concepts to be on level.  I played Connect Four with them, because it takes a little more strategy than TicTacToe.  I assumed, incorrectly, that they had probably played TicTacToe before.  Not one kid, in any of my classes had played it.  Even after I demonstrated what it looked like, they had not played.  The did, however, like to say TicTacToe.  All of the classes caught on to Connect Four quickly as well.  I finished the week, by giving out vocabulary and a promise of math class to come.

What a first week!  We made it!  I am a teacher!  I still can't believe it!  I have waited a long time for this.  1 week down, 39 to go!  I'm tired!!!