Midweek Update (2nd week of November)

Here’s a quick update for this week:

-         Even though they told me the supplies weren’t approved yet, all my Halloween stuff came in last week. Regardless, I had postponed the party until this week. It’ll happen Thursday. It’ll be awesome.

-         It’s getting cold here! It’s okay during the day, but once the sun goes down it plummets L

-         I went through all 600 of my photos from the cultural trip and pulled out the best ones for the huge post I made about the trip, but there’s some more photos which are just really nice (plus some random, odd ones), so I’ll include those now:

Some of my grade 4 students.
They're practicing for a play this month: The Rabbit and the Turtle
(apparently they don't use the words "tortoise" and "hare" very much).

SeonHa, my co-teacher with one of my grade 4 students who looks quite cynical of
my attempts to make a JibJab video for the Halloween party.

Some of the fall foliage around here. It's gorgeous these days!

More foliage. Asian lampstand.

Irene at Bulguksa temple, Gyeongju

Some of my grade 5 students wanted to be a ghost bride for Halloween

I pass this restaurant to and from work, but one day the bus stopped at a traffic light long
enough for me to read the name and discover that this place serves canines.
You know what I mean.

In E-mart the other day, I simply had to snap a photo of this
coffee shop company promise.

Look at this absolutely tiny washer!!
It's the size of a carry-on bag and it's 500!

- So there was a bit of an incident in my class today - Grade 3 always provides me with drama....

Anyway, recently I helped out one of my English teachers with her open classes. While at this open class (an open class is where parents can come and observe the teacher's teaching skills), I met some kid's mother, who wanted her grade 3 daughter to come to my class. She kept asking what time it started and I kept referring her to the schedule. posted. on. the door. 3 times! 

Anyway, she asked if she could come to the next class (this was a few weeks ago), and so I prepped my co-scholar and myself for this parental presence, but she never showed up (neither did her daughter). Since then, her daughter has started coming to my class, and today her mother showed up, unannounced. We're learning about food this week, so I drawn up a colouring worksheet of a place setting, so that students could draw what they wanted to eat and then I could ask them questions about it. 

Now, every kid develops at a different rate, and drawing is a talent/skill, so obviously some are better at it than others. However, drawing is also kind of subjective sometimes, so I'm fairly open when it comes to acceptable worksheet submissions. Now, this lovely grade 3 girl had finished her paper, using 2 crayons and 1 marker. I asked her what she had drawn to eat, and she told me all about it. A nice glass of water, with some delicious spaghetti and some kimchi too. She could even tell me what's in spaghetti sauce. That's a great answer for me.

But her mother had other ideas. She came over (again, she was unannounced and intruding in this class) and picked up her daughter's assignment sheet and told me "she didn't do it" as in, she hadn't completed the assignment. She then tried to corral her daughter and get her to come back to me, I'm presuming to "finish" the assignment or to talk to me more in English... either way, her daughter was refusing and ran away from her. Then this lady got mad at her daughter and by extension me for not controlling her daughter.... and in my opinion it was really tense and awkward as one of the English teachers tried to talk to her in the hallway and then they were all silent like....

Then this lady decided to leave with her daughter and her assignment sheet (normally I keep all the things the students produce for my records) and then said "I'm coming back tomorrow" to watch my class :P She didn't even ask me.... 

This lady is also a teacher at a nearby school. My co-teacher and my English teacher were trying to comfort me, because I was pretty intimidated and scared of this rude classroom disruptor.... The first time she asked me if she could come and observe my class I had made in my mind a rule that parents can only come one time. I'm going to have to enforce it tomorrow. My classroom, my rules. 

Speaking of rules, I had a chat with my co-teacher about the limits and extent of my authority. This is something worth knowing. How much do I have control over, exactly? 

In the end, I think this lady will calm down when she realizes or is informed that I don't give grades in my class. After all, that's all Korean (she's actually Filipino) parents really care about for their kids, and I'm quite certain that's what this lady wants for her daughter as well.

Sigh, such drama.