First Day of Class

So today was my first day of class and those kids are a handful. I'll have to post some pics soon. I have 18 in my class and some are wonderfully behaved whilst others are definitely testing the new teachers. There are 2 that are obviously really young too. For example, the one little girl is so tiny and quiet. You can really tell she is younger than all the other kids. I know that for awhile, they were considering leaving her behind in the 5 year old class (btw that 3-4 years old for us Americans) and that may have been a better idea. She seems to some English, but has trouble motivating herself to actually do the work. During out afternoon phonics class, the other kids were doing their pages while she kinda just sat there and did nothing until I walked over and talked her through it. Hmm. I am really lucky that I got the second year 6 year olds because they already know a lot of English and since they only got a week-long break before coming back to school, they weren't out of the school mindset.

They are great and my coteacher Sylvia is great too. She came in despite her son being sick today. It's a good thing too because I've no idea what I would do with 18 rambunctious 4-5 year olds on the first time I saw them. You know, its surprising, but there were several times today when I thought that working with kids may be an awesome way to spend a year. They are adorable and very lovable. I've heard that kids this age are really eager to please, and many are. We do have about 4 boys who are handfuls, seriously one thing after another. Although when you think about it, they were all really well behaved for trying to sit in a classroom for 5 hours. Wow, it was only really 5 hours. 9:30-2:30. Hmmm, some of them did arrive early. I think I have 2 kids of school teachers, so yay for me.

Afternoon clubs, yep, that club is everyday. I've got 7. The club runs from 3-4:25 with a break somewhere in the middle. M, W, F I meet in Rose class for the whole time and Tuesdays and Thursdays, I mean in 2 classes and do 2 different clubs. I have Super Elite and it really is pretty hard for the kids I think. They had a lot to do in class. Of the 7 kids, 2 are boys and the rest are girls. Now the girls were much more motivated to do the work and all finished with 10 minutes to spare. Neither boy worked particularly quickly. In fact, one boy never did complete his reading work, so I told him he needed to do it for homework. Poor mite, he spent part of the class with his head on his desk. I'd heard Super Elite was easy and it really is. You get a list of pages that need to be done that day and you do some examples and tell them to do it and go around helping them. My M, W, F ones are in their second year, so they've done it all before. I don't know what my T, Th ones are going to be like. Anyway, I'm not sure that I really taught today, tomorrow I will do better.

Btw, I did find a game they love. It's 'Teacher Sallie says', you know, like Simon says, but for me. Tehy loved it and it did show their knowledge of English and it got them out of their chairs. I'm looking for more movement games that incorporate language or other sorts of games that do so in order to kids the kinder engaged. :)



Now, after school, I walked over to Lottemart despite my aching feet. Hurumph. I honor of my sisters, here is Peperro. As soon as I get the nerve to find the post office, I will send ya'll a box. It's essentially Korean Pocky, but don't call it that because Koreans may have invented it first. I here that there's a holiday in Korea called Pepero Day where you give everyone some. It's November 11 and I've sure it'll be great. I bought some plain chocolate and its was awesome dipped in peanut butter. It tasted just like a tagalong of Girl Schout cookie fame. They sell it in my building too, the chocolate is about 50 cents.