More about Teaching Preschoolers...

Sometimes it feels like I'm banging my head against a brick wall with the kinder. It's easier during the day with the younger ones because they mostly want to do what the teacher says, but the school aged kids in the afternoon have already put in a full day of school and do not want to bw at school and do the work. Poor mites.

One thing I am surprised by is that I can remember moth of the names. There are 17 in my preschool class and usually only 5-9 in he afternoon clubs. Now, the clubs are just as hard as the preschoolers with half the students because they just want to play after school and have to stay at PSA for an additional hour. Poor mites again.

Aw, my preschoolers are so cute. As they get used to me, they seem to feel more comfortable coming to me for hugs and hitting me on the behind. None of them have tried to poke me anywhere yet (I've been warned about that), but you can tell they are becoming more comfortable with me and teacher Sylvia. It's gotten to the point where I don't think too much about the criers. I've distracted some from crying and so has Sylvia. You know, its weird, but I tnd to think of my coteacher as Teacher Sylvia and even call myself Teacher S#### in my head sometimes. Don't laugh.

I think Sylvia and I are working out a schedule and way of doing things now. I will say this for teachers preschoolers and after school kids. There's no time to think, at all. You go from one activity to another and have no time to worry about other matters because you have to remain focused on the kids. One moment of distraction and suddenly boys are chasing each other around the classroom and girls are in a corner talking loudy to each other.

Weird phenomenon #whatever. I don't know if I mentioned this from the graduation, but these kids sign in a very high-pitched and nasaly manner. I guess they sing like they yell. I noticed it in the cafeteria today when a neighboring class was singing their song. I still don't have teacher Sylvia's song down, but hope to learn it within a couple of weeks. She's already teaching the kids some songs and making them move. I make them move with 'Teacher Sallie Says" You know, i reckon I should start giving out a sticker to the winner when they do especially well. Hopefully all this will help us when it gets to be time to prepare for any of the performances. Our next one is Mother's Day in May and I know its a big deal for PSA since if the parent isn't happy, there are plenty of other hagwons who would be happy to get more kids. I think my kids are starting to like me more. We did have one who wanted to go home after lunch. He's sort of at the bottom of the class, English-wise. Now the crier Emily did not cry either today or yesterday and she seems to be having fun in class and even huged me after I asked for one before she left. It's such a balancing act, education and fun. These are young kids and they need to have fun, but the parents are spending a lot of money so they can learn too.

I put out the students' work today. It was really hard to find something for every student. I'm not sure I did find anything for Jun (the one who wanted to go home early). I found something with his name on it, but it was a drawing of class and could have been from any student. Poor Jun doesn't like to complete his work. He's one who knows a lot, but you have to stand over him telling him everything to write down.

Now, who are my clingers, I would say Ted and Jenny and both clingers, thankfully not at the same time though. I could imagine them ripping me apart. Now Ted is so cute and smart that you want to spend time with him and Jenny is so smart, but easily distracted and doesn't want to do the work. She's bored a bit in class sometimes i think.

Btw, these names I'm using for the kids are not their official names. They select them only for English class and like to change them. I would not use the kid's real names in a public blog (just in case anyone was wondering about privacy issues).

Okay, my nails are growing pretty fast here in Korea, must be the kimshi. I know I am eating pretty healthily, no fast food for the most part. I did have KFC to try it and it was okay, but more expensive and heavier then I needed so it'll be a special treat place. I discovered 2 other special treaat places, an Indian place and an omelet fusion place with reasonable prices (not cheap, but reasonable). I've just heard of a Brazillian restaurant in the area so that's going on my list too. I'm trying to go to one restaurant per week. I don't worry about B-fast or Lunch because of work (pick up a pastry for breakfast and eat at the school). Dinner has so far been a cheap sandwich place downstairs. You get a good-sized sub for less than $3 and there's a convenience store across the hall that has chips of many Korean types and sodas. In all dinner costs less than $5. That makes my total food outlay for the day $6. I reckon this means I can afford to spend $20 for one meal on the weekend if the rest of the meals are in the $5 range.

Oh, and Derrick continues to be pretty awesome. He gave me some pots and pans he'd gotten from teachers who were leaving and tipped me off to a free couch in the stairwell that is a really nice size for a studio apartment. It's sort of beige and wide, but its really a 2 seater that maybe could fit a skinny third person on it as well. Maybe It came with 3 pillows whose cover I plan to sew squares of blue and white flowered fabric onto. This is great because I bout 4 yard of the stuff and I can use it for small things as well. Anyway, Derrick is also the guy who found me a converter and before ya'll ask, not its not like THAT, his girlfriend should be here in a couple of weeks and he's just really friendly to the newbies. I think I just ask him about more stuff so he gives it to me. That's certainly why I got the converter and pans and I also metioned I was looking for seating and he told me about this chair/sofa. Now the only bad thing about it is that the seat cusion is really dirty, but I've just plopped all the cushion covers into the washing machine and will use baby wipes to clean the non-washable upholstry.

Anyway, this is enough for now. Sorry about the pic-less post, but the next one should certainly have some pics.