Last night we ventured off to Costco so that I could buy candy to bribe my students with. It was very similar to the Costco in the United States although this one was 2 stories instead of one. Upstairs were all the electronics, bedding, clothing, home goods (detergents, batteries, etc), and downstairs is where all the food was. I was surprised to see that they had the exact same muffin carton as we do at home, chocolate, blueberry, and ----- I cant remember the third one but I know my family knows what I am talking about. I got two big big big bags of assorted chocolates (milky way. snickers, twix). My mom bought me broccoli soup which I learned the hard way tonight had lots of bacon chunks in it, once I made that discovery I stopped eating the soup.
Today was my second day of teaching. I had one class of 10 and another of almost 30. My class of ten went really well, everyone was excited to meet me and wanted to talk. My second class is was like pulling teeth to get them to talk to me, but a few were talking to their neighbor... i have 5 class rules:
1. no talking when the teacher is talking
2. try and don't be shy
3. no sleeping in class
4. no cell phones or ipods out in class
5. no fighting
if they break any of the above rules they receive consequences:
strike 1: hold the English dictionary over your head until I say so (can be the whole class if I choose)
strike 2: copy the English dictionary until the end of class
strike 3: stay 60 min after school to write from the English dictionary
i did not invent these strikes, it is what is used in the school but I am pretty sure strike 1 is illegal to do in a US classroom... o well... in my second class I had 3 boys holding books over there heads for 10 min each because they broke rule 1. I was told if I don't start hard they will walk all over me, so I am trying hard to earn respect in the classroom. It is nothing like the schools back home, students here do not listen to their teachers, follow rules, they fight all the time, and in return the teachers don't discipline them hard enough or say anything when they act up... it is a little frustrating at times
I am also finding that my school is micromanaging us to the extreme... when they asked us to write our lesson plan ideas there were no guidelines or expectations given to us.. after all the work of planning and actually making the lessons, worksheets, and powerpoints they are telling us to change things. They keep telling s we are doing a good job but then follow by listing things to change or do different... it is extremely frustrating and is getting Whitney and myself down. We both almost lost it today at our daily meeting that in addition to all the work we now have to do they also expect a daily journal written to the vice principal who at the end of the day we will have to hunt down and have sign.......... WOW for something we are a. not getting paid for b. are volunteers for c. not getting class credit for they are expecting us a lot and are being very hard and almost unreasonable.. for instance, today (Friday) EVERYONE left at 3:30 but we were told that we HAVE to stay until 4:30 why???? I sincerely hope that they let up because this is not the experience I signed up for... I think some of the other girls in the program are feeling that way too and so we may as a group write a formal letter to Mr. Lee who is in charge asking him to help us fix things... I'll keep you posted on that
I don't want you all to think that I am having a bad time. I am enjoying myself with the exceptions of my co-teachers bearing down on me so hard. Tonight my family took me to the theatre in downtown Seoul to see "Korea's Old Story" from what I understood a baby was found by some peasants, she grew up and was told that she was not their daughter but actually royalty, she ran away to find her real parents. When she reached them everyone in the palace and community was sick and/or dying. She ran away (maybe to find help) She met a crazy old lady and a drunken man who neither one helped her. She was then taken to hell and thrown around on stage (she might have been dead) She was then lifted to heaven/paradise and found a tiger man who she fell in love with once he decided not to eat her (beastisim??) The happy couple then had 3 children, upon the birth of her 3rd child she gave him and the other two to the tiger and she ran away. There was a funeral procession for her father, but she said something and poof he was resurrected from the dead... she then ran away again and that was the end of the performance. There were no words and a beautiful full orchestra that narrated the ballet. It was a wonderful show the props, sets, and costumes were out of this world. Tomorrow my dad is going to explain to me what the ballet was really about, but I think I understood most of it
That's all for now. I love you all!