A Solid 'A' Day

I learned a couple of interesting things today. I will have a holiday on the 1st and 2nd of August. Yeee hah! Holidays are good. I might be headed to Japan. I want to. We'll see. Probably.

I also found out that in a couple weeks I'm going to be going to Ooooo Baang Land with the kids. Wheeee! I like going on field trips, and I only get to do it once a year. At my old school in Masan, I used to be able to take the kids out - in my special superstar genius class, about maybe once a week. It was fun. We'd play "what's this?" and "what's that?" and chat as we walked around the neighbourhood. I liked to get out of the classroom and disguise errands as learning-trips, "Okay kids! Today we're going to the DRYCLEANERS!!! Yeah!!!!" I think the management liked to have me walking around speaking English to these little kids as an advertisement for their school. It was cool.

Anyhow, so in a couple weeks I will visit an amusement park with all the kids, and I will not go on any rides, though they will beg me. Well, that's not true - I will go on rides that go round and round (see: merry-go-round) but I don't like going upside down or super-fast. I anticipate, even though it might be hotter than hell, that it'll be fun. The last time we took a trip I had only been teaching at my school about a month and a half, so I didn't know the kids as well as I do now. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that we're going to the same place we went last summer. I have been suggesting other things to do for the last few months, but I guess my boss didn't think Tokyo Disneyland, camel-rides in Egypt, or Santa's Workshop at the North Pole were appropriate.

One thing that's too bad about Ooooo Baang Land is there aren't any games! Well, there's a silly little video game place, and another stall where you can shoot one of those high-powered bb-gun to win stupid ugly prizes. I miss the games from back home, hoop-over-the-bottle or ping-pong-ball-in-a-candy-dish kind of thing. It's weird to be at an amusement park and not see people (me) lugging around huge stuffed animals.

As I've said before, there are 2 elementary schools in my neck of the woods, and all the students at my school go to one or the other. Today, the upper grades from one of the schools were off on a school trip to Gyuengju. (Later in the week, the other school will go on a similar trip.) I don't know exactly what they do on the trip, but when I asked one kid today what he'll be doing on his class outing, he grabbed both his ears and hopped like a frog. I said "really?" and he nodded yes, really. Wheeeee! Boot camp!

So there were only a few kids in classes today. My 3rd class had only one student show up, so my boss asked if it was okay she join the other (lower-level) class Elizabeth was teaching, and the next period I would teach my regular class plus Elizabeth's class. Sounded fair to me, so I had an hour-long break, which almost never happens! I was surprised though, when virtually ALL the students of both classes turned up for the next period, and I had to teach 11 kids in all. Plus it was a combination of "level 4" students with "level 7." (3rd period had my sole level 2 student join a class of level 1's.) It didn't seem fair to me, but I didn't say anything. (I saved bitching for here.) What do you think? I figured I was supposed to be teaching during that time, and because I knew I would have a combination of varying English abilities, I planned appropriately, and they all learned something new (I had activities with the themes of countries and nationalities.) Ahhh well. Overall, it was an easy day. My 2nd last class was two very bright sweet little girls. They're a part of Tony's class, and while they're usually very reserved and quiet, I usually have to spend too much time managing Tony in class. Today, with just the three of us in class, we did a fun creative activity about body parts, and Lola, the quieter of the two, completely laughed her head off. It was great to hear!

Overall, a great day at school, I give it a solid A.

Oh, and I've got a small class of 4 girls in one of my 2nd periods, and I have them all able to sing along with me to 70's hit by R.B. Greaves, "Take a Letter Maria" because I've sang it so often to the little girl nicknamed Maria when I take attendance. How fun is that?