Insanity "in a slump"

The adults may drive me insane yet!!

Today there were only three of them; all came late. While I was waiting to see if anyone would show up, I started reading the newspaper. Grace was the first to arrive. She took a couple of minutes to TRY to ask me a question, stutter, stutter, stutter. It started out, "Why are you here?" or "Why aren't we studying?" or "What are you doing in the lobby?" or any of several other questions but she never got one question finished before switching to another. I finally understood what she was trying to ask as another student entered the lobby and it sunk into her head that she was the first student to arrive, thus why I was waiting in the lobby. She certainly has problems in English, but I'll wager that she has plenty of problems in Korean, too.

So all that was BEFORE class. Now on to DURING class. Grace attempted to use another idiom. As always, she used it incorrectly. She needs to master the basics of English before moving on to idioms! "Beth," she says, and waits to make sure she has my FULL attention, "I got in a slump." OK, so I understood what she was saying, but I had to say, NO LESS THAN TEN TIMES, that she was using the saying incorrectly. It's, "I am in a slump." She began arguing with me, since her dictionary or idioms book or whatever she's using says, "Got in a slump." HELLO, who's the native English speaker here?!?!?! OK, Beth, take some deep breaths, you can do it! Remain calm! Do not bite her head off! "Well, you see, Grace, that is correct if it's in the PAST. But you're saying you are CURRENTLY in a slump, so it's 'I am in a slump.' Really, I know what I'm talking about."

Then she went on about her "slump" and I felt like the therapist once again. "I not improve English. I don't know should I quit . . . " YES, PLEASE DO, drastically improve the quality of my life! ". . . and should I continue to study in English." OK, Beth, pull on the teacher hat, be the encouragement, you can do it! "Grace, you know many words . . . " She interrupts with a pleased grin, "Really? You think so?" Yes, you just can't SAY any of them correctly, despite the number of times that I correct you. And please don't interrupt me. "Yes, but you must practice listening more. Listen to English tapes, watch English TV, and work hard at pronunciation." With a somewhat relieved voice she replies, "Yes, I will try that. I will work hard." Oh, joy. That's great. How wonderful. Grace is going to work hard. Beth just may lose her mind!!!!

I'm off to walk to Holly and Jody's now, so the rest of the day will have to wait.

I sure do hurt. This morning I was squatting in front of the computer, just checking a quick news site, but then kept finding more and more good sites. By the time I finished I'd been squatting for 20 minutes or so--my legs would hardly move. I finished getting ready then just before I left I bumped into the bed--HARD. All day two toes have been sore and I have a nice whelp on my shin. Then the 3-4 mile walk home. I was walking perhaps a little abnormally because of the things earlier, but I also didn't have on the greatest walking shoes. I had planned to walk the 35 minutes to Holly and Jody's, spend the couple of hours there while we did the Bible study, then walk the remaining 25 minutes home. Well, apparently it was cancelled or changed location--the second time in about two months. If they're tired of having it every week, they should let people know ahead of time. I can only assume they call the people with hand phones. I know I'm harder to get in contact with, but I do have email. It's not very responsible to not let people know. Anyway, the intense walking for the whole hour left a painful blister on the bottom of one of my feet. Ouch. When I got home I was plenty sweaty, so took a shower then did some laundry.

Let's see--the rest of earlier today. I asked Mr. Kim about the pay, and he suggested I check with Jennifer (the secretary). In the past he took out a set amount for my utilities, regardless of what they ended up being. Now suddenly he's changing the way he's doing it, figuring it down to the penny (or won, as the case may be). I have a hard time believing that I used that much utilities. I think they forgot some of my overtime pay. Of course, some bills come directly to the school, so I'd have no way of knowing for sure. Does this new way of doing things mean the school is in trouble financially? We have lost a lot of students. Jennifer was supposed to be back in, but I stayed until 9 and didn't see her. She's been keeping weird hours lately. Julian said she lives in the same building as him now, and he frequently hears her arguing (loudly) with her boyfriend. I'll have to check with her tomorrow.

One night I was talking with a bunch of other teachers and they said that if you don't make at least one kid cry a week, then you're not a good teacher. Well, most weeks I meet that quota. In the first kid class of the day I made Kate cry. She was talking entirely too much so I had her stand against the wall but she refused to raise her arms so I put her outside the classroom (which she fought). After class as the other kids were leaving and she was coming back inside to get her bag I made her sit down. That's when she started crying. Part of it was embarrassment at getting trouble, part anger at being kept late, part frustration about not understanding everything I say to her, I think. More absent students throughout the day, especially in middle school classes. Tanya quit (the girl who wouldn't answer even the simplest of questions yet was studying Impact Intro book). She has some kind of serious problem.

At 6 Billy was talking quite a lot in English, although being quite silly. Joseph listened even less than normal, and then at the end of class had his backpack on about 5-10 minutes before class ended. I told him that it wasn't time to go home yet, so take off his backpack. He refused, so I took the backpack from him. At the end of class the other students left and I told Joseph to sit down. He didn't, so I took his bag and told him to follow me. I had him write "I will listen to the teacher" 20 times. His anger was so evident; from his face I wasn't sure if he was about to cry or punch me. I had to make him sit down--he was just going to stand up and write. Then he was just scratching at the paper. I told him that if I couldn't read it he would have to write it again. Wow did he understand that; his handwriting improved immediately.

At 7 PM they spent a half hour telling me horror stories. Brandon in particular was interested in this topic--I've never seen him so focused on speaking English before. I guess that means I'm going to have to pull out some of my ghost stories to get his interest. Although from what he was describing, my stories might not be gruesome enough for him. He told me about a Japanese movie called "Suicide Club" that came on at midnight one night when his parents were at their friend's house. He was home alone (a 6th grader) so turned the volume way up to make it as scary as possible. He admitted to screaming a lot during the movie. It really was quite disgusting all that he said. I wonder what his parents would say if they knew he watched something like that?!