Evaluations

I taught FOUR Impact Intro classes today, back-to-back. At first I thought I'd be bored, but now I actually like it--it's a good book, and having that many classes in the same book allows me to prepare better and really get to know the material.

Throughout the day the stack of journals kept getting bigger and bigger, and finally tumbled down, mixing different classes' journals together. It's so annoying because I'm being paid less than before (less overtime classes) but am actually working more than ever before. Because of only having some classes once a week, I have more classes and students than in the past, and also more high-level students. That means more journals to correct--it's taking 2~3 hours a week now.

Today the Korean teachers were complaining to each other about Julian and his not having finished the evaluations. I mentioned it to him so that he would perhaps be more motivated to work on them and he said Joelle had mentioned them to him yesterday. Perhaps it was a mistake to tell him about it, because it made him more annoyed than before. I don't think the Korean teachers know how much I can understand of what they're saying. We thought grade-changing only took place at Samsan; well, Joelle changed one of Julian's evaluations from N to P (for the kid's poor attitude). He saw it, and was mildly annoyed. We grade the kids based on how they behave in our class. If the Korean teachers want the kids graded on how they behave in the their classes, then they should just do the evaluations themselves!!

On top of all the work I have writing evaluations and the journals, Mona had a problem with how I did Tim's evaluation. Sure his mother is a pain, but he totally deserved what I gave him. I gave him what equates to 2 C's (in reading pronunciation and comprehension) and 2 D's (for speaking and behavior). He misbehaves all the time, and when asked a question answers with one or two words, while most of the other students in his class respond with a full sentence. I wrote a long comment on him, thinking that that would justify why I gave him those grades. Well, Mona said I needed to write something good about him, too. Like WHAT? Like he socializes with his friends really well while I'm trying to teach?? I ended up writing, "Tim reads well" (a lie, he reads barely on his level) "but could be doing much better in class" (maybe, but he strikes me as a dunce) "if he made an effort." Then I wrote several more sentences. Tim's class is now really small (5 students) so hopefully he'll do better.

At 7 PM (now a huge class) I told them about the cats in the apartment across from me--how I meow and they meow back. They were amused, but now they all think I'm crazy. It wouldn't surprise me if the entire school knew within a few days. It made me think of my quirky professors and the rumors that went around about them! The thing was, most of them knew all about the rumors, enjoyed them, AND even fed them.

Jody called to cancel the Bible study because he and Holly are sick. Between them canceling and me being too busy to go, it's been several weeks since I've gone.

One of my classes (I think the 6 PM class) said the word 변태 (byuntae) during class (I don't know the context) and I recognized it from reading it on someone's blog. The foreigner translated it as "pervert," but when the kids thought I understood it they were rather embarrassed. I mentioned asking one of the Korean teachers about the meaning, and they begged me not to. Of course, that made me MORE curious, so I looked it up in the online dictionary. The meanings:

1. 변태 자
geek
2. 변태의
perverted
3. 변태적이다
unnatural, to be
4. 가학 피학성 변태 성욕의
sado-masochistic
5. 가학 피학성 변태 성욕자
sado-masochist

These were 6th-graders--how were they using the word, and why?!

In another class we were studying "Who's in your family?" and suddenly the kids started laughing. Well, when you say that phrase quickly it sounds a little like "whojin" (Whojin in your family?) which is apparently another bad word in Korean. Again the kids didn't want me to ask the Korean teachers. I tried several different letter combinations, but none of them were listed in the dictionary. I guess I'll resort to asking what it means, and being prepared for possible blushing and them asking me where I heard the word, if it's as bad as the kids made it seem.