Crying Kids

Today's work against censorship: I signed the petition and emailed the link to 27 people. A few Koreans, but mostly Americans and Canadians. Some of them are in Korea now, while others were formerly teachers here, and a few people have never been here, but I knew from home. I hope none of them are annoyed by the email; I wanted to get the message out. Four came back as undeliverable. That's the bad thing about email--you can't leave a forwarding address! When I send out my normal group email (probably Sunday) I'll let another, what is it now, 20 people know about the petition.

The adults asked me again what would be on their test and I told them that I don't know yet, but I'll write it this weekend and let them know on Monday. Next week starts 3 days/week with only me as teacher. They said it was OK to keep it M, T, Th, especially when I explained WHY I preferred those days over W and F. On W and F I don't finish work until 9:30 PM or later, so if I start teaching at 11 AM it makes for a long day. The other days I finish around 8 PM, so arriving at 10:45 isn't so bad. I told them the things that I might put on the test, and they protested way more than any of the kids do. "I've only studied some of the book!" "I was absent many times!" "I can't speak English!" "I hate tests!" Melissa's was the best, "Goodbye everyone!" She was implying that everyone would leave and not come back because of the test. However, Jennifer was good, too, "Next week I must go on a trip." They all said, "Next Thursday I will be absent!" I told them that they MUST come. I suppose I'll have to make it rather easy so they're not frustrated by it. If I make it to gauge how much they've actually learned in this book, then the scores would be too low and they'd be upset.

What's up with the crying kids?! Mina's 2 PM class (all 2nd graders) changed classrooms to be in a cooler room, and I asked Danny where the class was now. He led me to the new classroom, where most of the students were busy doing their "10 minute writing." Penny, however, sat separated from the other students with a sad expression on her face. I asked her what was wrong, and she began crying. The other kids tried to tell me what was wrong, and I only understood that Kate had said something that Penny didn't like. Before I knew it, Kate was sobbing! Either a student passing in the hall got Mina, or she just happened to be walking by, but she came in and they tried to explain to her what was wrong, but she couldn't understand, either. And she speaks Korean! She got the girls settled down, though.

The lesson today was, "Is this a pencil?" "Yes, it is." "Is that a desk?" "No, it isn't." Mina had already taught it to them, so they were pretty comfortable with it, and began using their own ideas to practice. While pointing to Maria, Penny asked, "Is her name Maria?" I think I may have gotten them started with, "Is she a crazy girl?" and before I knew it, they had labeled Clint a "crazy boy" and he was crying, too! He's usually so good-natured and positive. I told him we were only joking, that he wasn't crazy, and don't be sad! I think that the stress from their school tests today was getting to them.

The rest of the classes were fine, although many of the kids were exhausted from the tests. The middle school girls were happy to be finished with their tests (June 28~July 1) and planned to watch TV, play, and sleep tonight. They weren't particularly happy with their grades, but so far no one has been too upset about them.