Teaching Listening

I was woken by a ringing phone at 7:30 AM. As in, ante meridian, when the sun is just barely up and I'm not yet. It was Joelle, to say that the meeting has been postponed until next week because the people at the other schools couldn't be ready. How typically Korean. I confirmed with her last night as I was leaving work that the meeting was still on. What could have possibly happened between 8:30 PM and 7:30 AM to change that?! I managed to be ready to LEAD the meeting, and write and grade a test, and write an outline for the special summer class, as well as my normal 2~3 hours of checking the students' English diaries and hour of putting daily reports into the computer. The other teachers couldn't manage to write a page about a topic and show up at our school to talk about the topic?! What makes it even stranger is that Joelle sent a text message to Matt at 3:43 AM (as in the middle of the night!). But because it didn't say who the message was from, Matt thought it was another junk message, so showed up at school at noon anyways. (Hello! This message was in English, and refers to a "meeting"--he could have called someone to check.) Since Tanya doesn't have a phone yet, Joelle went to Tanya's apartment to tell her.

I've decided that Matt hears what he wants to hear. He gave me his paper about the meeting topic today. I told him he could hang on to it until we have the meeting, and hand it in then. I did, however, see enough of it to know that he wrote about the wrong thing. Last week I clearly told him that the topic was listening, specifically, how to teach the listening books. I then named the two major listening books that we teach, along with a couple of the minor ones. Well, his paper is about how to make children listen--be firm, have clear rewards and punishments, etc. Apparently he needs to study how to listen! He hates teaching the listening books. I don't think he gets it that teaching listening skills is a real part of teaching EFL!! You can't just say to the kids, "Listen to this and circle the answer you're supposed to circle." You have to explain the vocabulary to them and help them know what to listen for, and make sure they're listening hard enough but not too hard. (Sometimes if they're listening to every word they get preoccupied on the words that they don't know. I emphasize that they should, in most cases, listen for the meaning of the passage.)

He asked me about the flashcards I was studying, then said something about having no interest in learning Korean. I asked if he had any interest in getting a higher education in TEFL because it would be beneficial to know a non-Romance language. He said there was no way he would do TEFL again. (He didn't quite use those words, though. He's been using some pretty, shall we say, "strong" words recently. I have half a mind to tell him that I'm a lady and not to use such language around me. Perhaps I'm being a prude, but if you have a decent vocabulary, there's absolutely no reason to use certain words. They don't add emphasis, they only make you look like an uneducated, inconsiderate moron.) So, he's a month into a 12-month contract and he hates 95% of his classes because he doesn't want to make the effort to understand and make the lower levels understand him.

The day went by very, very, very quickly. I didn't get as much study for my Korean test done as I would have hoped, but did get all of my daily reports entered into the computer, finished correcting the English Diaries, and did my first adjustment of the "points" that the students earn or lose depending on their behavior, attitude, or completion of homework. Tomas got -10 because he refused to do anything in class, while Ally and Jenny received +3 for their excellent phone conversation yesterday. Some of the Korean teachers are much more free with handing out points--it's not unusual for some students to have 100~200 points in some teachers' classes, while in others the points are around 30~40 or firmly in the negative. That's sort of sad--if I had -100 points, I think I'd probably lose all hope of ever getting out of the hole, forget about ever having enough points to redeem for a prize.

Notable phrases from the kids: Tony (5 PM, a 9th-grader) said that when he congratulates people on their birthday, he says, "Why are you born?" Harry (6 PM, 6th grade) told me in a very serious voice, "Beth, you are weird." He didn't leave any hint of a question, but it was a solid statement. (I had just very dramatically acted out the story we had read to make it more exciting and make sure they understood it.) When I walked into the 7 PM class they all started shouting, "Cockroach! Cockroach!" as they pointed at the floor to make sure I remembered Wednesday. Yes, kids, I'm not forgetting that anytime soon! (I made sure they knew the word "cockroach" so if a similar situation ever happens again they can inform me a little earlier as to what the problem is!)

Latest Web Stats

It's interesting how the web robots work. I got my first search engine hit today, from a person who searched for "amusing anecdote." My main page isn't yet listed, but my "Can I take off my clothes?" entry is listed on Yahoo, I think because Blinger linked to that entry a couple of weeks ago (using the phrase "amusing anecdote").

Latest list of countries who have visited here: USA, Korea, Finland, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Ecuador, Brazil, Central African Republic, Oman. It makes for a very colorful group of flags, and what a diverse group of people. On the other hand, it could be all current or former TEFL teachers!

Government Conspiracy

The JoonAng Daily did a decent article regarding the censorship. The Korea Herald was supposed to print Shawn's letter to the editor today, but I can't find it on their website.

The guy at Hunjangûi karûch'im (who seems to know Korean nearly perfectly) has been in contact with a Korean lawmaker, Chung Moon-hun, to ask for help with the censorship. Apparently the representative (I wonder how old he is?) is sympathetic to the internet and its many uses--in the past he tried to legalize internet contact with North Korea. The blogger also sent something to the Science, Technology and Communications Committee.

The Big Hominid has been in contact with a reporter at a major Korean newspaper. The reporter is digging up some really interesting things, among them the fact that some MIC officials are denying that any government censorship is going on!! They're blaming the blogging services and/or the ISPs. Yeah, right! Another MIC official admitted their involvement and when asked why the current video led to the block but the American beheading video was OK to see, he said that it's different to see a Korean killed than a foreigner. What racism!!

Kevin's English Diary

I'm correcting the English journals tonight--hour 2 and I come across this. Can anyone clue me in to what this boy thinks "sexual" means??? He's in the 4th or 5th grade!

tuesday,July sixth,2004 practice Today, Our class student have practice of math test. I very very so so very don''t like math, because the math is very boring and a pain. I want kill math maker. Yesterday, we have practice,too. "Stoped the practice of math test,please" I said to my teacher. but my teacher said "I''m boring,but all student don''t study of math test. So I have a practice all to student. I think ''I want have a good sexual. But I don''t like practice. Please,I want have a good sexual. God bless me.''^_^

Update: Joel emailed and explained about the word confusion. In Korean, the same word means "sexual," "grade/score," and "holy place." The dangers of using a dictionary!! Usually the problem is more along the lines of using the wrong form of the word, like "I am boring" instead of "I am bored." Other times, the students use words so obscure or old-fashioned that I have to look them up in the English dictionary to know what they're talking about. Often the kids use words that seem way beyond their age. (What 2nd grader says, "This is delicious"? Of course not--they say "This is yummy" or "This is good.") I encourage the kids to use the words they already know when writing their English Diaries, and not to use the dictionary too much. However, some kids persist in writing the diary first in Korean, then translating it into completely incomprehensible English. When I get a really good example of that, I'll post it.

Tests

The adults were funny. Four of them arrived at 10:40 for a last-minute cramming session. When I was a student, I never found those helpful for anything besides raising my anxiety level. Grace said she woke up at 6:30 this morning to study, and she made her husband and son make breakfast for themselves. Vivian arrived a little late. I gave them a full hour to take the test, and at the end they said it was difficult. Well, at least a few of them did, while a couple remained silent. I decided to make the essay part worth 15%. Immediately following the test I graded the other part, and the points (out of 85) ranged from 69~85. That's not too bad. I saved the essay for this weekend--how to fairly grade it while not making them discouraged?

While they took the test I sat in the front of their classroom and prepared for my afternoon classes, then looked through Sandra's TESOL book. I didn't find anything for the meeting, but I did find some good stuff for my special class. Matt gave the summary of his special project to me, while Tanya gave hers directly to Joelle.

In the 3 PM class Ally and Jenny did an excellent job in the mock telephone conversations. Because it's a small class (only 5 students now) I let those two "call" each other several times. When they're begging me to practice English more, something's working how it's supposed to! One time Jenny invited Ally and her family over for dinner, another time Ally wanted Jenny to turn the TV on to a funny show, another time I scolded Ally for not saying goodbye to Jenny, but Ally explained that Jenny had already hung up, so she couldn't say goodbye. It was really cute, and a great job for 3rd-graders.

In the next class the air conditioner is still not working. With no windows, Pineapple classroom reaches temperatures of 90+ degrees. Luckily that's a small class, too, but it still made me incredibly sleepy. The next class woke me up--that air conditioner has been repaired, and the two fans were going, and there were only two students, so I sent Allan to buy ice cream for us. They did a good job talking, yet we were still able to get through a lot in the book. At 6 they did great at speaking only English, even during the pair activity. Billy came up with the strangest pronunciation ever for "errands," and after explaining what that was, I used the dictionary to make sure they completely understood. At 7 it's up to the maximum of 12 students. At one point Brandon was giving me problems, so I did what I've seen Kara do with him: grab him by the ear and drag him to stand in the corner. It's amazing how quickly someone will move when you're exerting force on his ear!

I finally got around to cracking the books tonight. My Korean test, which will probably be more like a quiz, is on Saturday. The teacher asked us to have the 40 descriptive verbs memorized and know how to turn all of them into adjectives. I made flashcards tonight using half a 3 X 5 card for each word. I'll carry them around tomorrow and study all I can--while eating, on the bus, between classes, on the bus again. Then on Saturday the 50 minute (since the class changed locations) bus ride will hopefully have most of the verbs stuck in my head.

The adults seemed less whiny about their test when they heard that I also have a test this week. The kids thought it was funny that their teacher had to take a test. Sara asked me, "Why do you learn Korean?" I explained that it makes it easier to live here to be able to speak some of the language. I think it makes me a better teacher, too, because I understand the difficulties of learning a language so different than your native language. Sometimes I'm still not patient enough, but more and more I'll be in Korean class and be struck at how I'm doing the same things that I hate my students to do, or I'll be teaching an English class and understand the frustration my Korean teacher feels sometimes, or why my students are making a certain mistake.

Unipeak.com is working again, so apparently something was wrong with their server yesterday. The Korean government is still stupid to have not figured out what we're doing. I find it a lot easier to surf using the other way, and can view and leave comments, so I'll continue turning on the slightly slower option to access the blocked pages.

Latest Letter to MIC and ICEC

I've gone a few days without doing anything to spread the word on the censorship, so today's work--I can't believe I sent this! What are the chances of the government arresting me on some trumped-up charge?! I sent it to the MIC and the ICEC, two of the organizations involved in the censorship, and carbon copied it to the letters to the editor person at the Korea Herald. I thought about taking off the signature file which tells my blog address and that I (and other people) are obviously still accessing it, but perhaps they'll see that the censorship isn't accomplishing much! I almost left in the "Sincerely" closing, but decided that it wasn't very accurate. I couldn't think of a good way to close--"Best wishes"--NO. "Cordially"--NO. How do you close a letter to someone that you dislike?!

Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 08:47:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Beth (last name)
Subject: Continued Censorship
To: webmaster@mic.go.kr, webmaster@icec.or.kr
CC: sophie@heraldm.com

To whom it may concern:

This letter is regarding the Internet censorship which began on June 24, 2004. My previous emails to both the MIC and ICEC received no response. It is deeply
disappointing that the government has done nothing to stop the censorship. It seems that instead of getting better, things continue to get worse. How many sites will you block?

How about make it easy and just shut down the whole Internet! Then no one can access any information whatsoever. Or better yet, outlaw computers. That way people can't access the Internet AND kids get rid of a major distraction to studying. Even better--go back to the pre-electricity days, then the contaminating influence of televisions and radios is gone, as well as all of those annoying handphones. People can go back to washing clothes by hand and having food poisoning because of improperly stored food. Electric lights aren't a necessity! Candles work just fine. That would actually be beneficial, because more people could be employed as firefighters to put out all of the fires caused by the use of candles. You know, modern medicine isn't all it's cracked up to be, either. Penicillin and aspirin--who needs them? If you get rid of cars and factories, the air would be a lot cleaner. I can think of lots of things we could change!

I suggest taking Korea back to how things were in the Choseon Dynasty, because all of these modern things--like a CONSTITUTION, specifically Article 21, which prohibits censorship--aren't a good idea.

Please respond with what you think and when we can expect these other changes to life in Korea.

Beth (last name)

=====
"He who sacrifices freedom for security is neither free nor secure."
(Benjamin Franklin)

View my blog at: http://chunjaeteacher.blogspot.com
If you're in SOUTH Korea, where my site is among many blocked by the government as being "hazardous," use a proxy server for access.

The Wonders of the Human Mind

Since this morning's church website meeting was cancelled, I spent a couple of hours on this webpage. I think I made it searchable by web robots, but am not sure if I still have to submit it to the search engines or if they'll eventually find me. I enabled public viewing on blogger, and added my site to the Korean Blog List. I'm trying to get a bigger readership!

It seems as if Unipeak is now blocked in Korea. I learned from My Resonating Life how to access a regular (is that what it's called?) proxy server. How it works is that you set Internet Explorer to go through a proxy server located in another country. The one I'm currently on is in the USA somewhere. When I'm going to normal sites I turn it off, but then for the blocked sites I turn it on. It's a lot slower than my normal speed, but still faster than the dial-up speed I used to deal with at home. After all, the request for the webpage has to travel to the USA, then to that webpage, and then back to me. Or something like that; I don't completely understand how it works. I'm afraid a lot of people won't know how to do this, so will stop reading/writing blogs. This is a unique form of expression!! It must continue!!!! I considered switching to a different site, but I haven't been on this one long, and am just getting the page how I like it. There's also no guarantee that the government wouldn't block that site, too.

Work was pretty typical. The day flew by. After preparing for classes I did cut and paste for the adult class. That's old-fashioned cut and paste, using actual scissors and glue. Copy a page from the book, cut out a picture, paste it on the test paper, etc. The test has 10 listening questions, 25 other questions, and 1 essay question. I gave them 3 choices on the essay part. I'm not quite sure how I'll score the test, especially since some of the 25 questions have more than one _____ to fill in or more than one (choice/choices) of answers. Between classes I copied and stapled the pages of the test together. Matt thought the test looked too long for 50 minutes. I don't think they should have a problem. I hope not, anyway. It really isn't that difficult! After dinner I found the listening test tape (left over from session test). I'm 100% ready for tomorrow!

I've been thinking about the topic for the special once-a-week class I have to teach over the kids' summer vacation. Should I do it about Florida again, or legends, or some other topic? Tonight the topic suddenly popped into my head while I was doing something completely unrelated to it. (I think I may have been straightening my desk!) I have to let my subconscious mind work on it a bit more, but my working title is "How to Write an English Diary" OR "How to Write a Better English Diary." I'm leaning towards the first one because it's more positive; the second one implies that what they're writing now isn't very good. Well . . . cough, cough . . . hmmm . . . there's always room for improvement, right? I'm thinking I'll do the first week on choosing a SINGLE topic for one entry (since they have no idea what paragraphs are, and rarely write enough to warrant having more than one paragraph), the second week on how to write a sentence (remember, children, VERBS are important!), the third on capitalization and punctuation (is that too much for one week?), and the last on how to improve spelling and vocabulary??

As I said, I have to think about it some more, but I think it could be very valuable to them, and help them get some of their homework done during class when they'll have my help, and hopefully they'll begin to write a little better. I would prefer to teach kids studying the Impact Intro book or higher because they've been writing a diary for awhile and already have a good idea of what's expected. I think I could help them improve more, while kids at the Pink 1~Best Friends 3 levels (roughly a year's worth of study lower than Impact Intro) haven't been writing as long. I'll probably end up doing the Pink 1 and up, hoping that enough advanced kids will come that I can perhaps pair up the stronger and weaker students to help both improve. The stronger students can show the weaker ones how to write, and thus learn even more.

The big event of the day occurred in my 7 PM class (Miro's). I was teaching, they were doing well at following the English-only rule (only 3 kids in the corner tonight!), and things were going smoothly. Suddenly several kids pointed at the ground near my feet and shouted, "Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!" WHAT already?! "Uh, uh, uh . . . " Now I appreciate that they wanted to follow my rule. HOWEVER, sometimes it's OK to break a rule! If they would have said the Korean word for what was VERY near my foot, I would have known what it was immediately. Instead a kid (maybe Brad) said, "Disgusting! Teacher! Disgusting!" and they all started chorusing after him, "DISGUSTING! TEACHER! OH NO! DISGUSTING!!!" I'm looking down at the floor--What? What's disgusting? What is it? What's wrong? What are you yelling about?

Sidenote: Koreans in general think different things are disgusting than Americans do. The first time I stood in a chair to reach something, I had my shoes on, which was was labeled "disgusting." Now when I need to reach something up high, I take my shoes off before stepping into the chair.

Well, this is one point that I agree with them, it WAS disgusting. When I saw the rat-sized cockroach just inches from my foot, I jumped, which sent the roach scurrying under the desk. I jumped up, nearly knocking my chair over in the process, and hopped around, hoping to keep my sandal-clad feet away from the monster. It certainly wasn't the biggest bug I've ever seen (palmetto bugs beat anything else) but it was well-fed by all the trash at the Lotteria fast food restaurant downstairs. The kids saw me mildly freaking out, which made them freak out more. The girls AND boys were jumping into their chairs (with their shoes on, I might add--"disgusting!"). Paul stayed to help me fight the horrid creature. He grabbed the small trash can and tried to squish the roach. (Somehow it's "disgusting" or "dirty" or something like that to squish a bug with your shoes. I wasn't about to try with my sandals, for fear that it would wrap around the side of my shoes and touch me with its feelers.) My summer-camp training came back into my mind, "Stay calm! The kids will mirror your response to what's happening." I took a deep breath and used the trash can (which Paul gladly relinquished) to kill the bug, then used some tissue to pick it up and put it in the trash can. The kids calmed down fairly quickly, and despite the interruption, we even had time for a game at the end of class.

Before I went home I reminded Matt and Tanya about the special class summary due tomorrow, and the paper/meeting on Friday. I tried to say it nicely, yet making sure they knew that both were important to get done on time. I think I got a good balance of "I'm in charge, listen to me," and "You're an important part of this school, let's work together."

Fan Death

I was happy with how much I got done today. During my 3 PM break I wrote most of the adult test and printed out a couple of things to discuss at the meeting on Friday. I'm feeling a lot better about having things finished by the various deadlines.

Miro wasn't at work today. I asked Jane if she was sick and Jane hesitated before replying, "No, absent." Absent? What does that mean? Why? Come on, don't be so mysterious! My speculation is that perhaps Miro might be the one quitting. The reasons:

1. She didn't want to teach the adult class at first because (according to her) she already had too many classes, then because she wanted to do a "camp" this summer.
2. The two teachers that I've interviewed.
3. She was absent today. Perhaps interviewing for another job?

Yes, pure speculation.

The laptop guy (I still don't know his name, yet talk to him nearly every day!) and I were talking about how hot it was and different methods we use to survive. I said that when I get home at night I turn on the air conditioner and the fan for a few hours, then turn the air conditioner off before I go to bed. He said, "You don't sleep with the windows closed, do you?" Of course! Otherwise the cold air would get out! "Oh, you'd better open a window."

I couldn't help but laugh, knowing he was referring to the dreaded "fan death." I've heard it from the kids, but never from an adult, especially one as well-educated and well-traveled as him. He's been exposed to so many different cultures and people, yet still believes this Korean superstition! It's easy enough--sleep with the fan on and the windows and doors closed, and you suffocate. HOW? Does the fan eat up oxygen? It doesn't make any sense! I've read other people's speculations that in the past perhaps there were some unexplained deaths, or in the winter there was a gas leak and people died, and the easiest thing was to blame it on the fan. I told him that lots of people in other countries sleep with a fan on and the windows closed and they don't die. He listened with great interest, and admitted that it might be a Korean superstition, but that he'd never considered it before.

First Aid in Korea

The first class of the day is usually about 20% purely playing with them. They're in the second grade, and absorb so much English without even trying to learn. Well, today the buckle on one of their shoes sliced into my leg, taking out a piece of flesh and leaving a 2-inch scratch. After class I sought out the first aid kit. The new secretary rolled her chair over to help me. She usually bandages up the kids, but I wondered if she thought I couldn't handle a cut on my own! I wanted to say, "Hey! My mom's a nurse, and my dad's a first responder. A little medical info has soaked into my brain over the years!" She looked at me strangely as I opened the equivalent of alcohol/peroxide to clean the cut. She offered the ointment stuff, but I said no, it's OK; I'll just clean it and put a band-aid on it. Well, she opened up the ointment anyway, so rather than protesting, I figured I'd go along with it.

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. The way they handle nose bleeds gives a strong indicator of how the everyday person handles medical issues--the kid leaves the classroom to find tissue, dripping blood along the way, leaving blood on the roll of tissue, tearing the tissue up into small pieces to stick up the nose. One time in Sandra's class a kid's nose started gushing blood all over the desk and floor. Sandra had to clean it up without gloves or anything, and there wasn't any cleaning solution to use, only tissues and water.

Anyway, the secretary unscrewed the lid to the ointment and I figured she'd do it the right way and put it on the band-aid, and then put the band-aid on the cut. Before I could stop her, she applied the ointment directly from the tube to my bleeding wound, then used her bare finger to rub the ointment the length of the scratch. So she's coming into direct contact with my blood, and my scratch is getting whatever germs are on her finger, and I don't want to even think about the tube of ointment. How many kids has she done the same thing to??? They just don't get the concept of hepatitis or AIDS or anything like that. In my first year I remember talking about some kind of disease like that with one of the teachers, and we had to look it up in the English-Korean dictionary. Even then, the person had to ask a couple of other teachers before someone knew what the Korean word meant. Those kinds of diseases aren't common here (well, hepatitis A might be) but they should still be more conscious of proper sanitation!

I instituted "Matt's Corner Method" in several more classes today. It worked fairly well, although in one class I ran out of corners--7 students being punished at the same time! However, the classes did a lot better about speaking only English.

The adults were whining about their test again. As I anticipated, Jennifer asked if she could use a dictionary for the writing portion--no way! They would spend all their time looking up difficult words, and then probably use them incorrectly. I'd rather them use words they already know and can use without difficulty.

I returned to the doctor and got 3 more days of drugs. One more visit, and my ear should be fine. At least the doctor's office appears to be clean. Perhaps medical personnel have learned the essentials, but important info has yet to trickle down to the everyday person?

Typhoon Mindulle

I made it back to Korean class yesterday. I went to the normal place near the Hyundai factory, then rode with the teacher and a new student to the clubhouse at the foreigners' compound, where we're meeting now. Not enough people signed up for the advanced class, so the Hyundai place wouldn't give us a classroom to meet in. Since Wen-loo lives in the foreigners' compound, he can use the building.

The day was so incredibly hot, but I was dressed for the weather--I think only the second time I've worn shorts this summer. That's not because it hasn't been hot, but because they're not appropriate in many situations. The three guys wore pants, so they turned the A/C on as high as it could go, and two hours later I was freezing. The teacher drove me back to Taehwa-dong with her A/C on high, so I continued to freeze, then because it was starting to rain I took the bus home, which was also cold. My body is used to the 85 degree school--it gets rid of heat very efficiently. It doesn't know how to stay warm when it's 65 degrees inside!

Before class I spent some time doing some heavy cleaning and laundry. I had a few minutes of panic when I couldn't find my bankbook last week, so figured it was time to tidy up. Things are more organized chaos now.

I was home by about 6 PM, just before it started pouring. I went to bed at midnight, pretty early for me, and slept straight through until almost 10 AM. The rain helped me sleep by blocking out all the noises from the street, and the clouds hid the sun that normally shines in my window. It was wonderful.

I found out that the rain is actually the remains of Typhoon Mindulle, which means dandelion in Korean. It's officially a tropical depression now. After church Holly, Jody, Paul, and I went to Lotte Cinema. We were going to take a taxi, but the wind was horribly strong so we jumped on a passing bus instead. The winds were (by my estimate) 40 MPH--walking was difficult, my umbrella broke, and while trying to wrestle my umbrella into submission I cut my finger. Typhoons are dangerous!

We arrived at 2:45. Instead of taking a number and waiting until it was our turn to buy tickets, Paul played the part of "stupid foreigner" and simply walked up to the counter. The employee sold tickets to him despite the many people waiting with numbers-in-hand. Even with the cheating, we only barely got tickets for the 4:45 show--in row B (row A is the front row). We then went to Pizza Hut, where we were told it would be a 40 minute wait. So down to Java Coffee, where we had to add a chair from the cafeteria area to our table. That whole complex is a busy place on the weekends. Then back up to Pizza Hut for lunch, then a quick trip back to the first floor for Holly to look at clothes and the boys to play an arcade game, then the movie--Spiderman 2. Over lunch they gave me a summary of the first movie, then after the movie I asked Paul a few questions. It was good--nothing earth-shattering, but good.

Holly and Jody took a taxi back to Mugeo-dong, but I felt like the slower method of the bus--you can see more things that way. The wind had died down a little (it was nearly 7 PM by then) and only a misting rain was falling, so Paul and I walked the half-hour to Gongeotap Rotary. As usual, the conversation was deep and fascinating. He thinks about things in a different way than most people.

At home I experimented with the pictures on the disk Dave gave me. What's the problem?! The CD has nearly 200 pictures that he has taken at various church functions, but the files are all HUGE. By emailing them to myself I shrunk them considerably, but they still won't load onto the website. I'll try again when I have fewer things hanging over my head.

I brought a backpack full of books home to do stuff this weekend, but hadn't done anything until tonight. Tonight I wrote my report for the work meeting and found a couple of good articles on the internet to print out and reproduce for everyone. Tomorrow I'll look through Sandra's TESOL book and try to find some more info. My first time leading a teachers' meeting--I want to be as overprepared as I can be. I also still have the adult test to write. I know they'll ask me about it first thing tomorrow. I'm tempted to use the test at the end of the workbook, but I think I'll make questions similar to those, add a few more listening questions, and add a writing section. I don't think I can do a speaking test because most of them wouldn't do well.

On Friday the adults were complaining to Miro again about having to take a test. They told her that I have two options: make the test a take-home test, or not have a test, but have a party instead. They wanted to have a party on Wednesday (when I normally don't teach them) because I don't have to teach until 3 PM on that day. Uh, NO!! I have other things to do besides hang out with them. We're having a website meeting that morning, and even if we weren't, I'm not going to come to work when I don't have to! I've told them, repeatedly, that MR. KIM SAID WE HAVE TO HAVE A TEST. Yes, they're the ones paying for their class so in principle should be able to decide whether they want a test or not, but I'm doing what my boss told me to do.