Crocs in the classroom

My favourite part is the shoes were over two sizes too big for him and clearly weren't his.

Almost, but not quite

A nice gentle opener to the class.

Me: "What pet would you like?"

Student: "I want a pet square."

Me: "....."

Student: "I want a pet square. They live in the trees."

Me: "Oh, you want a pet squirrel!"

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Yesterday. One study sentence was 'We pull into a gas staton for some fuel'

Me: "What is fuel?"

Student: "Car..... yummy yummy"

Classroom trend

From time to time you notice kids pick up habits or do things that they see others do or say. Recently a bunch of my students - in different classes - have been zipping up their hooded tops right to the top making them look like they are in a multi-coloured moving body bag.

It's a bit strange but my students seem to get a real kick out of doing it even if half of them actually manage to get the zip stuck leaving them breathless and in a panic.



Even one of my co-workers has started doing it.

Short back and sides

Over the past few days I've noticed a bunch of my students had new haircuts. It clicked after a while that they were all kids who were set to start Middle school very soon, in fact I think most of mine started on Tuesday.

The boys with haircuts all looked like fresh military recruits while the girls who all had long hair had theirs snipped to a much shorter length all because their school requires them to have shorter hair. I don't know if this is nationwide or just a Daegu thing. None of them like it and a few boys had their hoods covering their heads which kind of made it worse because everyone knew what was going on and it made them look a bit soft.

Over the years several of my students who are girls have complained to me that they have to have shorter (though not short) hair. They feel it's unfair. My first thought is to feel sorry for them and have a bit of sympathy. I asked my wife for her opinion and she just said she was "used to it," and I taker this as meaning she doesn't care. For the boys it is perhaps a bit over the top. The kids who now have very short hair didn't exactly look like Billy Ray Cyrus.

Your hairstyle forms part of your personality and helps define your individuality and thus must represents a loss them. Perhaps it is their school's way of making them know that they all equal but also must all act the same way. It's probably just because it's something that has been there for a while and they just don't want to change.

The haircut is not the only change they'll have. From my experience several of them are in danger of losing some of their personality for the next six years as they have to cope with a stream of exams and flow of pressure from school/parents/social expectations. From being carefree children they may now turn into zombies whose only joy comes from the PC room or their phone. I wish them all well and hope they will enjoy growing their hair back as soon as possible

Do some people really have no opinion?

Yesterday in my last class of the day I asked the innocuous question, "What do you think about people who are not from Korea?" I wasn't asking a loaded question and would have accepted almost any answer like, "They are rich," "They are ugly," "They are big." All I wanted was the girl to say something because I wanted the class to have a decent pace.

After five minutes the girl still hadn't said anything even though she understood what I had asked. For some of my students asking them a question they didn't expect is the worst thing you can do because it means they actually have to give you an opinion and show imagination. Perhaps I should have moved onto the next question but I wanted this girl to answer because she really needs to practice her speaking and as the class only has four students it gives her a great chance to communicate with me.

After a while I asked another student to ask her the same question in Korean and she came out with "I don't think about." This was after I had wrote on the board the number of people who live in Korea, both North and South and also the fact that there are over six billion other people on the planet who are not Korean. I also mentioned that there are over two hundred countries that are not Korea, such as America, China and England. I didn't make fun of her or raise my voice and I tried to encourage her to come out with something.

I realise the question was a broad one but was hoping this would give her the scope to come out with an answer - or at least lie to me with a good sentence! It really frustrates me when my students show such a lack of imagination because Koreans are not like this. They really aren't. They have opinions and thoughts like everyone else and are creative, industrious and innovative people. I refuse to believe that she does not have an opinion on people outside of Korea. If I had said, "What do you think about people from Japan?" I would have at least got an answer even if it would have been the one her family have told her to think.

In, On, At

Prepositions of place. Everybody understood the grammar but I threw in some examples before asking for some students to make their own sentences.

Me: "We are in the classroom," "He is at the door," "She is on the chair."
Student : "Gavin teacher is in the nightclub!"

Never trust your students

After a few cancellations I had my final observation from my manager two weeks ago. She arrived before classes and would be watching my first. I was happy with this as it was a lesson I had taught the previous day twice so I knew what I was doing. And because they are one of my youngest but brightest, enthusiastic, creative and are enjoyable to teach. Yes they were my favourite class.

I rolled into class expecting everything to go well. I did everything the manager wanted which was basically repeat, correct, give everyone their chance to speak and try and make the class fun. And then I was thrown under the bus by the students.

Betrayed by five boys who should know better and who I've always tried my best to help whist making every class as enjoyable as I can! Perhaps I exaggerate but they really let me down and embarrassed me with their bad timing. So what did they do? Mocking me, parroting me, making ridiculous sentences and shouting out answers when it was someone else's turn, making fun of my questions and the repeating we did. I am relieved that there was no contract riding on this.

Doesn't sound like much but it was obvious at the time that they were doing this deliberately for a joke. All of those things they had never done before and won't do again. There was also little I could do because the previous branch manager had watered down the teachers capacity to deal with things like this. I let them know several times that this was out of order as I tried to manage the situation. If the manager was not watching me, then I would have dealt with this easily but I didn't do it so well because quite frankly I was shocked at their behaviour.

With about fifteen minutes left the manager left and the atmosphere changed. They stopped being silly as they knew I was not happy with them. Oh students! After the class I let them know they had done something wrong. I didn't punish them or shout at them but I was really disappointed. Now the class has changed. Three of the five have moved to another group and someone else now has the 'pleasure' of their company and I am left with a great bunch of kids again.

Otherwise the class went OK. Despite one horrible grammar explanation of mine I did what was wanted from the particular class. I didn't expect a good write up but I could live with that as I'm going in a few months. got the evaluation last week and it was not as good as my previous one but was probably better than average. I got some decent comments and the evaluation was positive and fair. But never trust your students. Et tu brute?

Students make me laugh

I had a great day in the classroom if not at work in general. I can't remember how long it's been since I laughed as much as I did today in all my classes. Right at the end in my lowest level of Middle school the boys were pulling all sorts of tricks. Making fun of the others and really causing me to burst into fits of laughter.

The class objective was understanding and using simple past tense sentences such as;

I ate steak,
We watched TV,
She played tennis

Student: "xxxx xxxx ate viagra"

He repeated this several times throughout the lesson which blew the mind of the boy he was talking about because he had no idea what was going on. On paper it doesn't sound so funny but in practice it was. The class didn't recover and we had a vast array of jokes and physical gags all of which made to a great end of the day for me and for that class as I won't be teaching them again.

Korean notebook riddle

I continue to enjoy the notebooks my students bring to class. This has no spelling mistakes but has the usual positive messages. What are these pink dreams? After yesterdays class about wishes I am hoping that my students really do have better dreams than to get a new pencil case.

You don't know my name

Another student mistake over my name. How can you mistake Gavin for Gival? I applaud this kids imagination and wonder if any more will leap out at me before my time is up here. I think this is almost as bad as the time my now ex co-worker thought my name was garden.

That's not how you spell Richard

One of my students is having a lot of difficulty with spelling week in week out and there is very little I can do to help him other than to point out the mistake and correct it, which I always do and he always ignores. I am sympathetic with todays big spelling mistake - Richard - because many Koreans pronounce it RE-CHARD. I think he is in the wrong level for now so I need to help him as much as I can.

Friendly rivalry

On Tuesdays and Fridays I teach my youngest and lowest level class with just four students. This class is always a lot of fun and full of incidents. One boy is a little different to the others - he once had to be dragged out of class by the jaeshi teachers like a prisoner from Guantanamo bay. He has calmed down and seems to enjoy class and also the learning process. The others make fun of him but I make sure to give him lots of encouragement.

On Wednesday they are taught by my co-worker Ivan. From all accounts they really love what goes on there. Myself and Ivan are trying to make our classes more interesting by making the class more fun and asking the kids questions that make them think more. Often they give a funny answer but always they are very engaged by the whole thing.

Recently I have begun a 'rivalry' with Ivan. I let the students think that we are enemies and always competing against each other with the hope that they use their improving English with creative sentences. I think it's working but we'll see. On Wednesday the situation is reversed with myself teaching Ivan's low level class. Here the class has begun making great questions about the rivalry between myself and Ivan. An example can be found here.

Right now it's a lot of fun and I wonder what's going to happen next. For what it's worth I think Ivan's class like me and my class likes Ivan. As long as they enjoy learning I think we are all happy. At least both classes are never boring.

Student confession

I have one student who is - as all the others who've taught him will say - one of the worst students in my academy. He rarely brings his book to writing class. Even rarer still are the days he brings in his homework. He spends most of his free time after classes in the retest room. At times he is a real pain, distracting others whilst making it hard to teach the way I would like and the way the class needs to be taught.

But, having been his teacher for a long time -about a year in total - I actually hate to admit it but I think he is pretty funny. He is not the brightest in class but often says the funniest things, often at the right time. Ironically his actions make the class a lot more fun that it might ordinarily be.

Today is presentation day and of course he didn't do his homework. I gave him help and enough time to practice but before he was due he held his head in his hands and came out with this.

"Why me? I am loser. I am life loser!"

You had to be there but once again he had the class in stitches.

Really bad spelling

I don't know how my student got this word so wrong today. He was supposed to write television.

Where's mine?

Them: "Give me Pepero!"
Me: "Why?
Them: "...Give me Pepero!"
Me: "I think you've got this the wrong way round!"
Them: "I want Pepero"
Me: "Where's mine?"
Them: "Pepero"

And then I roll my eyes in semi-disgust as the conversation is shut down. Luckily this was only happened a few times today, today being 빼빼로 day once more in Korea. The day where people, often youngsters, give others this chocolate covered biscuit stick thing. It's harmless but when my students demand food from me I really get annoyed. Especially as over the past two years or so I have been fairly generous in giving out treats and snacks to classes.

I have some wonderful students. Some kids who you know will unfailingly grow up to be good, maybe great adults but I have dealt with far too many spoiled brats. Kids who take but never give. Those who whenever they see you eating their lunch act like a starving child who hasn't eaten for days and demand some of your food. And more often than not, those kids are also the worst students. I ask myself if this is a Chilgok thing? A Daegu thing? Or a Korean thing? I really don't think it's the latter.

Good news but the signs aren't good

This week some good news at work. At least on the face of it. Starting Monday, every foreign teacher will get a break in the week, apart from the new guy who is supposed to start next week. This is great and nobody is complaining. It's something to look forward to and hopefully I can use my time productively, be that preparing stuff or reading a book.

In the three years I've worked at my academy only Korean teachers have had breaks. Everyone has had them on Wednesday's but that kind of doesn't count. Also, we do get breaks in between classes but only of five or ten minutes. Now we're getting a free period each but only because numbers are down on our Middle school students. It means that there aren't enough numbers for us to teach. Which is a bad thing. Elementary students seem to be in steady supply (so far) but not the older kids. Clearly my branch is suffering from the new and shiny academy that's just opened up down the road.

My job isn't affected. I have a c0ntract for six more months and there is no worry of me being out of work but I like where I work and don't want the place to do badly. On top of the numbers issue we were told this week that the owner of the building wants 'us' out too. That though is not bad news as moving to a cleaner and possibly newer building will be great for both teachers and kids. Oh, and a new teacher started on Monday but quit after only three days. I feel sorry for my manager who must be under a lot of pressure.

Pencil case art

Today two of my students storyboarded a 'fun' scenario involving myself and my partner teacher. 가빈 is, of course, me.

Occupational hazard

Another day another cold. What is it with this place of late? I just can't stay 100% healthy. I look at my diet and think, OK no great but not bad so it's not that. I've been here long enough to build up a decent immune system and I take vitamin C as well as drink orange juice. I am getting enough sleep and have little to no stress. Oh yeah, I work in Korea. In an academy. With kids. Who always have colds. Because they get them off the people they are surrounded by. Because when they cough they don't cover their hands or face so spread germs around. And also they tend to have a habit of not washing their hands. Mind you, there's no soap in the bathroom where I work. I love being here, just not when I am sick - which feels like an occupational hazard at times here.

Curious student

Middle school student: "In England, frog pizza?"

Taegeukgi challenge

Yesterday a few of my classes concentrated on flags and countries. The topic created a lot of good conversations with the kids who talked freely about what they liked and didn't like about other nations, although there are lots of countries this students didn't know much about - was I much different at that age? I challenged a few of my students to draw the Korean flag in one minute, sadly the first image is their best effort. The second is mine, not great but OK for one minute. I always thought Korean students at art than me but not yesterday.