Pretty and Ugly

Kids are funny.

My open class was not fun. I was so nervous. The kids talked a little bit, but they were all pretty nervous too. I felt like I really had to prove myself to the parents. I didn't take my eyes off the kids. I was too afraid to either see looks of disapproval or boredom. I have a meeting with my superior tomorrow to see what they said and what I need to do to improve.

I think the funniest part of the whole situation was when one dad was sitting behind his son. As he was reading the father was whispering the words to him before he even got a chance to say them! The boy totally would have been able to sound them out too. I wish this father realized that giving him all the answers doesn't help him.

I'm getting much more comfortable with my senior 3-1 class. Before I was pretty intimidated by the things they'd say to me. If they brought up their former teacher (who they adorred and pretty much wanted to marry) I'd feel bad about it. I'm realizing that its not that they really hate me (although some say that they don't like me -yes Koreans can be blunt sometimes) but more that Ryan let them do many things that they wanted to do. I know they played a lot of games and he'd tease them and let them get pretty crazy. The funny thing is that all the kids that love him are all the male students. The three girls in the class like me. I get along so well with them. Tonight when the boys were saying that they wanted to have Ryan as their new teacher I just said "ok, you go as the counter teacher. I'll keep the girls and it will be a great class with just the 4 of us" The girls loved that and the boys didn't even notice. Ha! Now that I don't care I think that the classes are becoming much more effective.

The girls wanted me to bring in pictures to see what my sisters look like. They nearly died when they saw the beautiful shots of Rae that Ashleigh took. They couldn't believe that she was my sister and not a model. The boys kept saying "she's ugly!" and I just replied "well thats because you're 13 and you don't care about girls yet,but you just wait, soon you will and won't know what to do with yourselves!" (I don't think they understood that either) They made some comment about me too. (like i cared) When the class was over the girls stayed back and Daisy was like "I looked at the picture wall (yes the school has a wall of all the foreign teachers in frames like trophies for everyone to look and and judge you) and I think you most beautiful teacher of Youngdo!" I'm sure she knows I'm writing report cards this weekend. Maybe I'll make her student of the month too.