Skool Dayz

School post! It's been about a week since I've blogged, and I didn't include anything about my first full week at Seongan Elementary... and now I'm at the end of my second! This might be long! A summary of (most) everything thus far!

Routines/Things that have stressed me out:
- 5th graders are awesome... and I'm slowly starting to despise 6th grade. My first lesson with them, my introduction, was painful to say the least. When teaching, I'm usually always energetic and love getting students interested in the material. It was my introduction, so this is probably as energetic as I get. If this were a sitcom, you would have heard crickets. They didn't really care about anything I had to say. Like my intro to my 5th grade classes, my coteacher (Jenn) translated most of it. They still didn't care. Some did, don't get me wrong, but the majority of the students/classes did not. Jenn and I had a chat later on, and she said that she doesn't even like teaching 6th grade because the students just don't care about learning English anymore. I find this to be shocking, as a good 3/4 of 5th graders are constantly participating, raising their hand, answering questions, etc. This may be an interesting experience with the 6th graders. There are some students I absolutely adore though, so I'm hoping that group expands throughout the school year. Trial and error: my new 6th grade motto.
- The Sunday night before my first week teaching, I started feeling a tickle in my throat. Not good. I woke up Monday morning with barely a voice. Super. I still powered through my introductions, and my first after-school class (4th graders are wonderful)! By Tuesday, my voice was completely gone. Not sick at all, just no voice. All my co-teachers were worried, encouraging me to go to the hospital. In Korea, they go to the doctor for ANYTHING. I reassured them I was fine, but they were still persistent. I spose this might come in handy if I ever do need to go to the hospital for anything (more on that later). I observed most of the week, assisting when needed. Even though I wasn't teaching per se, it was still stressful because...
- My co-teacher for 5th grade, Joy, is very specific when she write and executes lessons, and she had me write a few for my classes. I didn't have the teacher's guide book at this time, so it was really really hard to plan a lesson, when I don't know what I'm supposed to be teaching. I had the student text book, but pictures  can only tell you so much. The minimal writing that's in the student book, written in KOREAN, doesn't help either. I made, what I thought, was a pretty awesome lesson. Brought it to her the next day, and she basically disapproved of everything I had on there. 2 hours wasted. She made an outline for me of what she wanted the lessons to look like, which I'm still trying to get the hang of since I've only been in 5th grade half the week, so I did my best to go off of that. I re-did it and spent another 2+ hours trying to perfect it. She didn't like that one either. So I tried yet again a 3rd time... came to school the next day and she said she already had it planned. At this point, I was about ready to punch a wall. I know it's a totally different culture and way of teaching (or just way of life even) so I'm trying to use all the patience I have and learn from the experiences. As well as not taking everything so seriously. As of now, I think I have a better sense of how she teaches and what she expects of me. Taught a lesson (a Joy approved!) this week and I had a blast. The kids loved it, and Joy seemed to as well. Baby steps.
- My main co-teacher Jenn is an absolute HOOT. She's super supportive and is totally understanding of my current state of being overwhelmed. I think we'll have fun this year.

Interesting things I've heard/seen/experienced at school:
- "Teacha! Teacha! WWE!!" - after school student. Pretty much the only 2 things I've heard him say in class when he's not speaking Korean. I do the whole X arms, "anniyo," thing but he's very persistent. I try to be stone faced, but it's hilarious.
- "Teacha! Trick or treat!" - 6th grade (brat) student loudly while trumping into my library ... only for me to say trick (in a playful way). But I ain't giving you candy when you roll your eyes at me and throw things in my class. Cue annoying whine as she stomps off. Then she brings 3 friends in, and they all swarm around my desk. "TEACHA!! TREAT!!!" I tell them, in a friendly tone mind you, that I have no candy. Cue 4 girls rolling their eyes. They then decide to hang out in my library (I say 'my' cause it's the English library and where my desk is) and be the absolute loudest they can be. I have a few rules if students want to hang in the library, since when I'm in there I try to lesson plan. They can do one of two things: 1) Read English books, 2) Talk/converse in English (whether to me or other students). They were being obnoxious and loud while on their phones (which I also banned from the library). I reminded them of what they can do in the library, in a kind tone though I was fed up at this point, and they said "yeah yeah" and went back to being obnoxious. I kicked them out. More eye rolling. I didn't even care at this point. I don't want to be the teacher who's a total wench, but this is ridiculous. I also want the library to be an open, welcoming, comfortable place where students can practice English without pressure. When 4 girls are pounding on the computer keyboards while giving me the death glare and giggling, and others are messing with the air conditioning, all the while rattling off in Korean, I have no tolerance. This is why I hate most 6th graders ;)
- The behavior management, or lack thereof, is unreal. I've seen everything from kids full on sprinting through the halls (I've spilled so much coffee/tea because of kids running into me), slamming doors, and punching/hitting/kicking/WRESTLING in the halls and classrooms. I've seen absolutely no management for any of this. One kid had another in an arm lock, sitting on him on the floor, while another kid punched him square in the back. The teacher was standing not more than 5 feet away. She looked at them, laughed, then resumed her conversation with the other teacher. I don't even know what I should be doing. I've stopped a few wrestling matches that have gone on before my classes, letting students know I don't tolerate it in class. It never sticks. And as far as classroom management goes, I've been doing subtle things, like taking the flying pencil cases or books used as weapons out of hands, but my co-teacher told me not to do anything. She wants to do all of the management. And when I say all, I mean ALL. She said that if a student is misbehaving, I should point to the student and let Jenn know that I "don't like what so-and-so is doing" so she can handle it. I mentioned my subtle management strategies, like taking distracting items away, using my "angry Sara Teacha" face, and proximity to misbehaving students, but she doesn't think I should do any of it. We'll see how this goes.

In short, school has been a very unique, random experience thus far. I've already had many ups and downs but it's all part of the learning process. It'll get better. I'm sure of it.