WHAT no get that song out of my head!!
Anyways, so this post comes right after I finished writing my post from 2 weeks ago....woops. I was able to get into the routine this week and things were a bit better. I learned that kids are absolutely terrified of getting an "X" on the board next to their name. This means I am now back in power in my classrooms. It works SO well in my evil class that all I have to is make the slightest movement towards the board and they run back to their seats and stay there. One day, I had such a great morning with the kindergarten classes and decided I WAS going to have a good afternoon. Instead of only punishing for bad behavior, I was going to reward any good behavior. As soon as I got into the evil class, I wrote all their names on the board like I always do, but this time, I put checks beside each name. I was in such a great mood and just so determined to love this class. I held up a flashcard and EDDIE said what color the animal was. I quickly began acting like I had won a million dollars and dove over the table to give him a high-five, a sticker AND another check mark on the board. Well this was just too much for them. All of a sudden, every kid was really into answering "A YELLOW DUCK, A GREEN FROG, A BLUE HORSE" and by the end there were stickers all over their faces, hands and even one on my face. When they misbehaved, I just erased a check instead of wrote an X. This worked just as well. I was so pleased with the class and the day! I did the same thing with Aidan, Alex and Fred. I just said 3 checks equaled a sticker. Stickers are seriously like crack to these kids. It's amazing. I think it was the next day in my other afternoon kindergarten class when I was trying to teach a song to the kids. They were all putting their heads on the desks or talking to each other. There was only one girl who was doing the motions along with me. Boom, she got a sticker and of course I made a huge deal about it like no one in the world had this blue smiley face sticker. All of a sudden the kids were wide awake and eagerly motioning, "What did you see? I saw a red bird looking at me." It was just too funny!
Now, I'm not bragging about my "teaching skills" or anything of the sort! I just think it's hilarious!
One day while using the X's, Ryan and Daniel were fighting. Ryan is the smartest/cutest/sweetest kid but he bit Daniel and was kinda acting up. I put an X by his name and pointed it out to him when he released Daniel from his jaws. You would think this kid has NEVER seen an X so close to his name. He looked up at it, threw his head back and burst into tears. What?! I had never gotten this reaction! I hugged him and he just sobbed on my shoulder for a good 3 1/2 minutes. I was sad to have to make such a cutie cry. He was ok after a while though.
This may have been last week, I don't remember but I'm telling it now anyways. Fred was really bein bad one day and would NOT do his work. He gets this way sometimes. Aidan and Alex were doin fine but Fred just would not cooperate. I had already told them, if they got 4 X's they had to stand at the front of the class with their hands up. Fred quickly had 4 X's to my dismay and even worse, he would NOT come to the front of the class. He had a nervous smile at first as I gestured and sternly told him exactly what he needed to do, NOW, but he didn't move. I told him he either needed to stand up here or get out! Alex and Aidan were really into this punishment and I knew I had to follow through with something. I was hating it because I just adore Fred! Then it got worse. Fred was looking down for a while and when he looked up I saw....no....tears!! My heart dropped. They were just welling up in his eyes, no rolling tears, thank goodness. Finally, I explained that if he did the page of work, I would erase one X. I had to help him a lot but he finally finished and I joyfully erased an X! I was basically crying as I finished up and left class!
Ok, another Fred story:-) He's just the best. I almost cried because of him again but this time it was the sweetest thing! Friday was test day. Alex and Aidan were being loud and a little annoying when I first came in, not really listening. My throat was hurting and at one point I tried yelling at them to stop but grabbed my throat. Fred, the darling, saw and asked super worried, "Teacher, are you ok?" A little bit later they all wanted to go get water. They came back and Fred took a sip of his and then...yes...gave it to me!!! He came along before class ended to collect and throw away the cup as well. I gave stickers to them at the end and he sneakily grabbed 3 when the other boys got 2. Aidan was extremely upset about it (he's extremely upset about anything really) and I gave one more to Alex and Aidan. But Fred then gave ME all his stickers! How could you not love Fred?
Now I shall talk about how adorable Paul is.
He makes everything ok. I mean I'll be having a bad day and I'll be eating lunch in the teacher's room dreading my afternoon classes and then I hear a noise at the door, look over, and see him running over to me like this. Every.Single.Day. I don't know what happened but he really loves me so much and I just absolutely love him to death! It's to the point now that if the Korean teachers can't find him when his ride comes, they look for me in the teacher's room cause they know he'll be with me. I get to hang out with him twice a day. Once at lunch for a little bit and then for a little longer after my last class. Sophie and I are totally wrapped around his tiny little finger now! Here are some videos of him:-) He didn't know I was taking a video so he kept posing trying to get me to take the picture already.
** how very irritating. The other very cute video just will not load. I will try again soon!**
Things have been getting better at school and then as we were leaving Friday, Linda comes up and says, "On Monday you'll start teaching a class next door from 1-1:30. The kids don't have books." I was disappointed to hear that my break would be shortened cause that's when I plan afternoon lessons but ok..."Umm ok, so what are we teaching?" "Oh...I don't know. Hannah will tell you!" Ha! Yes, Hannah will tell us on Monday at 12:50 and it won't make any sense. So tomorrow should be very interesting but you just gotta roll with the punches here.
Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day of course and a few of us went to O'Brien's in Changwon. I had the best chicken burrito and chips and salsa ever. Ok, not best ever but when you have been craving it....yumm!! I also found this on a big poster thing with names and crests from Ireland:
In case you didn't know, my last name is O'Rourke. See the two lions? Yes, O'Rourke.AAAAND then I forgot to post this gem from the noribang-2 of my favorite guys singing what? Mmmbopp:-) Welcome to the magic of the noribang!! (Hmm just re-watched it on here. It's not this dark on my computer...oh well. You'll live.)
I've got to share this with you as well. I've been introduced to La Roux, who is just amazing. This is my favorite (too bad it's just one of the remixes) but all her stuff is good! Listen to La Roux.
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9E1MWMFym8&feature=related **
Sophie had a really good idea for getting Aidan to settle down. He absolutely CANNOT sit still so she suggested making him jump. Just jump up and down until he doesn't want to be out of his seat! One day he was particularly restless so I pulled him over to a clear space and said, "Jump. 5 minutes." At first he thought it was a game and Alex even wanted to join in (not Fred, he knew they were idiots). Alex tired pretty quickly and sat down and Aidan thought he would do the same. I pointed to the clock, "Noooo, you still have 2 minutes." "WHY teacher?!" "Because you can't sit in your seat!!" It didn't take 5 minutes for him to be exhausted and when I finally let him stop, he sat down and didn't even WANT to get out of his seat for anything the rest of the class. Success. Thanks Sophie:-)
Oh a good Sue story! She's always got silly things to say! We were staring a test on Friday and a very loud noise from above shook us and was making one of the lights vibrate. Sunny said there were workers on the roof but it kept happening and I don't remember what I said about it but Sue tried to be helpful, "I don't think there's an animal up there..." Ha what?! I'm not sure what she heard. But thanks Sue, I don't think there was an animal in the light/on the roof either:-)
I'll end with pictures of Paul being cute.
Well now that wasn't too long, was it? I won't forget to post again though, because this was annoying for me. Typing 2 posts in one day? It just makes me realize how jumbled the weeks and months become in my mind. Hopefully I can get those videos to load at some point. They're pretty great. Thanks for reading!
Listening to great music,
Erica Jane O'Rourke
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