As my students were taking a quiz today, I sat there thinking to myself about how different it feels to be the one teaching for the first time in my life, as opposed to the student that I have been for as long as I remember. My first thought was that I have to give my own professors/teachers a lot more credit than I gave them back in the day. It's fun and all, but lets be real, it's also a lot of work planning lessons and everything that goes along with that. It is rewarding though, more-so than I thought it ever would be. My second thought is equal parts curiosity and concern for the lives of my students, most of them at least. There's a few students who don't care, and I know that they don't care, so they may or may not be marginalized....but the large majority of students I actually care about. I want them to do well, I want them to succeed in school. More than just the subjects I teach, I want them to be happy, I want them to do well in life. I'm curious about where they came from, where are they going? What is their story? I saw a student today taking said quiz, sitting off by herself, when normally she sits among her friends. What's the story here? Is she just having a bad day? Why? In another class, there is a girl who usually sits by herself. Her English is passable, she seems intelligent, she always has a 35mm camera around her neck, and I have a suspicion that she may be cutting herself, although maybe that's just me jumping to conclusions at the sight of a bandanna wrapped around her wrist. But what's the story behind all this? Now that I think of it...I haven't seen her this week or last....but im almost sure she dropped my class; that class is a little rocky, not my fault though. The real culprit is over half the class not being able to understand enough english for me to tell them that this is an advanced conversation class and that they should switch out. What they think is that they're getting an easy "A" by saying "pass" every time I call on them in discussion, but what they don't know is that there's no way they're passing. But I digress.
Truth be told, as much as I have to do to prepare for classes every day ( I have a menacing stack of homework on my desk waiting for me to grade that grows by the hour and new lesson plans to prepare for every day), I've been very distracted. I've just finished season two of Breaking Bad (if someone wanted to dropbox me season three.....), and I also got internet running in my apartment which means I can start playing Starcraft 2 again. I've got a week off next week and I'm trying to decide whether to go to Seoul with Alvin or stay here and chill/explore the city. More importantly, there's another issue that' been on my thoughts, but it's all good. Stay tuned to the blog and you may or may not find out what I'm talking about. (Some of you are probably saying "wow, way to be a tool and bring up a subject you won't talk about," to which I say "yeah....whatever.")
Lastly this evening, I have a few more observations on Korean culture. First is Korean music. Let me just say this. I like it. And by it, I mean the music videos, with the sound turned off. Amirite? Just kidding. But seriously, if you like the thought of pop tunes sung by girl groups that are so catchy even the old ladies on the bus can get down to them, then you may want to check it out. Next, and this is semi-random, is the way that Koreans talk to each other. Maybe part of it is that it's a new language, and also that I don't know what the words mean so I focus that much more on the tones, but every word they say always seems so dramatic. I swear, it's like living in a telenovella. Guys do it alot, but the girls do it twice as much, or maybe just that much more noticeably. The joy! The pain! The sorrow! Ahh, to live such a passionate, emotional life.... I find myself laughing at it quite often.
Now Listening To:
"America"
Simon & Garfunkel
No comments:
Post a Comment