Orangey, Attila the Hans & teaching lessons.

Friday afternoon now, third week of teaching. Cause for celebration: summer is over, so we can go outside again without passing out and sleep without air conditioning (two days in a row!) On top of that bonus, summer classes are over so my teaching days get shorter by two hours a couple days a week. I like that. Less work, same money. Good deal :)

Attila the Hans has replaced Evil Jack on the top of the bad list now that Jack was banished from the kingdom. He is my greatest challenge. Doesn't pay attention. Talks and doesn't listen to the other students when they're speaking. Sets off the other boys. If you talk to him, he'll talk back to you in Korean and say something cheeky and everyone will laugh. What do you do with a kid like that? Tried being nice, tried being mean. And who chooses Hans for a name anyway when they could have their pick of all the English names that there are?

I also have a couple students who give me pictures and presents... one girl whose name I forgot, and started to call Orangey (because she was in all orange, including orange glasses)

has embraced her new name and writes it all over her books and everything. And I got Tim Horton's coffee from a boy whose Mom just came back from Canada. He wanted a Toonie to complete his collection so I obliged. This guy in the picture chose Harry Potter for his English name when he joined my class last week. Easy to remember I guess.

So far my biggest challenge as a teacher is not taking things personally, and not making it about me. Like when they don't pay attention/aren't learning/don't care about English its hard not to take that as some personal criticism - i.e. that you're a bad teacher (which now that I think of it...they actually do say...like every day...to all of us) ...because after all it is you that they're ignoring/not paying attention to...but I guess I need to learn that I'm not in control of their motivation, attention spans, moods, if they care, or any of those things....