A Week In the Life
Last Saturday we went bowling and to Noraebang with the 20s group from church. It resulted in these photos:
Soo, Aekyung, me, Bo Ram, Candice, Will, Brian, and Mark. Please don't ask me what I'm doing with my eyes.
Brian, Kendall, Stephanie, Soo, Candice, me, Aekyung. That was photoshopped by Aekyung.
Candice is going to kill me for putting this picture up. Ha!Of course then we went to the Super Bowl party on Monday.
Tuesday night a student in my class cried. I have 3 hour classes, all separated by little 5 minute breaks between the hours. I always try to remember, after the first hour and before we start reading in the second hour, if my kids have their storybooks. If they don't, I have to make copies during break. Well, I usually tend to forget to ask. So in the middle of the second hour I ask "okay, get your storybooks out, who doesn't have your storybook? Did everybody bring your storybook?" (English teachers tend to say things many times and in many different ways).
Of course, one of my students, one of the more forgetful ones, Rick, forgot his storybook. I begin chastising him. I don't yell, but I say things like "Rick!! You have to bring your storybook. You NEED it for class. How could you forget it? Please tell me before breaktime. You know that. NOW I have to go make a copy". I huff and puff and make a big show and pretend-stomp out of the room to show that I am not happy with having to make a copy. But, really, it's no big deal, I march back in quickly, smiling, and my kids are laughing because it was done so quickly.
I start reading the title of the chapter and asking questions, and one of my new students says "teacher... she..." and points behind her, where I see my little Violet, who is all of about 3rd or 4th grade, crying. Not just a tear, but head in her hands crying. I got a little flustered, went over to her and started saying "Violet, Violet, why are you crying? It's okay. Violet.. " and then I realize that she must have forgotten her storybook, and she doesn't want to ask for a copy. I asked "Violet, you forgot your storybook?" and she only nodded her head at me, and wouldn't raise her head.
I smile at the other students (who, most are a little older than her, and are smiling because... well, it's kinda cute that she's crying), and run out the door to make another copy. I come back, hand it to her nonchalantly (her head is still in her hands) and continue on.
At break time I call her over to my desk and say "Violet... it's okay. Did you cry because you were scared?" (she said yes). "Violet, you don't have to cry or be scared. I won't be angry, just tell me. I will yell at Rick, but not at you". Which, is true. Rick gets yelled at all the time because he forgets things, but he can take it. He just smiles and he knows he has been wrong, so it's not a big deal to him. Violet is a whole different person altogether. Anyway - that was the first time Meghan Teacher made someone cry.
Last night we went to meet Candice and Soo Young, and we ate Popeye's for dinner, which was kind of weird. And then we went to see the Woody Allen film "Scoop", which was entertaining and cute. We also stopped along the way and got an interactive workbook called "Korean Made Easy for Beginners", mostly because it has cute drawings inside.
posted by Meghan @ 6:58 PM
2 Comments:
You've made me cry a time or two. I cry inside, but it's there.
Me and Violet, two peas in a pod.
you're such a big, mean, scary teacher. i don't know how you live with yourself.
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