Part two of "That means you love me. Right?"
My favorite class is middle-schoolers. I NEVER thought I'd say that. They're fun, we joke, we say inappropriate things and we tease each other. I try to treat them like adults and in return they go along with the class plan. Today one of my two favorite students-whom I can't tell apart unless they're standing next to each other- said something that made me laugh.
"Teacher, you're face is fun."
At this I was a bit uncertain-Korean students often misuse fun as funny and vice-verse.
"My face is fun?!"
"Yes, teacher is always happy."
Brown-nosing is common, but I taught this class the term "bullshit" and we use it freely to call out brown-nosers. I have to admit, in this class I really am always happy. They make me laugh and make everything worth while. I know I'm not meant to teach little kids, but I do my best. To end my day with this group makes the whole day right. I can't help but smile when they call my bullshit to "Guess what? Today is a fun class, it starts on page 36!"
So I've been getting quite a bit of the "teacher has a baby?" thing lately from one particular student. She's 13 in a class with all younger students. I really do like her and I understand her need for attention. I made sure to giver her plenty of attention and respect her as the oldest in the class (a huge thing in Korea). We've developed a nice little teacher/student friendship, but lately she's decided to start joking with me. At first I didn't care and just played with her. When she asked about my "baby" I told her I was at 3 months. We both laughed and it became a joke. This is the same student who is trying to hook me up with her 40 year old uncle. Today she took it one step too far and called teacher a pig in Korean during class. I gave her the not okay look and planned to handle it after class. That was until the boys in the class caught wind of what she had said and came to my defense. For children to speak to an elder (no matter the size of age difference) reproachfully is not a laughing matter here. The fact that the four boys in the class came to my defense in such a way that rendered her ashamed and speechless (no small task for a 13 year old girl) was beyond my imagination. This is a class that I battle with every day. They're young and they're loud and I spend far too much time controlling the class, not enough teaching, and next to nothing bonding. Today was a surprising turn of events. Maybe they do like me? Maybe I'm not actually fat?
All in all today was a good day. I suppose it was amazing in comparison to last year as a whole. Today was game day. Each Friday has a theme and the first Friday of the month is game day for my classes. I chose BINGO using the vocabulary from the books (it's the end of the month so a great way to review the just finished books before moving on to the next. AND to look extremely diligent)
Every class responded with my ever NOT favorite response of "jamie-ubsuh" which means not fun/interesting-boring. However, once the games commenced I was so happy to see them get excited and competitive. All played, none refused. I actually got to be a fun teacher. I need to relax, but I'm still figuring out how to do that without losing my authority-a thing that I'm barely grasping at this point.
"Teacher your face is fun." will reign in my happy thoughts for the weekend until Monday comes and spoils the sunshine. Even if work is easy, if it's not what you love doing it will always be work. I know I'm lucky, my work enables me the luxury of living abroad and does grant me so many laughing moments with these amazing creatures I call my students!
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