A Rollercoaster of a Monday

So today was pretty up and down for me.

1. It started up! My Big Number Bingo lesson I started today went pretty well and the students did a good job with numbers up to the hundreds of billions.

2. I found out my plan for my final speaking tests won't work. I guess grades are due 3 weeks before the end of the semester -- but that should have been obvious to me, right? WRONG! So last week I had sent out a half page blurb to all the English teachers about the final that I wanted to give to all my students this week. I asked them for feedback. Pretty much all I got was that "the students will be nervous" -- of course they'll be nervous! It's a speaking test! I'd be nervous too. So, I assumed that meant my plan was ok. Well, I was going to do the speaking test for hte last 2 classes we met, that would stretch from Dec 2 thru Dec 22 with the final exam period in the middle. Well, turns out I have to have my grades done by Dec 10th! So that was not going to work. I explained to one of my co-teachers how frustrated I was that nobody told me this, and now I'd have to tell 5 of my classes about the date change and make all the other classes change the date on their directions sheet. (Sounds easy, but that in itself is going to be a task) Anyway, I said how I was disappointed that no one had taken the time to give me feedback. She flipped out on me basically, and said how I only have to lesson plan for one lesson a week and how they are 10 times busier than me. I said I understand that, but this was one thing, and it was half a page. And she kept going on about how busy they are. What the hell? It is their job to help me out. I can't believe a single one out of the 4 didn't tell me about the problem with my dates. I wanted to yell back at her, but of course I didn't. I stayed calm and just kept repeating how disapointed and frustrated I was. I wanted to tell her it is her job to teach so many classes, so she needs to suck it up and deal with it. It's my job to teach the same lesson plan over and over. I also wanted to tell her she is being paid like 10 times as much as me. And that the only reason that foreign teachers are needed in Korea is because the Korean English teachers are too lazy to do their job correctly. They should be having their classes all in English by high school -- these students start studying English from first grade! But, they don't want to suck it up and deal with the challenge, so they have to bring in foreigners like me to do their dirty work. *sigh* I felt like crying about all this. I was so frustrated!

3. But then I got this nice message from one of my co-teachers. He probably heard how frustrated I was (because my co-teacher who bitched me out then told my FB co-teacher how frustrated I was, and she came to talk to me) and wrote me this nice note:
"I think you are pretty much accustomed to Korean students and even faster than I expected.
Your classes are also well organized that you seem to understand how to design a class.
Let's keep going and let me know if you have any difficulty.^^"
That really made me feel better!

4. I started my Thanksgiving lesson plan, and I think it will be fun!!

5. I had to stop by the post office on the way home to mail some stuff for my grad school apps (ugh!) and had a serious of unfortunate events, so it ended up taking me a LONG TIME.

6. I came home and ate a toast/PB/honey/banana sandwich and had a glass of chocolate milk to make me feel better!! :-) (But then later I felt bloated from all the carbs)

7. I had a good time at ballet tonight! And then after, I wasn't really hungry, but my host mom made me some AMAZING bibimbap for dinner!! YUMMIES! And I got the ok from my host family to have Anne spend the night on Wednesday before we go hiking Thursday. (We don't have to work on Thur because HS is closed due to the college entrance exam -- I'll have to write more about how intense this is later this week)

As for now, I want to get some rest!! Have a great day everyone!!

Added later:
My students were being goofballs during lunch today. One kept walking past my door with his shirt up covering his face and saying "Vittetoe, Vittetoe" haha! Another one came and stood right around the corner of my door so I couldn't see him, and would say "My name is Kim blah blah, my number is 1502" and then run away. He came and did that at least 5 times!! I was cracking up at my computer. :-)