Things That Have Surprised Me Recently

A) I forgot to use positive motivation with a young girl in one of my classes.

In our teachers' meeting last week I asked for help with this girl, who has a problem with speaking Korean in our English class.  I have taught her before; when she first started she was something of an ADHD basket case, and drove me and my Korean co-teacher a bit crazy.

Since then she has calmed down a bit, but her mind still seems to run at a rather high speed, so when we aren't actively engaged in something she usually turns to another student and rattles away in Korean.  She's a nice girl and a smart girl, but that kind of behavior has to be controlled since it can result in an entire class of students not focusing on English language usage.

I tried using the "3 X" system, which we use quite a bit at our academy.  Students learn that when the class gets 3 X's for speaking Korean the entire class has to write something (such as the classroom rules) in their notebooks, and, of course, they don't like it.  Thus they tend to encourage each other to speak English.

Last night, for example, a middle school class (who know all about the 3 X's), started having problems with chatting in Korean.  I turned to the whiteboard, drew three boxes in black, and then drew one X in red.

Immediately there was peer pressure in English: "Shh . .  don't speak Korean, don't speak Korean . . ."

Such a system can be very effective.

But it wasn't working with this young girl (2nd grade), so I asked for help and got the suggestion to try using stars (thanks April!).

I took the girl aside before class and told her I would start giving stars for good English usage and that when she got so many stars she would get a prize (a sticker or candy, etc.).

The result was not electrifying, but it was much better than the X's I had been trying.

Two thoughts: 1) shame on me for forgetting about the potential in a reward system, and 2) that's one of the reasons I enjoy teaching: there is always something new to learn.


B) Outside the classroom I am surprised about the focus that the political battle in the U.S. is taking, namely the conservative vs. liberal aspect.

Perhaps it comes from living abroad, but I had expected--or perhaps hoped--that more attention would be paid to the huge amount of money the U.S. is spending on fighting foreign wars, on the negative perception of America that such wars are engendering, on the need to fix the huge problems with American infrastructure, etc.

Instead, I read about Rick Santorum winning some states, though he has said the U.S. government should not have a true separation of church and state--that thought is scary to me, given that there are enough problems in the world with religious wars, doctrines, divisions, genocides, etc.  Who would pick which religion governs the U.S.?

I also read about Democratic Congresswomen protesting the commonly held views of female contraception and abortion:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/03/15/148695307/in-protest-democrats-zero-in-on-mens-reproductive-health

Interesting and, I think, about time someone challenged America's views that discriminate against women's rights to contraception and to thoughts about abortion.


C) I was surprised to hear that there are over 100 American universities charging $50,000 or more per year (when factoring in room and board, etc.).  However, my American co-workers told me that I was just out-of-touch with things (a nice way to say I am getting old).

New Friend

Not me.  My plant.

I've found that positive motivation often works well in the classroom, so I thought I'd apply that thought to cheering my plant up:  I bought it a friend.

Now, I have to admit there is a wee bit of selfishness involved (ok, more than a bit), since the plant is one I can possibly utilize in the kitchen . . .sigh . . . it always seems to get back to food.

It's a rosemary plant that I picked up for app. $5 at my neighborhood market yesterday, and I hope it will last longer than the first one I bought, which, come to think about it, was purchased at the same time as my sickly plant.  Hmmm . . . maybe that was a subconscious thought.

Anyway, I hope that the newly-come and quite vigorous plant will inspire the other to leaf out and thrive.

Now I just have to do some research on using fresh rosemary (vs. dried, which I love with chicken and/or potatoes) in my cooking.

My Plant Hates Me

My one plant, which I have had for over two years--I bought it the week I moved here--has not been happy for a long time.

As you can see, it's down to one leaf.  Sniff.  I have been meaning to repot it, but I always forget to stop by a plant store when I'm out, which is ridiculous since there is one in our school building.

So, today, on the way back from shopping for a few things I needed to make my weekly batch of salmon/veggie soup (it's cooking now)

I happened to walk by a plant store and the owner, nice guy, gave me a larger plastic pot and some dirt for free.

It's not huge, but significantly bigger than the one my sickly plant has been in.

So I finally repotted my poor plant.  It probably needs plant food also, but I don't have any and am not sure if they have the equivalent of "Miracle Grow" here.  Call me crazy, but I stuck three multivitamin capsules down into the soil of the new pot and watered it.  I guess either it will die (which it was going to anyway), or it will turn into a "super" plant . . . I'll update in a few weeks when the outcome is certain, but for now, at least, my plant looks happier.

Korean Fast Food Restaurant

Lotteria: in sum, a bad McDonald's.  They precook most of their burgers, have them sitting on the rack when you order . . . at least they used to.  I haven't been inside a Lotteria in over a year (and when I did go I ordered chicken strips, which they had to cook in front of me).  Still, it's better than nothing for some people, especially since our local Micky D's bugged out.

Another Food Post

Veggies + fresh buckwheat noodles + a bit of flavoring = deliciousness:

And, for desert, there are the first kumquats of the year:

Shabu-Shabu

Shabu-shabu is a Korean variation of a Japanese/Chinese meal that involves cooking vegetables/meat at the table in boiling water.

To begin, guests are served dishes of uncooked food, and a pot of water is placed over a burner located in the center of the table.  The guests have control over the amount and speed of cooking.

Common arrangements include vegetables and either meat or seafood.

The food is inserted into the pot and cooks in a matter of minutes.  Dumplings (만두) are sometimes cooked in the hot water, along with octopus.

The courses vary at different restaurants, but sometimes noodles are part of the set.

They are cooked after the meat/seafood is eaten.  Next, there is a dish of rice, vegetables, and egg that is added to the twice-cooked water (broth) to form a porridge.

The porridge, absorbing the vegetable/seafood (or meat) flavored broth, is a final treat, and guests are understandably full at this point.

Shabu-shabu is a meal well worth experiencing when in Asia!

Getting Ready for the New Semester

You may have seen this picture of our teacher's room that I recently posted.  The bookshelves in the background hold years' worth of accumulated textbooks and files, many of which are no longer used.

So, as part of our effort to get ready for the new Korean school spring semester--which officially began yesterday (Friday, March 2nd), but which begins for our academy on Monday--the other teachers and staff that I work with spent a good amount of time cleaning out the bookshelves.  Here is the "after" pic:

Much better, isn't it?  We are hoping to donate most of the old English education books and games to 1) a Korean orphanage and 2) a North Korean immigrant program.  Here's a pic of some of the stuff we had to sort through that we removed from the teachers' room:

The cassettes, as you might well think, are clearly outdated and needed to go.  The "Let's Go" book series, which we use a lot of, just came out with a new edition, so we are replacing all of those texts.

Yesterday our school also added two new video screens to two classrooms, as we are going to be using video segments for a new middle school textbook.  We will get two new laptop computers next week and hopefully will have the same easy-to-use internet/video connection that we have enjoyed in our large classroom:

We are all hoping for a smooth start to the new semester, especially with so many new things happening; we also have a new school van (#7; the vans pick up and deliver students), many new students, new books, a new part-time teacher, and, best of all, our former school director who has been out for most of a year battling cancer (successfully!) is back with us.  Yeah!