Just call me Corporal--Corporal Punishment.

I finally joined the dark side today. There was some kind of emergency today at school and my coteacher couldn't be with me for my last two third grade (eighth grade in US) classes. The third grade students here act just like their counterparts in the US. The boys are loud and obnoxious, because they thought that they could get away with it without the co-teacher being there.

See, because I have a co-teacher with me in the classroom almost all the time here in Korea, I can relax my teaching style a bit since it's usually my co-teacher who handles the discipline. This isn't a point of contention between us at all, it's just an unspoken agreement we have. She's small but very tough (probably as a result of being so small) and all the students fear her wrath. I'm seen as something of a large teddy bear who's always nice. Well, today they got to see the real teacher side of me. I raised my voice, slammed a book on the desk, and basically did whatever my co-teacher normally does. In fact, there were some boys who were consistently hitting each other and wrestling around under their desk (I know, that sounds weird. Believe me, it looked weird too.) So I stood them up, had them put out their hands palm down, and gave them each a good smack on their hand with a radio antenna laying around. I hated to do it (ok, that's a lie. I didn't mind doing it because they were really getting on my nerves and I'd warned them three times to stop), but that's what gets the kids going here--the threat of physical pain. Now, suffice to say, it only actually hurt for about a second, but the fact that they were called out and that I actually followed through with some kind of punishment was enough motivation for the rest of the students to behave for the rest of the class. I felt like an old-school Catholic nun teacher with the ruler in her shirt sleeve :)

Robots are getting better....

This is awesome and scary at the same time.



Sorry for the lack of Korea-related news. I'll have plenty to write about once Green gets here!

Fast Car by Tracy Chapman

It's funny how sometimes you hear a song for years and years without actually paying attention to the words. Such was the case with me and this song. I always thought it was just a love song, but yesterday I listened to the words, and boy is it a sad song. Still great, though.

“It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn't in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.”

- Charles Kuralt

White Day - Success!

White Day was great. Here's some footage of me eating pajon and enjoying some dong dong ju at a restaurant.

If star wars came out in the 50's instead of the 70's...

I love this kind of intro sequence-it reminds me of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Youtube definitely never fails to entertain, that's for sure.

White Day

Today is White Day. On Valentine's day in Korea, girls give boys chocolate. On White Day, boys give girls candy. Scarlett just got a job teaching English here, so I thought I'd do a little extra for her besides just the requisite box of candy. I made her an awesome card that looks like a six year old made it. I still don't have much skill with a pair of scissors. I'll give that to her with a gift basket I picked up from the local bakery (?) with chocolate, a teddy bear, and some other nonsense. Tonight she has to observe the class she'll be teaching, and after that we'll probably hit the noraebang. Good times :)

One month till Green comes to visit! Oh yeah!

Believe it or not, I'm glad to be back to work. I like being on a schedule, and my classes are going great so far.

You need to check out Andrew Bird. Here he is on Letterman.

Jim Croce

My dad always listened to Jim Croce when I was younger, so naturally I hated him. Of course, I never hated him as much as John Denver, because my dad couldn't play ol' Jim as well on the guitar. Recently though I've been giving him another listen, and I've got to admit some of his stuff is pretty good. He has a backup guitar player named Maury Muehleisen that really adds a lot to the simple chords Jim plays.

Some of Croce's lyrics are very affecting. Here's my favorite song by him.

Kangdong Fish Market

I'm not a great photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but once in awhile I get it right.

Teaching in Korea vs. US

My friend Laura lived in Korea for about four years (I think). She's the one who really made me want to come to Korea. She's awesome. Anyway, I read her blog all the time, and she had an interesting post on substitute teaching in the US:

My sister, a second-grade teacher, has always said her biggest role in the classroom is as a surrogate parent and disciplinarian. Now I've found this out by first-hand experience. The past few weeks I've been substitute teaching in the public schools, starting with my sister's class. Even at the so-called "good" schools, many of the children I've encountered are incredibly disrespectful. Students have called me names, taunted me and threatened me. One even threw a sharp pencil at my shoulder. More than once I've had to hit the panic button in the classroom, thus alerting the main office to send a security guard to my class.

But then I think about all the issues some of these kids have to deal with. A little girl started crying in class today. I asked her what was wrong. "I miss my Daddy," she said. "He's going to be in jail for 20 years." A nine-year old confided to me yesterday that someone at home might be touching her inappropriately at night. "I don't want to go home," she said. "I can't concentrate at school even though I wanna do my work 'cause I got all these thoughts running through my head like what's gonna happen when I take a bath tonight? I'm afraid to tell my mama 'cause my mama don't believe me."

Of course, there are kids who make me smile and laugh, like the girl who didn't groan with the rest of the class yesterday when I told them they had to do the work written on the front board. "Come on, y'all!" she said as if rallying the troops. "We are here to learn and I'm going to get me some learning!" Then she hunkered down and started the assignment.

Sometimes I think the kids misbehave around me because I'm a new and temporary person in their lives. However, conversations with teachers, janitors, volunteers and other substitutes have made me think otherwise. As my sister says, respect is no longer the norm in American society. I compare this with South Korea (the only other society I can claim to understand even a little bit), where respect abounds and test scores are high. Could there be a correlation between test scores and a culture's respect for authority? I think so.

I taught in the states for four years. I actually taught in the same school that Laura was subbing at. You hear this kind of thing all the time if you watch the news/60 Minutes/whatever. Respect is gone in American culture, students are out of control, youth culture killed my dog, etc. However, one thing I've learned teaching (for almost 7 months now--holy cow!) in Korea, is that things aren't much different here from a teacher's point of view. Here's the response I posted to her blog entry:

Interesting post. Let me weigh in on some things about the public school system in South Korea you might not be aware of.

Test scores may be high in Korea, but data retention is among the lowest in the developed world. Kids are taught tests here--everything in their lives is test driven. Students are rarely if ever taught critical thinking skills. Second chances are rare in public schools in Korea, so if a student does not perform well on a major test, he or she will likely be denied the chance of success at a later date.

As far as classroom discipline goes, I find that student behavior here left unchecked is not much worse than the most outlandish behavior I've encountered teaching for 4 years in the public school systems in the US, and since the majority of that time was teaching in the worst schools in my district, that's saying something. Why don't students run amok in Korean schools? Is it out of a Confucian respect for elders? Filial piety? No way. Students respect their teachers in Korea because if they don't, their teacher can wail on them with a stick. If corporal punishment was reintroduced into the US public schools, you can bet students would shape up.

Of course, kids in Korea don't ever talk about being abused at home. Likewise, Korean kids (especially girls) are reluctant to admit that they've had any contact whatsoever with the opposite sex. There are some things that are still taboo in Westernized Korea. But if you think that kind of thing doesn't go on, you're only fooling yourself.

I don't mean to be down on Korea. I love it here. My students are great. But to somehow think that the problems experienced by teachers in the US are not on the radar of Korean teachers is a mistake. They've just got more weapons at their disposal. Literally.

Anyway, that response was longer than anything I've written for this blog in quite some time, so I figured I'd paste it here for your consideration.

It's the first day of school! In March!

Well, it's the new school year in Korea. A bunch of new kids. I'm in a new teacher room. I have a new co-teacher, in addition to my main one and Kate. Lots of changes. The principal wants me to move my office into the English room, which I don't want to do because I hate being alone all the time. Today the heater in there was broken, so I'm in my teacher room instead. I don't have classes today, so I'll probably work on the second Korean model home I bought. Tomorrow I'll have classes. I think. Maybe.