Peer Editing: A Lesson on Patience

They're writing their own stuff. They write about funny quirks their cousins have or about their friend who likes to sing songs all the time, though she sings terribly. Although their writing is not always grammatically correct, it's almost completely understandable and is always honest and done with hard work...well, at least for the students who come faithfully and try hard in class.

Today I decided to type out six writing entries because only six came to class last Thursday. We peer edited in partners on Thursday. Today we did it as a class. Everyone had to read one entry with a partner --to listen to the rhythm of the writing-- then had to correct or at least underline words or phrases that sounded awkward. After that, they had to tell me their corrections or hunches and I changed it so that everyone could see it on the projection screen. Many of them did a great job--at least the students who come regularly and work hard. The other students were, as usual, off in la la land. Is that my fault? I get paranoid that I am boring them or my lessons are too difficult and targeted to certain kinds of learners. However, I change it up with charades and movement, puzzles, sharing, music, personal writing, so I can't help but think that it's just those students don't care so much or aren't interested in working hard. Maybe it's because I bust their asses for talking too much, to come to class on time, or to notify me in advance when they can not make it. However, isn't that all a part of learning? It's part of the real life lessons of learning, and stuff they should already know.

However, just like I demand their patience because in time they will see it all makes sense, it comes together, there's a reason why I have them mime at the beginning of class, I need to be patient with myself too. I don't have to be super teacher, they don't always have to like me.

a moment...

I read Kristofer and Hilary’s blog entries and I am humbled. Their observations are so full of life, love, reflection, and questions. Mine are so bitter. Where did the bitterness come from?

More importantly, though we are in such far away places –in geography and what people would think culture—there are so many similarities. Similarities that prove life is life, people are people, hardship, love, laughter, struggles, and history happen everywhere. Everyone has to deal with waste, transportation, food, celebration, work, family, friends, conflict…

I just had a thought. I feel a little bad because I think I have been shallow…but I won’t let myself feel bad for long. As Kristofer said to me on the phone the other day, we are all different; we process differently, we have different perspectives, and different experiences. That’s what makes it so amazing for us when we read our drastically different or surprisingly similar responses. Then we can learn from one another, revise, reflect, or challenge each other.

I should begin writing a reflection of my time so far, of this half that is almost over. I know the end is coming quick and at the end there is so much to prepare for: traveling over break, teaching back to back classes the first two weeks in January, Christimas for students family and school…You’d think that the end of the year would ideally be a great time to slow down for everyone because that’s what nature does –the animals go to rest, the earth must yield until spring, the sun seems to sleep more as our afternoons become evenings...

However, I wonder when I will find rest. I suppose I have it now, i have it today. Lord, help me to utilize these moments of rest well. Thank God I have these beautiful people in my life to help me reconsider what is important; these people who with their hearts, eyes, and words help me to at least slow down my thoughts so that I can enjoy these fast full moments with my new family here in Korea.

Website of the Day

Read Write Think.org

What: Lesson Plans and Materials; Resource for excellent education links to book lists, films for class, other lesson plans sites, and more.

Who: International Reading Association, National Council of Teachers of English, and MarcoPolo Education Foundation.

For: Creative and/or multi-/inter-disciplinary teachers/educators.

When: You're in a jam for a lesson and materials; You need inspiration; You're brainstorming.

Bonus: Clean and easy to navigate; thorough.

What else: Haven't used anything yet, but I plan to.

power naps: not just for college

I never quite got down the art of power napping until I came to Korea. In college, my 15 or 20 minute power nap always turned into at least 2 hours...or the whole night. Then I would have to postpone my work until the next day or stay up all night, which is why I would need another 2 hour power nap the next day.

However, with my time broken up nice and messily into an hour here or 2 hours there, during which I must lesson plan, run errands, eat, and talk with students or teachers, the power nap is essential with no luxury of it going over 20 minutes. Since I do not want the teachers to see me drool accidentally or I do not want a big sweater imprint on my forehead during my next class I find myself jumping up after passing out for a good 15 minutes. Then I'm refreshed until I go home and crash.

Now that I just had a nice power nap, I can finish lesson planning for my evening class tonight and for my teacher's workshop tomorrow.

I am...

genius
sexy
Spaceman
a normal student
selfish but honest
a princess
a pretty girl
a Jeong Myeong High School Student

These are who some of my many students are. I have given them the prompt "I am" and they have had to finish the rest of the sentence. When I walk around and look at their notebooks I usually see many of the same answers, "a student," "a girl". But when everyone stands and has to share one by one, they must change it on the spot because suddenly I hear a range of beautiful, surprising, and ordinary answers because, well, that's who they are: beautiful, surprising, everyday teenage girls. It's a perfect lesson for me when I get angry with them for not listening, for talking too much, for using their cell phones in class, falling asleep during class--they are girls with their own lives, their own troubles, their own obligations, and lots of relationships.

However, they are also still young and so "예브다" --yebeuda. The literal translation means pretty, but it can be said to someone when they are sweet or smart. The teachers and I use it to describe how inherently beautiful and innocent the students are. An instance when I was confronted with how ibbuh they are...

Tonight's evening class we opened with the writing prompt: "I feel". All but one answer was negative: I feel tired, I feel sad because I lost my cell phone, I feel irritated and annoyed, I feel angry because I have so much homework, etc. So my next writing prompt was "I hate". I thought it would be a good way to get out aggression or frustration. For a second I envisioned this intense, silent, brooding, venting session on paper. Never happened because the first translation I was asked for was cockroach. Then how to say, "I hate chickens because one attacked me and nearly killed me." I was so surprised by what they hated: chickens, cockroaches, coca cola, the blood-colored curtains in our classroom, a Korean billionaire mogul, and mice to name a few. Maybe I am being patronizing, but I was struck by how innocent their hates were. Here I was thinking of things like: "I hate that the women in our church never get to pray" or "I hate when I am treated like...." Maybe it is the language, but then again, if they couldn't say it in English they would have just asked me to translate. I am sure there are many hardships they face, but these were what they came up with for what they hated. It was a heartening discovery for me, and made me reconsider the smaller details in the everyday. This is one of my favorite times in my day; I learn so much about them through this free writing. We had a lot of fun listening and laughing.

A short story on the upside of my evenings...

philosophical love burp

Is it possible to know someone so well that you two can speak to each other’s minds across oceans and continents?

Or have you two already spoken to each other so much about those oceans while on the same continents and so you know each other’s mind so well.

Maybe both are true, both happen, and one possibility creates the other possible, too.

(just after talking to Kristofer when I missed his first call after which I then squeezed my eyes shut and talked to him/prayed/talked to myself for him to try again and then he did).

a disconnected kind of day...

my 마음 is cut up in
to
home: my body
these legs just don't want to go
conflicted stomach --food or pilates?
breath? it holds and clenches
my mind
my heart
my love...
where they all want to be or should be have to be and just are

i say it's a moody kind of day
with a dirty light blue sky
but why should i say so?
do i need to so i can measure for myself
know where i am in this day with such little minutes

or is it against the rules to be apart
for my mind to be in my stomach
my heart presses these wrinkles in my eyebrows
and my love
my love in my fingers
which
are...

In Fact
it's not a disconnected kind of day
in fact i'm reconnecting
to home
to my body my mind my time what i want what i need
to women in my life
to my language
words

a breath

What happens when you work too much...

...you start to go crazy and can't stop thinking about things that can be saved for another day, like:
-researching and starting a Roth IRA
-Visas for traveling in January (and it is barely November right now)
-grad school for dance (as I sit here and skip dance class...)
-strangling students (a joke, but...I came pretty close to it earlier today!)
-what I need to learn if Kristofer and I want to open up a business or something like that when we go back
-going back to the states

It's 6:25 pm. I have been here since 8:25 am. I will be here until at 9:20 pm working (my evening class is from 8:30 pm until 9:20 pm). I really should be at dance class right now because it's probably good for my physical and mental health to get away from school, but since I am dissatisfied with my day lesson plan and need to add something to my evening lesson plan for tomorrow, here I am. Also...I have my period and since I ran out of tampons...I really don't feel like moving around in a diaper! For those of you who can't deal with that much information, o well! It's a part of life for almost all women! :)

When I was in high school, daydreaming about the love I would someday meet was refuge from the "hardships" of teenage life (hardships! yeah right...sure it was tough, but now that I think about it, it was fun!). And now, dreaming about my future life with the love I have finally found is refuge from the hair-pulling frustration of teaching, discomforts of living in a house that isn't mine, exasperation of not being able to control what I want to wear, eat, and do. Life could be worse, I know. I have it good here, but like I said, when you work too much, you get consumed..in yourself or what you gotta do or wish you could do if you weren't at work.

Wherever one is in life, it is probably rare that anyone will be doing exactly what they want or that all the factors will be exactly how they would like it to be. Maybe that is one of the lessons I have to learn here. I have to remember the conversation I had with one of my co-teachers earlier today: I am a person who is blessed with the good luck of always meeting amazing people. And...I am missing the amazing people I have at home: my family! She said the reason why I am probably desperately homesick today is because I'm so close with my mother-in-law (haha! ok the wedding hasn't happened yet, but...pretty much...she is my mother..I love her like that!). This is true, but I had many dreams about my own family...my nephews and nieces were in my dreams last night.

It could be because I carved a pumpkin with my host brother on Sunday night. I thought I'd share a little bit of Halloween with him, though it was the second pumpkin I have ever carved in my life (the first was when I was 20 and living with my sister and her family). It was really fun. This week all my classes are a presentation on Halloween. I think I am enjoying it more than them. When I ask them if they have ever worn a costume and they look at me as though I've asked them whether they've ever seen an alien--like I have asked the most random, senseless, boring, and obvious question. And then I think about all the things I have been: a chipmunk from Alvin and the Chipmunks, a clown, a 50s girl with a poodle skirt, a vampire, and a self-made ghoul. And I remember how fun it was to run around and then have candy for days, weeks...even months.

Sharing "culture" and holidays feels a little problematic when you can't really celebrate it, but are just presenting it. The students don't seem to care or are a little bummed because it looks so cool, yet they can't do it...and then they just forget about it when they walk out the classroom at the end of 50 minutes. For me, I realize how much I took for granted, that I have fun with those holidays and excuses to do something a little different or see some family. I am realizing there are many things I miss, and that maybe there is more culture in America than some people give it credit.

For me America has what I miss the most right now:
-family
-books in my first language
-food i'd like to eat like: tortillas, chili, steak, good coffee, salad, rice and beans
-architecture that I love: Central park, gothic churches, old New England homes
-New England foliage
-the freedom to speak my language without having to explain myself all the time, without getting crazy stares,
-the liberty to wear what I want, sit how I'd like without having someone stop me and think they can tell me how I need to dress.

I suppose I sound very selfish...you can say to me, but Jackie lots of people feel like that or these are trivial wants. Well then I'm glad that I am admitting I feel this way....because then I can move on from them better understand someone else's homesickness. I also write these things because I'm realizing how much I do love home, which is America. I love Korea, too...but I know my little piece of America better than anywhere else in the world and seeing it this way makes being critical of my government and wanting to fight for social justice, all that much more urgent and meaningful.