Suggestions
Got
a couple more suggestions in my Suggestion
Box today. One was a lead on a great web hosting service.
Real cheap, unlimited traffic, custom CGI, AND 50 megs!!
Ahhhhh.... yes. Just what the doctor ordered. But I'll
have to see if they support RealAudio and Flash. Eventually
I want to add some Flash stuff and if they don't support
it, then it's a no-go. But it looks promising. Thanks,
Jason!!
The
other suggestion was not about my site at all, but it
suggested me to read a book called, My Brother, My
Sister, and I. The anonymous suggestor said that everyone
should read it. Must be some book. I'll
check it out sometime.
Someone
suggested that I add a navigation graphic to skip between
journal entries and I'm working on it! I swear!
I should have it up within a couple days.
I saw
a girl glue her socks onto her legs for the first time
today. In the middle of class. My class.
She took a glue stick out of her pencil bag, unscrewed
the cap, and casually smeared the stick in a line going
around her calf. Then she pulled up her sock, pressed
the sock to the glue and held it there for a second.
She's
one of those mirror-toting, noise-making, big sock-wearers.
BUT she's also one of the kids who regularly comes by
my desk to talk to me. Smart. Knows more words than a
second grader usually knows. I thought she'd be good in
class because we have a good understanding outside of
class, but I think she thought that because we talk so
much outside of class, I wouldn't care if she was bad
in class. She kept making this very loud
and very annoying clacking sound with her tongue. She
wouldn't do the class activity. Instead she just chattered
away with the person she was partnered up with. I went
by her desk to ask her to do her work, but she said no.
When I asked her why she said it wasn't interesting,
knowing full well that I made the activity for that day.
It was a grammar review made into a Battleship game that
everyone else loved, but she wouldn't touch. Then she
said, "KIDDING!" and laughed.
Sometimes
I get too close to these kids and the things they say
mean too much to me and even if they say something like
this while kidding I let it get to me too much. I get
pissed.
I can
understand that it is easy for her... I've no doubt that
she could do the grammar in that activity in her sleep,
but I still think she should try to do
it, just to make me happy. She's so bored in that class,
in school in general, that I can't blame her for acting
up, really. Still, it annoys. I mean, there's probably
a good handful of students who are bored stiff in that
class, too, but they still do the work.
I didn't
say anything else to her or try to get her to do the game
for the rest of the class period. The teacher was ignoring
her during the entire class, I could tell she gave up
a long time ago.
I was
walking back from fifth period class and saw a group of
kids walking down the hall with their backpacks. I turned
to the English teacher next to me and asked her if the
students got out early today. She said, no, they were
just arriving. At 2:15. A little late getting out of
bed this morning?? Damn. Sometimes, I can't believe
the things I see here. The other times I remember all
the other shit I've seen so far and say to myself, I
guess that's not so bad.
I've
been at a loss for motivation to come up with inventive
lessons. I've been apathetic these past couple weeks.
Going with the flow, letting the teachers run activities
in class which are way to easy for the students. I haven't
thought of anything inventive. I've done that Battleship
review game a hundred times, wasn't that hard to throw
together.
Geez.
I need to start thinking of these kids some more. God
knows they're not getting challenged by the teachers here
(most of them anyway). But half of the time when
I do make cool stuff, most of them don't appreciate it
anyway. It's definitely the "2nd year ALT blues".
If I can't hack it, I should just get the hell out of
here, but I'm convinced that I can take it.
Early
tomorrow morning (10:30am is very early for me!)
I go bamboo harvesting. (Gee, there's something
you don't say every day, huh?) Yes, that's right.
Bamboo harvesting. One of my teachers' owns a bamboo farm
somewhere outside of town. I'll let you guys know how
it went tomorrow. I did it last
year, but since I thought I that I'd never get another
chance to do it, I thought it'd be kind of cool to do
it again.
