It's OVAH!!!

Yesterday was my last day of camp.

I almost lost it.

The first activity was for everyone to describe their hero, or someone that they really respected. I gave them twenty minutes to work on this, and get ready to present.
During that twenty minutes, I ran around the school and tried to get a DVD player. I submitted lesson plans three weeks ago, so that they could make sure that I had all the resources I needed. Well, I didn't have a DVD player. My lesson plan for that day was for another activity that got cut and "Watch Movies". SO, maybe that's understandable, maybe they didn't know I meant a DVD. But there was no VCR either! SO, thanks for reading my lesson plans, and looking out for me! I'm so glad that i put all that work into them!
Not that I should reallybe surprised. I mean, no-one that I submitted them to could read or understand english anyways. Even Jessie's vice-principal, who "read" my lesson plans daily can't understand what he is reading. But he still has to read them! Just to be sure I'm not sneaking in anything that is wrong! And when I made a change and crossed out the cut activity, he recrossed it out and put his little signature stamp on either side of the line so that they could be sure that I wasn't trying to pull a fast one somehow. You know, because they could understand what Ihad written.
Anyways, there was no DVD player, so we wound up spending the twenty minutes trying to hook up a school laptop to the big monitor, which didn't work. When I finally admitted to myself that I would have to show the movie on a laptop, I decided to see how they wereprogressing on their little assignment. Two were finished, many were about half done, and a few had not even put pen to paper yet.
I extended it ten minutes, and gave the one kid who said he hadn't started yet because he had no pen a pen.
After ten minutes, most were finished, but the two who had finished first refused to present theirs. Well, apparently, you misunderstood what you were siging up for when you volunteered for an extra-curricular english CONVERSATION class. I mean, they're only happy when I am presenting to them, which doesn't help their conversation skills at all! And when I try to make their conversation activities fun, like creating a character, writing a song, or playing games, no-one pariticpates!
I gave them a little speech which only two people understood about how they will only improve in a class like this if they vlunteer and participate, but I'll be honest, the speech was more for me than for them. Then, even the ones who had understood would not volunteer. I almost started crying.
There are no marks!
There is no teacher!
You stand to lose nothing!
WHY THE HELL WILL YOU NOT SPEAK AT ALL?!?!?!
I almost started crying. I gave them another five minutes to finish, and I left to go to the bathroom.
It is so frustrating, because the students are absolutely unmotivated once they decide that they are done. I have no marks to give, so if they aren't self-motivated, they will not gain anything from my classes. And, as I've said before, many of the kids there were forced to go to round out numbers. And heaven forbid Samho middle school should be under-represented at a camp they are hosting! Better shove some more in!

They finally presented, but it was hard to get them to do it, but i think they had gotten wind of how angry and frustrated I was. Then we watched a movie.

It didn't really sink in until I was about halfway home on the bus that I was finished for the semester. Just in time too. Seriously, I can not believe the send off I got from this camp. It's so frustrating. You're teaching the best and the brightest of the school a "conversation" class, but they don't even know how to ask to go to the bathroom. The Korean teachers must be aware of the problems, so I don't understand why they do this. Well, the prestige of having a native speaker at your school. That's all basically.

I slept in real good today, and got drunk last night.

VACATION!

It's not really that cool. It's one, I'm in my pyjamas, typing in my blog and watching "Growing Up Gotti". No, wait! Holy Crap, I am the coolest ever.