Ups and Downs

This week, so far, has been full of ups and downs.

Downs (get them out of the way):
Jessie is sick. She may have caught what I had, but it is hard to tell... I thought I had caught it from her. She wound up staying home yesterday, planning to convalesce/prepare some applications for internships, but was a little too worn out.

My teacher's workshop ganged up on me.
I meet on Mondays with Korean English Teachers to help them be better english teachers. Gotta love Korea for this, putting someone with six months of experience in a room with professional teachers and telling him to teach them how to teach.
Anyways, I had some big ideas last semester, but everyone wanted to leave early, thought the activities I prepared (such as reading an article and then discussing it) were not so good for them, and alternatively wanted to learn idioms and then though we spent too much time on idioms when they should be learning real english.
Yesterday, I was told in the morning that my workshops were beginning for the new semester that afternoon. I threw something together, figuring that introductions from the new people and catching up with the returners would carry us a while, and then the lesson would carry us for a while. Since they always wanted to leave early anyways, I figured that that would be okay.
Well, when I wrapped up and asked if they had any suggestions for the coming weeks, one of the new women said (approximately) "I pay a lot and do a lot of extra things to come here, and it's a logn trip, so I expect these meetings to last the full two hours [they're actually only an hour and a half]. Also, I expect to see real progress in my conversational abilities through these meetings. Free talk is fine, but I get bored if I do not like the topics. I want to study articles and comment on them, and I want to have a choice in the topics so that I do not get bored."
All fair enough.
But then the returners started saying that they found the meetings last semester too short (even though I usually only did half of my planned activities because they all wanted to leave) and they wanted to do more activities like reading articles and commenting on them (an idea which I had tried and they had disliked (vocally) in one of our first meetings. Even when I tried to do topical conversations, with the topics sent to them in advance (albeit only a short time) they usually just wanted to chat. They also want more teaching techniques... even though they often complain that they have no time for the things that I suggest (or anything other than the curriculum, really).
They had some legitimate complaints too, like that I didn't correct them enough (which is tough, as it is intimidating to correct a teacher, and it tends to shut them down and make them shy when I do). Also, they wanted more notice on what we would be doing week to week, which was fair enough. But when the topic week to week is "more idioms and free talk at your request" I rarely felt the need to warn them.
I think the solution to the teacher's workshop is going to be to send them a survey, so that I have in writing what they say they want, so that they can not go back on it like they have their comments from last semester. And then I will teach to the surveys, and if they say that they do not like it, I can point to the surveys as being why they are being taught that. I hate to have to operate like that, but their feedback week to week clearly meant nothing!
Also... I will give them more notice on the topics. That really was only my fault, there is no denying it.
EDIT: In both my third and fourth period class, Mr Hyun came right up to my face to ask quiet questions about the topic while I was teaching! I understand that he was asking a question that a student asked him, but the personal space violation and whispered questions were more than enough, really.


Neutral:
In conversation with Mr Lee, it came out that I would not be returning to Yeongam next year, a fact that I had hoped to keep to myself for about another month. So, I'm leaving, so that means Jessie must be leaving, as Mr Lee caught on to really quickly. But she's not ready to tell her school yet... so now I have to convince Mr Lee to keep it to himself. It's very awkward, but it is also very nice to not feel like I have a secret anymore.

Awesomeness:
My grade ones at the girls' school all remember my lecture about not saying "I'm fine, thanks" every time I ask how they are.
There's a joke in ESL circles about a teacher finding a student shortly after they are hit by a car. He rushes over and asks the student "How are you? Are you okay?" and the student replies "I'm fine, thanks. How are you today?"
It is true that they still reply automatically, BUT they remembered almost all of the words that I had taught them last semester to use instead of fine, and they made a mighty list on the board. So, one of my pet-peeves is closer to being weeded out of my students. Yes!
Yesterday on the way to lunch, one of my students said "Hello!"
I replied "Hello!"
Then she said "Nice to see you again!", which made me want to hug her, because my other pet peeve is that my students always say "Nice to meet you!" every tiem they see me. It is technically correct, but not correct in conversation. The problem is that Koreans say "Nice to meet you" in that every encounter is a "meeting" of people. But engliish people do not say it the same way in conversation... and I have been tryign to teach them to say "Nice to see you again" instead. So I was really happy when I saw that it had sunk in.

I am debt free in two days.
I am sending money home this afternoon. This will eliminate all debt (financial) and leave enough to pay for a course at Athabasca. Sweet. Biology teachable, here I come.

Yesterday, I went to the Ryus for the Korean lesson, and we read a storybook called "The Lion in Love". I can not read Korean. At all. It was laughable. But, what I need is to read with someone, to sound out the words and have them correct me. Even if it has to be one of my students (embarassment).

EDIT: It is geting warm. Warm enough that I can finally wear all of those dress shirts and ties to class that I have been unable to wear because of the poor insulation at Korean schools. Why wear it if you have to cover it up with three sweaters? Anyways, I've been wearing ties (that they can see!) and all my students have been telling me that I look very good. Which is awesome.

the tie thing "that they can see" is not an allusion to some fetish or anything... just that if I wore a tie before, it typically remained hidden beneath three sweaters.

As you can see, an eventful day and a bit. I also had a piano lesson in there.