I've been at this school for two weeks, this past week with a full set of classes. I guess when I'm standing in the front, it's hard to tell there's actually a piercing there.
Anyway, this morning started out a little rough: I spilled coffee on my skirt on my way to work, i didn't bring the right socks for my new slippers, and when I got to school, I realized there were still copies to be made( it was a little too late for that). Thankfully, my 1st period class was cancelled. :-). Whew! I wouldn't have a another class for 2hrs, which left me plenty of time to relax and let whatever tiny amount of the caffeine I'd consumed actually kick in.
I would be teaching 4th and 3rd grade today. For 4th grade, the lesson was focused on the vocabulary for words we use when we want help making or creating something. I just put together a PPT with pictures and sentences to match the words. Afterwards, students played concentration to match the words with the pictures, or words with fill-in-the blank sentences.
The third grade lesson was on body parts and counting. I basically threw together a PPT that described the different parts of the face, and then we played a game where students rolled dice, and drew a "monster" with the correlating number of body parts. For example, I would show a picture of an eye. Students would roll dice, and whatever number appeared, they would draw that number of eyes. They also focused on the target language "let's draw____ ____." So," let's draw five eyes."
When I finished my classes, I went to lunch with the other teachers. On the way back, one of my co-teachers asked if it hurt when I got my nose pierced. I told her I didn't remember, and that I got it a LONG time ago, because really, I didn't want to entertain that conversation. Anyway, I didn't think twice about it, until I started my after school class.
I was in the middle of explaining the difference between is, are and using plurals and one student shouts out, AHH teacher, what's in your nose? and I just pointed to my ears and then to my nose, and they( all 4 of them), just stared...and, "ahh teacher, owwwww" while covering their noses. Another student started commenting in Korean, and the only thing I understood was "Africa." haha! I'm assuming they're giving me a pass because they think it's something that people from Africa do. Whatevs! Needless to say, it was quite amusing, and again, just reminded me of how DIFFERENT I, as an American, really am here. I mean, we don't even think twice about piercings here. Well, that's a lie, I generally am not a fan of facial piercings other than the nose, and let's be honest, my nose piercing was a pure I'm-turning-eighteen-and-I'm-going-to-do-what-I-want decision. And, in retrospect, the kids MUST have been talking to their teacher's about it, which would explain why my co-teacher RANDOMLY asked me about my piercing after lunch. Regardless, piercings and tattoos are generally extremely taboo, I wouldn't be surprised if they asked me to take it out.
Today, despite being a little cloudy, turned out to be pretty good. Tomorrow, I've got a full plate of classes. I'll be teaching grades 6,3, and 4 from 9-1:10. I've got to get some rest. Annyeong!
xoxo
Jo