Thursdays are slow at work with three spares, two at the beginning of the day and the third near the end. Last week we had an impromptue origami lesson with the option to colour the beautiful creations.
Young girls mostly take part while boys stand and watch as cute fingers create wonderful surprises. Patient eyes watch thread being handled with care to decorate and hang these paper treasures. Today was a little different in that a rocket ship got a new crayon coat of 'paint' and the names of colours were taught to me by a nine year old Korean girl who recently was among random students who were rotated into different classes. This same wonderful student whom I miss, decided that the small white feather residue from a cheap winter jacket of mine did not belong on my black suit jacket. She began carefully removing the tiny flecks of white by hand and then had the idea to use tape. Another student gave me a shoulder massage by pounding her fists gently into my body.
This seems like a great way to interact with the students and build rapport in a non-threatening way that also encourages their creativity. I try to encorporate crafts and hands on activities which embelish the mundane material in the GnB books I must follow.
On one occasion, I got in trouble for not exclusively using the book. One day, a new student of two weeks told her Mom we didn't use the book. This got back to my boss and we had a little chat about it. Since then, I've decided that there aren't rules about doing crafts during long breaks and we can help eachother with language. My young students take great delight in teaching me some Korean while I help them with their English pronunciation. Kids love to be teachers. These students can be so thoughtful and kind. I get paid to host craft time and get massages reminding me of Thailand. Lucky me.
Thursday, 21 February 2008
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