So one day, TaeHoon, who is now officially Anthony, pulled out a large container of japchae, kalbi, rice, and kimchi. I was very impressed and asked him why he had such a big lunch. 

He said, "Well miss, it's because everyday you look at my lunch so today I brought lunch for you."

I didn't know whether to turn red from embarrassment or laugh hysterically. I refused but he said his home-stay mom would be disappointed if he came home with full containers, so I sat down and ate a bit with him. 

These kids are the best. Aside from amazing lunches, they always have chocolate, chips, and fruits they share with me. It's really hard for me not to get attached to them.

But even so, I've learned a lot just by being with them everyday, such as that there is a big difference between age groups, even if it is only one year apart.

For example:

Grade 11/12: This is my favourite group, especially because at this age they are all willing to learn and know how to absorb whatever material you throw at them. They don't complain because they understand enough to know that sometimes, you just have to do what you have to do.

Grade 10: This used to be my worst group, until I learned how to deal with them. They gave me grief because this class is half ESL kids and half super know-it-all's. If I give them easy material, the know-it-all's will complain, but if I make the material harder, the ESL kids will be completely lost. So to solve the problem, I told the know-it-all's that this is a great chance for character building and that complaining all the time won't get them anywhere. I also got creative and begun teaching them life long skills that they'll need to know such as how to take notes effectively, how to listen well, and useful grammatical tips.

Grade 9/8/7: So this group used to be my teachers pet group. Everyday they'd follow along and listen to me, but after a while they got too complacent and begun being disruptive. Actually, I had gotten so used to dealing with older kids that I forgot what it was like to deal with this age group, especially because there're just so many things they still have to learn:

For one: Spelling. I had forgotten that kids at this age cannot spell (it doesn't help that I can't spell either).
Secondly: Basic grammar. Anything to do with sentence structure is out the window with these kids.
Thirdly: Paying attention. Kids this age do not have a long attention span.
Fourthly: Reading. For some reason, these kids are so disinterested in reading that it's like pulling out teeth. You literally have sit them down and watch them read.

After much grief the moral of the story is: go by their pace.

Grade 6/5: At this age, they're just cute. They get the fun and easy work so they willingly do it.

So that's basically it. I realized that being a teacher is probably one of the hardest job out there because although you may have your differences in the classroom, outside the classroom you spend a lot of time thinking about them and what they need. But whatever, we'll see what happens.