Doris

I have a girl in my Thursday night classes ... Doris. I call that class my Doris class because she definitely stands out. She's not a typical private school student. She's quite rebellous; dresses (against the Korean norm) in oversized jeans and plaid shirts. She's always showing up to class late, never does her homework and barely passes her vocabulary tests. I think her home life is quite difficult. Her mom and sister live in the States and she lives in Korea with her dad. At first, I was nervous teaching her, because she definitely has the apperance of and acts like she could be a problem student. She openly dislikes the other girls in my class for being very girly-girl. However, as I started teaching her, I learned that her English is far beyond any of the other girls in that class. I now never give her a hard time because she never gives me any problems. Matt taught her before I did, and he was always telling me about her interesting pictures she would draw for him while taking vocabulary tests. (From Matt's website: picture 1, picture 2, picture 3.) Lately, she has warmed up to me. I once took the class out for dok boki (rice dough cooked in greasy sauce ... yum?) and after I did, she put her arm around me and said thanks (the only one who thanked me, mind you). She has left me little presents on my desk, and most recently, has been staying behind the class a couple extra minutes asking me questions. I talk to her about visiting her mom in Chicago and if she likes to ski. She seems to like it. When I talk to her one on one, I see this shy, humble 12 year old who is beyond creative. She doesn't care about marks; her presents are not because she's sucking up, because she knows that I'll continue to give her C's if she doesn't do her homework or study for the tests. She is by far my favourite elementary student, and I wish I could just teach her English one-on-one because she's far more advanced than the stupid Good Times English books we use for that age group. She makes teaching til 7:35 a little more enjoyable.

In the meantime, I'm on the hunt for a keyboard. I'm thinking that I'll put those 8 years of piano lessons to good use, pull out some Tori Amos sheet music and practice on those 1-3 hours I have off between my kindergarten classes and elementary classes.