Yesterday was what the South Koreans call 육이오 [yuk-i-o = six-two-five], which is to say, June 25th, which is the anniversary of the day North Korea launched its massive surprise invasion against the south, that led to the 3 year-long Korean War. It’s not really a holiday, but it’s a day of rememberance. A day to reflect on “national tragedy.”
For me, it was just a regular day. A morning, running errands, and an afternoon teaching four elementary classes and preparing some speaking test results.
Oh, and I had my cancer diagnosis confirmed and spent an hour discussing survivability statistics, neck and tongue reconstructive surgery, tracheotomies and the length and frequency of radiation therapies.
I guess the contrast feels striking to think about.
I’ve been really diligent about making video records of all my students’ speaking work, the last few months. There are more than 100 videos posted now at my other blog [UPDATE: this link still works in 2023 – very surprising!] – which is a work blog for my students and their parents, mostly – it’s not getting much use, yet, but it was meant to be a start of something.
One side effect of this is that I have some sort of video record of almost every teaching day. So for yesterday, I made and posted 3 videos.
First, with some younger ones where I was not their regular teacher, we did a “story reading” class. We made “books” (illustrations) and then they read the story. They hammed a lot for the camera, too. If you watch nothing else, watch the last 12 seconds of this video.
Next, I gave a speaking test to an earnest but low-intermediate level group of older elementary kids. They weren’t really that happy about it, as you can tell – but some of them are still getting used to my teaching style and I only see them once a week.
Last, I gave a debate speech test to my most advanced elementary kids. They really always impress me with their strong effort, research and thoughtfulness. These 3 minute speeches are completely from memory.
So… you’re not seeing me in these videos. But it’s nevertheless a kind of video record of a single day of my work. I guess I feel like it’s an affirmation that despite my emerging situation, I can hang on to a kind of normalcy.