Pencil in the eye and tattoos
Wednesday was an interesting day at work. First, I chewed out one of my best students in my advanced 8 year old class for almost poking a classmate in the eye with his pencil. Second, some of my students saw my tattoos and made a huge deal out of it.
Here is the pencil incident: Byron is one of my best students in class. He soaks in everything that I teach him, and is the only one that ALWAYS completes his homework. But, he is a class clown! He's always goofing off in one way or another. I have 4 students in my class, and we were sitting at a round table going over their homework. Then, Byron decided to play around with his pencil, which slipped out of his hand and flew across the table hitting Ashaa on the face. I remember seeing this pencil, in slow motion, going across my face hitting Ashaa. I was PISSED! I remember when I was in elementary school, I was sitting next to a student that, accidentally, poked himself in the eye with his own pencil. I will never forget what happened after that. He cried so loud from pain that other students cried with him. A lot of us thought that he lost his sight, but everything turned out OK. Anyways, I just chewed him out! He almost cried from it but life goes on. It could have been worse. Later on that day, Ashaa's mom called my director to inquire about the incident, so he asked me what had happened. I am sure Byron's parents got a phone call from my director, and he will be getting a mouthful from his parents.
As most of you know, I have a few tattoos. The latest one I got is the half sleeve on my left arm that was done by a well known tattoo artist in California. Part of the tattoo was done in memory of my dad that passed away this year, and the other part is related to my Korean heritage. Anyways, it was during gym time for the students when they saw a peek of my tattoo. I was the first teacher in the room with about 55 students. I reached down to pick up something from the ground and couple of the students ran up to me asking what that thing was on my arm. Then, about half of the students were all screaming to see what it was and I quickly told them that I just drew on my arm. Luckily, they all believed me and went away. Then, the rest of the teachers walked in the room, so they had no idea what had happened. I didn't think that it was a good idea for my director to know that I have tattoos; especially, when I haven't worked at this school for a long time. I am not, at all, ashamed of my tattoos so don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's better to be discreet about it living in a society that judges people by it's cover. Koreans have a different perspective on tattoos compared to the US. The older generation thinks that only gangsters have tattoos, but the younger generations are very curious about it. In other words, some approve of it and some don't. I do get some stares in buses and subways, but sometimes it helps to get some room when it's packed. They see my tattoos and step back. It cracks me up when this happens.
Here is the pencil incident: Byron is one of my best students in class. He soaks in everything that I teach him, and is the only one that ALWAYS completes his homework. But, he is a class clown! He's always goofing off in one way or another. I have 4 students in my class, and we were sitting at a round table going over their homework. Then, Byron decided to play around with his pencil, which slipped out of his hand and flew across the table hitting Ashaa on the face. I remember seeing this pencil, in slow motion, going across my face hitting Ashaa. I was PISSED! I remember when I was in elementary school, I was sitting next to a student that, accidentally, poked himself in the eye with his own pencil. I will never forget what happened after that. He cried so loud from pain that other students cried with him. A lot of us thought that he lost his sight, but everything turned out OK. Anyways, I just chewed him out! He almost cried from it but life goes on. It could have been worse. Later on that day, Ashaa's mom called my director to inquire about the incident, so he asked me what had happened. I am sure Byron's parents got a phone call from my director, and he will be getting a mouthful from his parents.
As most of you know, I have a few tattoos. The latest one I got is the half sleeve on my left arm that was done by a well known tattoo artist in California. Part of the tattoo was done in memory of my dad that passed away this year, and the other part is related to my Korean heritage. Anyways, it was during gym time for the students when they saw a peek of my tattoo. I was the first teacher in the room with about 55 students. I reached down to pick up something from the ground and couple of the students ran up to me asking what that thing was on my arm. Then, about half of the students were all screaming to see what it was and I quickly told them that I just drew on my arm. Luckily, they all believed me and went away. Then, the rest of the teachers walked in the room, so they had no idea what had happened. I didn't think that it was a good idea for my director to know that I have tattoos; especially, when I haven't worked at this school for a long time. I am not, at all, ashamed of my tattoos so don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's better to be discreet about it living in a society that judges people by it's cover. Koreans have a different perspective on tattoos compared to the US. The older generation thinks that only gangsters have tattoos, but the younger generations are very curious about it. In other words, some approve of it and some don't. I do get some stares in buses and subways, but sometimes it helps to get some room when it's packed. They see my tattoos and step back. It cracks me up when this happens.
posted by Seoul Tiger at 1:44 AM
1 Comments:
My kids freak out over my tattoos as well, which is odd because I see plenty of Koreans with tattoos.
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