Being the last week of school, my coteachers said I could do whatever I wanted in class, so I decided to teach a lesson about Michael Jackson. My lesson began with the entire 13 minute Thriller video, after which I talked about the Jackson 5 while my coteacher translated, and then I played a live performance of "I Want You Back," when Michael was still young and cute. Then I talked a couple more minutes before getting to Thriller the album, at which point they see Billie Jean was one of the most popular songs from it and they start to demand I play it, which is exactly what I had planned.
I chose the live performance of Billie Jean from the Motown 25 concert, and multiple classes cheered and/or requested I play it "one more time!" when the video finished, and I would just show them the moonwalk part a couple more times. Then I moved on to Bad, and "Man in the Mirror", featuring a great montage of him performing to giant crowds and screaming women, as well as the words subtitled on the video karaoke-style. After that video the kids are super impressed by Michael's skills and I sum up his career and then play "We are the World" to end the class. In a couple classes where we had time, the kids requested "Dangerous," and a lot of kids knew and could sing along with the parts of the song where he says "dangerous," but a couple kids actually really knew the song and were humming along with the drum rolls and such.
I chose the live performance of Billie Jean from the Motown 25 concert, and multiple classes cheered and/or requested I play it "one more time!" when the video finished, and I would just show them the moonwalk part a couple more times. Then I moved on to Bad, and "Man in the Mirror", featuring a great montage of him performing to giant crowds and screaming women, as well as the words subtitled on the video karaoke-style. After that video the kids are super impressed by Michael's skills and I sum up his career and then play "We are the World" to end the class. In a couple classes where we had time, the kids requested "Dangerous," and a lot of kids knew and could sing along with the parts of the song where he says "dangerous," but a couple kids actually really knew the song and were humming along with the drum rolls and such.
The week culminated in five MJ classes in a row on Wednesday
and since we left Thursday for our teacher workshop/outing, it was a
good way to end the week and end the semester. Wednesday after school I
got a ride from Su-wan, the pregnant teacher, to the Orange Factory
Outlet where I got some cheap shoes to wear during the monsoons walking
to and from school, and some sandals for going other places in the
rain, and a small backpack for carrying clothes on short trips like the
teacher outing on Thursday.
I had also had Su-won order the camera bag I wanted from a store in Seoul off the internet, and she ordered it Monday afternoon and it was delivered Tuesday, which is apparently normal in Korea. The big camera backpack I already had was good but it's more suited to longer trips where I'm also taking a duffle bag, but now with this small backpack and small camera bag, I can take clothes for 2 days in one bag and my camera stuff in the other, and then put the backpack somewhere and just take the camera when I want it, rather than carry everything even if I just want the camera. Also, I wanted a backpack that was smaller and flexible for carrying clothes so I could shove it into small spaces, whereas my camera backpack is so stiffly padded it takes a lot of space. I made these purchases with the upcoming bus trip in mind, and my decisions, which may seem like overkill to you, would soon be vindicated.
On the way back from the Orange outlet, I randomly ran into Ryley on the street and we decided to go have dinner at the samgeupsal place Graham refers to as Super Pork (the actual name of the restaurant is most definitely not that). After dinner, we went out to U-Turn for a couple drinks where we were joined by Tim and Chris, and we somehow ended up in a long debate spiraling from politics to utopias to The IT Crowd (and British comedy in general) to philosophy to religion and everywhere else. The only problem with these debates is that Tim has two Master's degrees, and Chris and I are just out of college, and Ryley is a few years out of school with an English degree, so Tim pretty much dominates the discussion.
I had also had Su-won order the camera bag I wanted from a store in Seoul off the internet, and she ordered it Monday afternoon and it was delivered Tuesday, which is apparently normal in Korea. The big camera backpack I already had was good but it's more suited to longer trips where I'm also taking a duffle bag, but now with this small backpack and small camera bag, I can take clothes for 2 days in one bag and my camera stuff in the other, and then put the backpack somewhere and just take the camera when I want it, rather than carry everything even if I just want the camera. Also, I wanted a backpack that was smaller and flexible for carrying clothes so I could shove it into small spaces, whereas my camera backpack is so stiffly padded it takes a lot of space. I made these purchases with the upcoming bus trip in mind, and my decisions, which may seem like overkill to you, would soon be vindicated.
On the way back from the Orange outlet, I randomly ran into Ryley on the street and we decided to go have dinner at the samgeupsal place Graham refers to as Super Pork (the actual name of the restaurant is most definitely not that). After dinner, we went out to U-Turn for a couple drinks where we were joined by Tim and Chris, and we somehow ended up in a long debate spiraling from politics to utopias to The IT Crowd (and British comedy in general) to philosophy to religion and everywhere else. The only problem with these debates is that Tim has two Master's degrees, and Chris and I are just out of college, and Ryley is a few years out of school with an English degree, so Tim pretty much dominates the discussion.
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