Confusion

Korea makes notebooks the same way they make shirts. There are quite a few funny ones, but this one is by far my favorite.

It's English class and the teacher is asking a question. All the white kids are confused, but the Korean girl knows the answer!

Happy birthday Sun-am

Today was my school's birthday, so we all got the day off. Pretty sweet. I celebrated by...

sleeping in
skyping my parents and Alissa
watching arrested development
watching a sermon
cleaning/organizing

Happy birthday Sun-am, thanks for the vacation!

One more time

Today is officially the beginning of year 2! My 4 besties left this week. Kyla and Garrett are home in New York, Katie's on vacation in Alaska, and Alissa is on vacation in Hawaii. It doesn't feel like they're gone yet. We went through so much together, and we became family. I know I'll see them all again, and I'm very happy for them to be home, but it'll be strange and a little sad not doing this year together. I love every minute I got to spend with them, but I wish they all would have left at the same time. The prolonged good-byes were pretty rough.

I have all new co-teachers. Jenny moved to another school. Yuri and Sam are classroom teachers, so I'll still see them around but I don't get to teach with them. Jenny's replacement was the 2nd grade teacher last year. She's about my age and she speaks English like a pro. I'm so excited to have her as my co-teacher! Sam's permanent replacement is currently on maternity leave, so I have what I think is a Korean student teacher for 3 months, then the other lady will come. I haven't met Yuri's replacement yet, but she's also pregnant and will be leaving around August. I guess it's baby season in Korea.

I'm going to teach evening classes Mondays and Tuesdays at Samshin Elementary School. I met the director and saw the school last week. I'll teach the low kids with a Korean co-teacher. There will be 2 other foreigners teaching classes as well, so I get to meet some new people. I'm excited for that to start. I'm also going to have weekly play dates with a 5 year old boy named Jun-gi. His mom wants me to speak English with him and she hopes he'll pick it up naturally. This week we read a few books, he showed me all his swords, and we had a snack together. Good times.

The one thing that isn't changing is my kids. I teach different combinations of kids because they've all moved up a grade level, but they're all still there. I haven't really taught some of them for a few months, so I got a lot of hugs today. I love that I already know their personalities and their abilities, and we can just continue where we left off. It's amazing how much you can love and form relationships even when you don't speak the same language. It's going to be very hard to say good-bye next year and turn them over to some stranger. I'm glad I get to do the same job 2 years in a row. I was looking at last year's lesson plans today and the beginning ones were not so great...there's definitely room for improvement.

Starting the new school year today really made me happy I stayed in Korea. If there were any doubts, they're gone now. This year is going to look very different from last year, and I definitely wish my friends were still here and I had the same co-teachers, but I still think it'll be great.

Awesome yearbook photos!

I got my hands on the 6th grade graduation yearbook and took pictures of some of the funniest pictures. Try not to focus on the poor quality of these photos, but the awesomeness and awkwardness of it all.

 One of these things is not like the others

 Alfalfa finger

Why?

February is a very strange and semi-pointless month in the education world. The first 2 weeks of the month were "regular classes" but teachers had already submitted final grades (which the students were very aware of) and half the classes were game/movie/hang out/play time. Then we had the graduation and closing ceremonies, and now there are 2 more weeks of classes until the new school year begins March 2nd. Over half my classes have been canceled, and I'm not even going into work every day.

I would like to meet the person who looked at the calendar and said "Yes, that's a really good idea. The students are going to learn a lot and be very productive this month." I would also like to be in charge for a day so I could redo everything.

What if

What if our graduation ceremonies were like Korean graduation ceremonies?

 What if there were traditional drums?

 What if the graduation song was played with recorders?

 And kids wore velvet sailor suits?

 What if there was a choreographed dance?

 With several questionable dance moves performed by very young girls?

 And what if the boys also wore sparkles and danced?

 That would be awesome

Kindergarten

I taught Kindergarten 2 days a week this year, and they made me a cute little book to say thank you. 

 In all the pictures I pretty much look like this

 Black hair, black eyes, pigtails...

so I guess in an entire year none of them realized that I'm not Korean