Does your mom lettuce?

Yes, one of my students asked me that question (although, to her credit, she did quickly correct herself to say, "Does your mom like tennis?"  Easy mistake).  :)  Today, I want to write about how much I absolutely adore my students.  Yes, there are some that I would like to strangle, but all in all they make me incredibly happy.

Let's start with this moment... and yes, it's with 6th grade, believe it or not:

Even though some are my classes seem to be something straight out of Dante (yes, I dd just make a literature/philosophy reference.  Get over it.), I love them on days when they let me do lessons like the one above.  Not only did we get to cover compound sentences, we did infinitive verbs, city-required vocabulary, and a music appreciation lesson.  (YES, I DO love it when I saw their faces light up when I exposed them to Brian May a couple of lessons before this one, and YES, their intent air-guitaring DID make my day.)

The English Golden Bell Competition is next week, and I'm going to miss being allowed/encouraged to nit-pick those students' English.  I kid you not, this one student, Brian, writes better than some of the kids I went to high school with.  I was reading his position essay on why kids shouldn't be forced to do chores, and he actually brought up some points that had me considering his position, until I talked to him about it... As it turns out, he's actually of the opposite opinion, but no one else volunteered to write for that side, so the teacher assigned it to him.  Oh yeah... by the way, he's in 4th grade.  So impressive.

Additionally, it is impressive the way the kids are so eager to help the special needs students in my classes.  I love watching them all run up to explain rules and include them in activities.  It's not that the students don't recognize the difference, it's that they DO, but they don't see it as a viable reason to keep these kids from being a member of the Whole.  (Yes, there are times that I want to dig up whoever encouraged Korea into groupthink and slap him in the face, but this is not one of those times.)  I tried to take a picture to show you, but my fingers didn't move fast enough.  It'll happen again... I'll capture it one of these days.  For now, I'll just leave you with a picture of a kid and his special ed teacher:

This was such a beautiful moment.  She's asking him question about the lesson, and he's answering... just into the telephone. :)

And I know this is getting lengthy, but I think you can get over it, because I'm talking about my favorite parts of Korea, and I was under the impression that you wanted to hear how much I love it here.  These kids are the reason I love it here.  In fact, I think I would probably hate it, if not for them, so read on.

Next, I would like to tell you about the kid who is quickly becoming my best friend.  :)  His English name is Edward, and he's either in 5th or 6th grade (I'm unsure, because my Saturday class is mixed levels).  He and his bestie, Edwind, are in charge of cleaning my classroom this... week? (I hope it's longer; I love having them there.)  They race to the room to get there early.  While we're waiting for class to finish up (I do exit questions with each student before they may leave, so there's a decent amount of time that I'm just waiting for them to finish their classwork), I teach them different clapping games that I learned in elementary school (and secretly still love, just everyone my age thinks they're too old and too cool to still play... boo...).  They're big fans of "Double Double" (and yes, they are pretty much as excited about it as the girls are in the video), and I taught them "Down by the Banks" today... we'll see which one wins out tomorrow. :)  I think if they're still cleaning my room next week, I'll teach them this one too.

Edward

Edward's superhero

Edwind's superhero

Edwind

Yes, these are my sweet friends.  I like them a lot.

Finally, I heard this drifting in through my window the other day... I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did/do.  :)

Love you!

PS... click the title of this post.  It's linked to my new favorite photograph... probably because I look at it and can't help but recognize many of my kids.