Korea: Two Years in Four Minutes

And just in case you wanted to watch this on your phone, too:

And we're back!

School is back on... for two weeks.  And then I'm done teaching (at least in Korea... for now).   Crazy.

The child standing on the chair was the sweet baby who
had to spend the rest of the day with plastic in his ear.
We weren't allowed to send the poor kid home, but that's
how it falls sometimes.

Vacation was pretty straight-forward.  I stayed in Cheonan after the unfortunate need to cancel Italy, and taught a week of extra classes at my old Saturday School.  The kids were cute, but - oh man - I'm so glad I normally teach middle school.  I had one first grader (American kindergartner) shove a straw wrapper so far down his ear that I couldn't see it anymore by the time I got to him to try and stop him.  Those little babies cannot and should not sit still for two hours.  Good grief, planning team.  I promptly disregarded my instructions to give them lots of worksheets and planned a lot of games and songs.  We also read some books, which I borrowed from my first school, and made some great projects, like our very own Big, Green Monsters.  (I really like this book for teaching.  It's good with the littles for

The kids bigger than her were allowed to
use scissors to cut out their body parts.

body parts and colors, and it's made even better, because you revive it when they get older to teach other adjectives.  Every page follows this form: He has [adjective], [color] body part.  Each series is stated twice in the book; the reinforcement is really nice.)

Hanging around Cheonan turned out to be a better break than I expected.  It was nice to not have to deal with the stress of planning everything and getting to the airport on time.  I also got to sleep in without worrying about wasting my time in the country... Since this is the country I live in (Wow... I just started typing this is my country) and all.  I do have a couple more places I think I should see before I leave, but I won't be too fussed if I don't.

One of the perks of greatly preferring running with her over running alone.  She makes me wish I had a dog of my own, though I know that's not feasible right now, what will all the moving around I'm getting ready to do.  (Also, I feel really irresponsible saying this, but it's awfully nice being able to sleep in on my non-running mornings, and I couldn't really do that if I had a dog... So I'll just borrow them for now.  Hehe)

Uma

staying home is that I could pet sit for my friend.  I've felt bad having people pet sit for Bunny, but never being able to return the favor for them, but now I've at least been able to pay it forward.  Not to mention, I loved getting to spend time with sweet Uma.  Uma has proved very helpful in my recent endeavor into running.  She only has three legs, but she has managed to keep up with me pretty decently.  I'm not sure if that's more of a testament to her running ability or my lack thereof, but I do know that I

As for the running commitment, I know that many of you are probably checking outside for other signs of the apocalypse, but I promise you I'm serious.  I chased down a bus a couple of weeks ago and liked it so much that I thought I'd give it a serious go, using the 0-5K app my friend showed me for my iPhone.  Another friend recently turned me on to a site that helps people get serious about the goals they set for themselves.  I'm not sure this is actually the site she was meaning, but I ended up making a contract on stickK.com.  Basically, I and a sponsor report my progress each week, and if I miss my goal, I pay money to an anti-charity of my choosing.  Sadly, Westboro Baptist wasn't an option on that list.  I really wish it was, because I'm pretty sure every person I know would get on me to make sure I don't give them any money.  If you want to keep tabs on my progress and offer me encouragement along the way, please join my commitment as a Supporter by clicking here.  I'm already feeling so much better and confident because of this, and it's only been a week.  The program suggests taking break days from working out, but I hate the thought of that... partially because I have a hard time with gray zones and partially because I really like how I feel after the work-outs.  Sooooo I do what I want. Haha.

Finally, the heat wave through Korea has been so bad that my school is started 30 minutes earlier each day and classes are 5 minutes shorter.  People have been using so much air conditioning that the government is warning about impending national blackouts.  Now, personally, I think that turning the AC on at school, where a bunch of people are all in one room would use less electricity than sending everyone home and having them turn it on in their private homes, but perhaps I'm wrong.  Nevertheless, it's a very welcome change for me from the frigid winters here.  I'll take heatwave over ice storm any day of the year.

For now, I think that constitutes an adequate update.  I'll see you (America friends) in 72 days. :)

Goodbye Time Again

These are growing outside of
my school.  It must be a sign
(seeing as how they're my
favorites).

I've been saying goodbye to a lot of my kids today, and it was so hard!  I'm sure I'll see them around after summer break, but I won't teach them anymore, because it's a new semester after the summer.  Today, my last class was full of all of my favorites, who I've taught the whole time I've been at this school (simply by luck of the draw).  I suddenly am realizing how hard it's going to be for me to leave Korea.  I love these kids (and this school) so much.  

Let me show you a snippet of what's been going on today.

I've been teaching a music class during my lunchtime recently.

Today, the schedule switched up a bit, and we got done early, so I popped in next door.

There, I found several of the students I had taught for the last time in the class before lunch.

They also are students I've had for a whole year now.

They played me the song "Payphone" by Maroon 5, mostly because I told them I liked it so much, but a bit because it was a little fitting.

It was at this moment that it became impossible for me to get through my next class without crying.

Luckily, the kids in my next class got a bit crazy, making it easier for me to keep my cool (after I lost it trying to start class).

This is what it looks like when I'm teaching my kids how to order food in English.

But this kid, he put a smile back on my face.

He's crazy, but I love him, and he knows that.

It's hard for me to leave them, but if I can be smiling as I do so, well, then I'll feel I did a good job.  Unless I'm smiling out of relief... that wouldn't be a good feeling.  But I really don't think that's how it's going to be.  I think it's going to be one of those bittersweet smiles, where I'm leaving, but I'm happy, because I know that I somehow managed to make these kids' lives better because I was there.  That's what I hope.

A couple of impressive young men

Middle School is a hard time.  I would know... I went to three different ones, and none of it was easy.  I think that's why I find it most impressive when a middle schooler does something of character.  I think it takes extra strength to push past all of the hormones, self-discovery, and outside forces to shine through by doing something Good.  I want to take a moment to praise two young men who pushed through all of that on the last day before a long weekend.  These might not be impressive at first, but mull them over; I think you'll see what I mean.

The first is the less obvious example.  It requires a quick culture lesson, though.  One of the things that blows my mind in Korea is the relative lack of supervision the kids have here (ok, in my mind, it's more like an absolute lack of supervision).  They're allowed to do whatever they want, which usually means they're running around, screaming in the halls, and beating on each other.  This stops anywhere between 5-10 minutes after the bell rings to start class and is picked up again the moment class is over, although it often occurs more quietly during classes as well.  I know.  It's not at all what you pictured of Korean schools, but I assure you it's true.  Knowing that, it may be less surprising to you that I had noticed a slap fight starting in the back of my classroom, but ignored it in favor of finishing setting up.  I normally break those up pretty early in an effort to maintain a semi-Western-style classroom (in the name of culture lessons - not comfort, of course...), but not last Thursday.  Well, when I looked up again, something felt not quite right about it, but, by the time I processed what it was, it was too late.  The slaps had been getting harder, until one boy started punching the other in the face.  I could hear the impacts from the front of the room.  I kicked my shoes off and ran to the back of the room, bellowing "YAH!" before I grabbed the hitter from behind in a sort of bear hug, pinning his arms to his side.  The impressive part was that, instead of struggling against me, letting his adrenaline push him forward and out of my grasp (which would have been easy, as he's roughly a head taller than me), he went limp in my arms.  We both stood there, breathing heavily for about 30 seconds before I heard him say,

"Teacher, no fight."
"Yeah, I know 'No fight.'  That's exactly right."  I didn't let him go.  I didn't trust him.
"No, teacher.  No fight."
"Okay..." I said, slowly loosening my grip, waiting to see his next move.  I backed up, and still he stayed where he was.  He turned to meet my eyes.
"No fight."

I was proud of him, even in that moment.  I directed him and the other boy to sit at opposing sides of the back of my room, while sending another to go get a Korean teacher who I knew would be fair and would get to the bottom of what had happened.  The hitter was normally pretty quiet, while the hittee is pretty wide open and has a tendency to speak his mind, so I figure there's a decent chance that the hitter was provoked... not that that justifies rearranging someone's face, but it does justify further investigation.
Even in this moment, I glow with pride at the amazing amount of self-control this kid showed as soon as I got involved.  I don't like the situation, but I do like his actions once within it.

The second young man I want to lift up is more classic in the category of praise.  After school on Thursday, I prayed that G-d would provide me with some kids to take next door to the grilled cheese shop and buy a snack.  Well, He's generally more than happy to answer that prayer.  As I came out of the door of the school, there were about 8 kids sitting on the ground, waiting around for an after-school class.  I talked to them a little bit, mostly about their love lives.  One girl had just broken up with her boyfriend; one girl was yelling up to a third floor window to talk with her "husband;" one boy was gushing to me about how pretty his girlfriend was; one girl wanted to tell me about how she was chatting on an instant messaging service with her boyfriend.  All in all, I felt pretty honored to have them let me into their world.  The trick is that most of it was being relayed by the one boy who felt comfortable using English.  They all wanted to talk to me and I to them, but we needed a translator, and he was fully willing to help - never a sigh, never an eye rolled, breaking off mid-conversation when someone beckoned.  What's more, at the sandwich shop, he made a point of making sure the girls all got their food first, saying "Ladies first," when I looked at him in surprise.  You don't see that much anymore, but it was really nice.

And that, my friends, is me publicly praising two of my many amazing young people at my school.  Or, as my friends at Blimey Cow would say, "That is me supporting my local chivalry."

Ready... Set...

School started this week.  I mean, I'm not teaching this week, but that's okay; we need to get the kids settled in before throwing them into practical foreign language classes.  I'm pretty sure they're still having their grammar lessons, though, which is also good - get them ready to come to me so they can come with confidence.

I'm pretty pumped about school starting.  This isn't a new thing.  I'm always excited for school to start.  I'm that nerd that loves the scent of new books.  I love pencils when they're sharpened for the first time, and the way crayons look fresh out of the box.  Yup.  I'm a bookworm.  So, in spite of already having a scheduler, when my co-teacher Sam walked into the office holding a brand new, leather-bound, embossed teacher's diary for me, I got really excited.  It even has a space at the top of each week for me to write my lesson plan overview!  I'm so excited.

Speaking of lesson plans, this semester, I'm taking a different approach to how I teach my classes.  In the past, I've refused to give homework, claiming these kids are overworked as it is (and they are, don't get me wrong).  This semester, however, I'm assigning them things to pre-study, so, assuming they do it, we can focus on more fun things in class, while making sure their books get completed to keep their parents happy.  I've got a desk full of books I plan to use as supplementary materials, as well as two shelves full in my classroom (My school is so awesome about using their English budget well... AND they let me control what happens to what they buy... so awesome).

Now, I'm pretty sure I'm just in the pre-wedding stages with these classes, when I'm all giddy and optimistic, and  most kids aren't going to do the work I need them to do to run classes the way I want, but I figure this is a good jumping off point, and we'll work together, mesh our expectations, and find a happy medium.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

In the meantime, check out the website I made for my students here.

Oh, hey! Check it out!

Cooking Winter Camp lesson plans are here!  (And photos are interspersed.)

Click here for the loveliness.

One sneak peak to get you interested:

MOTh: Days 26 and 27

3 Gifts Preparing

I've failed at this since Thanksgiving time.  In my defense, there's a storm brewing, and it's been killing my head for the past couple of days.  As much as I feel strongly about snow, I wish it'd just do its thing already and leave my head out of it.

1. I'm thankful that I have options of where I want to go from here.  Granted, the only option I'm going to take is the one G-d puts in front of me, but I don't need to feel panicked about it while waiting for Him to show me His way.
2. I'm thankful for all the Christmas and Chanukah stuff laying around my apartment.  I think I'm going to try to get around to putting it up tonight. :)
3. I'm thankful for the mission G-d is preparing me for.  I know that He's got a plan for me specifically, and that warms my heart to know. :)

A Gift Handmade

One of my professors in college made my Harry Potter wand for me.  I'm a child on the inside, so I was thrilled.  :)

A Gift Held

Miss Paisley Grace means a ton to me.

and a Gift Happy

재영's sweet smile always could make me happy.  :)

New School

Okay!  I promised, and I'm coming good: Photos of my new school!!!

My desk, with glimpses of the three other desks in my office. 

What I see when I walk in - there's a computer center to the right.

What I see while teaching (minus the students, of course).  It's very nice to look at.

There are so, so many good books and games!  I actually took more pictures of them, but I figured that you probably wouldn't be quite as excited by the close-ups as I am.  Refer to the picture above to get an idea of how many books there are. :)

I love that there's a bunch of English graphic novels.  The kids actually go in and grab them to read during their free time!

Okay, that's all for now.  I'll work on getting you some photos of kids, soon!

Life and Third Graders

Today, some of my third graders stopped by to see me during their lunch. Normally, at that time of the day, I'm pretty tired and grumpy, but a fervent prayer in the morning to put me in a better attitude to minister to these kids kept me in stitches at all of their antics all day long. My sixth graders stole my heart (we did one-on-one testing today, so I got a chance to know them as humans and not just students), and then these kids did, too.

The one little girl, 서영, has Down's Syndrome, as does her twin, and they've taken a real liking to me. This one is constantly babbling, whenever I see her. Today, I realized that she's saying, over and over, "영어 선생님!" (English teacher.) She got right up in my face to say this to me, today. I usually just let her do her thing, but the question is always there, "What am I going to do if she kisses me? What is the correct course of action?" I'm thinking I'm just going to let it slide, but I don't know what my co-workers will think is and isn't acceptable.

So, they stopped by to talk, and I brought out some stickers. Well, 서영 thought they were just the snazziest things she'd ever seen, and she didn't want me to be left out, meaning that, after I put her sticker on her hand, she grabbed the sheet from me and proceeded to empty it onto my arms and face. I returned the favor by decorating her glasses. She then removed some from my arms to do my glasses. It was very cute.

Then, I had a brilliant idea. "Teachable moment!" I said.

"Girls, how would you like to make a video for America?"
- "For America?"
"Yes. I can put it online."
- "All of America would see?"
"Well, they could if they wanted."
- "Would Obama see?"
"Maybe. If he wanted."
- "Okay."

They were hooked, and I think you will be, too, because they're so stinking adorable. This is what I got out of it. (Interestingly enough, it kind of fits what I'm sure a lot of people are thinking right now. Please note, I'm keeping my opinions on that subject entirely separate from this blog.)

"Hi Obama! I'm Korean people, and you is... uh... You name is Obama. And you is too tall and ugly."

Me: "What?! You should not tell Mr. Obama that!"

"No! It's you're handsome!"

Me: "Oh, ok. Good."

"이명박 [Korea's president], too."

Me: "All right, tell Mr. Obama bye-bye."

"Bye-bye!"

"No! No, no!"

Me: "No?"

"No bye-bye!"

Me: "No bye-bye... Do you have more to say?"

"No, no. Byeee!"

Me: "No? Oh, ok. Bye."

Blimey Cow photo-a-day 28. Joyous news!

I think this one speaks for itself.  ^_^

All right, friends, No bye-bye to you, too. ^_^ I've got to hit the sack. Goodnight!

First (and Second) Grade Philosophy

Today, in my first and second grade reading class, I read them a book that I knew was too hard for them, but, with the help of my head teacher's on-the-fly translating, they were able to understand.  I read it to them because I think it teaches an amazingly important lesson - one that it took me until college and Nate Kerr to learn, and here it was, all packaged neatly into a children's book (that one of my kids already knew and loved, mind you).  Here's what I want you to do.  I want you to log into your Amazon.com account, click on the title of the book below.  Read the preview pages and see if you can keep up with my first and second graders:

The Five Little Fiends

by Sarah Dyer

Now, I don't want you to feel bad if you don't come up with the answers my kids did.  These are the same kids that defined "friend" as "the act of loving." (Well, roughly.  We did that in Korean, so, technically, they defined "friend" as "사랑해.")

Blimey Cow Photo-a-Day 07. Something you LOVE:
My students.
Don't worry, they don't always look as frustrated as the guys do;
I'd just had them line up for their stickers when I remembered I wanted to take this shot.

So, I asked the kids to do a "thinking quiz."  I asked them to tell me what we should learn from this book. Here are the answers I got back, translated from Korean:

1. We shouldn't steal.
2. If we do steal, we should go to the police and give it back.
3. Everything needs everything else.
4. Everyone and everything is connected.
5. We need everyone.

They're impressive little munchkins, aren't they?  AND, this was with no prompting from the teachers, except the repetition of the question.  I'm proud to be their teacher. :)

I'll leave it up to you to decide which theme it took me until college to learn. ;)

Lent: Munchkins

***Don't forget to sign the petition to save refugees from North Korea!***

Blessing #32 - People who fight for the same goal

I've had the pleasure of working with my fifth graders on understanding the U.N., why it started, and what it aims to do.  I haven't gone into the details and such, but we've talked about the basic concept - very basic, as their lesson is simply, "Hello, I'm __________.  I'm from ________________.  This is ________.  (S)He is from ___________."

Nonetheless, it's made me remember how grateful I am for the thinkers and movers behind the U.N., who believe that we don't have to be slaves to our country borders and are radical enough to think that we can act out of non-selfish motives.  That's a number among which I wouldn't mind being counted.

That being said, here's the final product of the 5th graders' model U.N. project.  I hope you enjoy!

Who are you, where are you from, and for what do you fight?

Harry Potter Camp - Day 9 - Defense Against the Dark Arts

Day 9 was another day that would have gone over better in the summertime, outdoors, for sure.  It got mixed reviews from the students, but I think that would have been solved, given more space and a more appropriate setting.  As it was, though, the kids basically ended up with a free pass to run wild throughout the school (given that they stayed within my boundaries and I knew where they were and what they were doing at all times, of course.  No worries, I'm not THAT irresponsible).

The core of the lesson surrounded a PowerPoint on various monsters and the legends surrounding them.  I was shocked to find that the kids were never taught Greek mythology.  I guess I took it for granted that they would be valued here, since it's drilled into us back in the States, but that's what I get for assuming things, I guess.  My co-teacher had a very hard time understanding that I couldn't give her a Korean name for Cerbeus.  I was especially at a loss when my cell phone dictionary, which so beautifully translated "Harry Potter" came up dry.  It was rather frustrating, to be honest, as the whole thing took place in front of the kids, but more so because I couldn't understand why she couldn't understand.  The best guess that I have is that I was the only person in the room with any kind of exposure to Greek and Roman mythology at all.  What a shame.

Following the PowerPoint, we played a modified freeze tag game, in which the house that was helping Voldemort attack would run around, putting the Imperius Curse on the other students.  When a student was tagged, his/her tagger would issue a command.  The student then had to follow that command until one of his/her free teammates found them and asked, "What are you doing?"  The frozen student would then have to answer, "I'm ______-ing."  It was a pretty genius twist on the game for which I wish I could take credit, as there isn't as strong an emphasis on understanding English verb "conjugations" (which is in quotations because I'm pretty sure I remember someone telling me that English verbs don't actually conjugate), as much as there is on memorizing dialogues.  As a result, I often hear things like, "I am play," and "Do you want playing?"  Sad day.  Maybe a little kinesthetic action will help it to stick.  Here's hoping!

Caught!

I, like all the other Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, will continue the trend, and only hold the position that one time (unless I teach this camp again, I guess).  Whether or not that is because of a mysterious curse on the position, I could not say, but it is a rather suspicious trend; that's for sure.

<3

Harry Potter Camp - Day 8 - Charms Class

This video was way too good (and too reminiscent of my Slytherin friend, disappointed by my "easy" spells) to hide behind a title link.  On the other hand, the video that is there is also rather funny, but that's mostly because the Portugese-dub voices are hilarious.  Enjoy them both, then read on.

Day 8, Charms Class was the other winner of the Students' Choice Award.  It surprised me that it would do so, as I thought the "charm" we did was rather common knowledge, but apparently not.  I'm not going to explain the trick to it, as I'm kind of curious now.  Look at the process here, then post the answers to the questions in comments section.  I really want to know if I was severely misled by my opinion of its commonality.

Process and questions for you to answer in the comments section.

Wingardium Levisoa!

Hufflepuf[f] and Ravenclaw, hard at work, writing the answers to the questions that I hope you will answer too.

Finally, I'm going to leave you with another video.  This is not an activity that made the cut in the final draft of my lesson plans (we're just going to pretend it didn't exist).  Even though the kids laughed and had a good time, I don't think it had enough educational value to suggest that other people do it.  I included it, because I had a different hot air balloon project that I wanted to do with them, but, after successfully setting parts of my building and my hand on fire twice, I decided it wasn't the best classroom activity.  Therefore, I had to think fast and through together the following balloon race (which also had its own monkey wrench that I didn't think of in time to prevent):

Just remember in your practicing at home: It's Levi-OH-sa, not Levio-SAH.  Not that you should be practicing at home, what with the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and all... ah well, as long as you're over 17 and/or avoid certain house elves trying to save your life, you should be fine.

<3

Harry Potter Camp - Day 6 - Potions Class

I have a lot of friends who are HUGE Snape fans.  As for me, I am a fan of his love for Lily, but am pretty sure that he would whacked Dumbledore either way.  My opinion: If Voldemort had never gone after Lily (James and Harry, sure, just not Lily), Snape would have been by his side to the bitter end.  Ladies, moral of the story?: Be nice to the gross kids.  One day, you may need them to protect your kids.  Anyway, I put the link on the title of this post specifically for my Snape-loving friends.  Moving on.

Day 6 was one of the Students' Choice Award winners.  You'll have to stay tuned in to find out what the other one was.  I can't say that I blame my kids for picking this one; I would have too.  Considering the link and the title at the top of the page, you should know what class it was by now, but just in case, let me put it big and bold for you here:

Day 6 = Potions!

I had some really good things planned for them from the getgo.

Ever since I saw the cool milk experiment that I posted as a title link at the very beginning of this blog, I've been looking for an excuse to do it with some kids, so I was thrilled to throw that in here.  My friend Nick helped me dub it the "Pensieve,"which was genius.  (Don't the swirls in the Pensieve look like the ones in the milk?!)  The kids varied between thinking this was really cool and thinking it as really dirty, depending on how their colors ended up mixing.  Personally, I just enjoyed watching their faces turn from curiosity to shock as they added the dish soap.

Unfortunately, the Slytherins refused to stop talking while I was talking, so, as per the rules contract they signed, I had to make them write the rule 20 times, and the 30 times added to that (2nd and 3rd offense). There was a little case of a co-teacher undermining attempt, but I help my ground (even though I wanted to make them write lines just about as much as they wanted to write them), and, as a result, I didn't have to give out lines any more for the rest of camp.  Thank the good L-rd for that!

Because of the talking, however, the second experiment ended up running wayyyyy past time to go home, but it was such a cool one that I wasn't about to let it slip past us, because we were making homemade ice cream!  Turns out, milk, vanilla, and sugar in a little ziplock, surrounded by ice and salt in a big ziplock, while being shaken furiously for ten minutes will produce ice cream!  I tell you what, this is one thing that I'm excited to do with my future kids.

I made them do their shaking in the bathroom, as I did the smart thing and practiced at home, thus finding that the inner ziplock had a habit of leaking a lot if not closed perfectly.

I like this photo a lot.  I had the kids cut the corner of their ziplocks and eat the ice cream in such a way that would virtually prevent spills.  They were all big fans, and THAT, my friends, is why this lesson won the Students' Choice Award for favorite lesson. :)  By the way, I've been talking about that award, but it's entirely imaginary.  This is just the lesson that the most kids said they liked the best.

Now get out there and make some ice cream.  I hear Bill and Fleur want to have some at their wedding.

<3

Harry Potter Camp - Day 5 - Herbology

Well, this day was not supposed to be Herbology day, but the teacher made a boo-boo and forgot to remind the students to bring their things for Potions sooooo, we switched to emergency plan B (and I, of course, gave bonus points to the students who were more responsible than myself).  Despite its being plan be (and the stupid idea of showing a video without the Korean subtitles - it's attached to the title), the kids were big fans of Day 5.  Their health-nut sides (which reminded me of JoshandKelli Taylor) would not allow this day to win a Students' Choice Award, but I very much enjoyed the cleanup process, as I have absolutely no problem eating refined sugar, especially when my students leave it sitting, untouched, on their desks for me to throw away.

This was the workbook page of the day.

In spite of their relatively reasonable fear of fat and sugar, my kids managed to have big smiles on their face, especially after I told them to imagine the fertilizer chunks that they needed to crush were their siblings' heads... perhaps I'm a bad influence here...

All smiles.

Anyhoo... I was espically forgetful, and forgot to bring a mixing spoon, sooo... I resorted to this option:

I didn't tell them this wasn't my original plan.  Never let them see you sweat.

We "planted" our "flowers," and then I told them they needed to sample it.  That's when they got pretty nervous.

Hufflepuf[f]s, hoping the Gryffindors will show some of their alleged bravery and sample the stuff first.

In the end, the kids liked it well enough to ask for the real recipe to make it at home.  So, I'm counting this one as a win.  In case you want to try my Korea-modified dirt pudding recipe, fertilizer = Oreos, bird dung = Philadelphia Cream Cheese, melting snow = custard-flavored yogurt, and lizard milk is milk. Mix it together in quantities that produce mud-like effects.  It's not really an exact science.  

Here's hoping the Venomous Tentacula doesn't sneak up on you.  It's teething after all.

<3

Harry Potter Camp - Day 3 - Flying Class

Day Three was flying class.  This day gave my OCD/perfectionist side a bit of a problem, because teaching flying class on Day Three meant that I would be bound to show the Harry Potter movie out of order.  I know, I know.  This is not actually a big deal at all, and, yet, it bothered me.  I remembered telling my mom my reasoning on this one:  "I'm still close enough to my school days that I remembered how annoyed I got when teachers only showed clips of movies or, WORSE YET, showed them out of order!  What's the point in that?!  Just do it in order!"  Unfortunately, I made my original plans without the movie in front of me, and I was just working on it by memory.  Then, I printed and photocopied some dated instructions, thus sealing my students into their out-of-order, movie-clipped state.  Poor kids.  Just kidding, they didn't care at all.  I'm just strange, apparently.

I think this was the class that sealed the deal.  The kids and I were a bit undecided about how we were feeling about this camp: I was nervous, mostly because of my sketchy lesson plans, and they were busy debating being bored.  The focus of this day was prepositions, which means only one thing in Harry Potter World: Flying.  Duh.  Unlike what I told my friend Greg Small, this did not involve me throwing small, Asian kids across my classroom.  What it DID involve was an obstacle course and a rather close-quartered game of steal the bacon (it was then that I realized I probably should have saved this camp for summertime).

I double-checked that the kids understood their prepositions, using the handsome fellow on the right as an example, as he flew around my PowerPoint presentation (I'm eternally gratefully to my third grade teacher for making me master that program), which thoroughly impressed my kids.  I love it when it's the little things that do that.  Then it was time for the real fun to begin.

First up was the obstacle course, to make sure that they could control their brooms.  There were three styles of broom from which they could pick: a large one that looked just like the brooms in the movies, a medium one that was a bit flimsy, and a small one that is just the right size for a kindergartener to sweep a room (but certainly not for my 5'8" self).  The kids then were to "fly" the obstacle course (the broom staying between their legs), following the instructions that were posted around.  Each house could pick one representative.  Whoever went the fastest would be the winner.  The first flight was painstakingly slow, and he ended up showing the path to all the other students, so I allowed him to challenge the fastest house after all four had gone.  These kids, trained to memorize like beasts, got really good at this game really quickly.

Next, I informed the kids that there were some openings on their house Quidditch teams, and the teams had gotten so desperate that they had decided to open try-outs to first years.  So, we watched the clip talking about Quidditch rules (You guessed it!  It's attached to the title), we went over it via PowerPoint, and then we played Steal the Snitch (aka Steal the Bacon).  The fact that the kids were playing in their socks on a hard wood floor added a rather interesting twist to the match.  There was very little English happening on their part during this game, but I spoke plenty of it to give them a headache, I'm sure, so we'll chalk that one up to a listening exercise.  :P

Slowly, but surely I'm getting these up.  I've got two blogs going now.  The other is a resource for me to share my particularly successful lesson plans.  Feel free to visit this post to better understand why I would spend my time doing that.  The point is, it's taking me a little longer to get stuff on here too.  So go grab a butterbeer and a pumpkin pasty so you can enjoy the wait, rather than investing your time in staring at you 12-handed clock that STILL won't make things happen faster... it'll only inform you a little more as to why things are going slow.

<3

Anne in Real Life

Yes, that title is a spin off from Dan in Real Life (I love that movie).  I'm sure someone will be here to serve me my cease and disist notice soon... Assuming they can find me (yet another wonderful part of Korea... I can hide whenever I want.  You'd think it would be hard, but with as many people as there are here, it's not too bad).

Anyway, the point is this:  There have not yet been any pictures of me in action, and Eric Matthews has a very distinct point to make on that subject:

While my family was here, my parents got to come see me teach a few classes.  Thanks to them, I finally have proof that I'm actually doing what I've been saying I'm doing.  So here are some pictures of me teaching, which also happen to be the pictures of me teaching my first ever solo 4th grade lessons.  It seemed to go over pretty well, especially since it was on the fly.

Going over how to play "T-Bingo"

Vocab races

Vocab races

Me: "Okay kids... Listen..."  Them: "CAREFULLY!" Me: "Listen..." Them: "CAREFULLY!"

Listening fail.  :)

This kid is a handful.  He's like my cousin Becky mixed with my brother (when they were little), but I love him to death.

My mom said she kept trying to get this kid to hold still long enough to get a good picture.  The only one that turned out involved bunny ears.  Isn't that how it always goes?

Adorable.

Okay, folks.  There you have it: proof that Anne does work.  That being said, I think I'm going to go to bed again... maybe I can get in 12 hours today. ;)

Goodnight!

Classroom Christmas Parties

So, I had this brilliant idea to throw a Christmas Party for the kiddos... all 320 of them, split across 10 classes, of course.  The plan was golden:

1. Sing a Christmas song as a warm-up
2. Decorate Christmas cookies
3. Make Christmas ornaments while we
4. Listen to the Christmas story
5. If time, take Christmas photos

There was just one problem: I severely underestimated the amount of work that goes into making 640 sugar cookies.  Oops.  It resulted in this:

But all that work resulted in this:

Some people call it "chaos;" I call it love.  

Anyway, this love resulted in my Christmas tree going from looking like this:

To looking like this:

That is my brother, whom I call Bug, and my beautiful Christmas tree, which we spent all of 15 minutes decorating.

This picture was simply so you could understand the vertical challenge we had.

The moral of this story:
Love freely.  It's worth it.

(Yes, I know I didn't really write enough words to condone that moral, but each picture is worth a thousand of them, so go back and find the in-between parts that will justify the moral.)

:) <3