Spring term Ends... and I miss them already :(

Sometimes they make you go insane ;)

So I survived another term where the students ranked me up there again. While I am extremely sad to leave the kiddies and go on this trip, I absolutely know I need this break. I was getting tired, depressed, and cranky. Now I rejuvenate myself and return to be an even better teacher.

Anyways, here are the classes that brought me so much joy in my spring 2010 term.

1. Master's reading: The highest caliber of student, the topic for my class was wartime literature. We held discussions on When My Name was Keoko, Hiroshima, The things they carried, and the Book Thief. Some of the topics were a bit different, and of course I was the random teacher who often went off topic, but they taught me so much about myself as well. My most memorable class was during the book thief when we had an educated discussion about the use of curse words in many languages (they use German words saurkerl and saumensh a lot in that book)

2. M/W Memory Tera 4pm: This class was one of my favorites. It started off as a class of only 4 people with just one girl - Rose, and later grew to a class of 8 with 5 girls and 3 boys remaining - there was a lot of transferring in and out. Wednesday is usually a day many CDI kids have off, the more common day being M/F. I will always remember this class of brave girls and their hit single "We don't want to go - Bridge"

3. T/TH Memory Tera 4pm: My other memory class, and the bane of my existence. It was 14 kids who all had immense energy. They all liked me a lot, but sometimes I just needed them to calm down a bit. In this class the kids were usually crowded around playing with each other, which I liked about them. I will always remember them and their fascination with my husbands pooky (the bear on my ball) and spidey (a dead spider we found). And their love of Juseok and uber competitiveness between the boys and girls.

4. Alba Listening Wed 7pm: I started with just 5 kids and ended with 3 (remember Weds isn't a very popular day). The boys were really smart, but also kind of smart-asses, and I didn't really like the girls except for Jenny. But it could have been worse, so overall I liked this class.

5. Alba Listening Thur 7pm: Probably my 2nd least favorite class, not because they weren't smart, but because I had a group of girls who had been allowed to run wild all the while they'd been at Junggye, so I couldn't really stand for their coming in late, doing make up in class and what not. I really liked the boys and Sarah, but that didn't make up for the others. I'll remember them as the class that had the epic iBT fail (remix-beginning-beginning) and the boy crazy leader of the Nathan fan club (he was a teacher at our school - seen below)

6. Birdie Listening Fri 4pm: Insanity and a half. These kids were always screaming, loud, insane and I loved it. We had so many ongoing jokes. They were obsessed with the show Happy Tree Friends after I made the mistake of showing them one episode. Afterwards I banned it from the class, but they still found creative ways to incorporate it into each critical thinking project and skills lesson. They had some of the most creative projects and lessons. I also had a little maniac called Harry. He started out as such a bad kid, but he grew on me. After his last straw one day I sent him down to my boss and after crying there for 2 hours he came back a changed kid. I won't forget my HTF class.

a sample of the insanity for ya

Birdie Listening Fri 7pm: This was always a horrible class to end my week on. They were so ... I'm looking for a nice word ok I will go with not smart. I had to play each listening track sentence by sentence to be able to get anything and even then it was still like grasping at clouds. It was a real letdown after the class insanely full of energy. Sometimes I had to be extra insane just to keep myself alive for 3 hours. I did have a few bright gems (Susan, Jenny) but the dullest of the bunch was actually my favorite Yong-su (Dragon Water) always seemed so lost and there was no way he should have been in birdie so I teased him all the time (it's ok he didn't get it). Once, he wrote a critical thinking project piece where he was trying to spell doctor. even after I saw it and told him he still couldn't be bothered to change it so he wrote 닭털(dak teul). The other kid didn't know he meant doctor, and translated it literally, as chicken fur (or we'd say feathers) causing much laughter. I'll never forget that.

Also, I taught the staff English a couple of times. It was great fun and I really got to know them more intimately. And they made me cry when they bought me a present.

I ran around Friday night taking pics with some of my previous kids as well. Who wouldn't want teachers this cool?

In summary, I love these kids, I love teaching, and I find that they have taught me as much about myself as I get to teach them. I didn't even think I'd cry, but I did, and when they give me notes like this and this, I know I have made a difference, and I am happy :)