Busy life

"Busy" is the word of the day, week, month lately. It's the end of one month and the beginning of the next, so I'm especially swamped with monthly progress reports and lesson plans to give to parents. One of my classes took a huge final test last week, so I also have a lot of papers to grade. I'm happy with my new (as of the beginning of March) teaching schedule, but it does keep me going nonstop. I teach from 10 AM until between 6 and 8 PM, and I rarely leave the school before 9 PM. I'm not complaining, though. My students are incredible. I can't imagine learning a foreign language at their young age, let alone being able to use it as well as they can. Even some of my littlest students have a better command of English than I have of Korean. I don't think they know just how amazing they are.

My students have a great sense of humor, so something makes me laugh everyday. I take attendance at the beginning of every class, and the kids have to answer "Yes, I'm here" when I call their names. One of my very lovable and bright little girls has started answering "no" when I call her name. Then, before I can even look up from the roll book, she bursts into giggles and yells, "IS JOKE!" Then she giggles some more. It's really cute. Sometimes at odd moments during the day, I hear her giggling voice in my mind yelling "IS JOKE!" and it makes me smile. I'm always delighted when my students learn that they can joke in English, no matter how simple the joke is. It shows that they're really using the language, not just mechanically memorizing words.

I'm also impressed by my students' creativity. On a recent homework assignment, my bilingual 3rd graders had to write about things they could and couldn't do when they were little. Most of them wrote things like "When I was little, I could swim" or "When I was little, I couldn't speak English." Not Mary, however. She wrote, "When I was little, I couldn't go to the north pole in wintertime and eat ice cream with ice cubes on it." It came complete with an x-ed out drawing of her eating an ice cream cone. Standing next to her was a rather large critter with a caption that read "a penguin that followed me." Her other answer was "When I was little, I couldn't go to the desert wearing a very thick jacket and carrying a boiler." Umm . . . what 8-year-old knows what a boiler is?

I also appreciate my students' sincerity. One of the girls in my bilingual 3rd grade class is perhaps the most upbeat kid I've ever met. She's always smiling about something. A recent homework assignment included the question "When do you feel sad?" She wrote, "I don't feel sad. I'm always happy." May you always have that joy, Jinnie!

So my kids bring me great joy everyday. My bilingual elementary school kids recently finished the textbook we've been working on since September, so to celebrate, we had a party on Monday. Everyone brought something to share, and we played games rather than having a class. A good time was had by all, as you can see here. Since I was so bogged down in end-of-the-month stuff last week, I didn't have a chance to post much. This is a photo I took last week of my near-bilingual 3rd grade class during their break time. We just got a new student today, so I'll take another picture of them in the next week or so. I try to make sure I have a photo of each of my students.Last week to celebrate Chloe's 15th birthday, we took her out for dinner after school. Catherine and I brought the cake--a cheesecake, at Joy's (her mom) suggestion. Chloe seemed thrilled with it. Chloe is a student at our school, but since I don't teach the middle school classes, I know her more as a friend than a student, which has been fun. She has an incredible gift for languages, can speak Japanese fluently and is making great progress toward mastering English. Like her mom, she frequently helps interpret for me or explain things to me, and my understanding of this culture and country that I live in is more complete because of her. She's a cherished part of my experience here indeed. A couple weeks ago, she helped give me a Korean name (Ko-eun), which is my favorite souvenir or Korea so far. So here we are, celebrating Chloe's birthday with a cheesecake. (Incidentally, we didn't eat it that night but sent it home with Chloe to share with her friends from school. It was just as well by me since I don't care for cheesecake and like knowing that she can enjoy it with her friends.)Following on the Chloe and birthday theme, after work tonight we all celebrated our school's directors' birthdays at their apartment. Here are Chloe and I with their two little girls.And finally, besides this weekend's yellow dust storm, here's a clear harbinger of spring--some of the first cherry blossoms of the year in my neck of the woods! I took this picture outside the school during my lunch break this afternoon.Now it's late, and I still have tests to grade and progress reports to write. Yes, "busy" is the word of the day, not to mention "sleepy."