i HATE saying goodbye~~

those of you who know me already know how terrible i am at saying goodbye. i loathe the concept so much that i usually just avoid the entire process.

saying goodbye just seems so...final. especially when it's the kind of goodbye where you know that you'll never see the other person again. in my mind...i feel like if i never actually utter the word "goodbye" that there's still a chance that i'll see the other person again. even when i know beyond the shadow of all doubt that that's not true. i lie to myself.

when i left for korea, i only said goodbye to three people: my mom, my dad, and my brother. but, they're family, so they kind of have to see me again.

this week has been a week of goodbyes. i taught my 6th graders again...for the last time. ever. ever.

before, i was super excited about moving to my new school and starting a new life in seoul. but, now, my students are making it so hard to leave.

it's so hard to say goodbye. especially to my sixth graders. of all my students, i've taught them the most and for the longest time. they're the only students i have that i've taught all 2 years since i've been in korea. i've been on school trips with them, taught them in english camps, and taught them in advanced english clubs.

my hardest goodbye was yesterday. it was the very last time that i will ever teach my favorite class: 6-6. this group includes the students that were my favorites when they were in grades 4 and 5. they always come visit my in my office. many of them were regulars in my english camps. a few of them were in my english club. and this was the class that was always excited to see me...like, they would cheer every single time i walked into their classroom.

yesterday, we played english review games, because their exams are next week. i ended class a few minutes early to say goodbye to the kids. and then, the 2 class leaders--one boy and one girl--came to the front. they had prepared a special card for me...decorated with bigbang stickers^^~~everyone in the class had written a note on it. many of my other classes had made special letters or gifts for me...but this time, it was different.

the boy, who's nickname is california [that's where he's from], thanked me for teaching them, and wished me good luck, etc etc. then, the girl [her english name is stella] was about to hand me the card, when suddenly...she dropped it on the ground and threw her arms around my neck. she started sobbing--literally, sobbing--uncontrollably. in between sobs, she kept repeated "teacher, don't go...teacher, don't go!" over and over and over.

it was at this point that i also started crying. as in, actual tears were streaming down my face. i had no idea that the kids were this attached to me, or that they even liked me that much.

so there i was, trying to say goodbye to my students...standing there, with tears and mascara running all down my face. which was a completely new experience for me. i don't cry in front of people.

and also, i don't cry. EVER. [i'm pretty sure most of my friends and family thought i was completely devoid of emotion.]

and then i cried again 3 times today, just not as much.

and now i have a headache because of it.

and this is why i never say goodbyes.

아이고~~

from an activity in today's grade 5 class:

the president of korea is: ___kimchi_______

umm, what??

lady gaga, america's president

last week, i was playing a random trivia quiz game with my 6th grade students. my coteacher just wanted me to plan 40 minutes worth of games, not based on what they had been learning from the text book.

the object of the game was simple: i had about 100 cards with random things, food, people, and places written on them. i would pull a card of of a box, and describe it through words and/or actions and students would guess to earn points for their team.

at random, i pulled a card from the box. it said "obama" on it.

me: america's president.
students: lady gaga!
me: no...the president of america.
students: lady gaga!!
me: no...not a singer. president...leader...
students: beyonce!
me: NOOOO! like lee myeong-bak [south korea's president], except in america.
students:lady gaga!
me: NOT LADY GAGA! president~!!
students: ..................

at first, i thought they were just trying to be funny. but i asked my coteacher about it after class, and she said that those students told her that they actually believed that lady gaga was the president of america...and they had no idea who obama was.

i should probably add that the rest of my 6th grade classes had no problem differentiating between obama and lady gaga.

dancing queen

this week in fourth grade, we were learning about "she/he is a _[job]___."

today, we played a hidden picture game, where i showed the kids a picture of various jobs, covered with squares so they couldn't see what it was. i removed one square at a time, revealing a part of the picture, and as soon as they knew the answer, they could make a guess.

they were only supposed to say the key sentence as their answer.

one picture had been almost entirely revealed. a boy got super excited, and his hand shot up in the air. so, i called on him to answer.

his answer: "he is a dancing queen."

it was a picture of a doctor.

good news!!

the good news for you, dear readers, is that this post has absolutely nothing to do with bigbang^^

the good news for me is that i don't have to teach with yzma-englishee-no. this morning, as soon as i arrived at school, this amazing news was delivered to me.

the woman is afraid of me...that's what she told me coteacher. sooo, apparently i'm truly terrifying. [it's gotta be because my eyes are abnormally large. that must be it. ohh, or maybe i'm intimidatingly cute...??] seriously though, i have no idea what i did to scare her away...but, CONGRATULATIONS, ME!!

maybe this new school year will be pretty great, after all^^

graduation

today, my precious little 6th graders graduate and move on to middle schoolㅠㅠ

it just hit me today that this is actually happening, and--not surprisingly--i'm really sad about it...

these students have been my favorites ever since i first started teaching at buwon--back when they were in fifth grade. i mean, they were just really, really good students. they were fun, smart, and they always tried hard and seemed interested in my classes [ok, so maybe they weren't really interested, but they sure did a good job acting like it].

anyways, i'm really bad at saying goodbye. like, horrifically bad. usually, my m.o. is just to leave--no goodbyes necessary. but today, i'm obligated to attend the graduation, and say goodbye to my 300 favorite students.

and now i'm wondering why i wanted to be a teacherㅠㅠ
this sucks.

winter camp~~

so the past few weeks have been kinda crazy/boring.

despite the fact that the last day of school was on Christmas eve, i've still had to come to work everyday. [ps i'm the only person at school. except for the office people. who occasionally come to check on me to make sure i don't escape.]

anyways, my first day of camp i walked in to school SUPER unprepared, because my coteacher refused to ever tell me my camp schedule. i just planned a few all-age appropriate random lessons. it ended up working well.

last week was definitely my favorite camp week, probably ever. i had 4th graders first, from 9-10:30 everyday. day 1, i had them make namecards with either their korean or english name [basically, whatever they wanted to be called for the week]. during the activity, a boy and i had the following conversation:

boy: "teacher, teacher! i will make a new english name."
me: "that's really cool! what name?"
boy: "i want to be called mr. eddie!"
me: "you mean...eddie??"
boy: "no, teacher. mister eddie. is it ok?"
me: "oh, absolutely."

BEST. ENGLISH NAME. EVERRR.

and then in my advanced english class [which met everyday], we had "spy camp". so i had the kids solve a crime, do scavenger hunts, interrogations [for some reason, i was the only suspect...], and solve/write codes. they absolutely loved it.

grade 6~~

today was my last day teaching my 6th graders, which is legitimately sad.

the korean school calendar is set up much differently than that in the united states. the school year begins in march, has a 5 week summer vacation from july-august, and then a long winter break beginning after christmas and lasting until february. the students then return for a week and a half of school before going on a 2 week spring break [crazy, i know]. even though there are still about 2 weeks left of the school year, my 6th graders have already finished their english books and taken their final exams so they won't have english class any more until they reach middle school.

anyways, i've been a little sad about it all week because i really love teaching my grade 6 students. honestly, there's not a single student or class that i don't like. [they were my favorites last year as 5th graders, so it's no surprise that they're still my favs.]

last year, my 6th graders were like little holy terrors. probably because i came in halfway through the year and they'd never had a foreign english teacher before. and also probably because my coteacher couldn't speak english. i literally hated 90% of them. but my 5th graders were like a breath of fresh air. they were always excited when i'd walk in to their classroom, and they were always prepared for class and ready to learn. they actually paid attention.

i was worried that my precious fifth graders would magically change when they moved on into the 6th grade. but, they didn't--for the most part. they still act so excited to see me [even though they've been seeing me for the past year and a half], and even when we don't play games or even do anything fun, they still listen and pay attention. it's amazing.

that being said, i'm really going to miss my students. they've been really awesome all year, and my 6th graders were actually part of the reason why i decided to stay at my school for another year instead of moving elsewhere. when i wasn't feeling well, or was having a bad day they'd always cheer me up--coming to visit me in my office or bringing me small presents [pictures of bigbang!!]; the boys would always sing "hello" by g-dragon or "hello" by shinee when they'd see me in the hall [not entirely appropriate, but funny nonetheless]. and then of course there were the puns on my name [a mispronunciation of my name sounds like "i don't know" in korean]. ahh, i will miss it!!

so to whoever gets my 6th graders as grade 1 in middle school: i envy you. these kids are awesome.

recently...

...i discovered that a sewage treatment plan is located directly behind my school. [you can see part of it on the lawn outside the lunch room window.]

so yeah.

that explains a lot.

bukbu english festival

last wednesday [20 october] was the bukbu english festival, and my school was invited to participate. it involves the local elementary schools, and each school's english club is expected to give a performance entirely in english, as well as prepare a poster to display in the lobby of the event hall.

i have 4 coteachers. the one who is in charge of my school's english program did not want our school to participate, for some reason. so the other teachers got into an argument with her over it. in the end, she relented, but stipulated that only 4 students could attend [the english club has about 25 students], and she put a different teacher in charge. also, she said that i wasn't allowed to go or help the students prepare. i guess the principal found out and got mad, because last tuesday i was told that i would be permitted to go after all.

when my coteacher and i arrived at the festival, we were discouraged to see how severely under-represented our school was. i teach at the biggest elementary school in the area [more than 1500 students], but we had the smallest group at the festival. we also had the youngest group: 2 were third graders, 1 fourth grader, and 1 fifth grader. the other schools only brought their 5th and 6th grade students.

anyways, the event was supposed to start at 2pm. at 1:30pm, i was informed that i was supposed to be performing with my students. now normally, this wouldn't be a problem at all, except that my students were performing a song. in sign language. the song we performed was called "i will", which i have never heard before in my life. the students desperately tried to teach me, and i struggled to learn very quickly.

and then, my school's principal showed up to watch. excellent.

basically, it ended up being like napoleon dynamite's happy hands club. except with me as napoleon.

yep. it was pretty much exactly like this.

summer camp

today was my last day of summer english camp[!!]
technically, it's summer "vacation". there are no students. no teachers. just me. and the few students who signed up for 7 days of [SUPERFUN] english camp. awesome.
basically, i've been teaching two summer camps every morning for four hours. [2 hours of 5th grade, and 2 hours of 6th grade.]
don't get me wrong, i absolutely love my students; they're really great! but i am sooo glad camp is over with. it's just really tiresome to teach 25 students for four hours a day, during the summer. all they wanted to do was go outside and play in the sun. my school told me i was to keep my students in the classroom all day. no outdoor games ㅠ.ㅠ
i tried to keep it fun. i think most of them enjoyed it, overall. we played a lot of games, and had scavenger hunts and races.
and now it's over.
and tomorrow i go back to america. for vacation.
and then it's back here for round two!!

goodbye BIGBANG. i shall miss you dearly.

quote of the day [volume two]

i have four coteachers, total [one for each grade that i teach]. two of them say the most random things imaginable to me. on an almost daily basis. it's not that their english is bad. on the contrary, both of them speak nearly impeccable english [at least grammatically]. so what they say to me, while being grammatically ok, is probably not something you should ever verbalize.

the following were actually said to me [fairly recently] by previously mentioned coteachers. [let's call them "coteacher #1" and "coteacher #2" for anonymity.]

*out shopping with coteacher #1, she notices that several korean guys are staring at me [one even passed by and turned to look again]*
coteacher #1: i bet you wonder why people here stare at you a lot.
me: maybe they think i'm pretty??
coteacher #1: no, they're just curious about why you're white.
me: ????????
**so i'm thinking that no one in this country is so ignorant that they are "curious" about why i'm white. it's not like they think i'm some sort of korean with a skin condition. i'm pretty sure they know why i'm white.

coteacher #2: is it hard to hold your eyes open?
me: .....what??
coteacher #2: your eyes are so big. so i think it is hard for you to keep them open.
**i still have no idea what this is supposed to mean. strange compliment? veiled insult? random observation?

coteacher #1: would it be ok if we taught the students the word "s***"?
me: absolutely not.
coteacher #1: but if we teach them, then they won't say it.
me: yeah, i'm pretty sure that if we teach them, then they will most definitely be saying that word.
**i'm not sure why it would be appropriate/acceptable for me to teach english curse words to elementary school students.

coteacher #1: last week, i taught the students the word "panties".
me: why? [the chapter we were studying was called "the book is on the table"]
coteacher #1: because i thought it would be funny.
later in class...i was teaching the students that they need to say "where IS my book?" because they kept asking "where my book?"
me: [to the students] you need to remember the word "is". it's really important. "where my book?" doesn't make sense.
coteacher #1: here is another example. if you say "where my panties at?" people will think you're dumb.
**i still can't think of a situation where any of my students should ever need to ask the question "where are my panties?" [especially the boys]. also, i'm pretty sure people will think you're strange for more than just grammatical reasons if you say that. to anyone. ever.

not ok.

my 50th post ^^

over the past few days, i have been forced to watch this video 20 times. because my coteacher thought it would be a good instructional song/movie/thing.

it's pretty much the most irritating/disturbing thing i have ever seen in my life. like, what's with the random white guy??

no, seriously, what's with the random white guy?

i don't feel like thinking up a title

last week* was pretty great. aside from the fact that my computer destroyed itself.
*this post will ONLY be about last week because i probably shouldn't write about the endless frustration that has been today. at least not in a public place...

i was super nervous going in to the week because i had an english class for parents. out of the nine that had signed up, only three showed up. but, it was nevertheless a great time. i really enjoyed getting to know the three mothers that came. i thought that i could only teach children, but i learned that teaching people who are older than me really isn't that scary.

and i guess it wasn't too bad of a time for them either, because they're all coming back to meet me for lunch tomorrow. which i'm pretty excited about.

i seriously wish i could teach a class for parents every week. i'm actually considering asking my school if i could teach extra classes...

this week, i am teaching first and second graders and they are absolutely adorable.

on friday, my school had a dinner meeting which basically lasted forever. but, my principal came up to me and told me that he thought i was a great teacher and was so happy that i came to his school. apparently, the parents had visited his office after class on friday and told him that i was great. pretty much one of the best compliments i've ever received.

i should have majored in elementary education.