My favorite 1st grade class on our last day. They are my favorite in spite of the girls who simply must hide their faces in all pictures. They are lucky their boy classmates make up for that.
It wasn't always boring and peaceful though. I had two weeks of winter English camp. One week for each grade. I was excited for the 1st graders, as they aren't too cool for school just yet. Those 15 campers were fun, behaved, and all had high levels of English. But for some reason, on the last day the boys decided to surprise me and "act a fool". Nonetheless, I called that week a success.
Lovely well behaved girls on the last day of camp, playing the game correctly.
Demon boys on the last day of camp, drawing grotesque pictures inbetween their wrestling matches, since having miraculously finished the game 30 minutes before the other two groups.
The next week was the 2nd grade winter camp. I was not looking forward to this, since the 2nd graders during normal school are in that "I'm too cool and smart to listen to you, and even though I love pop music, I'm going to look bored out of my mind when you spend a whole class listening to my favorite songs" phase. Eunji even said she felt sorry for me, because she had to do summer camp and the 2nd graders were horrible. Thanks Eunji.
However, the spell I attempted must have worked. There were only 7 that came every day. They were all well behaved, laughed at my dumb jokes, and got my sarcasm. Hell, even a couple of them coul throw something back every now and then! Rachel Teacher was impressed. But nothing compares to their taste in music. While doing "work sheets" and "English" winter crafts, I would ask them what they wanted to listen to.
Muse!
Green Day!
Hell. to. the. yes.
Me: "Do you know 30 Seconds to Mars?"
Paul: "Yes, play their songs!"
Me: "Do you know Jet?"
Students: "No. Will you play their songs still?"
Me: "Hell to the yes!" (On second thought, I probably just said yes.)
While winter camp is over, I still have a parents' class twice a week. Apart from the blind date setter-upper (see my George Bush has Charisma post for more info), the moms are fun to talk to and very smart. We have talked about things like North Korea, where their parents were during the Korean war, Korean versus American schools, food, traveling, and their stories from when they lived overseas. One mom even told me about her mom's living in Hiroshima and evacuating right before the bomb was dropped.
One mom works for a marketing company.
One mom used to work in finance at a multi-national company.
One mom used to be a news anchor!
And they all love to talk. So basically, I sit there for one hour and listen to them talk to each other in English and occasionally ask them questions and answer theirs. Its pretty sweet.
Side story: The Georgey Bushey lady wanted to take us all out for noodles after class on Thursday, so we took two cars to get there. As we pulled up to the restaurant, I noticed there was no available parking spots. There was, however, some orange cones out front to keep cars off the sidewalk in front of the doors.
So what does Miss Georgey Bushey do? Gets out and moves the cones, so the two cars can just pull right up to the door.
Korea, you never cease to surprise me.
Anyway, when I'm not working for those 2 hours a week, I'm deskwarming. This term has many meanings for native teachers. Some meanings are:
-watching movies
-reading
-thinking about lesson planning, then surfing the internet
-chatting on Facebook and Gmail
-irresponsibly shopping online (Mom and Dad- there will be a package delivered soon)
-thinking about lesson planning, then watching TV online
-2 hour lunch breaks, nap included
-And for poor Laurie teacher, it means double duty winter camp this week. :(
It also means cleaning out and organizing one's desk for the first time since arriving in Korea.
I wonder how long this will last once school starts again. And by "this", I also mean the quiet hall ways, small classes of good students, and the silence of the deafening bell.
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