Part 1: My Life 5 Days A Week

Okay, Okay!! I know, I know, I have HORRIBLE with this the past couple of months! Time just gets away from me and before I knew it, weeks have passed by. I didn’t think the holiday season would be as busy over here, but somehow it has been! You will be happy to know that my New Year’s Resolution is to keep my blog up to date! 

Let’s see, I feel like a lot has happened since my last entry! I guess I’ll start with all my school stuff! November was a difficult month! My teacher was extremely stressed out (which I know we all get sometimes) and I felt like she took it all out on me and our students. She told me she didn’t like me and I wasn’t a good teacher! That was a very humbling experience! It got to the point where I had to talk to my director and ask to switch schools at semester. She called my teacher to tell her I would be switching and my teacher told her she didn’t want me to leave! (I thought it was weird b/c she started being very nice to me and apologized! Now I know why!!) I had been praying a lot about this and I knew the Lord was going to place me where I needed to be. My director asked if it was okay for me to stay at my school and I said yes. So, I’m staying, which is good b/c I love my students and the other teachers. (I did find out that my favorite teacher is moving! He’s one that I play volleyball with.)

The past few weeks have been a lot better! I know that the Lord is teaching me something through this relationship… just not quite sure what yet!  But seriously, I know the Lord’s hand is in this and on this situation and I’ve decided I don’t need to worry about it at all! Once I finally grasped that, it’s been a lot easier to deal with! Man, what is is with me and difficult bosses?!? Par for the course I guess… they’re all great learning experiences!

My students still bring a smile to my face though! They can be the sweetest kids ever! I had a boy in one of my classes crying and the girl who sets next to him wiped his tears for him! It was one of the most precious things I’ve seen! They can also be quite ornery though, too! I had one boy tell me, “Teacher, S-Line, nice-uh!” Now every time he sees me he says it b/c he knows it makes me laugh! I had a fourth grade boy come up to me before class and recite, from memory, a dialogue that was over 10 sentences long! He had a whole conversation with himself! He asked him the questions and then he answered them! I just had to laugh!

One afternoon, I looked my window and noticed that some of my 6th grade boys were outside playing baseball! I decided to take my camera out with me and check out what was going on! I honestly felt like I stepped into the Korean version of ‘Sandlot!’ These boys were crazy! Some of them were even wearing Chuck Taylors! They saw my camera, so they wanted me to take pictures of them! Of course I did… how could I resist those faces?!? I had a great conversation with one of my boys. He speaks such great English and I didn’t even know it! It was a lot of fun! I also have this one boy who reminds me of ‘Yeah Yeah’ from Sandlot. But instead of saying ‘yeah, yeah’ all the time he says ‘okay, okay!’ I still laugh every time I hear him!

It has also snowed here quite a bit the past week! So the morning after our first snow that actually stuck, I had one of my boys come in and ask me if they could have a snow fight during English class?!? I asked my Korean teacher and she said it was my choice. I asked her if it was okay though and she said yes! So, we went outside during the first class and had a snowball fight! The kids Loved it… as so did I! That is something we could never get away with in the states! But it sure was fun here!

I have been trying to do something fun for my Christmas Lessons! Christmas is just not big over here. They celebrate it, but it’s not a month long celebration like it is for us! We made Christmas cards for each other! Man, I have some brilliantly artistic kids! I want them to make me a picture!!  I also taught them the 12 Days of Christmas—Shrek style! They loved it and it was so much fun to teach it!

I am so sad though, b/c I will not teach my 6th graders anymore! Most teachers don’t care too much for this age group, but I LOVE them! I will miss them so much when they go to Middle School! I guess I’ll just have to find a new group to love!

So, this is a short summary of what I’ve been up to at school! I’ll work on getting you up-to-date on everything else soon! Thanks for sharing this journey with me and listening to all of my crazy stories!!