I Love My Kids!

I wanted to take my time out to talk about the students here in Korea. I have elementary school aged children so I can't really vouch for students older than grade 6, but the students I have are amazing. In particular the grades 1-4. 5 and 6 are alright, but a little harder to engage and excite as far as the subject of English is concerned. By the time grade 5 and 6 rolls around the students have made up their mind as to whether or not they think learning English matters, so because of that it's a little more difficult to put a smile on the faces of the children who quite frankly don't care. So far this is something I have actually been able to do, but I fear as the year goes on I will lose some of them.

Now as for the grade ones, I haven't started teaching them yet but I had the opportunity to watch the Bee Movie with them and I instantly fell in love. They are the cutest little things in the world and I can't wait until April when I get to work with them more regularly. I worked with the grade twos for the second time today and I was reminded of how lucky I am to have this job. Not only are they all little angels, but the excitement on their faces when I yelled out "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" was even greater than when they sang their ABC's with India Arie and Elmo! lol All it takes is a high five and Elmo to make these kids happy. They are adorable. My grade threes are awesome, I remember while working at Oxford I always enjoyed the grade threes best. They are all very enthusiastic and well mannered although they are children and sometimes get a little too excited. I can't help but have a favourite amongst the grade threes though. He is the class clown and just lights up my day. So the other day the grade threes had to go up in front of the class and sing group by group. Then the class clown goes up there with his group and just starts to wine...like totally full out shaking his hips with his hands on his head...omg...i died..i could not contain myself. I was in tears I was laughing so hard along with the other kids. And of course every time we play a song this kid is wining in his chair hahaha. I absolutely love him. The grade fours are well behaved and maybe a little less excited about English than the 1-3s but they are still relatively easy to make happy.

I am sort of excited to start my English Club in April. This is something I will have full control of and I have no cirriculum to follow. So I'm going to do fun things like make peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches. I really want my club to be fun and I also want the children to conversate more. I hope I can achieve that, but I'll keep you posted.

Lastly, although some may find it slight;y tiresome I absolute love the fact that when i'm in the halls no matter how far I am, if the kids can see me the yell out, "Hello Namika Teacher, or Namika Saen Sing Nim!" But the best so far was when I was crossing a relatively large street and I heard one student from across the street yell out at the top of her lungs "NAMIKA SAENG SING NIM! SAENG SING NIM!" hahaha she was waving frantically!!! I mean she was screaming this! When anyone cares about you enough to yell out hello in that way it just feels nice. The kids love me and I love them. I have a wonderful, relaxed, sometimes tiring (since I feel like a preformer putting on a show at times) and rewarding job.

P.S. Korea and I have made amends =)