Introducing Robot Class- (for the third and final time)

Christina-loves to boss the boys around.

James- mile high dimples

Ricky- aka Sticky Ricky

Kevin-says "I hate elevators" every day

Jason- solves problems with temper tantrums

Elly- Likes to be called CinderElly or Princess Elly

Tei- cracks himself up

Lily- cries when people tell her she's crazy

Michael, Me, Beth-- current coworkers

 

How did that happen?

 March is pretty much half way over. Shocking. I had a dream that I had to explain what shocking meant to a Korean. It was frustrating. The new year is underway. School has been crazy, loud, chaotic, and adorable. More so than usual. We have a lot of new co-workers and lots of new babies. There are still a few who cry whenever they see a foreigner. That's fun. My new Robots are last years Elephant/Puppy classes. They're fun and adjusting very well to the fourth floor. My old Robots combined with Zebra class and they make up King Class. The new Texan teacher, Michael is in charge of those personalities now. I also work with Zebra and Elephant. Two classes who have never had a white teacher before. It's a challenge. For my elementary classes, I have a class of 8 year olds who have never learned English before. It's extra challenging for me because my tricks that I use on the babies do not work on the older kids. I like babies much more. I also still have my class of 9 year olds that I had in King class my first year and in elementary classes last year. I can't believe how long I've been at this school. For example: Amy, Tom, Mark, Kate and Jenny. I had them everyday when they were in Puppy Class. I had them everyday in Robot Class. And I see them everyday in King Class now. That's basically every single day for two and half years! That's crazy! Im trying to enjoy my remaining time here. I played screen golf this weekend. It was the best game I've ever played. Usually when I play, I just double par every hole. This time, I got one birdie and three pars! I'm proud. I also got some overalls. They crack me up. The kids say Agi Teacher, which means Baby Teacher, when I wear them. I hope spring finds you all healthy and happy. See you sooon!!! YAY!! Also, weird.

My Super Sentence Board. When the I hear a good sentence, I write it down.

My name-tag tree.

ABC's.

The kids colored all the letters. I cut them out an laminated them with the capital and lower case letters.

The English Village board and the map. The E.V board currently has pictures that the kids drew of the school. Sometimes there are flags or whatever section we're working on in E.V.  It's a fun thing to teach. I enjoy it. 

Its almost my THIRD March in the ROK

 Yes. It's true. My THIRD February is wrapping up and my THIRD March is about to begin. WOAH.

• Graduation was last Friday. It was adorable. There are two videos of the 5 year olds dancing. Super cute.
• The new guy came in Friday night. Michael from Texas. 
• Peter left Saturday. That was sad.
• We had parent orientation Saturday. We just had to dress up and go say hey to them.
• This week we are cleaning, organizing, and planning.
• Thursday is a national holiday. Independence Day I think. No school. Yay!
• I get new Robots on Monday. Actually, Elephant and Puppy class move up to me. Should be fun.
• I have implemented Mile Monday into my life. I've been dragging Beth along. We just go up to the track after work on Mondays and do our thing. At least a mile.

Coworkers on Peter and Jessica's last night.

Saying bye to Sparky. I cried. Shhhhh.

Me and Amy. Jenny was the photographer.

MARKMAN!

Sally on her last day at our school.

Giggle monster Tom making a monkey face.

Wait. You want what?

At lunch time, the kids will come up to us and say "Teacher, spoop please!" This makes me laugh. What are they asking for? They get confused about "spoon" and "soup" so they just combine them. Then we get to play well, do these babies want soup? Or, do these babies want a spoon? Regardless of what they really want, it makes me laugh.

Sparky, Ian, BigGuyBill, Me and Anton. Peter's last full weekend in the ROK.

Also, HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDDAD!!!!!

Too cute to wait

Cinderelly.

Tei.

Ricky.

Elly. Adorable.

Amy. Teacher. Sally.

Robot girls.

My girlies.

Cracking me up.

Camera games.

Robot class!

Killing me.

I'm going to post some videos and pictures of these cuties. The videos are a little long, but they crack me up. See how much better Robot Class is now? I'm super proud of them.

Gigglegigglegiggle: TOM

Tom is a Robot baby. Sometimes, I randomly sing in class. It's a little embarrassing, but it makes the kids stop what they're doing to see what Crazy Teacher is up to.  When I sing the "Daisy, Daisy" song that I learned from a parrot on the computer when I was like 12, Tom will literally fall out of his chair laughing. Then I'll look at him and say "giggle giggle giggle?!" and all the other kids will start laughing. I usually am too. These are the fun days.

Tom. This child is super smart. He cracks me up. I laugh so much with him. I have to eat lunch with him because other wise it takes him three hours, and he only gets 35 minutes. I literally have to feed him because he won't stop talking and giggling enough to feed himself. When we're doing something he likes, he says "Katie Teacher, you are good!" When we are doing something he does not like, he says "Katie Teacher! You are bad! I no like!" So that's fun. Today at home time, he was looking down the stairs and the gate was not locked. He started to fall and I grabbed him just in time. PHEW! My heart was pounding! He turned around with a look of shock and said "Teacher! You catched me!" And then I got a giant hug. That was a scary moment. He's been really hung up on Star Wars lately. Literally nonstop ALL WEEK. Seriously. It's cute and it cracks me up. I can't figure out if hes actually seen the movies or if he just knows what the characters look like. He tries to describe how they look and what color their "gun" is. Gun means sword, gun, knife, boxing glove, basically any weapon. Then says "teacher, name is what?" and I guess about who hes talking about. Then he says "good or bad?" and I guess based on the earlier description. then he breaks down into giggles and tells me "teacher! You joking man!"

He just cracks me up. Other news. Jessica moved. That was sad. The last day with these kiddos is the 24th. Then everything changes. Yay? We'll see.

Another one bites the dust

Well. It's that time of year again. The month that I broke my leg in 2009 and found myself jobless and money-less in 2010. As a result, February makes me nervous. Although in 2011, my Dad came to spend Lunar New Year with me. Here's hoping for a good one. Keeping in mind that its a leap year, therefore a whole day longer! Ahh! Adding to this is the fact that tomorrow is the first day of said month and it is currently snowing a lot with the promise of getting SUPER cold tomorrow, meaning due to a lack of shovels and plows here, much ice. Yay.  ANYWAY. Things are good here. The puppy class homeroom teacher quit, so my three puppies have been combined with the other five year olds, Elephant class. Now there are nine of them. It's a little chaotic and loud, but it's fun. The part that makes me sad is that  went from having my puppies three times a day to once a day. I miss them. Robot Class is doing SOOOO GOOOD! They behave and speak English and crack me up. These babies are soo funny. Don't get me wrong, they still make me nuts, but it's pretty fun and makes me laugh. A lot. Or want to rip my hair out. Depends. Peter has 19 more work days, meaning I get to train a new guy in that many days. I'm sad that Sparky's leaving and of course I'm nervous about making a new friend and coworker. Congrats to Travy for receiving his diploma from Cornell. I'm happy for you. And a BIG Congrats to Little Man for winning sectionals! Yay! Life's good. I know that I will be heading to the good ole' US of A on June 1, 2, 3, or 4. Things are getting real and I'm getting nervous and anxious about my life and what to do with that. I've been trying to nail down my marketable skills and maybe a passion or two. It's hard though. I've been having a great time with my friends here. I've been meaning to try to get more Korean culture in. I haven't yet. But I think about it. Life's good.

How I run around the ROK on the weekends.

I had some friends over for some drinks and good talks. This is Big Guy Bill holding a 1kg pear and wearing a camo hat I made. This cracked us up for about 4 hours.

Art day in Robot. Jenny and her raccoon puppet.

Sally and Jessica and their puppets.

When I bundle the kiddos up for hometime, Jessica does not like to wear her hood and gloves. To convince her to do it, I call her Jesskimo. Then she laughs and laughs and laughs and it cracks me up. Everyday.