First Field Trip

This weeks my new students went on their first field trip ever. I was terrified. I had no idea how I was going to keep ten students who don't know any English under control in a completely uncontrolled environment. It turned out being okay. It was exciting for the students to get out of the school, but the actual museum was kind of boring for them. We went to the Green Energy Museum. There were a lot of interactive things for kids to run around and do, but we ended up being put with a guide who would let one or two students do each thing while everyone else watched. My poor 4 and 5 year olds ended up sitting most of the time.

The bus ride there should have been really short. In the past, we have gone places that were an hour to an hour and a half away. This museum was probably only about 10 miles, but most of it we ended up just sitting in traffic. The kids were antsy, and really loud. I started singing "The Wheels on the Bus" really quietly. All the students magically stopped talking. The bus was almost silent, but one student stuck her fingers in her ears and yelled "Be quiet Teacher!"

The student in the first picture is Alex, and the second picture is Mark. They probably my favorite students, just because they don't have a defiant, or violent side to them, and they don't completely space out during class. The picture of the boy and girl on the bus are Kevin and Alice. Kevin is really nice, but still has a lot of growing up to do. He has trouble concentrating long enought to write 1 letter on a paper. This is extremely frustrating because I don't have the time to sit and walk him through the work when I have to get the rest of the class to do it too. Alice is adorable most of the time. She is soooo smart, and knows a lot of English, but is really stubborn, and really mean to the other students. (Something I didn't know for a long time because I didn't understand when she was telling her classmates "I hate you" and "I don't want to play with you" in Korean.)

Okay, I won't bore you with telling you about each of my students. (At least until next time.)

The truth is, even if it is completely exhausting... and the parents are crazy... and I have students with violent streaks... I love each of my students. While I am looking forward to being done with my school in 3 months, I will miss my kids a lot.

They say cute things like "Home Time time" for the end of the day, or "Kenny bear" instead of

"teddy bear." One of the few words they know is "yummy," and they use it ALL the time. They say "Stacie Teacher yummy!" or "Teacher, lunch an-yummy" (an- is the korean prefix for "not," but it is only used with verbs)

So yesterday I finally went and got a haircut. I haven't done this in a year, and I'm not sure that I posted about it last time. It is SO scary to go in and let someone cut your hair without really being able to tell them much more than how long I want it. One thing that I forgot about was how they always thin out your hair. I guess Korean hair is thick, and everyone wants it to be thin. They have this scissors that they use to thin out the bottom half of it. I didn't notice what she was doing until after she already cut out a chunk. My hair is so thin already that I really didn't need someone coming and cutting half of it out. AAAAHHHHH!!!! So my hair is now shorter than I wanted, and REALLY REALLY fine. Oh well.... I guess it will always grow back...