Your Daily Gem.

I know that as a teacher you're not supposed to have favorites however, I have a class of sweet, sweet children and they're pretty darn close to being my favorites.  Every day before class they'll all come and find me and say, "Come on teacher.  Let's go to class".  Little Emily will even grab my hand and say, "My best friend Tawny teacher". 

The other day we were sitting in class and one of them decided to declare their adoration for me.

Lucia: Teacher, I love you.

Emily: Tawny teacher, I love you and you love me.

Julie:  Teacher, I really really love you.

Peter:  Teacher, I like... gorillas.

Your Daily Gem.

Well we have some exciting new developments this week.  On Monday our replacements arrived fresh from Canada.  Christie and Brad are starting their first year as ESL teachers in Korea.  w00t w00t.  Christie is joining the Langcon team while Brad will be spending his time at our Boss's other school. 

Today Christie shadowed me through all of my classes.  The students were very inquisitive and had a ton of questions for Christie.  I was a little shocked at a request that Christie and I had from two students.
 Keep in mind, two completely different students in two completely different classes asked the same thing from us. 

Both "incidents" happened in the same fashion.  I would introduce Christie teacher.  The students would then look at Christie, then back at me.  This would be repeated a few times before one would inexplicably shout...

"Tawny teacher.  Christie teacher.  You kiss.  KISS."

Erm, what?! 

Yes.  Two different students around the age of 10 requested that Christie and I kiss.  Kiss each other.  I have NO idea what that's about.  One can only assume that there's been a recent influx of girl-on-girl action on their nightly soap operas. 

The only Child...

that Chris likes.

Seriously.  The boy in enamored.   Annie has captured his heart and I've never seen him take so well to a small human being.  He normally can't handle little children, but I guess Annie is a anomaly.

Annie is the same Annie that said her eraser could erase my face and that her fist can break things... like my face.  She also told me that I am smart, but not as smart as her.  Her English is nearly flawless and she has quite the personality.  I spend the majority of our class together trying to convince her to stop picking up heavy objects (like her desk) to convince me of how strong she is.

If Chris had a child, it would be Annie.  She told me that she's a "local celebrity" in her town because all of the "old grandma people" think that she's oh-so smart.  To her credit, she is.  She hasn't even started elementary school yet. 

Yesterday, Annie revealed that it was her last week at Langcon.  She won't be able to come anymore since she is starting elementary school and won't have any time.  I told her that she was going to break Chris's heart and she just laughed in my face.

Annie will definitely be missed. 

Phone Teaching.

Once a month, those of us teaching at Langcon English Academy are expected to call all of our students and conduct a 5 minute interview/conversation with them.  While it's always at the end of the day and I'm usually extremely tired, the conversations that I overhear are high-larious.  It's even better since I can only hear the boy and Claire talking and not the kids on the other end of the line.

A few of my favorites of the night were...

Chris:  How are you? .... You are "yippy kai yay"? 

Claire:  Yoboseyo!?  No Korean, Louis.  Louis?  What are you doing?  Louis?  (As I hear someone randomly screaming through the receiver).

Chris: Who do you love?  [long empty pause.]  Do you love your mom?  No.  Well then, do you love your dad?  No, not him either?

I also had a few gems with my kids.  My first was when I called little Andy.  I told him that it was Tawny teacher from Langcon and that we had phone teaching.  His response was, "Yeah yeah yeah.  So what?"

I also had 8-year old Jenny tell me that she hadn't eaten dinner yet because her parents were on a date and they didn't bring her back food yet.

My favorite of the night was when I called Leon's house.  I thought it was strange that there was a loud echo in the background.  I asked what he was doing expecting him to tell me that he was eating dinner like the rest of my students.  Instead he nonchalantly responded with, "Teacher.  I'm cleaning my body". 

Phone teaching might secretly be one of my favorite things to do at Langcon.

Oh!  On a somewhat related note- little Jacob had a wee little temper tantrum today while we were learning our "ph" sounds.   He threw his book and started flailing on the floor because he didn't want to spell "Philippines".  He claimed it was "a bad one" because it was too long of a word. 

Your Daily Gem.

Well, the boy has been transferred to my school.  We now get to be coworkers again!  Today was his first day and I was so excited for him to be able to put names to the faces of all of the students that I've been talking about over the past five months.  He actually co-teaches little Annie with me.  Yes, the same girl that says she's going to "erase my face" and that her "fists can break things".  I'm her first teacher and the boy has her straight after me.  He was able (with her help) to contribute to today's daily gem.

The boy and Annie were discussing the characteristics of mammals today.  They went over the facts that mammals give their babies milk, and that they have fur, ears and teeth.  The boy was quizzing Annie on different animals and asked, "Well, is your dad a mammal?"

Annie responded with, "Yes.  My dad is a mammal because he has many, many, many fur" as she points to her crotch. 

Gross?  Definitely.  But I couldn't stop laughing for about 10 minutes.  She's funny, that one.

Your Daily Gem.

Today in class we were going over our new vocabulary words.  One of the words was "kidnap".  I asked the students if they knew what it meant. 

Jenny explained, "Teacher, kidnap is like "Andy come in my van and I give you candy".  That is kidnap". 

Your Daily Gem.

My 3rd graders had their language arts pop quiz today and the word "shiver" was in one of the answers.  Now, the way that Korean children pronounce "shiver" makes it sound more like "shibal" which is an extremely bad word in Korea.  This whole coincidence led one of my students to ask me to tell them naughty words in English.  I gave the usual speech about how they shouldn't learn them because if they go to America and say bad words people will cut off their fingers one by one. 

Sweet and quiet Clark was sitting in the corner concentrating pretty hard.  You could tell that he was desperately trying to remember something.  I saw a light bulb go off and he eagerly raised his hand and asked, "Teacher, son of a bitch?"

Don't know where he learned that. 

Your Daily Gem.

Jenny:  Teacher, people are monkeys.

Me:  Is that what you believe?

Jenny:  No teacher, I believe in God.

Me:  Me too, Jenny.

Andy:  Is that "Sky God"?

Isaac:  Teacher, some people believe in Buddha.

Jenny:  Yes.  But teacher, I don't believe in booty.  I believe in sky God.

Your Daily Gem.

We had a little extra time at the end of class today and Andy, Isaac and I decided to play cards.  I was wowing them with my shuffling skills and Isaac told me that my fellow co-teacher Landis, has a hard time shuffling the cards.

Andy responded with, "Well she is a weak lady, Isaac". 

Sorry Landis!

Your Daily Gem.

So I was fortunate enough to have a public school teacher volunteer to cover a few days for me so that we could take our vacation.  From what I hear, Brent was great with the kids and they all seemed to love him.  This was the message that he sent me the day that we returned.  Made me chuckle. 

Hey Tawny,

I hope you had an awesome vacay! So here is what I have learned about you from your kids, (who are all freakin awesome!!! and yes, Jacob cried )

-they all love you to death
-you apparently smell like bananas
-you love eating cheese
-and, from what I gathered, you are from India!!! lol

They were all sweethearts, a few a little crazier than others but all great.

Ahhh... my babies.  I'm glad that they at least listen when I talk to them.  I'm sure everyone already knows about my love affair with cheese.  7 year old Olivia always tells me that I smell like bananas (good bananas, mind you), and none of my students will let me forget that I was a Pocahontas (an "Indian") for our Halloween party.  Kids.  You gotta love 'em. 

I feel it in my fingers... I feel it in my toes.

Christmas is all around us.  It's everywhere I go!

Ten bazillion points if you can name what movie that's from.  If you don't know, you should google it and then watch it.  Ten bazillion times. 

It's Christmas time Ladies and Gents.  What does that mean for us English teachers in South Korea?  It means another year lacking candy canes, real Christmas trees, absurdly over decorated store fronts, and crowded shopping malls.  Christmas isn't really big in Korea.  At least not in Pohang.  Our main shopping street won't get Christmas lights put up until next week.  Yes, it takes them forever to put them up, but oddly enough, they keep them up until mid-February. 

Christmas time also brings with it our school Christmas party.  My fellow co-workers and I got started 3 hours earlier than usual this morning so that we could shop around for decorations for our partay. 

This is what we found.

At first glance it appears to be a wonderful Christmas wonderland, until you realize that it's quite possibly all of the decorations in Korea.  This was quite literally everything that we found.  We settled on some festive hats, tinsel, wrapping paper, ribbons, and supplies for our Christmas craft. 

Ahh yes, I chose the reindeer hat.  I thought it was awesome.  Awesome until little angel Andy came up to me and said, "Teacher you are a reindeer!" to which I responded, "Yes Andy, I am".  He then explained to me, "But teacher reindeer have thin legs and yours are thick!"  Thank you for that Andy, you little gem, you.

Claire got to work on creating a beautiful snowman while I made little presents to hang everywhere.  Aria and Landis, being the taller girls in the group, hung everything up for us.

We'll be staying late tomorrow night in order to get everything finished.  Luckily our boss knows how to get things done.  She simply asks what food she needs to buy us in order to keep us happy.  I think tomorrow's dinner will consist of Korean hangover soup (oh.so.good.) and Baskin Robbins ice cream (almond bon-bon for moi).  I might take it all with a little side of cough medicine.  I've been feeling a little under the weather and it's flu season again.  All of our students are coming to school wearing their masks.  We decided to take preventative measures and now all of my co-teachers and I have our very own masks. 

I'll be sure to keep you updated on our Christmas progress.  I won't actually be able to attend the party since the boy and I will be on a wee vacation!  I'm actually a little disappointed that I won't get to see all the kiddos enjoy the Christmas fun but I definitely need this vacation.  Sun, sand and delicious food- here we come!

On Another Note...

My co-teacher Aria made this little video about one of the girls that we teach.  Her name is Annie and she is quite the spitfire.  We actually have her tomorrow and she kind of scares me just a little bit.  She's 6 years old and looks absolutely adorable.  Looks can be deceiving.  Take a look at an average day with Annie... and yes, she's said all of the things in the video to at least one of us. 

a

To put faces to their names...

Here's a little clippity clip of some of the kiddos that I teach.  You'll actually get to see what Andy, Isaac and Jenny look like as they're regularly featured in my "Your Daily Gem" posts.  These kids are awesome and they like to keep every day interesting and different.  If you haven't read my posts on them or don't remember, you should probably click here or here or here.

You'll also meet Leon.  I had a [horribly drawn] giraffe on the white board and I was asking my students to come up with adjectives to describe my giraffe.  Olivia has said, "long neck", Tara added, "short tail" and Leon said, "Teacher, your giraffe has a big booty".  These kids make my day.  for real.
 
I apologize for my annoying teacher voice and shaky camera skills in advance.  

Your Daily Gem.

Today we were learning about our 5 senses.  I decided to ask my students which sense they would give up if they had to. 

Andy: Teacher, I would lose this (points to his crotch).

Me: Well for starters, that's not a sense.  And... um, why?!

Later on... after I forced him to choose a sense...

Andy:  I choose smell.

Me:  And why is that?

Andy : Because when my dad goes to the bathroom and poops it is a really bad smell.  If I cannot smell, it would be better.

BAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Your Daily Gem.

So recently we've had a slew of incidents with students hitting and punching each other.  We've taken to having highly over-dramatized presentations where we go over a list of rules and regulations with the students and teach them what the consequences of their actions are.  The presentation usually starts with Aria writing the word "no" on the board and the students have to come up with things they're not allowed to do.  For example, "no running", "no fighting", and "no speaking Korean".  One thing that's unanimous among the teachers is that we cannot, I repeat, cannot stand whining.  Korean children have it down to a science.  It goes a little something like this...

Me:  Alright guys, it's time for your vocabulary quiz.

Student: Teach-er-er-er-er-er-er! WHYYYYYYYYYY? 

These whining fits can continue for a while if you let them.  My students have gotten a lot better, but they still slip every now and then.  ANYWAY, today in our presentation we wrote down "no whining" and almost immediately after, 10 year old Andrew raised his hand and asked, "NO WINE?!" and then proceeded to mimick drinking a bottle of wine and getting drunk. 

I don't have him as a student, but I can already tell that boy likes to get down. 

Your Daily Gem.

Annie: Teacher, give me stickers.

Me: Tell me why I should give you stickers.

Annie:  You are very smart.  You are as smart as Einstein... but not as smart as me.

Your Daily Gem.

"Teacher, your face is very pretty... but your hair is very messy."

This is coming from the same kid that told me I must not have children.  He might be on to something.

Your Daily Gem.

Got this gem from fellow Pohang Hagwon teacher, Kristina S...

"I was teaching the verb "go". When asking the students to form a sentence with he, she, it, etc....Sergio (the quietest, sweetest, tiniest boy in the class) calmly, and with a straight face says, "He goes to hell," and glances at the naughtiest, meanest, most annoying boy in class. I couldn't stop laughing. The delivery was impeccable."

Your Daily Gem.

Today in my class of seven year olds we were discussing the differences between fact and fiction. After describing what fiction meant, the students were asked if various movies and books were fact or fiction. The text book listed The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Helen Keller, The Three Little Pigs, and A Diary of Anne Frank. When I asked little Jenny if A Diary of Anne Frank was fiction she replied with,

"No teacher. It is not fiction. It is fact because Anne is girl who lived in upper house safe from bad men. She write diary and diary's name is Hello Kitty."

You have to admit, she was pret-ty close. 

Your Daily Gem.

My 2nd graders today...

Me: Louis, where were you last week?

Louis: Teacher, I go China for play.

Tara: Teacher! I go Japan!

Jack: Teacher, I kill people.