The Dwindling Days

I have 2 more days with my babies, and 3 with most of my afternoon kids.

W. o. w.
How long have I been talking about this?  Feeling this?  Long time, long enough to know that it shouldn't be a surprise that I'm about to say goodbye to my kids, but as the time creeps closer and closer I'm sad about it.

I said goodbye to my 2 girls last night, and it sucked.  I came back sullen to my apartment and just laid on my bed staring up at the ceiling until tears came.  Shortly after that I was rescued by a friend wanting to go for dinner, saving me from being sulky and sniffly all night.  I woke up happy and glad to spend the day with my kids, but that farewell hangs over every "this is the last time I'm gonna" that I go through in a day.  Tonight Ana, the mom of my sleepover Sandy came over to pick up a couple things I had for the girls, and she was crying when she said goodbye and left, which left me crying again when I closed the door.  I hate goodbyes.

Goodbye is the farthest thing from easy.
Tensions are running high at work these days between the overstressed and overstretched Korean management and the teachers (particularly those of us who are leaving).  There is much crankiness, and a lot of the parts of working with and for someone from a different culture (for us and our Korean counterparts) are being taken personally and made into things much bigger than they truly are.  I'm sad that things are ending on more of a rough note for the school; I've loved my job there this year and hope that in the last few days everyone can just relax a little, unwind and enjoy the little time we have left together. 

Kids are coming up to me in a constant stream through the day (because my boss has yet to tell everyone which teachers are leaving next week) to ask me if I will be their teacher next week... I hate seeing their little faces get all scrunched up when I explain that I'm actually leaving the school after Monday and they'll have a new exciting teacher coming... it's not fair to have to deliver that message over and over and over again because boss doesn't want the moms to be upset about us going: HELLO, they're GOING to find out on their owwwwwwwn even if you don't tell them!!  Grr....

I hate goodbyes.  I don't care that they're inevitable and that they're a 'normal' part of life.  I hate them.  My Grandad always used to say "never say goodbye, just say see you soon, or talk to you later," but sometimes you really do say goodbye in life... perhaps it's goodbye with an I hope to see you again someday, but it's still a goodbye in case I don't ever get to see you again.  Once upon a time in Korea leaving only meant 'see you later' because part of me knew that I'd be back.  This time, it's different.

Some people I'm not going to be able to see before I leave because I've waited too long, and not everyone is where I am.  Others I've already had the chance to say that last goodbye, even if it was early by my schedule, knowing that they were going to be gone when it was time for me to leave and they won't be returning until I've already gone.  Didn't make it better, or easier.  Just longer.

Friday night I have to say goodbye to my friend of 4 years and hope that we'll cross paths again when she comes back to Canada... Saturday afternoon I'm going for lunch so I can say goodbye to all of my young Korean-teacher friends (the ones I still work with and the ones that have come and gone over the year, I am still friends with them), and then Saturday night I'm saying goodbye to the girls in Seoul that I've been hanging out with at random dancing and drinking weekends... they aren't all close friends, but they are still people I'm going to miss who are part of times I am going to miss... Sunday morning I have another goodbye brunch with a mom and daughter I've been friends with since my 2006 job... Monday all day I say goodbye to all of my kids, 40 little faces that have changed my life.

Goodbye.  Goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye and more goodbye...

Yuck.

Presents

I read aloud, like a lot, to my kindergarten kids.  Now I'm teaching my kids to read more naturally so they don't sound like little Korean robots, no inflection or tone in their voices.  I record the stories for them and email them home to the mommies so they can listen to me and practice using their voice in story telling.

The kids love it (and read their stories WAY more often at home), and the mommies think I'm heavensent because it's not something the teachers at our school usually do - win:win for me!!  The past 2 weeks kids have been bringing storybooks to school for me to read aloud when we have a few minutes to spare at the end of each block (and I happily oblige them in a love of reading!)

The other day in the classroom we were having our second or third conversation about typeset in their storybooks.  We started with a discussion about the 'strange' forms of a/g/q/t/I that we see in stories that (big bad meanie) teacher won't let them use in their writing.  Then we started talking about why writers use italics and bold in stories.  They know about the exclamation point, commas, and periods, but they've never really absorbed the meanings of these 2 new things.

I often give words kid-friendly qualities when I'm trying to explain things that are a little out of the ordinary.  For example, in case you didn't know weird is a naughty word because it doesn't follow the rules of 'I before E except after C').  My kids remember things more easily this way, and it makes them giggle so I make it as strange as I can for them. 

Last week I was trying to explain emphasis to my bright little stars.  I told them that words printed in bold and italics, ones that "looked special" were stronger than the others (of course modelling strong by strutting around flexing my muscles, and in turn walking around the table to squeeze the biceps being flashed at me by my money-see-monkey-dos.  When the giggling died down and I could continue the lesson I told them that when we are reading those words we had to use a stronger voice!  It worked like a charm, and now every time my little darlings read these kinds of words aloud to me they remember to add a little somethin' special to their voice.

Today I got a present from one of my little ones, Edward (mom swears the name didn't come from the twilight series, but I choose not to believe her because I'm an Edward fan).  So yes, Edward is the little boy who joined us at the end of the summer, and hardly ever spoke before January.  He's very shy (in Korean as well as English) and rarely puts himself out there (unless he's jumping off the top of the playyard fortress!). 

Now he rattles off a storm of silliness and tells me wonderfully hilarious stories about bumble bee swordfights and teacher-eating monsters when he's so inclined, which is often (hmm, now that I think about it, I should ask him why his monsters always want to eat the teacher...). 

In August he couldn't write more than his name, and while I cannot convince him to spell teacher properly, he will write and write and write when he has time.

The present was this beautiful box of chocolates (yum!)

and the letter you'll find right below.

Now, I went on and on telling you about the silly reading lesson I gave to my kidlets because of what my friend Edward wrote on the back of his letter...

So he couldn't figure out how on earth to bold or italicize his printing, but do you see it??

First I was confused, but then...
Ohhhh, it made me giggle... I love my job.

The Wheels on the Bus

Well, most of the snow has melted off again, and truthfully I hope I don't see it again until next winter! It was disheartening to wake up this morning and see snow covering everything, but I guess it's really only mid-March, and spring doesn't really come until April, right? That's what I'm going to tell myself anyway... It's funny here to see everyone outside with their umbrellas in the snow. Children don't run around catching snowflakes on their tongues here because their parents have told them it's frozen acid rain (due to the pollution levels)... a little sad the kids miss out on that small bit of winter fun that I remember from my own childhood - they think I'm crazy when I tell them they should try to catch them (but I saw 2 of them trying it after school the other day). When they get home I know that their mothers will be convinced I'm trying to poison them... "Mommy, Shauna Teacher said it's okay, really, look at me!"

So here's a little bit about school that I haven't really mentioned much about. Every morning at school I start my day with a ride on the bus to pick up the kindergarten kids and bring them to school. Best Kids has 6 buses, and every week we alternate to a new one with a new driver and group of kids. Though the old teachers complain about it I think it's kind of nice because I get to meet all of the little ones and they get to know me a little. We chat and make funny sentences and otherwise kill time until we get to school ('look teacher, a green bus/blue bus/red bus/gray/bus/city bus/school bus...' Oh, my head...). I started on Bus 1 and this week I'm on Bus 3, so I'm slowly moving through the kiddies.

Each Monday so far since I started on my own buses the kids hardly talk at all - for that matter, they barely even look up from their seats they're so shy! However, by Wednesday they're full of stories and silly sentences and funny faces and they're excited to see me when the bus arrives, so it makes it easy for me to enjoy the morning ride!

 This isn't something that most kindergartens here do as there are usually Korean teachers who have this part of the job, but in my opinion it's brilliant business sense on the part of my boss! There are other parents with their children at each stop in the morning (waiting for another school's bus with a Korean teacher), and they seem to take great interest in our English comings and goings. I'm sure we get new students as a result of it, and the 10 second pick-up is really the only contact we get with our kindy parents (they're not allowed to observe classes at all), so it's easy to make a good impression.

On Monday I arrived 10 minutes late for the bus because I didn't know it had a different departure time (the kids live a bit farther away, so it leaves at 8:30 instead of 8:40 like the others). To add to my 10 minute delay, this is what the traffic looked like the whole way there thanks to the strange Korean aversion to driving in the rain... Needless to say we were up to 30 minutes late picking up the last of the kids, and we didn't actually get to school until 10 minutes after classes were supposed to have started, late late late! Since the Koreans don't seem to use phone trees, the poor driver had to field calls from each of the moms throughout the traffic jam... "I'm sorry, traffic is very bad on the freeway," "I'm sorry, we're still 15 minutes from your apartment, please go wait out of the rain," and though he could have he didn't once say "I'm sorry but my teacher was a dohdoh-head and compounded the traffic problem by arriving 10 minutes late!" He was excellent the whole way, didn't get frustrated once during the whole trip. I was really impressed, because I'd have come unglued myself!! He just put in a dvd of a Simon & Garfunkel tribute concert and chilled out until we got there, it was excellent (check out the dashboard GPS monitor that doubles as a TV)!!

Here are a few pictures of the kids on the bus and getting to school, I really think they're adorable and I'm in love with every one of them!

May thinks Ricky is the best thing in the world... he's a 2nd year student (6 years old) and she's 1st year (5 years old) and he absolutely adores it that she's in love with him

Esther was very proud that she brought her baby sister's puppet to school, the milkmaid from France (I didn't know milkmaids were a french thing??)... apparently puppet came to school for the day so she could go back home and teach the other puppets some English!

Daniel is very cute, quiet and shy on the bus but a monster in the hallways once he's on familiar turf... adorable...

Believe it or not, these 2 pictures are of the same Sally, I couldn't believe how much more grown up her 5-year old self seemed by the 3rd day on the bus with me - she was busy adoring Ricky with May when I took the side shot... and how cute is her sweater????

Best friends

Got there safe!

Gym Drawing, Science, and the Magic Show

Here are some more shots of my kids in "Gym Drawing" class... the boss and the Korean teachers cover the floor of the whole common area with paper and all the kids get to come out and draw on it! My kids loved it when I got down with them to draw (apparently teachers never did before I came, but I wasn't missin' out on the fun!!)... kites, fishies, and flowers for the girls, submarines, cars, trains and boats with the boys - I loved it too!

Jay absorbed in his drawing...

Daniel immersed in the drawing project... on the bus he loves to yell out random English words followed by "ga-ga" (like, Teacher-Ga-Ga!!) at the top of his lungs and then giggle his little heart out... I just laugh and shake my head, he's adorable...

This little ham is Eric, he's lovely and wonderful, and smart-smart-smart. He thinks all kids in our class should strictly follow all rules, so I'm currently attempting to break him of his tattling addiction

Aran is lovey and cuddly, smart and hardworking, and she's fast becoming teachers pet!

You didn't get to meet my Justin when I posted all the pics of my kids in the playroom... he's a darlin', I love him!

Princess-Ants-in-Her-Pants-and-Beans-in-Her-Ears Sandy

Sean and Daniel love love love me, but only half as much as I adore them

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

The other day we also had a magic show (boss is quite the magician, he even swallowed a glowing thumb and I'm not going to tell you where it popped out of!) and the kids LOVED it... we made piggy banks in science class that same day (or the next?) so there are a couple of pictures here from the classroom too...

Sean and Becky hard at work on pig-design...

Miss Ants-in-her-Pants always manages to lose a part of her projects, you'll notice her pig has no nose, and it's already had a new back leg glued on because the other disappeared, lol...

Here's boss's magic show...

A couple shots of Justin lovin' the magic show with the other boys, since you didn't really get to meet him earlier...?

This is my Melody, who you didn't get a chance to meet earlier on in the month... she's very quiet and spends most of her time speaking Korean in class with my little Jay - she's very smart though, we're working on the confidence level... she loved the magic show! 

I hope seeing some of these photos of my happy kids has brought you a smile or 2, I know it has for me... I'm so grateful to have my job and my kids, they're joyful joyful little rays of sunshine no matter what the day brings!

Update on the Kindy Kids!

So here's a bit of a photo update on my kindergarten kids...they are the 2nd row from the camera. There are 10 of them, 5 boys (Sean, Jay, Eric, Justin and Daniel) and 5 girls (Sandy, Becky, Chloe, Aran and Melody): they are Jupiter Class. We had welcome day for the kids today so there was a small assembly with the boss to talk about the rules and introduce them to the school without their mommies. That lasted about an hour and then they were all mine! There are currently 80 kindergarten children in our school in the mornings, that's a lot of screaming and yelling at playtime I'll tell you now! Happily, at the end of kindergarten I can say without exaggeration: I already love my kids. I have some photos attached for the ones I managed to catch today... the others I'll get soon enough. One of our blocks was in the playroom, so that's where the photos are from.

**You'll notice that I've edited my kid pictures... there were a lot of distractions in the photos, so I wanted to focus more on the kids themselves... enjoy!

Sandy

Daniel

Aran (a-ran, not Erin)

Eric

Chloe

Sean

Becky

Jay