Students... kids!

Elementary level students are adorable and horrible at the same time. Any native teacher in Korea (or possibly the world) will agree with me. When you look at them, their little rosy cheeks and angelic smiles almost fool you into believing that they aren't tiny devils in disguise... almost... ;)

This morning walking to school I was thinking about the day ahead and dreading the horrible after school classes that always take SOOO much energy and patience out of me. when I happened upon a kid... who is in said after school class... and probably the worst one at that.He was riding his little pink plastic Winnie the Pooh scooter to school. It seems he had seen me walking behind him, and had slowed down in intervals so I could catch up. When i got near to him he stopped and smiled back at me, waving his hand furiously, his little eyes shining sweetly. Since we don't have much ability to communicate with each other he pointed to me, and then the scooter, motioning me to take the handlebars (which are at about waist level). i started laughing at how hilarious this situation would be.... i thought. why not? grabbed the scooter and scooted a few feet ahead... the kid running right behind me laughing and shouting WOOO HOOO!! this was seriously the best start to the day I have ever had. I stopped a few meters down the road and gave him his scooter back. he took it with a huge smile and rode slowly beside me the rest of the way to school. he stopped when we came to an intersection and didn't go until i said it was okay... so cute! we parted ways when we got close to school and he went to show off his scooter to his friends and let them have a whirl.

however, this afternoon was a completely different story. said child comes rampaging into my classroom, screaming his head off... and throwing things all over the place, hitting the other kids and tackling them to the ground (this is a common Korean child pastime I have found- nothing to be too worried about) I sighed and thought about the great one-on-one morning experience i had with this little one... how did his bright shining eyes turn so red all of a sudden? and where did those horns come from? I certainly didn't see them there before. The class continued and he never seemed to settle down. causing disturbances and not listening to a word i or anyone else said. I tried to hold on to that feeling i got this morning,  but it was slowly fading away into the abyss of my memory.

After the class ended and I plopped down in my chair, completely exhausted, the same student came over to me and held out his hand. in it was a tiny chocolate, and said to me "happy teacher? for you" I smiled and melted back into his cute little face. as i took the partially unwrapped chocolate from his hands he smiled at me and walked calmly away...

Its these moments that we must remember when we are looking for the patience to get through the hard times... like every Friday afternoon for me.and they are little angels.. just young and all they want to do is have fun, instead they are stuck in a classroom 6 days a week, 8+ hours a day reading/writing/and arithmetic! TGIF



side note... as i was editing this post- a little grade 1 student (about 5 years old) just came in and gave me a pen with a little handmade flower on top of it..... i suppose its for teachers day tomorrow..he is literally one of the students i talk about when I say they are soo cute! his mother has given him a perm, highlights and he wears the most fashionable clothes... haha. anyways, what a great way to end my Friday.

update

So, its been a while since i have posted. i have about 4 posts started that i will have to finish this week. and post. perhaps ill amalgamate them into one, since they mostly deal with the idea of the holiday season.
I have been faced with a few challenges over the past couple of weeks. getting through the holidays without my family and friends was probably the hardest thing i have had to do in a while.However, i did have a very memorable and wonderful Christmas. 
I have now entered into the 'extra classes' phase of the year. This is the time of year when students are 'off school' for the month of January. This however does not mean that they do not come to school or continue with their lessons. No, in fact it seems as though the students have a more rigorous schedule; moving from place to place starting at 9am and finishing god knows when! I suppose its to prepare them for the level up they are about to embark on (in march). But classes are on. students are able to sign up for classes specific to what they would like to improve on. Every week there are different classes, and some are for 3-4 hours per day. I find it absolutly amazing that these children are in school rather than enjoying their time off, as many north americans would be doing. Its great but at the same time, there are a lot of reasons why continual school isn't the best thing. 
I have been struggling with the childrens inability to imagine things since i arrived. i have attempted to challenge them to 'create.' to make something of their own that may be new and original. Yet, time after time, this fails. they are strictly regimented and without rigid structure are completly lost. They have no idea where to go. In a recent class i had set up a project for the students to 'create their own superhero.' I thought they might enjoy this; seeing as how these types of charachters are often popular. I explained to them what a superhero was, and how, for our case, they didn't necessarily have to be a masked character. Twilight, a popular phenomenon world round, can see Edward and Jacob as hero's for our case. I then challenged them to come up with a name and a special trait that their hero had.  This took  45 minutes.Their creativity and ability to think 'outside the box' is simply not there. It seems to be stripped away at a young age. They are forced into these molds and unable to escape from them for fear of standing out.

So for two weeks i teach two classes, each is two hours long. its not too bad. the first is the 3rd grade middle school. they have yet to show up for class, there are only 5 studnets signed up for classes. but they just haven't shown up. fine with me, only i spent a whole week coming up with a lesson plan for them. oh well...