Hul!

Dear creator of April Fools Day,
You must have been a teacher.

Well, turns out my evening class from 6 to 7 has only one student and every Tuesday and Thursday she has another academy at this time, SO that means, FINALLY, I have a free period! So I think I might make Tuesdays my new blogging day. So, grandma, now Tuesdays can be your favorite day of the week :)

This blog is going to touch on two topics. It was going to be three, but then I decided I didn't want to waste my time expressing my disgust of recent and totally undeserving star, Rebekah Black. So, first I will tell you of the daily happenings of my Thursday kid classes, and second, I will tell you about my April Fools Day, which also involved the kid classes.

Nothing out of the ordinary went on during the week, but then I got to thinking, everyday has been so normal, I need to go into my classes and try to see them like I haven't been teaching them everyday for the past 6 months. So, Thursday I decided I would remember a few of the things my students do that usually I find annoying and disruptive but Thursday I would laugh (in my head of course, they don't need that encouragement) and write about them in my blog.

Lately, I've noticed my students using a word that sounds like, "hul". So, I asked them what it means and they showed me in their little electronic dictionaries that it means, "absurdity." This word is definitely overused every single time I hand out homework.

So, I think one of my favorite and most creative students is a boy named Sky. Although all his doodles and quirky invented "gadgets" are extremely distracting to everyone else in the class, I appreciate his artistic side. I've noticed Koreans never ever want to stand out. Everybody looks the same. Everybody acts the same. From what I've observed, being different (as a Korean) is frowned upon. Sky is the exception. Although I have to get on his case about not doing origami or drawing elaborate pictures of dragons during class, I hope he never changes.

Here he is on Halloween, however, I'm sure if his mom would let him, he'd wear this everyday.

On Thursday, Sky was just being Sky. I asked the students to each write a word on the board. When it was Sky's turn, I noticed he had decided to make every movement of his body a robotic movement, complete with sound effects. It took awhile for him to get to the board and write the word, but he finally finished and made his way back to his seat by the door. Maybe 10 seconds later, he droppped his pencil. In his robotic movement, he bent down to get the pencil, and on his way back up, he slammed his head on the door knob. It may have been a "you had to be there moment," but it was quite hilarious. It was definitely a "HUL" situation.

The next class is a class of all girls. They get quite giggly at times, but usually I can reel them in. On Thursday, Cindy, must have had a large amount of sugar. Not only was she laughing at every word that came out of my mouth, but when it was her turn to answer she answered in a rap. Hul. I'm not sure where she learned this, but I definitely see a future for this girl, Cindizzle.

Then comes the 5 o'clock class. This class is around the age of 10 or 11. They are newer to my schedule, but I've had a few students in other classes before. One boy in particular, Subin, I've had since I've started, and have seen lots and lots of improvement in him. Apparently he knows he's getting better. On Thursday, every time I asked him a question and he answered correctly, he kissed his fist and then pointed in the air towards the "outfield." Please Subin..."Hul"

At 5:30 I have the same age group. Mostly boys, this class can get very rowdy, but I must say, I'm surprised by their consistency of getting their homework done. One of the most talented students is named Hyunsoo. Every Wednesday we watch a movie and they answer questions about the movie, then for homework, they have to write 3 sentences about the movie. Most of the sentences from this 5:30 class go something like this, "baby is so cute." "Movie is fun." "Man is bad." But Hyunsoo always goes the extra mile. On Thursday he turned in his homework and a few of his sentences were, " Megamind's head is so big. Why?" and "Announcer was kidnapped. Hot girl." Me: "Hyunsoo, 'hot girl'? Hul."

Also in this class is a sweet little girl Esther. Not only do I love her name because I can pronounce it, but she is very strong to be in a class of all boys. On Thursday, I wrote something on the board and turned around and saw she had stuffed all her hair into her glasses. "Hul"

My last "Hul" moment was towards the end of the day. At my 7 oclock class, once again appearing in blog, Lina and 5 other middle schoolers appear. These students I give the most grace to. They are here in the academy from 6 to 8, and at about 6:30, I can tell they are about to lose it. Thursday was one of the most chaotic classes ever. It was towards the end, and I decided to stop talking, sit back, and observe.

In the corner sat one of the newest members of the class. He was the only one not spinning out of control. To my right sat one girl, who said repeatedly in a very loud tone, "teacher! teacher! teacher! teacher! I ate ramyun!" In the middle sat two girls chatting away. And then there was Lina. She sat directly in front and was the closest person to me. Sweet, quiet Lina was waving an American flag that she found in her book bag and yelling, "AMERICA! AMERICA! TEACHER! AMERICA YAYYYYY!" This was probably the most "hul" moment of the day.

And so ended my chaotic Thursday. Friday morning came as it usually does, and when I was explaining April Fools Day to my morning class, they informed me that Korea "celebrates" it too. I was very happy to hear that, but very sad that I didn't have enough time to pull a prank on my little boogers. So, I just decided that I would tell them they did the wrong homework. In America, your average elementary student would probably be like, "eh, did we even have homework?" But these Korean kids are the total opposite, they feel sooo guilty and stressed if they don't do their homework. So at the start of every class, I walked around the room observing their homework and I said in a very serious voice," Now, this is very good, but I am very surprised you did not do page 41. Your homework was page 40 AND 41." It took most of them a minute to process what I said, but soon enough there began an uproar of, "WHAT!? TEACHER, NO! YOU SAID. TEACHER! YOU SAID!" Their worried faces were priceless and I realized how truly rewarding it is to be a teacher.

Well, that's all I have. I really love my students, and I am really blessed to have such a great job. Talk to you next week :)