springtime cheer (21 days)

is contaaaaaaaaaagious!!!

hehe you could probably kick me in the face and i'd go away smiling!!! hehe

we're making origami flowers w/the students faces in the middle today for my hallway bulletin board (YES! for child labor!) and they're going so well and are so adorable!!! (PICTURES of my new bulletin board by the end of the week!)

the nametag thing i've implemented is AWESOME with many more benefits than i had first imagined (will explain later).

classes are going well. i'm so busy but in a good way!!!

i have LOADS to do for school but not in that way that means i'm unhappy (which was normally the case last semester). so yayy. i have class in 8 so i will explicate on my happiness later.

and mental note: tell the story about the kid at lunch. and the life lessons.

and jungjin.

OK, editing:

PICTURES of my new hallway bulletin board and my new "dailies" board v.3.0b SOON. also pics of the nametags in action. i was soooo busy today. got to school around 9:30 and classes ended at 1pm. teacher class ended at 2pm. and i didn't get to leave school until 5 because of work and i still didn't finish everything i wanted to! AND i brought work home! it's never-ending! YIKES!!!

yet, i'm in a totally uncomplainatory mood today. isn't that odd? as i was leaving school today, i was ridiculously at peace. i'm kinda confused. am i on drugs? secretly? how am i so untense and so UNunhappy?

probably.... BECAUSE IT'S SPRRRRRING!!!! =)

seriously... i FRRRRREAKING love spring. both my bulletin boards are TOTALLY spring themed and i HEART it. I MIIIIIGHT get from friday to wednesday off for jeju conference!!! becaaaaaause i have no classes on monday and we have that wednesday off so i'm going to ask if i can take that tuesday off ALSO because it's my BIRTHDAY!!!!! and if they say, "NO" that's ok because we'll just do my birthday all day in lieu of a lesson. or it'll be a BIRTHDAY-themed lesson with cake!!! (except i don't like cake) so i probably meant balloons and ice cream!!!

they're renovating/remodeling/improving my classroom!!! so far the discussion includes a new overhead projector, new pretty curtains, a redesign of the whole front board, new sliding feltboards, and some more stuff i didn't understand. all because i complained that i need shades of some sort because the sun shines straight into my classroom in the morning thus rendering all my PPT lessons unviewable. so it sounds like we have a budget of like $7000 which is apparently HUUUUGE for my school to give to ONE classroom. so YAYY!! ALSO it means 1-2 weeks of NO work ... or less work. hopefully. they were discussing making me do the rounds ... but blech. i guess it makes no sense for me to NOT teach for half a month and still get paid. haha.

ok, 3 stories. (keep reading there's a prize possibility at the end!)

1. at lunch i overheard the students behind me and here is the convo (translated to english):
boy 1: why do you have so many leftovers?
boy 2: i can't finish. it doesn't taste good.
boy 1: farmer ajussi worked so hard to make this food. you don't even know. FINISH IT!!!
someone's parents are doing a good job with the LNFB (Leave No Food Behind) indoctrination

2. so there is this student jungjin, i think i might've written about him in december. anyway, so LAST semester he was a 1st grader and he NEVER spoke in my classes. i didn't think he knew any korean. then TOOOOOTALLY out of the blue, on my last day as i'm giving my "this is our last class for the semester. i will not see you until march when you are in the 2nd grade" speech and NO ONE is understanding so he stands up on his chair and translates pretty much VERBATIM my whole spiel. and i'm just AGOG at his english ability. he seriously understood the whole thing word for word, not just sloppily. so i've been wrapping my mind around this all during break. and today's our 2nd class this semester and he's SERIOUSLY just blowing me away with the english. he either was in the BEST english hagwon for last semester or had this weird shyness thing or SOMEthing where he wasn't talking and now he's fine speaking his perfectish english in class. weird.

3. one of my main goals has been teaching my kids "practical" usable English as a bonus during our regular textbook lessons. one of my favorite phrases i've been trying to teach is "Can I borrow the ...[scissors/pen/book/etc.]?" (alternatively "can i borrow some ...?") the boys in my 2-3 class today came up with "개나리 발로 ...glue?" or "개나리 발냄새...glue? which are korean words that "sound similar" i guess. literally it turns into [forsythia with the/from the foot glue?] and [forsythia smell-of-foot glue?]. they are ridiculous.

ok. if you've made it this far, congrats. prize if you know what the (21 days) in the title refers to.