New School year, new students!

So, along with the beginning of the new school year here in Korea, I got five new students between my two kindergarten classes, as well as a new class of kids who graduated from kinder at the end of February.

Last week, the first week of classes in the new year, started off rough. One of the things that changed was the lessons that the korean teachers and foreign teachers teach. I used to do a lot of phonics work, but now my lessons are focused more on language skills, talking, using key expressions, etc. It's a lot easier and more fun to teach honestly! We also switched classrooms, so I no longer teach apple and banana, but we moved to kiwi and lemon. Same kids, different rooms.

I got four new kids in my 6 year old class, Lucy (who I wanted to name Elena, but she liked Lucy better), Jessica, Clara (who lived in France for the past year and speaks French, but limited English!) and Sam, who speaks the least out of the new kids. In my seven year old class I got just one new student, Ellie, who is very smart. I love my new kids, but we are moving at a much slower pace in the 6 year old class now because of the new kids. Baby steps though, baby steps. They all continue to amaze me though with how fast they learn. I'm sure within the next few months most, if not all, will have a good grasp on English!

Since the kids have been with me for two months now, I have a "no Korean at ALL!" rule in my classes. If they speak it, they get one line next to their name on the board, and if they get three lines I take ten stickers. This is a huggge deal, because everyday we reward the kids with stickers. Once they fill up a sticker page they get to pick a prize. The prizes are pretty cool too. So they work hard to earn them, and ten stickers is like two to four days worth of stickers! Last Friday when I started the rule I had two kids who lost ten stickers. One of them didn't seem to care at all, while the other cried silent tears as I took his stickers. (Don't tell anyone, but I really only took five from his book. The poor kid was so sad!) But it has really worked, and most of the kids hardly speak any Korean in class.

Classes today went as normal. There are some good and some bad days, but mostly I enjoy teaching my kids. They are just as cute as can be.

Last Sunday my church had a guest speaker, his name is Nick Vujicic, and he is an Australian man who was born without arms or legs. He travels the world talking about his life, and his mission is to make people believe that anything is possible with God. I really enjoyed seeing him, although at times he seemed a little to preachy for my style. But overall it was soo cool to see him and hear him talk about his life. I mean, we all go through things that challenge us, but this man swims, golfs, feeds himself and travels the world without the use of his arms and legs. Pretty amazing...if you get a chance you should check out his website. www.lifewithoutlimbs.org It's worth a look.

This weekend was pretty low key. Caught up on some housework, went out to eat a few times, and did some barhopping in a different city. I'm hoping to get outdoors next weekend, its supposed to be pretty nice on Saturday.

Hope everyone is doing well, in whatever part of the world you may be! A special shout out to my friend in Roma...hope you're doing well chiquita! Hehe Sam and I left the US on the same day last December, bound for two completely different parts of the world. She's in Rome au-pairing...and having a great time as you can imagine!

Also, want my family to know I was thinking about you all this weekend as you headed down to Florida to say goodbye to Aunt Jewel. What a great lady, and she will be missed.

That's all for now....kisses and hugs to everyone!