It was a busy final week with the kids. My class finished all of their textbooks by the skin of their teeth (last month I realized I had something like 120 pages of the reading book left and about five 30 minute classes remaining to teach it!) but we had time to play too. On the last day we went through a "greatest hits" of class favorite activities- from a game of Mario Bomb (don't ask) to the Cookie Monster's "Healthy Food" video (a running joke in the class all year) to one last story time.
The story that we read was one that our class wrote ourselves! The students drew the pictures (with heavy Photoshopping from Shawn Teacher) and wrote the words (with heavy embellishments from Shawn Teacher) to "The Ugly Panda", our version of "The Ugly Duckling". The school had the book made for us, and each kid got to take a copy home with them. I felt like Oprah- "and YOU get a book, and YOU get a book" passing them around to happy faces.
The school also sent home a copy of it's annual "PSA Kids" magazine. Each teacher had written a short note to their students in the magazine and- can you believe it- they misspelled "SPELL" in my article!! I had to double-check the writing that I originally submitted and it had been spelled correctly. Whyyyyy!!?
Of course, every school has a yearbook at the end of the year and my school was no different. They were beautiful- huge, leather bound, and full of super-cute professional photos uniquely made for each child. If you'd like a copy, they were only 180,000 Won, or approximately $165 Canadian!!!
Me with my co-teacher Jamie (she's surely the best kindergarten teacher in Korea) and mute assistant teacher, Clara (who was unfortunately not told to dress up for picture day) in the yearbook.
Like I said, Friday was graduation day, and if you were a 7-year old homeroom teacher this was great news because you got to sleep in! Woo! I got my times messed up and was the LAST to arrive for our shuttle bus to the ceremony, but it turned out to not be a problem since we had TWO HOURS before the event for all 50-60 teachers to set up the chairs. We had so much time on our hands that we set up the chairs in a variety of ways before finally choosing a style that we liked. We did this again after the ceremony was finished too, just for fun.
As a 7-year old teacher, I sat with my students and helped them as they stepped up on stage to get their diplomas and awards (everyone got an award, even if it was tongue-in-cheek like "most inquisitive," AKA the "never stops talking" award). They also sang a couple of songs- that's them performing for their audience of snap-happy moms in the photo above.After the ceremony we got hugs from the kids and took lots of pictures in every imaginable combination of poses. Some of the kids gave us flowers, which was sweet, but my favorite was class valedictorian Rachel who said, "My mom told me to say bye to you". Bye Rachel, see you in Super Elite (our afterschool program), which your mom is also making you attend :)
Of course, after the ceremony was a good old-fashioned staff dinner of galbi and (mostly) soju. I never realized what a ringleader my principal is- she had us doing co-teacher shots, shot waves, you name it. It was a very fun time.So next week begins a new year for the staff at my school. Most of us are changing classes and looking forward to our 3 prep days (and a holiday!) next week to get ready. I'll be moving down to the 3rd floor for my new class. You know how every school has a a weird, slightly "off" art teacher? Yeah, that's me now :P
It's gonna be another good year.
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