Adjusting to LCI

This week has been going a lot better at work, so far. I am starting to get use to my hectic and chaotic days, and my classroom is slowly coming together. I spend every spare minute I have during the day trying to get prepared for the next, and making things for my classroom. I really want a cute classroom that my kids with enjoy so I am taking my time to pull it all together. Hopefully I will be done soon and can post some pictures. I am really beginning to love my new students! I was really attached to Kevin’s classes, so my new students had a lot to live up to, but so far so good. I have Bebe again, which is great because she is such a cutie-pie! I still have a few student who drive me crazy by talking too much, or screaming “TEACHER ME” or “I'm DOOONE!” whenever they finish something I ask them to do, even if it is jus to simple turn the page. I try to ignore them or ask them to not yell, hopefully they will chill out with the screaming soon cause I don't think I could stand hearing that 100 times a day for the next year.

Right now I am teaching my morning class of six years olds about emotions such as frustration, confidence and embarrassment. Kevin, Sally, Sarah and Jessica love it when I get really goofy and animated to explain things to them. I find it to be more effective to make fun of myself a lot to keep them entertained and learning. I spend the majority of my day with my morning class (9am- 1:40pm) so I am getting to know them a lot better and get to teach them a variety of topics. I am really interested in what they will be like in a year and excited to watch their progress!! My mid-day classes, we call them “Special Classes”, are 6 and 7 year olds that have never, or barely, been exposed to the English language. Right now I am teaching them the alphabet and colors. These are probably my most draining and frustrating classes, but it’s teaching me a lot about patience. They are so stinkin’ cute, I cant help my just adore them! My Korean helper-teacher is my little angle during these two classes because she can calm the kids down or tell them what to do if they don't understand me ☺ My last class of the day, EC 2, is a group of 11 obnoxious little animals! I have 9 girls and two boys. One of the little boys, David, is really shy but really quite and Lucas isn’t quite but a little brat. I call him my little rebel. Jessica and Nicole are really loud and like to scream answers, and Elizabeth, Mary and Ella are my little sweethearts! They are very soft -spoken, but very smart and love giving me hugs and stickers, which is a big compliment in Teacher-Student Land. This class is learning about the parts of the body, reading, writing and verb vocabulary right now.

Today I had of the greatest moments! I walked into my last class of the day, EC 2, and began my usual greeting when Elizabeth came up to me and gave me a yellow piece of paper full of stickers and Ella handed me a small plastic, pink Disney Princess envelope. I gave them a big smile and thank you and placed them on my desk to look at later. I always like the make sure to look really excited whenever I get stickers, but don't want to give them too much attention and make the other students jealous, uncomfortable, or feel like they have to bring me stickers. After class, I opened up the Disney Princess envelope that Ella gave me. First I saw a piece of paper with a drawing a tall, brunette girl with long hair, I thought it was super cute and assumed she was drawing me, even thought I don’t have brown hair. I unfolded the second piece of paper and there was a picture of the brunette girl standing next to a board that had the ABCs on it and a note that read: “Hello my name is Ella. Bri teacher thank. Bri teacher I love you. Your beautiful brown hair color is beautiful. Teach give lessons. thank Love Ella.” Awww it was the sweetest thing anyone has ever given to me. I’ve been given some really amazing things in my life, but this one touched me the most. It felt so good knowing that my students like their teacher and all my hard work is appreciated. I just wanted to give Ella the biggest hug, but class was already over. It seems small, but I will always smile when I think back to that note my student gave me in Korea.


We joined the gym this week! We went with our Korean friends Lyla and Lynn to join with them and for them to help us translate, which was really helpful! We walked around the gym to see what we were getting into and it all looked decent. Not large, but just enough. We decided to come back in the next day to officially join and start the new workout plan, but this time it was only Katie and I, which made communication with the desk clerk slow and confusing. She didn't understand a thing we were saying and obviously we didn't understand the questions she was answering. I pretty much just showed her the 60,000 won and put three fingers up to gesture for 3-month membership without any of the additional options she was trying to sell to us. Katie and I felt pretty darn proud of ourselves when we finally got it all sorted out and were able to work out. After a month of eating about 3 donuts a day and tons of pizza, ice cream, and sweets, it felt great to begin my new workout plan. We are going to Guam in 4 months and I am feeling pretty motivated!