Year-End review for Jillian-Teacher's Class

I haven't shared much about my school life lately, so I thought I'd give a brief update about what school's been like this winter.

We had a week off for Christmas break; classes were supposed to start up again on January 4. However, because of record snow-fall in Seoul the night of January 3, January 4 became a "teacher work day." A lot of teachers groan at teacher work days, since it's us, all sitting in our teacher office for 12 or so hours...but I have a quiet appreciation of teacher work-days, b/c I'm always falling behind on getting copies made or being organized for the new session. I was glad to have a day to get everything really organized before the kids showed up. Plus, I was able to clean my desk :)

Through the month of January, our school held "Winter Intensives." These were early morning classes for students to take. The elementary school students, who only come to LCI in the afternoon, were on break all throughout January from school, so Winter Intensives provided a way for them to just keep on learning! I taught a reading class every morning starting around 8:30. For my class, we were reading through the Marvin Redpost series by Louis Sachar. We read 1 book a week and covered several deep life questions, such as: "Well, do you pick your nose? Do you think you will turn into a girl if you kiss your elbow? Does dog food really taste good? How would you dress to meet Obama?" I had 8 students total and really enjoyed teaching the class. Even though it was early (ohhh so early), we were able to have some pretty good conversations and I think they enjoyed the more-relaxed pace of the class. Plus, Marvin is just a silly  kid. I laughed out loud reading those books.

In Kinderland...it's been play practice and more play practice. Our "school year" ends in February, and all of the classes will be doing a presentation. The 7 year olds, though, have to perform a play. My class is doing a play called The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. I thought this up after teaching them a few Veggietales songs. We pretty much practice the play all day, every day. Sadly, my class will be "graduating," and I'll start with a new class in March. I'm really going to miss my 7 year olds!!!

Oh yeah, we're also getting ready for Valentine's Day. I kind of slacked off and apparently did not build them up enough for Peppero Day, but that is not the case for Valentine's Day. :) Apparently, some of my children love Valentine's Day more than others...