Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

...that's what little BOYS are made of? Just kidding. Sort of. I just had my first experience with a "teacher crush" outing. But, more on that later.

I know that my posts have not been the most upbeat lately. The frustrating stuff usually inspires me to write more than the other. Also, right now we seem to have an over abundance of the blood boiling sort of material.

I just wanted to write about some of my students. I really love them. Honestly, I work with some really sweet kids. Over the holidays, they have been really sweet with holiday wishes and little gifts that magically appear on my desk or on the podium before class. I never know who they are from, but my older kids present the gift as a present from the class.

One of my students asked me what kind of present I liked the best. Thinking that they wanted to buy me something, I told him that I liked drawings the best (I don't want them to spend money on me). So, the next time I had class, I walked into the classroom to find the podium piled high with wonderful drawings, paintings, and cuttings that the kids made for me! I love them and they are more valuable to me than anything they could ever buy. I almost cried. Seriously, so sweet. My kids make me smile and laugh on a near daily basis. I am very thankful for that.

I have mentioned this before, but I am really surprised that my little boys are so enthusiastic about English class. I was expecting the girls to be more in to it. Many of the girls are very good and do everything well in class, but if I'm giving points for sheer enthusiasm, the boys definitely win the prize.

In many of my classes ALL of the boys want to speak at every group sharing opportunity. They are always the first to volunteer for anything. If I finish taking volunteers and don't wind up calling on some of the boys, they get very sad and protest with a very heartfelt, "Oh, laoshi! Why no me?" I correct them. Hands go back up with a corrected, "Oh teacher Molly, why not me?"

They are also just hams! They are pretty fearless about making mistakes. Usually when they flub up, they laugh, make me laugh and wind up hugging each other. After class, both the boys and girls all come up to the podium and we try to talk in Chinglish to the best of our abilities. Usually one of the kids will tell me that they like that I smile and laugh in class and that that makes them happy.

In November, one of my Junior 2 classes invited me to go to a soccer game - their class was playing against another class. Members of the soccer team prepared an invitation to present to me in front of the class - I couldn't say no. So everyone cheered.

On the day of the match, the class was waiting for me in the hallway for me to get out of my class and we all walked down to the field together. All 50 of them wanted to hold my hand on the way down, it was kinda of funny. I cheered for both sides, as they were both my classes. They even coordinated cheers in English just for me! At the double whistle blow, the class that I came with won! They were so excited!

Fast forward to last week. I had that class on Wednesday. We were doing a unit on what you wanted to be when you grew up. One of my SFS's said that he wanted to be a soccer player. So, I asked him (at the end of class) if he was on the soccer team. He very proudly said yes. Then I asked if he was #9 (I was very impressed with #9 at the soccer game) because he was about the same size. He beamed while turning a very bright red. As soon as he was a nice shade of scarlet, the taunts of, "Laoshi, he LOVES you!" started to pour out as well as similar sentiments in Chinese. I think that they managed embarrass him quite well. Hopefully, this won't make him shy in class as he is one of my best students.

Anyhow, this is not to say that I don't have some truly outstanding girls. I have a really sweet group of girls who I just want to hug whenever I see them. They give me little "love" notes or folded stars after class and really like to try to speak to me in English. They greet me in Korean (I taught them a little, as that I all I know) and we sometimes hang out together in the garden at their long mid-morning break. They are really interested in learning about me, the US and anything I want to share with them. We have a lot of fun trying to figure out what we are saying to each other. My girl groups are really thoughtful and are very helpful in the classroom when the boys are being naughty - they are the enforcers.

So, I know that this post is a little random. But hey, just recording thoughts as they come to me!