Jon: Andy Kim Story

As I said in the previous post, Andy Kim is a superb student who works extremely hard, behaves extremely well, and speaks extremely well.  In addition to this fine qualities, Andy Kim is always willing to help me out by explaining certain expressions to other students in Korean or explaining to me certain Korean traditions or customs.  

Anyways, I had mentioned something about the students in C-class (a classroom next door to ours) and so Andy Kim raised his hand.  This is an almost exact dialogue of what then transpired:

Me:  "Yes Andy Kim?"

Andy Kim:  "Teacher, you know what c-class mean?"

Me:  "No, what Andy Kim?"

Andy Kim:  "It means (insert f-bomb) you, means (insert f-bomb) you!"

Me:  "What???"

Andy Kim:  "Yes teacher, it means (insert f-bomb) you"  

*At  this point he is also flicking me off and clearly excited to explain something to me

Me:  "Andy Kim you can't say that!!  Get out your stamp sheet and go to the corner right now!"

Andy Kim:  "But teacher it means (insert f-bomb) you" 

*He now has tears welling up in his eyes because a) he's losing stamps and b) he has to sit in what i proclaimed the "baby corner"

Poor Andy Kim, he was just trying to help but I was so scared that other kids would ask me what that word meant.  The next day, his mother called the korean teacher to formally apologize to me and that Andy Kim would also apologize as well.  The minute my foot was outside the door I couldn't help but laugh and immediately looked for the first teacher I saw to tell the story.

Jon: My kids

After our sabbatical in which we accumulated more than enough stories and information to share with everyone we're back.  To begin with, I'll start off with pictures of my students: 

Picture at top (from left to right): James, Joe, Janet and Wayne.  My intention was to have a Garth as well but I never got a new kid, however I'm still working on it.  Janet is a super sweet girl.  James and Wayne annoying but really funny while Joe is not exactly the brightest.  A funny story about the three boys is that during one lesson I introduce the new vocabulary word "alien" to them.  As they love to call each other "crazy" they took it upon themselves to combine each other's name with alien resulting in:  "Jalien" "Waylien" and "Jolien".

Picture on left (from left to right):  Lilly, Soby, and William.  This was one of my favorite classes.  There English is really good making for some really fun and interesting conversations.  Also, as a side note, Soby is the infamous "Big Cheese" student.  

Picture on left (from left to right):  Philip, Kevin, Jamie, Angela, and Sarah.  This class was probably one of the worst classes i've had.  They did nothing but complain, cry and lie.  Kevin cried whenever I wrote his name on the board making him my least favorite student of all time. 

Picture on top at the bottom (from left to right starting at the top):  Jina, Andy, Bickey, Adam, Brian, Haejoo, Andy Kim, and James.  This class was a great class with great stories.  I have an entire post ready for a good one with Andy Kim as it is slightly lengthy.  

Picture on the bottom (from left to right starting at the back):  Kevin, Pete, June, Rachel, Alice, Anne, Annie, Christina, and Jennifer.  This class was a fun class although annoying and stressful at times as they continually undermined me.  A classic example of their undermining was when anyone was about to lose stamps I would give them a "last warning".  Despite this threat, many of them thought it amusing and whenever one student was bothered by another they would plead with me to give instigator a last warning which in turn immediately resulted in an uproar with the rest of the class.  Chanting would then follow:  "LAST WARNING, LAST WARNING!"