Tag Archives: teacher

memoirs of my 27th birthday.

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May 18th, 2012

I honestly, and wholeheartedly, wanted to write a post yesterday. Being that yesterday marked the start of my 27th year on earth (or I mean, the end of my 27th year? I just really confused myself… you turn one after you have been alive a whole year— so now I have been alive 27 years, so it’s the end, right?), anyway… I am now 27.

An account of my day, to remember years down the road, as this is the closest thing I have to a journal:

I walked to work decked out in mascara (a rarity) and iron curled hair (that deflated within the hour-why doesn’t hair spray work?), sporting a lovely flowered dress. You have to look good on your birthday, you know? As I went to open my classroom door a balloon almost hit me in the face, I looked up and eight colorful balloons had been taped to my door (surrounding my “welcome to second grade” poster). Smiling I walked across my room, and saw a post-it note stuck on my computer screen that read, “Play as often as possible”, opened in my internet browser was New Kids on the Block’s version of “Happy Birthday” (which I had never heard before— so, so great!). Then (I am actually noticing everything one step at a time, since I am not the most observant person in the world) I see the gift bag. Nailholic Magazine (yes-such a thing exists!), bedazzlement nail kit, and the BIGGEST heart-shaped reeses peanut butter cup I have ever seen! I turn around-stunned- and see that I have completely missed the happy birthday banner taped underneath my whiteboard/smartboard, decorated with balloons on either side. I head over to the person responsible— the third grade teacher and great friend Joëlle. She had to have rolled into school EARLY to surprise me— knowing I arrive at work anywhere from 7-7:30! (She normally gets to work at 7:45ish).

Just when I start to recover one of my students walks in with a life-size balloon PERSON. My obvious teacher replacement for the day, as no one should work on their birthday— right? Pictures posted below :) Another student’s mom walks in with a home-made strawberry tart. I think I gained at least ten pounds yesterday. A student from last year (as if she remembered my birthday!) shows up with a box wrapped in PURPLE (best color) and gave me a collection of lip gloss, the extra sparkly one is my favorite. Today another one of my student’s from last year made sure to give me a gift (of CHOCOLATE) when he realized my birthday was the day before… being a teacher on your birthday is THE BEST JOB. In the past I have worked on several of my birthdays— you just don’t get the same love in the restaurant business, haha.

Jee Young and Dyanne make sure to stop by with warm hugs to start my already insane day. Elaine hands me “present number one”; a giant cookie, chocolate mini-muffins, and a beautifully written card telling me how great I am. As the day gets started Adrienne shows up and hands me breakfast (what?!), chocolate chip pancakes— start drooling, they were delish.

It’s not even nine o-clock yet. I walk back into my classroom to grab my water (my kids were over in Elaine’s room rehearsing for our upcoming musical) and there is the most interesting looking “cake” sitting on my desk. Kit Kats forming a circle, held up by a peanut butter concoction, and the center is filled with m & m’s (like I said, ten pounds). Two cards are on my desk from my “birthday buddy”— at work among the teachers, we have secret birthday buddies, only I had a feeling I was going to guess who mine was! Not only was there this ridiculously good tasting “cake”, there was also a beautiful bracelet.

I start receiving anonymous e-mails from a birthday buddy email account. How creative is that? Definitely the give-away though, since my friend (and co-worker) Steph and I are obsessed with watching movie trailers in our free time— she kept me supplied with emails throughout the day linked to trailers of movies I haven’t seen yet, as well as old classics that never die. Steph went above and beyond the call of birthday buddy!

One of my student’s driver shows up (yes, a lot of them have their own “drivers”) in the middle of the day to bring me flowers. Then, Jee Young stops by as the school day is winding down to hand me her “gift number one” (receiving gifts in installments is seriously great!), she discovered an Etsy site where you can custom order stationary (and she talks about it here— check it out!).

Holding my half-eaten strawberry tart in one hand, and my nearly demolished kit kat cake in the other, I start to head for home… then have to turn back because I forgot to print stuff out for small group. I end up ditching, er finishing the dishes and leaving half an hour later with my bouquet of flowers instead.

Leading small group on my birthday was another huge blessing. Yoonjung hosted it at her amazing apartment in Itaewon. She cooked us dinner and we ate it on her terrace, overlooking the city and watching the night steal across the sky— gifting us with the glow of every building and car. It was so calm, and quiet— we all felt like we had escaped Seoul and were in San Francisco! Ashley snapped pics for me all night as I DIDN’T BRING MY CAMERA (who am I? I always have my camera). Kristin showed up with cake, PURPLE cake. We laughed, we ate, we read our Bible, we ate some more, we prayed, we grew. Three and a half hours later I panicked because it felt like only thirty minutes had gone by and I needed to catch the subway home.

My birthday ended with my nose buried in a book one of my student’s recommended me to read (The Lightning Thief) during library time today, he can’t even read it yet, he just told me his brother loved it.

What’s on the agenda for tomorrow? Oh, yeah. My birthday PARTY. Hahahaha, I am incredibly blessed. I might start crying (but I am on my period so that would totally be acceptable— and the is not TMI, since this is my journal, hehe).

 

I accidentally started eating the kit kat cake before I took a picture!

“I want to experience the speed again.”

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I find the best writing my students produce is usually on their own time. Every weekend they come back to class with a journal full of their thoughts, and one of my favorite activities is to read about what they have to say. You might be thinking, “Really Melody, you teach eight-year-olds, is what they have to say really that interesting?” Well, the answer is YES!

Recently one of my student’s went skiing, and she wrote a journal entry about it. There was one line that really stood out to me:

“I want to experience the speed again.”

Come on now! Can’t you just picture her at the top of the hill, coming down, cold wind whipping her hair all around… a smile on her frozen face? All of that with one simple line: “I want to experience the speed again.”

Me too girl, me too.

Writing can change people… you know? So, write stuff down!

back to school jitters

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“Ms. Welton, are you pregnant?”

Guess I shouldn’t have worn this outfit on the first day of school. I turned to the side to show my new second grade student that no, I was not pregnant, and yes, I have a small waist. She gave an understanding nod and blamed it on the skirt.

At the end of the day one of my student’s mother came to introduce herself to me. She told me her son wanted to be in my class (what? SO COOL) and his exact words were, “I want to have Ms. Welton as my teacher. She is scary, but funny!” hmmm… I am not exactly sure when I interacted with this kid last year. But he pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Basically, it was an exhausting, but exciting day.  The second time around is completely different that the first. I see my students from last year head to the third grade classrooms and my heart hurts. I want them back! But I know I will fall in love with my students this year and think the same thing again this time next year. How do teachers do it? My heart is going to keep expanding until it eventually explodes. Really.

 

knock-knock jokes?

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Last week I had a bit of a mis-communication with one of my students. It was pretty rough. He ended up being so upset that he opted to sit on the bleachers during recess instead of playing soccer. I mean, the kids really love soccer.

I joined him at the bleachers along with his best friend J2. “Why don’t you tell J1 (creative I know, but both their names start with J!) some jokes to cheer him up?” I suggested to J2.

He happily obliged. Only… I didn’t really get any of his jokes. J1 didn’t think they were funny. I then asked J2 if he knew any knock-knock jokes. His face lit up, “Yeah!”

“Knock-knock.”   “Who’s there?” “Basketball who?” “Basket ball you!”

okay…. I am trying to wrap my mind around that one when, “Knock-knock.”  “Who’s there?”  “Gold.” “Gold who?” “Do you have gold shoes?”

Well, you gotta give it to the boy for trying. J2 looked down at J1 (who had his hood up and head down). “Still not funny?”

Friends. They are so priceless.

For those who want to hear more (I wrote them down in my iPhone):

“Knock-knock.”   “Who’s there?” “Easter.” “Easter who?” “Easter bunny broke an egg on your head.”

“Knock-knock.”   “Who’s there?” “Eggs.” “Eggs who?” “Eggs for breakfast.”

“Knock-knock.”   “Who’s there?” “Juice.” “Juice who?” “Juice in your pants.”

“Knock-knock.”   “Who’s there?” “Sneakers.” “Sneakers who?” “Let’s where sneakers on our hands!”

“Knock-knock.”   “Who’s there?” “Lollipop.” “Lollipop who?” “We have lollipop face.”

“Knock-knock.”   “Who’s there?” “Coffee.” “Coffee who?” “Let’s eat coffee.”

I didn’t even write all of them down. J1 never laughed. I don’t think J2 has ever actually heard a knock-knock joke…

ninja

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We are in the middle of Wicked Wacky Week here at APIS. Today is Career Day. As the school day started I was greeted by a professional golfer, an archer, a baseball player, soccer player, fashion designer, “seller” (she was selling the fashion designer’s clothes), and astronomer (to name a few). It was a tough decision for me, as far as what I wanted to dress up as. After contemplating being a national geographic photographer, a novelist, a teacher (wait…), I decided what I really want to be most when I grow up is… a ninja.

This morning my first student arrived and said, “but Ms. Welton, Joon* said all ninjas are bad.” With no hesitation my immediate reply was, “Not Ms. Welton Ninja.” I almost felt bad when a look of pure relief came over his face. “Aaaahhh, I see.” KIDS, I just want to hug them!

“Ms. Welton, Ninja don’t wear earrings,” another student informed me.

“Oooohhhh….”

*Name Change

 

I forgot my katanas at home. oops...

“bear”feet

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Instead of starting my Monday off teaching all the wisdom I have to offer (which I used to think was so, so much), I sat in class….learning? And today, as the roles were reversed, I sat as a student realizing how much I still need to learn. Teaching at a school where 90% of the student population are ELLs (English Langauge Learners…meaning their mother tongue is NOT English) is TOUGH.

Virginia Rojas (love you Gini!) swooped in and left our (the entire staff of APIS) heads spinning. After eight hours of learning, practicing, sharing, and learning some more I rushed downstairs to tweak my lesson plans for this week. I am a big fan of implementing. And truth be told a lot of us sat there thinking, “wow, we are doing NONE of that.”

Conviction.

To show Gini how cool we could be outside of school we (uh, that being APIS picked up the tab…saweeeet!) took her out to an all you can eat seafood buffet. During dinner the conversation turned to what, as teachers, we like to talk about most. CHILDREN.

One of my co-workers shared a most delightful story. His son had taken his shoes off in the car during a recent trip to the grocery store. “You have to put your shoes back on! You can’t go into the store with bare feet.” His mom told him. “But mom! I have kid-feet!” The boy replied.

As the table roared with laughter we realized that today in our workshop Virginia Rojas talked about Tier II words (you’d have to be there), words with multiple meanings. The example she gave involved her visiting a math class and how the teacher was instructing a pair of EALs (so many acronyms, EAL is now replacing ESL, English as a Second Language, to English as an Additional Language) to fill in the table. As the students kept picking up their paper and setting it back down on the table they were sitting at (trying to put the paper ‘in’ the table), they looked at him in a confused state. He just kept repeating, “the table, fill in the table!” The students were focused on the table they were sitting at while the teacher was inquiring them to fill out a math table. The same word, completely different meanings.

Just as my co-worker’s son thought his mom said “bear feet ” not knowing the meaning of “bare feet.”

I was going to put up a picture of my school for your visual viewing when my lovely friend/co-worker/soon-to-be-roommate stated, “Isn’t that dangerous in case you have a stalker?”

I would have a stalker.

No picture for this post.

I am not defined by my status! Really!

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It’s Friday.

I came to work today when it was actually already light outside.

and…

It’s Friday!!!

I am working my way through my first year of teaching, in my own classroom. This. Is. Not. Easy. But, you know what makes it easier? Having amazing co-workers and mentor teachers.

One of my really good friends, and the person who recommended me for the job I have now, is also my mentor teacher. Ms. Kim teaches 5th Grade. Ms. Kim and Ms. Welton (that’s me! yes I am speaking in third person, get over it) decided that it would be a great idea to have our class create reading buddies together. Today, 5A came down to 2B’s room, and we split our kids up into pairs. We decided that our first activity would be a Venn Diagram so that the reading buddies would have the chance to get to know each other before they dove head first into a book.

Being the awesome teachers that we are, Ms. Kim and I modeled what we wanted the students to do. Ms. Kim held up a Venn Diagram and asked the students what we might put in the middle circle (where both circles inter lap to show similarities). We are expecting “You are both teachers, you are both woman…” but as Ms. Kim calls on one of my little girls she says, “You are both not married.”

haha.

Why, thank-you so much for pointing that out.

how do we feel about it? we feel good. really good.

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it was a chaos of red, green, and white. confetti (it ‘snowed’ during the christmas concert) littered the floor, wrapping paper -aimed for the recycle bin but missed by a long shot- stuck to my shoes, pencils under desks, christmas cards crumpled and forgotten, sticky hands saying goodbye (we made marshmallow snowmen at the end of the day), shouts in the hallway, little and big feet stomping out… and then silence.

until the teachers took a breath, stepped out of their classrooms into an empty hall knowing they would not be filled with children (or themselves) again for three weeks, and started to shout and dance. literally. if you thought the students were excited to go home you have not seen the joyous face of a teacher going on break. every time someone walked down the hall from their classroom with their coat on and purse in hand (or backpack in the men’s case) a new chorus of, “WHA-HOOOOO! Have a great Christmas!” was heard from all the teachers still celebrating in each other’s classrooms.

i leave for the airport in one hour and thirty one minutes. the only sadness i am feeling right now is knowing how quickly this time is going to go. but i push that impatiently from my mind and focus on the amazing feeling i will have being surround by friends and family that i have been separated from for a year and a half now, 16 months, 455 days (not that i have been counting) and i think “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!”

i had a friend already request a blog post from me on reverse culture shock. i will let you know how it goes^^.

and as i sit here waiting (why did i pack so early?!) to leave for home (BECAUSE I AM GOING HOME!), i want to share this video with you. i made it for one of my students who is leaving my school to go live with his mother in another country. why it had to be him to leave i don’t know, and i am sad. he was the best behaved, has the kindest heart, and leads the class without them knowing it, in that silent way.

when i played this for the class i heard from one student, “oh, i don’t like this song, it makes me feel sad!” gosh I love second graders…

kiddie quotes

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“Ms. Welton, you look like a teenager,” 5th  grader. I smiled and thanked her, thinking this was AWESOME, I would rather stay looking too young for my age than looking older than I really am.  right? yes.

the following two are much appreciated considering I  wear my glasses. at school. every day.

“Ms. Welton, you look better without your glasses,” one of my 2nd graders.

“Ms. Welton, you are more beautiful when you don’t wear your glasses,” 11th grader.

My favorite:

“Ms. Welton, when are you going to get married?” one of my 2nd graders.

hugs

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A friend of mine from college recently tagged me in a picture on facebook of her little girl wearing a onesie that I bought two years ago for her little boy (she loves it that much she saved it, sweet!) that says: “I (insert heart here) Hugs”.

I remember when I bought it I thought, “I wish I could buy this onesie in my size!” Not, “I wish I had a t-shirt with this on it” no no no, only the onesie for me would do. Of course, that has nothing to do with my story.

This past Sunday I had a chat with a friend on the subway (side fact: long subway rides in Korea would be so much more conducive to deep conversations if I wasn’t constantly worried about getting “shhed” or stared glared at for speaking English) about that very same topic: I LOVE HUGS.

I have started to keep a Writer’s Notebook just like my students to show them their teacher is a writer too. Today while my kiddies were in Music and/or Korean class I took out my pencil to write, and the first thing that popped in my head: hugs. This is what I wrote:

Hugs. There is something about them. When your arms are around someone it is like you are holding onto something much more than a person. You are holding onto life, love, and compassion. I hug to feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and to let people know I am here for them. After a really good hug I feel like I could tackle World Hunger and find a way to create World Peace!

I love to get them. I love to give them. If I ever give you crap (sidenote: I obviously wouldn’t read that word aloud to my students if I happen to share from my notebook) about giving me a one-armed-hug, or a pat-on-the-back-while-holding-your-body-semi-close-to-me-hug… well, it is only because I live and breathe and survive off of hugs (slight exaggerating, I obviously live and breathe and survive because of God, and my love for him. obviously).

I am trying to be more understanding of people who are not as into hugs as I am. It is hard. I am working on it. I never like to give a hug halfway. If I am in a rush and give a halfer (just came up with that little nickname for a sloppy hug) I feel bad afterwards, actually I feel guilty. Haha, odd.

I remember coming home after living abroad for five months and one of my sisters came up to me and said: “Give me a hug!” I looked at her confused, she hated it when people touched her (which made me very, very sad).  ”No really… I like them now,” she smiled holding out her arms. It was probably the best present she could have ever given me in the ENTIRE WORLD.

And there you have it. I like hugs. I might hug you one day. You never know.

two of my guy friends sharing a fantastic hug during eric's going away party. magical.