A Walk in the Park

  
***I have a ton of catching up to do on this ol blog......but the thing is life keeps happening and my list of "to blog about" keeps growing. So I figured I might as well blog about something even if it is not at the top of my "to-do" list.

Work has been a drag. Being a teacher can really suck sometimes. The work load lately has been heavy. It's the end of a term for our older elementary students. Which means reviewing all of this terms material, making review worksheets, term test, then my least favorite...report cards! Ahgg. I HATE writing them. I won't go into it but they are more complicated then back home, its not a fill in the bubble, click a comment to add. Every single student gets a personalized comment that is no less than a paragraph long for each subject, from each teacher. It it a miserable task for me. Anyway....then at the end of this month it's term test for the first graders too. And to add to the fun this month....drum roll please....we got  four new students in pre-k! They are only Korean age 5. Which means in North American age they are between 2- 4 years old, depending on their birthday. I haven't seen their paper work yet, but I imagine one is 3 and others are 4. We build a whole new class for these little darlings.

So... Joe and I decided to take the kindergartners for a mini field trip. Getting out of the building after a long week was perfect. We have had a beautiful fall so far but it will be getting cold really soon. Winters are long in Korea and we knew it would be the last time we would be able to get outside with the kids until next spring. The weather was perfect. Cool, crisp air, sunny and dry. It was a picture perfect fall day. There is a great little park near the school that has a pond full of fish and the path to the park is lined with trees with the leaves changing colors. We had about 90 minutes to get to the park and back. Not an easy task with 20 small children, but do-able. We set out walking, then moved to speed walking, then when I noticed we might not make it back in time for the kids to catch the bus, we ran.

  

It's hard to see in this picture but Joe is carrying/running with Matthew. Matthew is by far the heaviest Kindergartner we have. He just could not keep up with the others, so Joe scooped him up and ran with him.  Matthew told the other kids he was flying. The next day Joe was sore. 

 

 I packed a small bag of Eddie's dry dog food so we could feed the fish. We were lucky enough to have some ducks come by and we got to feed them too. The kids LOVED it.

Steve- "I'm so tired, I can't wait to sleep on the bus" 

 Jayden got something stuck in his shoe. He stopped and refused to move until the issue was resolved. Of course that meant it was the perfect time for a picture according the Vicki, our photographer for the day. I swear nothing happens at BIS without a camera within reach. Joe and I didn't even think any of the Korean staff would go with us. Unfortunately as soon as we loaded up into the elevator, Vicki squeezed it. She doesn't really speak English, all she said was, "For picture", then held up the camera.

We all had a great time. We ran and played. I had the kids collect leaves for a future art project. I think the pictures speak for themselves.