"13.2 miles is soooooo far"

Joe and I ran a  1/2 marathon last weekend. During the week before at school I was a bit nervous. Then with perfect timing it just so happened that "nervous" was a vocabulary word in one of my 2nd grade classes.

I described nervous as a feeling when you're a little bit scared, a little bit excited and sometimes have a funny feeling in your tummy.

I used the example that I was a little nervous about the 1/2 marathon. I am a little bit excited about running, I am a little bit scared of how far and for how long I have to run. I am also a little nervous about making my goal time of under 2 hours. 

They seemed to understand and the class continued without a hitch. Class finished and they were off to their next class.

Well, it just so happened that this 2nd grade class had Joe's class next. They had to take a test and when they were finished they got to have some free time. They usually play Uno or solve crossword puzzles. But this time they asked if they could make me good luck letters and cards because I was so nervous about my run. (how freaking cute is that!) Well at the end of the day I was bombarded with good lucks and cute cards.

Check these cards out:

 "To: Ms. Stephanie, Hi, I am Dana. I am writing you a letter because of your race. I wish you could win. I did color purple on the "Good Luck" because you like purple. Do you like it? And again, I wish you could win. Love, Dana"

 I LOVE this drawing of Joe and I. It's hard to see but Joe is wearing a U of O hat. The one he has that is green with a yellow "o". And yes, Joe does have a sward oh his hip. How else does he defend his princess?

 

A mini book by Angela; "Hello! Ms. Stephanie! I'm Angela. I listen that you will go to race. I hope you that win the race!!"

 "Ms. Stephanie. I will cheer you in Friday!!! So don't worry about that!! You can run 13.1 miles! You can do it!"

 page 2: running REALLY fast! page 3: being crowned first place winner!

 "Ms. Stephanie Gook luck in your race! 13.2 miles is sooooooo far! (arrow pointing down) 2 hour"

 "To Ms. Stephanie Good Luck in your race (13.1 miles is sooooo far)"

(My personal favorite is that in the picture, I cross the finish line before Joe )

From June: "Ms. Stephanie Good luck for your race! I can't think running 13.1 miles it is so~ far....

 

 I hope you win but I think there is faster people than you. 

(I love kid honesty)

I hope you win!" 

(It's hard to tell but on my shirt there is a 1st crossed out, then a 2nd crossed out, but the 3rd place is clearly written)

I love all of the cards and notes! These kids are so creative and thoughtful. I was still nervous on race day but these good luck cards/notes did help.

Babies and Belly Buttons

The little people Joe and I get to work with are hilarious. They do and say really funny things. They are smart and quick witted. They really do keep us on our toes. Lots of funny things have been happening lately and I don't want to forget them. Enjoy.

Just a few tid-bits from lately:

On where babies come from....kinda.

I have started a count down in my classroom, 90 days until Ms. Stephanie and Mr. Joe go home to the United States. I change the number at the end of every day after the kids have gone home. One class of second graders came in and were discussing how sad they will be when we leave.

Dana asks; "Ms. Stephanie, why do you want to go to the United States?"
Me: "Well, I want to have a baby. I want to grow a baby in my tummy in the United States"
Dana: "Oh so you don't love Mr. Joe in Korea?"
Me: "What?!? No, I love Mr. Joe in Korea, what do you mean?"
Dana: "My mom said that when a mommy and daddy love each other VERY VERY much,then a baby will come. So you must not love Mr. Joe in Korea."
Me. "........um....yeah, I guess you're right, I will love Mr. Joe more in the United States"
Dana: "Is Mr. Joe sad that you don't love him in Korea?
Me: "Mr. Joe knows that I love his as much as I can in Korea, but we can not have a baby here."
Dana: "I guess you're right, it would be weird if YOU had a Korean baby."
Me: "Yes, I don't think the baby people would let me have a Korean baby."


Belly Buttons

A few weeks ago a kindergartener, Jacob, drew a lovely picture of me. He drew long dark hair, five fingers in each hand and a lovely pair of legs. Unfortunately for me, he also drew me without any clothes on! I just had a big round peach body, with a belly button. We laughed and laughed. Jacob thought he was the king of the room. It was funny.
Well a few days later Jacob needed help taking his sweatshirt off. He was pulling it and it got caught on his head, exposing HIS belly button. We all had a good laugh. And Jacob was renamed Belly Button Jacob.
In true kid fashion, they will not drop the belly button thing. We have had a few tickle attacks and I drew a funny picture of "The Belly Button Boys of BIS". Jacob even tried to reach down my shirt one day to get to my belly button. So I knew I had to put an end to the hunt for Ms. Stephanie's belly button.
I told the kids my belly button fell off. It was a lie but it is SO worth it. I told the kids that when I was a little girl I was really sick. I had to go to the hospital. It was a really bad tummy ache and the doctor had to give me lots of medicine. And because I was so sick, my belly button fell off. As simple as that, I do not have a belly button, stop looking/asking about it!

Jayden wrote a cute journal the other day:

 "My best friends are Alex and Ms. Stephanie. I like her because she has a cute little monkey belly button. She is so funny and sometimes she sees Mr. Joe's belly button. Sometimes she puts me in the trash can. Alex is so so fun. I want touch Ms. Stephanie's belly button. I love Alex. I met Alex when I was 6 years old at BIS. We play together at play time and sit by each other in class. He is my best friend."
First of all, he has NEVER seen my belly button. But thank you Jayden, it is a cute little monkey belly button. :) Secondly, how cute is this little journal? I'm glad he thinks of me as his friend.
I am afraid that the belly button will not die. All of the boys call me "Belly Button Ms. Stephanie".
They are pretty cute, I'm really going to miss these boys.

More Instagram Love

You know I Love Instagram!

Here are a few of my favorite Instagram pics from the last few months.

        

       

        

        

       

           

        

 My favorite is the black and white of Joe and Eddie. Oh how I love my boys! And I love our Sunday cuddles on the couch. Joe said his favorite was the picture of our lock from N. Seoul Tower, over looking Seoul.
Oh and look at the personality in my little dog. hahaha It seems like in every picture I take of him he is showing off a different side of himself. I love that little ball of fluff!

"I can read them all!"

 You might remember Erin-Oh from her previous shenanigans.

Well, the beginning of the school year was March 4th and my schedule got switched around a bit. Now I get to teach phonics. It's not my favorite subject and it's not my favorite curriculum but we are working with it. Actually, we are working REALLY hard! Phonics is hard to learn and to be honest it's hard to teach. (Teacher friends:It's a very scripted program that is taught separately from any reading group)

We worked all week on the "en" letter combo sound. We have chants and songs, we sing, we read, we write....it has been a very busy week.

Erin let me record her reading our chant in class the other day.

I am SUPER proud of her. This is not an easy program to learn and she is really catching on. She has bought into all of the little gimmicks of the program and the rewards.

Not to mention she is the cutest little thing. Erin is so much fun to teach. She likes school. She likes learning. And, I can have fun with her without her getting too off track.


And we are now BFFS:

 This is her new favorite face. She makes it whenever she makes a mistake or is confused. If another classmate does something odd (which is often). This face is usually followed by "oh my".

I know the last time I talked about Erin-Oh she was trying to steal my husband. Lucky for me, she found a boy in her class that will be her new Prince Charming.

Valentine's Day at BIS

Although Valentine's day is celebrated in Korea, it is celebrated very differently here than it is in the US.

In Korea they have 3 different "love" themed holidays. Valentine's Day, White Day and Black Day. They are celebrated on February 14, March 14, April 14 respectively.
On Valentine's Day, men give chocolates to women.
On White Day, women give chocolates to men.
And on Black Day all the single people go out and eat noodles with black bean paste and celebrate/cry about being single.

Joe and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. I am not a big fan of forced affection so basically that means Joe is off the hook and, lets be honest, he's ok with that.

But as a teacher, I LOVE VALENTINE"S DAY!
It's one of those holidays that you can really get into without offending anyone. I always tell my students it's not just about telling someone you love them but even telling your friends that you are happy to know them. There are SO many great lessons to learn on Valentine's Day. Sharing, supporting one another, being nice to someone even though they may not be your best friend. I love Valentine's day!

Somehow I convinced my boss that we should have a Valentine's day party with the kindergartners. I planned the whole thing! An entire day of Valentines day fun!

In the weeks leading up to Valentine's day I sent a letter home to parents explaining how to make Valentines day cards and that we would be giving them to each other. I spent some time in each class making valentines and talking about how we need to make one card for each of our Friends at BIS.
The Friday before Valentines day during art class we made "mail boxes", to collect our cards. Those "mail-boxes" were a HUGE hit!

Are they not SO cute being all serious decorating their mail boxes? I think they turned out great!

     

        

       

        

       

        

     

On Valentine's day the kids played mail carrier and delivered all of their letters. It took them fooorever to deliver all of their letters. It was good practice with reading and matching the names from the cards to the names on the mail boxes. Some of the kids that finished quickly were able to help a friend deliver mail. Obviously it was super cute!

        

        

        

           

After the letters were delivered the kids were able to travel around the school from station to station on their own.

We had games in the gym with Mr. Joe
Valentine's day BINGO with Ms. Cathy
Face painting with Ms. Hanna
Manicure station with Ms. Ramos
Cereal necklaces and heart bracelets with Ms. Jessica and Ms. Vicky
Bead bracelets and heart hats with Ms. Stephanie

The kids traveled to each station, when they finished a station they got a stamp on their Valentine's day "passport".

           

        

           

           

        

 Some how the paparazzi missed Joe's station. But as you can see the kids are cute and they had fun!

Before lunch the kids all got to dig into their mail boxes and read their Valentines day cards. This was by far my favorite part of the day. The kids were so cute reading the cards from their friends. What I loved most was that each card was hand made. Cute little kid writing, with fragment sentences and "I love you's".

          

       

       

       

     

Joe and I each picked out and gave valentines to the kids. I searched Pinterest for the perfect teacher valentine. Joe picked a glow stick bracelet valentine that I found here. I made it pretty easy for him...all he had to do was sign his name. The kids LOVED his valentine. I think he out shined me. (haha, did you see what I did there?..he gave a glow stick..he out shined me...*shrugs shoulders*)

This is the only picture I have of Joe's little valentine. They were a big hit! The kids loved the glow stick bracelets. Obviously you can tell this kid LOVED it! haha

I gave CANDY! I love candy. And I knew that none of the children would think to bring candy. I found the the perfect candy bag label here. I wrote a little note, maybe 4 sentences to each student and stapled the note and paper candy bag topper to a little zip lock bag of candy!

        

 My favorite part of my valentines was watching the kids read the little notes I wrote to them. I used the nicknames I have for the kids and wrote something personal for each kid. It was fun to see them get excited about a note just for them.


It was the perfect Valentine's day party!