School Stories

So I am currently sitting at a computer in the teachers room at school. I get a break this period because there weren't enough students for my class, so they had to close it. I am so happy that I have a break in the middle of the afternoon. It's almost 5pm and I still have two more classes to teach today. It's a long day. I start at 9:30. Anyway...when funny things happen in classes that make me laugh I write a little note so I won't forget about it later to tell Jon or journal about so I can remember it years from now. I thought I would share some of those stories with you now. All of them are kind of "you had to be there" type things, but you still might find some humor in them. Just remember, these kids are Koreans and English is not their first language.
We read the word cannibal in a class and the kids wanted to know what it meant, so I explained. Then one boy said, "Teacher, I am cannibal. I eat myself," and he then proceeded to bite his nails.

In so many of my classes if I say, "OK, ready?" the kids will all shout, "Action!!" I don't know where they got it, but it still catches me off guard sometimes.

My 4 year old class asked if I lived upstairs above the school and if the other foreign teachers lived there too. In order to explain I drew some squares on the board and showed them that we had separate apartments. (I think they were thinking we all lived together.) When they realized that Jon and I were in the same apartment they had an Aha moment and one girl said "Nicole teacher, Jon teacher, family." It was really cute.

That same class LOVES science day. We do it once a week and they get so excited. When science is really good sometimes they tell me "good job." haha. One day one kid said "Nicole teacher, Science today delicious!" It had nothing to do with food or tasting of anything.. he just really had fun :)

Wendy (almost 4 years old) said "I love you" and blew me a kiss. I blew her one back and she grabbed it and ate it. Absolutely adorable and really funny - she is super spunky!

When I wanted the kids to know that something wasn't happening tomorrow, but the next day they replied back to me "2 tomorrows?" (4 year olds)

Nicole: Wendy, how are you today?
Wendy: Hmmmm I'm ice cream and pink ice cream and cherry ice cream and I'm good.

One of our books has a phrase in it that says "Big Owl Eyes." We play the music for this song and dance around and during that part we make big eyes. When it came to this part Owen always points and says "Nicole teacher eyes." They think my eyes are so large haha.

This one kills me! 4 year olds again - Some of the kids were saying something smelled and Ann said it was another kid Jason. So Simon, a little rascal, kneels down and smells Jason's butt and says, "YES, Jason!" Jason sat their with pursed lips upset for about 10 minutes. It caught me so off guard and Simon just got down there with his nose to Jason's tush so fast.. what is a teacher to do? I did make them apologize!

Ann: Nicole teacher is crazy.
Nicole: Ann is crazy, too.
Chloe: Nicole teacher is crazy four.
Ryan: Nicole teacher is one thousand crazy.

One day Chloe (super polite, brilliant, and precious 4 year old) fell pretty hard out of her chair backwards onto the floor. It looked like it hurt so I rushed over. She got up a little stunned and said "Chair is no strong. Small chair is very very no strong."

In one phonics book we learned the word "fat" and it had a picture next to it. Ann pointed at the picture and said "very hungry" and then stuck her arms out around her tummy like a big person.

Another story book/song has "Coconut tree" in the lyrics and every time we would sing it Owen would say "Nicole teacher tree." Have to hear it for yourself to be funny probably, but I enjoyed it!

When I was checking a homework page that had a question about a pond one student mixed his letters around and wrote the word porn instead. It was an innocent mistake for a 7 year old, of course, but it was an unexpected sentence to read in his homework book!