Classwork

Some of the stuff my kids put out is precious, silly, and/or occasionally heart-breaking. I have a folder at work where I've managed to stash most of the awesomest handiwork my kids have put out over the past couple months, but here's a sampling of some stuff that one of my classes did this past week (most of the kids in this class are around 10 years of age (also, clicking on the pictures will make them easier to view; I say this because I know for a fact that there are people viewing this blog that aren't the fastest guns in the west with computers)):

Nexen's one of my 'special' kids. In fact, he's my only 'special' kid. He seems to have a good amount of ADD going on, and perhaps something else, but he's actually a great kid. I really feel sorry for him cause out here they don't really believe in dealing with that stuff. That doesn't bother me too much, cause I'm not a big fan of treating that stuff with meds; however, I wish someone would realize that this kid is an amazing visual learner. I swear, he could pick up English in a week if someone would just sit him down in front of a TV and turn on Nickelodeon.
But, as always, I can't fix everything in life - just try and bring a little sunshine to my corner of it. So, I always make sure to make him feel special (the other kids constantly pick on him cause he's an outcast), and even though he has problems focusing, I just encourage him and tell the other kids to shut up when they start making fun of him. It didn't help things any when a couple weeks ago he asked if he could change his name from "Alex" to "Nexen" (the name of a computer game out here, supposedly). I said he could do whatever he wanted, but of course all the other kids thew a hissy fit and complained that people can't have the same name as a computer game.
Whatever. I love the fact that he's sad when "slow loding."

Karen's a real sweety with lots of energy. She reminds me of a wild stallion and a daisy put together.

This is the craftsmanship of Carl. I have this class once a week, and Carl always shows up at my desk 3 minutes before each class every week to make sure that I have some sort of game or puzzle lined up for the day. He loves crossword puzzles, so I try to integrate them into the lessons of this class a little bit more than usual. Personally, I don't think they're a great learning tool, but it really makes Carl's day/week when I hold up a crossword puzzle at the start of a class.

The words at the top say "Gunam Dragons" (most likely some little league baseball team here in Gunam, a precinct of Busan). This is Blair's work, a kid with a real knack for speaking and getting his point across without having to think too hard. I love the fact that me and him are nervous about the same things.
I know the bottom right one is kind of hard to pick out, but try to see what it says. It's pretty funny.

Ann's a really cute student. She looks like she's always mad because she squints so darn much, but she's as nice as can be. Wish her parents would buy her some new glasses or something.

Kelly is one of my number one cutest students. She's gotta be no more than 9, but her English is at an amazing level, and she's the hardest working little girl I've ever seen. Make sure to read everything she says here, it's really really good/sad.

Eva doesn't like English, but she doesn't not like it either. Nice kid, but very indifferent to the task at hand.

Mandy didn't have time to finish up, but I'm not gonna hold it against her. She's a sweetheart who really doesn't enjoy talking in English. However, her smile says that she really likes me, and I try to pry as much English out of her as I can. Sometimes I let her get away with just smiling her way through class though.

Joanne is a new student. After throwing 30 names by her last week and this week and watching her reject every one, I gave up and decided that since part of her name in Korean is "Jo" then she should just be named "Joanne." She doesn't seem to like it so far, but I like to think that if you hang long enough, you get used to that too.

Tom is one of two sets of twins that are in the school. It only took me about 3 months to figure out which one was Tom and which one was Paul(Paul, unfortunately, is less dedicated than his counterpart, so I didn't bother showing his paper here).
Anyways, both these guys are really stand-up characters. But, they make fun of Nexen too much, and it's something I've been trying to make them stop doing. It kinda sucks because other than being jerks to Nexen, they're actually pretty cool guys.

So, yeah, I had these pile of papers on my desk and I could've just kept the good ones and put the others in the recycle, but I figured they might be of more use here. Hope you enjoy a little snapshot of my life.