It's for YOU!

Yes, you're probably wondering what this is.  I too, wondered what the little girl was giving me as she walked into the classroom.  Beaming, she said, "Miss Hornback, it's for YOU!"  I did the ever so subtle, "Ohhhh!  What is it?"  She informed me it was a brownie that she had made with her dad the night before.  It was very thoughtful of her to make me something, but I think she put a little less thought in the way it ended up in the bottom of her backpack :)  She told me I could eat it at snack time!  I told her I would "save" it for lunch instead.  She was so proud that she'd made it just for me!

I set in on my desk, careful not to let the smushed choclate touch anything else.  As one little boy came up to sharpen his pencil, he spotted the mysterious brown mush in the foil:

Student: "What IS that?"
Me:  "It's a brownie that someone made for me."
Student:  "When did she make it?"
Me:  "I don't know."
Student:  "I think maybe she made it last year."

Haha, I'm afraid it would look a little worse after a year!

When the science experiment doesn't work

It's pretty fun to be a teacher of 6 year olds.  They have only been alive for 6 years, probably only 3 of which they remember.  They have not seen much yet in their lives!  On Thursday I took a picture of a gorgeous sunrise over my apartment.  When they looked at my picture, they didn't just say, "Oh yeah...I've seen one of those before..."  They ooooed and aaaawwed and told me that it looked like the sky was on fire!  Everything is rather dramatic when you are 6. 

I must admit, sometimes I use this to my advantage :)  In our science lessons I am teaching about the Water Cycle and evaporation.  I get to see the lightbulbs go on!  It's fun to see them show a sense of amazement at things we take for granted every day.  When was the last time you thought about how puddles dry up and evaporate to make clouds that will rain down again?

I get to see them think about and experience new things that they've never thought about before, even though half of the time I am "fudging" the science experiment (putting things in the refridgerator, pouring out water down the drain when they aren't looking, in order to fake evaporation :) haha).  The science experiments don't always work (well usually don't).  Our world is an intricately crafted place, in which all of the pieces work together perfectly.  Whereas we adults are bored by the world and just expect it to rotate around the sun at 1000 miles per hour without flinging us off...the kids are simply in awe.

Six Year Old Letters

On Friday, we had some extra time in class, so I had my students write their first letters to my former Korean students!  I explained to the kids where Korea was, showed them on the map and showed them pictures of the students to whom they were writing.  Of course, in their little minds, Ohio seems as far away as Korea.  They didn't really get that it was across the world!

I had them color a Halloween picture and write Happy Halloween.  I also tried to have them write "안녕하세요?" (hello in Korean).  They enjoyed trying to write in Korean and then proceded to "play Korean" at recess.  It was pretty hilarious listening to them make up these weird sounds, calling it Korean!

I took a long time explaining that it takes a long time for our letters and pictures to get all the way to Korea.  I told them it may be a very long time before we get letters back.  That night when I got my mail, there were letters from Korea!  The teacher had sent them last week and they just happened to arrive the same day I sent out ours!  I think I'll keep the letters for another week so they don't think I was lying about them taking a long time :)

The Korean letters were awesome!  Sadly, the 6 year old Koreans' letters were better than my 6 year old Americans' letters!  It's amazing to me that the Korean kids can have such good handwriting, vocabulary and grammar in order to write in a foreign language by the time they are 6!  Korea must be doing something right!

Anyway, it will be fun for both me and them!

In the spirit of Halloween

I don't know what made me think of this, but it made me smile, so I thought I'd share...

Once upon a time in a faraway land when I lived in Korea, there lived a spider.  It was a relatively big one that apparently moved quite swiftly.  It liked to take walks along the river walk in Seoul.  So did I.  One night as the sun went down I sat down on the walk and dangled my feet on the edge of the Han River.  As I sat there, I noticed I was both the only girl and only young person sitting by the river.  I was joined by curious old fisherman, who seemed to fish all day and all night (yet never once did I see anyone catch a fish in the river).  They sat in their groups, fishing and chatting.  Since everyone (especially young people) are always hustling and bustling around, usually watching tv on their phones as they walk, these old men wondered why I would just want to come and sit. 

As I sat, I noticed the spider, a safe distance away from me.  As I was enjoying the Seoul skyline, I kept one I glued on the spider, just in case it decided to creep up on me.  I watched it for a long time.  I thought, "I better keep an I eye on it because it would be just my luck that it would crawl on me without me knowing it."  I kept watching it.  It seemed to be stalled out in one place.

I looked over at the old men and I tried to eavesdrop on their conversation (which is much harder to do in a foreign language!)  When I looked back, the spider was gone.  I figured it had wandered away to find more exciting scenery.  Wrong!  When I looked down, it was on my knee!  How in the world it got from the path to my knee in that short of a time is a good question! 

I went into a fit, trying to get it off and I'm pretty sure I let out a little yelp!  I'm glad to say I got the spider off, but I also gained an audience roaring with laughter!  The old men thought whatever my "fit" was about was absolutely hilarious.  I'm glad my embarrassment provided them entertainment.  As I left the scene (rather quickly) the men were still cackling about the young white girl spazzing out because of a spider!

Wake Up!

It seems every afternoon, I have a different student fall asleep during class!  At first I took it personally and figured I needed to spice up the lessons.  I got the students up and moving from one part of the room to the other.  I thought if I kept asking the sleepy girl questions, surely she would wake up.  No joke, she fell asleep while standing and answering my question!!  I couldn't help but smile.  After all, that has got to be pretty hard to do!  When I asked her why she was so tired, she told me that she just stayed up too late.  Sometimes I forget these are little kids.  I forget they are only 6 and can only hold so much information in one day. 

I wish I had about 7 helpers in my class!  My students need individual help.  They are at such different levels that they all need specific teaching, tailored to them.  School has changed...a lot.  There is so much pressure from the state to get my kids to grade level (which ideally is a good thing) but the state doesn't know my individual students!  Yes, I do think teachers should be held accountable, but it doesn't seem fair that I have to get all of my students up to grade level in order to keep my job. 

God keeps reminding me that first I am accountable to Him.  Yes, my goal is to teach my students as much as possible, but more importantly God wants me to accurately represent Him and teach these kids in the way He would teach them.