Memorable Students

I started taking my digital camera to school to try and help capture my memories of some of the children I teach. All of my students have unique personalities. Some students are so wonderful, kind and funny and some are completely spoiled and selfish but all are very interesting and memorable.

I know I shouldn't but I have my "favorites". I am carefully to try and treat them all the same but I admit it is very hard when some of them are so special to me and others are just a nightmare to teach. [I will use their English nicknames when I refer to them as this is how I address them in the classroom and in many cases I don't even know their Korean names.] Here they are:

This is one of my grade 3 classes. The kids are Sam, Star and Bobo. Star is hands-down my favorite student this year. She is kind, and sweet and so very smart. Her older brother is in my grade 6 "Genius" class and I think they must practice English at home together because they both learn by leaps and bounds.

One grade four class I have is comprised of only four girls. They are a joy to teach. I call them my "Giggle Girls". They are always laughing and joking around. I always smile when I think about them.

Here are two of my grade 3 boys named Harry and Thomas. They are always in motion as you can see in this picture. They are cute but very difficult to teach as they never sit down or stay in one place.

Here are Tommy and Toby. Toby is carrying Tommy around piggy-back. They are grade 3 students. One day they are the best of friends and the next day they are punching and hitting one another. When I walk into the classroom I am never sure if it's a day they are friends or enemies [of course within 2 seconds it is apparent which kind of day it is].

One unfortunate part of Korean culture is that Koreans are very prejudice based on the color of one's skin. I've mentioned before in my blog how Koreans use parasols and special "whitening" creams to try and have whiter skin. The boy on the left I named Brian however, everyone else [including the Korean teachers] call him Togo. Togo was the African team South Korean played their first World Cup game against this year. I kept hearing the students calling someone "Togo" so finally one day I asked my grade 6 class, "Who is Togo?". Brian said, "Ann teacher, I am Togo" and walked up to me and put his arm beside my pale white, freckled arm and said, "See, I am Togo." After class he waited to talk to me and told me, "Ann teacher, I am my father's black son". To which I had no reply. He is very dark but I just think it's tragic that skin color is so important here and that being "Togo" has become his identity.

Here are two of my grade six girls. They are both in the "Genius" class. On the left is Laura and on the right in Carrie. Laura is one of my favorite students. She is so smart and she often finds me between classes to talk to me and practice her English.

Carrie seems smart enough but she is incredibly shy. One day the lesson in the book I was teaching was about hobbies. I had to ask my students, "What is your hobby?" I got the usual answers, "My hobby is sleeping." or "My hobby is playing computer games". However, when I asked Carrie she didn't answer [as usual - she doesn't talk. She does all the written work but she won't speak in class] so one of the boys piped up with "Teacher, her hobby is not talking". The entire class broke up laughing - myself included. I then had to try and stop laughing and move on with the lesson so as not to make Carrie feel picked on or embarrassed and I know I should have punished the boy who said that but I didn't cause it was just too true.

Here are some of my grade 6 boys playing the game "Guess Who?" where they have to ask questions about what someone looks like and try and figure out who the other team is pretending to be. They love this game and it actually teaches them to describe physical appearance. What I like is they just think it's a game - they don't even realize they are learning.

Here are some of my grade 6 girls playing the "Guess Who?" game.

This is one of my grade 5 classes. As a rule I love my grade 4 and grade 5 students the most. They are old enough I don't have to baby them but they are still eager to learn and not trying to look cool by not answering in class. The boy in the T Shirt with the Union Jack on it is named Tom and he is the most amazing student at translation. If I tell my students something and they don't understand he just translates it into Korean. I think he has a real gift for languages and interpretion. I won't be surprised if he ends up working someday as a translator or UN Intrepretor.

Here are some of my grade 4 students. I am not sure why they all look so sad in this picture. They were all writing work down off the board so I took the chance to snap this picture while they were actually still. This is one of my better classes. The girl on the far left is Sara. I do telephone teaching where I have to call my students at home and the first time I called her house and asked for her in Korean her grandfather hung up the phone on me. I guess he couldn't understand my Korean. Sara was so mortified. I thought it was funny - after I got over being annoyed. Now when ever I have to call the students for telephone teaching I tell them ahead of time in class and most of them will answer the telephone themselves. I love it when this happens. It makes my job that much easier.

Here's another picture of the same grade 4 class. This is how they normally looked animated and always talking and laughing.