my favorite class

i've decided that out of all the classes i've had, this one has been my favorite. i think the best way to describe them is as 'focused energy'. instead of expending their energy on interrupting class, they throw all of it into making every activity we do super exciting and fun. the kids in this class are crazy but at the same time they also know how to wind down, switch gears, and listen when necessary. i usually start class by asking a question, and they are the only class that comes up with so many answers that i am eventually forced to move on, even though i still have 5 kids with their hands raised. it also doesn't hurt that this is my second semester with them, they are in my favorite school and i love their chinese teacher. she's super friendly and last week she gave me an apple! haha.


this is JOHNSON. this kid cracks me up and his name cracks me up as well because to me johnson seems like such a good western name. like, i'm too good for first names, i'm going to make a last name my first name. he also told me the english names of all of his family members (which i can't remember now) and they all had good names too. i don't quite understand his family situation though because he told me that he has a new zealand passport. i think he is the best at throwing all of his little kid energy into english and just making it silly and fun. one class i remember him and some other boys having a little verbal battle about all the things they would do to each others' heads (albeit a slow verbal battle as they had to wait for me to call on them again). maybe that is horrible, but it was pretty funny, and they were using some good words. 2 weeks ago i had a really bad cold so i told the students that i wasn't feeling well that day to get them to simmer down a little. after class, he came up to me and was like 'teacher i'll tell you a story to make you feel better'. i didn't really understand his story at all, which was probably because i was trying to listen to him and deal with numerous other children at the same time, but all the same it was a cute and i told him that his story was the bomb.

other characters from the class-

my bff in china. her english name is lucky. i have received enough fruit and drawings from lucky for a lifetime. it's a shame that her english level is so low, i think we would have had a lot of things to tell each other. i am happy for her though because last year she did not raise her hand to speak once, and this year she has spoken out several times. her mom is one of the english teachers at school.

the 2 cutest little boys i have ever seen in my life. they are like half the size of their other classmates. the boy on the left is so quiet, and the boy on the right usually only participates when we are choosing team names, lol. they are both always smiling.

a good pair. the boy on the left will dance on command at any given time (whether there is music or not is not an issue) and the other boy is one of my very active participants. he is one of the boys who likes to have verbal battles with johnson. this picture is from last semester after they danced to taylor swift i think, haha.


on the very last day of the semester last year this boy gave me a hard-boiled egg that said 'i like you' written in pencil on it, so he is and always will be a super star in my book. my flight was right after school, so that egg made it all the way to vietnam! i love when the kids smile so hard that you can't see their eyes.

the child on the left is a girl, although she looks like a little boy. i have several students whose gender is unidentifiable from their appearance. all the kids are always telling me that she is a girl and i'm like i know, i know!! i think the boys have officially adopted her as one of their own though- i remember last year i was asking some of the kids who their best friends were and several of the boys named this girl. she is a very, very nice little girl and tries very hard.

this boy is a good kid too. last class i showed them the justin bieber music video for 'never say never' because the setting is in china and he mouthed all of the words to the song (although i think he was just moving his mouth up and down, haha). he told me that he loved justin bieber.
this picture has a lot of my favorites. i put it up though because of the girl in the pink dress all the way on the left. you can even tell from the picture, she is soooo shy. i really like her though because she fights it so hard- she always participates and even plays in the noisy games. when she speaks, i can just barely hear her, but her english is definitely there. i think she is shy, but also confident in her abilities.

the boy in the blue and yellow, george, is also a favorite. he is super active. one time during a lull he asked me what he could be doing, haha. that is definitely the first and only time i have gotten that question here. he sits next to lucky this year, so he also started giving me little treats. what a good influence she is!

there are several other kids i really like in this class too, but i don't really have their pictures :(

i hope for whatever i do in the future, it can also involve this kind of controlled insanity.