American PenPal Project #3

A few times throughout the year,
I've rounded up people in the US who were willing to correspond with some of my students in Korea.
I've done this with students of all ages, and I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like snail mail.
Although, it has been made apparent that it is extremely "uncool"
to show any sort of enthusiasm in a school building about anything
 if over the age of 13...

Regardless, I'm still pretty confident we all enjoyed the project.

My most recent group of American pen pals
were a class of 3rd graders from a Christian School in North Carolina.
(the teacher is my old classmate from elementary school- thanks Facebook)
The classes I chose to write letters were 2 of my youngest/least fluent students.

It was a very fun guided learning experience for them and for me.

We sent out the first round of letters-
asking all kinds of average "first letter to a new pen pal" questions...
 but I gave a lot of freedom to ask any questions they were curious about...

My personal favorite student questions were:

"What is your korean name?"
"Do you like kimchi?"
"Do you have any hats?"

 These cute youngsters were very excited about their letters so we took turns reading them one by one.
Due to the American students being from a christian school-
many of them drew pictures of churches, crosses, and bibles...
and wrote questions like "do you have jesus in your heart?"
My students were obviously confused, so I simplified by saying "do you go to church?"

One of my students took his explanation that he did not go to church
 a step further- by drawing a church...
with an "X" through it.
I tried to stifle my laughter, and suggested he erase it because his pen pal might not think it was very nice.

This year has taught me so much and reaffirmed even more.
I love kids.  I appreciate their genuineness, sincerity, and honesty.
I've learned to love their individual personalities,
even though I've also learned some students are hard nuts to crack.

I've learned to adore their very real excitement about learning, singing, dancing, and just plain being silly.  Joy is abundant in children, and i have been lucky enough to share in it with them.

Almost nothing about my teaching job this year is a realistic representation of what to expect in America, but it as it comes to an end- I'm appreciating how I've never been afraid of making mistakes in the classroom... so I've tried lots of ideas without having to worry and stress about other teachers and bosses reprimanding me for it.
Not many first year teachers can say that.
I am tremendously grateful for this year.