Halloween Party October 31, 2011 - Korean Hagwon Style!

We had a Halloween Party at school today to celebrate the kids having outstanding homework grades for the past six months. (Even in Korea, we had to call it a Fall Festival for the kids whose parents objected to the idea of an un-Christian day that celebrates ghosts and scary stuff. I couldn't believe it.) But really, it was a Halloween Party. Everyone knew it. We even made the kids knock on one of the classroom doors and say 'Trick-or-Treat' before they left and handed them some candy like we would do in the States.

Welcome To Our Autumn Party!
(L to R: Bill, Britain, Sophia and Hannah)

I have so much respect for 'real' teachers in the USA already, but after today's day-long (roughly 5 hour) party, I have even more respect for them. This party took A LOT out of us! We were so tired by the time 8:30pm rolled around.

We usually start teaching at 2pm, but we've only got three students that come at that time, so for the party day, we had them come from 3-4pm so they could interact with other students. We had 13 at that hour, and that was our largest group. It was also our youngest group, aged (US ages) 5 to 8 years old. They were also the most well-behaved group.

From 4 to 5pm, we had eight kids. We had six 10-11-year-olds from the 'four o'clock bunch' that I teach on Mondays and Wednesdays, who only attend our conversation school as a precursor to their 5pm grammar class across the street. They're starting to give more than two cents about our school, and it shows, but they're really students of the school across the street so they don't really have to give us those two cents. And they all know it. Add to this hour the two 7-year old students who drive me completely mad (one never does his homework, and this party was a reward for always doing their homework, and the other is a girl who doesn't like you that day unless she thinks you're pretty), and this was still not our worse-behaved party group of the day.

From 5-6pm we had eight kids again. We had four from one class, a girl from another, a new boy who will start with us tomorrow, and a boy and his friend from the T-Th class who wanted to come to the party. This bunch was pretty well behaved, and they seemed to enjoy themselves. One girl even brought a huge pizza to share with everyone. At the end of their hour, all of the kids thanked us for having the party and told us what a good time they had. It made me smile. 

From 6-7:30pm, we had the six students who usually come at that time, one of their friends, plus five from the T/Th 4pm class. The kids who normally come to our school at that time were very well behaved, as they should be. They are all very advanced, smart kids. The five from the T/Th class, however, were the roughest bunch of rowdy, play-on-their-cell-phone, non-stop-talking, not-following-directions kids that I've ever seen. (And that is why I now teach only the M-W 4pm class, and will never teach the T/Th class again. I mesh better with the M/W bunch, while my co-teacher meshes better with T/Th group. Things work out better that way.) My co-teacher and I got so upset with these kids that we asked them to leave the party after only an hour, and let the others continue their party to the end of their normal class time. (The other kids only come for an hour normally, so it wasn't that bad.) We felt so bad for the kids who worked so hard and went through so much to be at this party, and the other ones ruined it (even if slightly) for them, and got to show up to it even though they rarely do their homework.

So what did we do at this party? With the three groups at 3, 4 and 5pm, we played a few rounds of musical chairs (set to our CD of One Fish, Two Fish), we ate some Camto Toast (think grilled-cheese-style toast drizzled with honey, sandwiched with egg and a slice of ham), we played some Hangman, we took some group pictures, and we explained a bit about Halloween and Trick-or-Treating customs in the USA. With the 6-7:30pm group, we did the same activities, and also told a ghost story or two, played Hot or Cold, thought of some words one could make from the letters in SCARECROW, and played Red Light Green Light.

It was a fun day for the kids, a crazy day for my co-teacher and myself, and a frantic day for our manager, as it was the last day before the new term for parents to come in and sign their kids up, and of course they all had to come to our school during our party!

It really was fun, and here are some pictures to prove it!

Cute little Freddy! He's our youngest student, at 5 years old US age.
I love his Batman costume!! He was SOO cute! He's in Red 3.

Spring 6, Red 2, Red 3 and Orange 4 - The bunch from 3pm-4pm
Back Row (L to R): Ethan, Eva, Julie, Steven, Sara 1, Cassie, Jemma, and Terry
Front Row (L to R): Canny, Amy, Freddy and Danny

Red 6 and Green 3 - The bunch at 4pm
L to R: Blue, Joey, Iris, Luna, Sara 2, Andy, Jack and Joe

Yellow 5, Green 3 and Green 6 - The bunch at 5pm
L to R: New Student, Friend of Song Min, Song Min, Michael, Nicky, Lily, Amy and Kelly

Green 6 and Uni-Gold - The 6 to 7:30 Bunch (Sans the 4pm T/Th Green 3 group)
Hannah, Sophia, Tom, new student Bill, and Britain
You can barely make out Sol and her friend behind Bill. I think they were camera shy.

Red Light Green Light!
Bill, Tom, Britain, Sophia and Hannah
(You can almost make me out just behind Sophia!)

The kids in each one of these pictures are great in their own way, and I really am proud of them all, even the few that aggravate me on Mondays and Wednesdays at 4pm. They have all improved so much in the past seven months since I've been here teaching them, and they are all special to me. Oh hell, I'm even proud of myself.

Happy Halloween everyone!