new comers

I have two new kids in my class. John and Kyungjun. John has spent that last 15 months in the United States going to school. He came back here last may and was in another private school (Canadian International School, which is neither Canadian nor international) for the past year. For some reason he decided to switch school, no idea why but it does make me a little nervous. The last time a child switched schools and came to me was in Brooklyn and I got myself Charles Bishop. Not surprisingly this kid reminds me a little of Charles, minus the total thug part. John's english is really good and he understands more than most of the kids, his vocabulary is HUGE. But he cannot write at all. This is a common thing for kids who went to school in the states. Since we do not stress writing at an early age or spelling the kids are great talkers and thats about it. In Korea they stress learning how to read and write at the very start. My kids could easily enter probably a 1st grade room in the states even though they are only 5. 

Anyways, John will definitely be a handful but at least we have no communication problem :) Kyungjun on the other hand is another problem. I dont think he understands much English which means he gets into a lot of trouble. He constantly doing silly things like lay across the tables and is ALWAYS speaking Korean. You probably think this is not a problem but in my school its a huge problem. If any child speaks Korean its 5 minutes no play time. Kyungjun spends a lot of time at his desk. 

At the moment my class is at 20 but at the end of April my favorite boy, William, will be moving to the United States (the Americas as William says) for awhile. I don't know how long he will be gone and I really hope that when he moves back he will be back in my class! He is such a fun kid and I am going to miss him alot!