Songwon Elementary School English Speech Contest

Today is the day of my school's English Speech Contest! My students had been preparing for over a month. Prior to this assembly, I had class with the 5^th and 6^th graders. My co-teacher was busy prepping, so she asked me to teach both classes today. I gladly obliged. But first off, I must account what happened before the contest.

I had seen some of my students when I arrived early this morning, but when I walked out of the shared office in our classroom to greet the students, Young Jae, one of my brightest 5th graders asked, “Teacher, 얼굴...?” while patting his face. I thought he meant to say there was something on his face, but one of the other students (Jinu?) piped up, “Teacher, makeup!” Oh geez, that Young Jae kid is sure observant. So, I haven’t applied “makeup” for the past, I don’t know, two months? I just got lazy and at the same time I didn’t want a bunch of gunk melting off my face in this sweltering hot and humid weather. Anyway, I only applied mascara (minutes before the start of their class!) because I knew I was going to be facing most of my school as MC alongside my co-teacher and I didn't want to look “tired”. But..of course, it has been a while since my students have seen me with my usual mascara-ed eyes, so when I strolled out of the office, they were surprised to see me with “makeup” and clamored about, so I awkwardly laughed it off saying, “조금” and Young Jae wasted no time in dramatically saying “Teacher, oh no!” while pulling his face down in a shocked expression. LMAO. Man. This kid. These punks. Anyway, I proceeded to help my 5^th graders and later my 6^th graders with last minute prep in pronunciation and tone of their speeches. I was so happy even though all of them were nervous as heck and complaining that the speech was too much for their heads to handle.  

At around 10:40am in the second floor auditorium, I announced to 21 students and 8 teachers, “Welcome to the 1^st Annual Songwon English Speech Contest!” My introduction was rather short as I had stated that the 4^th-6^th grade students had worked over a month to prepare for this contest and to give them their undivided attention, but the students were looking at me all bewildered. My co-teacher smiled and laughed awkwardly next to me at the podium. Heh. I should have further simplified the introduction. Anyway, the contest was amusing to watch. I was so proud of my students as they stepped up to the podium to deliver their speeches. The other students kept turning around to watch our expressions. Mr. Oh, Ms. Jang, Mr. Lee, my coteacher and I were the judges. The students who stood out to me and the teachers were Young Jae, James (Sun Gyu), Ho Young, and Chang Hyeon. After calculating all the evaluation sheets, Young Jae came out in First Place! Yay! I have to admit, I favor this student. He is such a well-rounded kid. Anyway, I am quite happy that he won because I think he absolutely deserves it. His speech was about Snakes. He won because he spoke in the most natural tone, his pronunciation was nearly on the spot, his speed was just right, and did not look down at his speech all that often. He even provided the audience with pictures of the snakes (He has asked me to Google and print out photos of the Red Banded, Ussuri Mamushi, Rock Mamushi, and Viper Snakes during class). James talked about the Dream Center, a place where students go to study after school. Ho Young talked about Hangul and Chang Hyeon talked about his parents. I am most impressed with Chang Hyeon actually. He was a difficult child to deal with when I first arrived at this school. He was never motivated in my classes and I knew he disliked me from his actions. However, the past month, I have seen and heard him address me with more respect. Like today, on the first floor, I was turning right from the hallway to head up the stairs and he had just jumped down and when he saw me, he immediately said, “안녕하세요!” with a bow! WOW! I was so shocked and I laughed out a hello. To be honest, he probably thought I was another Korean teacher because he made a sound of surprise. Eh. Oh well, I will just believe that for today, Chang Hyeon was nice and respectful to me. 

5th grader Gyeong Wook was up first and he talked about Volvo construction machines

4th grader Josh talked about his family

5th grader Nam Ho talked about school

6th grader James talked about the Dream Center

5th grader Ho Young talked about Hangul

 I was so impressed by Young Jae's speech that I had forgotten to take pictures when he was delivering it! x_X

OH! At around 4:10pm, as I made my way towards the staff room, I saw a kid outside that looked awfully familiar. I stared at the back of his head, and then it hit me who it was. He was running or racing against Nam Ho. Josh was standing watching them, and I exclaimed in excitement, "Josh, is that Harry?" He turned and smiled, "Yes. Ja Won!" Wah!!! I was so happy to see him. As he was walking back, Josh said, "Ja Won!" and pointed to me, "Deanna teacher!" I excitedly waved to him and when he stopped in front of me, I said, "Harry! It's so good to see you again. How are you?" He smiled, "I'm happy". I then asked, "How is your school in Daegu?" and he sadly shook his head. He doesn't like it there. Poor kid. I told him to give my regards to his sister, Minnie, who was currently at the Dream Center located across from school. Harry and Josh are best friends and I watched as Josh grabbed Harry's hand and they both happily ran off campus. It really felt good seeing Harry again. He and Josh were always so happy together last year. Now that Harry is attending another elementary school in Daegu, Josh seems to be a bit more reserved. I love seeing their smiles and hearing their laughter.