Field Trip Day!

I couldn't decide which picture was funnier because really, they both are for various reasons! I swear the kids had more fun than these pictures portray!

All the 6 year old classes, my class is the second to last row

Chloe and Bonette on the bus

Stephanie and Tonghu (my ocd boy)

Today was our first field trip! All in all it went pretty well, although, I do hope this will be the least entertaining one of the year. When I think of contemporary art museum, I do not think of 6 year old children. I am not sure half my students even understood where we were going. I began talking about the field trip on Tuesday to get my class prepared for the big day on Thursday. We practiced lining up, and how we should talk and behave in a museum. Although, to be honest, I was not at all that concerned because I have a great class! From the beginning of the day on Tuesday, my one boy, who is OCD, or something, was convinced we were going somewhere to see dinosaurs. He has such an obsession with dinosaurs this did not surprise me too much. I just didn’t want him to be disappointed when the day came. Every time we talked about the field trip he said, “we see dinosaurs there.” And I would reply the same every time “No Tonghu, no dinosaurs on this trip, we will see art, pictures people painted.” And he would continue to say “no, we see dinosaurs there.” This constant battle of us going back and forth happens every day on various topics. He gets an idea in his head and can’t get it out again. He also cannot deviate from a plan, so if ever something has to change, he does not believe you. One of the other 6 year old teachers, Gordon, is across the hall, he can see and sometimes hear, when we are in the hallways, my conversations with Tonghu, and just laughs at me. He has to experience these same conversations during theme and knows exactly what is happening. It makes me laugh every time, but I truly love Tonghu for this! I actually told him this at lunch today because he had it in his head he had theme next because that is where they go after lunch He couldn’t process that the field trip had altered our day and lunch was an hour later than normal. I finally just smiled at him and said “Tonghu, I love you.” He smiled at me and went on eating his lunch. This may be my new trick to get him off a given topic.

Although we did not see any dinosaurs on our field trip, we did happen to drive by some dinosaur museum, or something, and there were huge, life size dinosaurs outside of it. This made Tonghu incredibly happy, and it’s as if we actually did go to the museum and see dinosaurs. It is also all he could talk about the rest of the day, but none the less, I was very happy for the boy!

Our drive to the museum took about 30 minutes, and each class was split up onto different buses (really, just large vans). We get in the van and I am all set to strap these children in nice and tight, considering they are really only 5 and back at home would be in booster seats. Well, once I get them strapped in, my Korean helper Liz informs me it is dangerous to put the seat belts so tight, and really they should be loose. Now, if they are loose, is a seat belt really doing its job? I don’t think so, but who am I am to go against Korean logic. Plus, I knew I was having one of the head Korean administrators in my van, so I knew I would lose this battle regardless of what I said. I was terrified the whole drive, Korean drivers are insane, even with children in the car! We made it there safely though and joined Gordon’s class and went off to explore the art museum.

We were really only at the museum for about an hour and in this hour we had to squeeze in a snack. I am not sure why we had to squeeze in snack because they had just eaten and would eat again when we got back to school. But, again, we don’t have a lot of say in the matter. Our trip to the museum consisted of us walking up a spiral ramp, seeing two rooms, walking back down a spiral ramp, having snack, and walking quickly through the children’s area and making the children stop and take a picture in pairs in front of some random artwork. Then, back outside, for our second bathroom break and one group picture with all the 6 year old classes and back on the bus. I think the students enjoyed being on a bus, and out of school, but I am not sure what they got out of the museum. Plus, even when Gordon or I stopped to have the children look at the art work, we were all told to “shh….be quiet” by a worker at the museum. The children were not even being loud is the worst part of being told to be quiet! On the drive back to school, one of the Korean school workers (I am not sure what she actually does at the school) was in my van and started speaking in Korean to my class. I got the gist of what she was saying and that was for them to be quiet. I looked at Liz, who looked just as helpless as I did and waited until we were back at school to find out what happened. She informed me that she told the students to be quiet and they were too loud, and that since I had not told them to do so then she would. I looked at Liz, and said, “really, were they being loud?” She agreed with me that they were not and told me not to take it too personal. What bothered me the most about it though, is that my class was laughing and singing, not being loud to be obnoxious or mean, and really not even loud. All that aside, my class said they had fun and next month we go to an animation center. I think that has to be more exciting than this field trip!