It's Official, I'm an Alien and No Matter How Old I Get I Will Always Love "The Magic School Bus"

On December 1, 2010 I became an alien resident of South Korea. I had to go through an intense fast and rigourous health examination to gain this privelege. Apparently I was the only person that was told not to smile for my picture, and that produced this little gem...

No, I am not angry.
Yes, this is the picture on my alien card.

Now a few classroom stories:

1. The textbooks for a few of my reading classes are those textbooks that we used in elementary school with several short stories and discussion questions. One of the stories we got to read was a script from "The Magic School Bus" tv show. I assigned parts to each of the kids, and we read it like a play. Some of them are actually really good actors. I might start a side business as a child talent agent and work on exploiting the South Korean market. Needless to say, I highly enjoyed reliving an educational cartoon from my past with the new generation. Thank you Ms. Frizzle for always coordinating your dresses with the lesson of the day...I think my favorite ensemble was the outerspace dress. The moral of the story? Disguise education within the confines of a zany cartoon and children might actually learn something from tv.

2. We read a mystery story in another reading class and finished reading with a few moments to spare. I told the students to use the remaining time to write a mystery story of their own. This one was too priceless not to share. It is from a student named Alex, who laughs at the most random things, but failed to understand my joke when I told him that he is easily amused. I guess we have that in common.

"Help, Help
Who has stoled my 100 million dollar said amanda. The CIS team leader Christine [Christine is a Korean teacher] came. And amanda explain about story that she was sleep and the robber come and stoled a bag that has 100 million dollar.
That is all my property!!! she cried.

Don't cried, she [Christine] said. How was the robber's silhouette?

He was tall and bald hair and I think he is a best of best robber, and she [Me] keep crying.

Christine listen and see the CIS homepage and see the best robber. She thinks that Nick [Nick is one of my co-workers and he is tall with a shaved head] and Steve might have done it, but Steve haven't the time, he eat dinner with family. So Nick is the culprit.

Then 3 days ago he do self-surrender. He stole because he is punished by his parents."

3. I bet you had no idea, that The Simpsons is so popular over here, but it is. There are pencil bags and face covers with Lisa's face plastered all over them. One boy drew the entire family on the back of his test. I just found it interesting that when we were discussing The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, the kids couldn't contain themselves and continued to mutter Simpson while they snickered. Felt like I was teaching back in the States.

Lastly, I "stumbled upon" this amazing picture, and I LOVE it.