Last Days at BIS

It's crazy to think that my time at BIS is over. My contract was a total of 15 months and at times that felt like forever! But, I am happy to say that things ended well and I enjoyed some fun times with my kids before leaving. I think leaving was easy because I'm not leaving the country yet. When most teachers leave a school like BIS they leave the country (their Visa only allows them to be in the country as long as they are teaching.) But, Josh and I will be here another 7 months. So, I know I will be able to see the kids and I am even tutoring some of them, so it wasn't as sad as I expected.

On Friday the kindergarteners graduated. We all got into the shuttle busses and traveled into Seoul. Of course I was biased, but I think our students were better than the other two campuses that also participated in graduation. It was obvious we had spent more time developing and practicing their graduation speeches and song and dance. The other kids were also pretty wild and our kids were much more disciplined and well behaved.
The kids had lots of fun at graduation and it was really special to see them get their kindergarten diplomas after teaching them for so long. (In Korea kindergarten lasts two years).

I worked on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday teaching the older kids, as the kindergarteners had a week vacation. I had already finished giving all my students their end of the year exams so we played games and had lots of fun. Wednesday was my last day. After school Josh and I went to my favorite Korean BBQ restaurant with Joe and Stephanie.
I am just so thankful that I was able to have this job. Yes, the hours were long and the days were stressful. I struggled working for people from a different culture who had different ideas about work standards and expectation. But, I learned a lot about myeslf, Korean culture and was so happy to make some money in the process. Working at a hagwon was an interesting experience, as it is NOTHING like an American school.
Here are some fun pictures from my last few days:

Matthew's Birthday Party

My sweet "flowers" made from the kids handprints

I got so many sweet cards from the kids. This one was from Sarah. I loved how detailed it was. She even drew her purple wheeling backpack!

The most important thing Joshua learned from me over 15 months is that my favorite color is pink. Oh boy!

With Jun

With Erin Jo

With Dorothy (and her diploma)

Matthew not wanting to take a picture

"Ms Leah, only take picture is picture is CRAZY!"

Clara is just so precious!

Another picture with Clara

Ms Kristal also left BIS the same time as me. She is off to University in March. Here we are with the kindergarteners who will have their second year at BIS starting in March.

Claire from first grade

The kindergarteners have uniforms now. Stephanie texted me this photo today and I can't get over how cute Jun, Matthew and Clara look. Adorable!