Saturday, March 22, 2014

Fun, Frantic Finish to Quarter Three!!

Yeppers, Quarter Three is now history!  It is hard to believe we have only one quarter remaining in this school year.  This next week our students and teachers enjoy a week of Spring Break!  And it appears that Spring has returned to Seoul!  It looks like a great week ahead!  You can be praying for over 200 students and teachers who left Friday on 11 GWAM (Guardians With a Message) trips to places in South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Cambodia, and China. Our student body president Jae Eun will be taking an extra days along with two of our tech teachers, Carol and Samuel Pitts, to take an extra trip into North Korea!  Jae Eun has a Korean parent but his passport is from the USA.  He would not be able to get into North Korea as a citizen of South Korea.  He looks Korean so it will be interesting to hear of his experiences once he returns.  I know all three of these persons would value your prayers.  Oh, Jae Eun also told me on Thursday that he received his first college acceptance letter!  It was from Wheaton College!  He wants to go into the Pre-Med field and I am so excited for him.  We are having some excellent discussions.  Jae Eun is an excellent student and I'm excited for what God has in store for him!

Sorry but this is the only picture I could locate of Jae Eun.  It is from my phone but I wanted to give you a picture of him so you could pray for him.  This was taken at the J & J Deli at YISS. 
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Yes, it was a fun and frantic finish to Quarter Three this past week!  Monday was a Professional Development Day and we had sessions all day with Dr. Carol Commodore on Standards and Assessments.  In between sessions I was working on final preparations for the online registrations for Quarter Four After School Activities in the Elementary School.  I was able to get everything finished and the online registration began right on time at 8:00 AM on Tuesday morning!  Things have gone smoothly and during my Spring break I will be working on all of the lists needed to keep everything organized for Quarter Four.  So much to do to make the After School Activities program run as smoothly as possible.  In Quarter 4 we have about 30 activities from in which elementary students can choose to participate.  Between 250 and 300 students out of the 421 elementary students will be involved in at least one activity; some have 2 or 3 activities.  Thanks for your prayers!

On Monday during our Professional Development Day, our Grade 2B teacher, Mr. Bennett, came to lunch with his family's newly adopted daughter, Zoey!  Mr. and Mrs. Bennett had just returned from China after 2 weeks of working through all of the paper work necessary to make the adoption official.  Zoey's three brothers love her so much!  Please continue to pray for the Bennetts as they make Zoey part of their family!  here is a picture of Daddy and Zoey at lunch on Monday!

Mr. Bennett with precious Zoey at lunch on Monday!
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Wednesday was the March Fun Day for the Elementary cherubs.  They could dress alike with another friend or friends or with their entire class.  They always have a fun time with this.  I was rather busy with After School Activities' registration so I did not get as many pictures as I would have liked.  But here are a few of my favorites:

        Four Spiderman friends enjoying the day!!

Two cowboys from Grade 5!  I love these guys!

   Three Princesses from Grade 1!  So cute!           
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I was invited by the teacher (Ms. Wheat) of one of our Kindergarten classes, KC, to their Publishing Party on Thursday!  Students had been working on their writing skills and presentation skills.  They celebrated with a Publishing Party where they invited parents, principals, and friends to come and listen to them read their stories.  Each adult would listen to various children read one or more of their stories.  Most children had written two or three stories with illustrations!  Then the adults were encouraged to write some encouraging comments on a post-it note to stick in the story book - wherever the author wanted it.  It was so much fun to have the children read their stories and see them show a wonderful smile once they read our comments!  At the close of the readings, parents had prepared some yummy desserts for the "authors" and their guests to enjoy!

KC "authors" enjoying their desserts and some are 
still reading their books to Mr. Lazor and some parents!

Zack Bennett reading his book to me!  He was so cute as he read his book!

This little girl wrote several books, but 
she wanted to read her book entitled God
to me!  Oh, how I wish I had a video of
her reading to me.  She presented very 
clearly all about God, Jesus, and the Holy
Spirit both in words and illustrations.  Pray
that she will come to experience Jesus!

She is now reading her comments to me.  When she was reading her book, God, we came to a page that had an drawing of Jesus, but said that it was a drawing of God.  I asked her, "Where is God's picture?"  She responded immediately and confidently, "No one has ever seen God so I can't draw Him."

This little man, Tyler, is soooo full of energy that he
cold not stay seated to read his book to Mr. Lazor!
I loved his book and I can't wait to see what he will 
            do in life with all of that energy!!

I sat at the table where these three read to me.  They had each written three books.  They were delighted to pose with one of their favorites for a picture.  David was sooo good at reading his book with wonderful expression!
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Then on Friday I was invited by grade 2D's teacher, Ms. Moon, to visit the 2D classroom from 10:30 - 11:15 for their Poetry Day!  Each child had selected a favorite poem of theirs to recite. They had worked on presenting a good introduction and then reciting their selected poem with expression!  I loved listening to each one of them.  I wish I could have videotaped each one to show you.  Following the recitations to the gathered parents and principals, children were invited to share their book of original poems each had written.  I loved this part, too!  I would love to show you each book and the various poems they wrote.  I will include several of my favorite along with some pictures of the event!  It was such a great way to end the week and the quarter!

Above his Chris's poem he wrote about
his life at age 3!  The students each wrote
one of these and added a picture when 
      they were that age.  I love it!!

I would love to show you the video of Chris's recitation of his favorite poem.  For some reason the sound did not come through.  What impressed me the most was that he had memorized his poem and had excellent eye contact with his audience.  He did a super job!  Here he is sharing with me his book of poems that he had written!  I love this little man; he always has a great smile to greet me each morning!

Here is Lily's poem about life at age 2!
I love this poem and her pictures!!    

Here are three poets who were so excited to read all of their poems to me! From left to right: Lily, Elizabeth, and Matthew!

One more poem from William!  He is
always so happy!  I love it that he learned
the "American" language; not the English
                    language! :-)
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As always, thank you so much for continuing to be so encouraging and supportive to me.  You mean so much to me and I thank God for each one of you.  I know the YISS teachers would value your prayers as they spend part of their Spring Break preparing Quarter Three Comments and Grades to distribute to parents of our cherubs!  When we return to YISS on March 31st, we begin in full force with the activities of Quarter Four!  Please enjoy this last full week of March!  Bring on the warmer weather!! :-)

Love, Gregg


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