YISS Annual FunFest Brings the End to Quarter One!

What a busy week!  And the coming week is going to be a hectic one as well.  Quarter One came to a fast finish on Friday with the annual PTO-sponsored FunFest!  The theme this year was "YISS on Broadway!"  Many elementary students and teachers got into all of the fun by wearing a costume of a favorite character from a Broadway show.  There was quite a variety and it set the mood for a wonderful evening in the YISS Courtyard and Soccer Field.  Many local vendors came to sell yummy food and give a chunk of the proceeds to the PTO to help with various projects at YISS.  Each elementary class was encouraged to have a Game Booth; HS Clubs had a booth to share their clubs that raise money to help various needy organizations; teachers and administrators provide special prizes that students can win through the Teacher Raffle; many fun activities are set up around the Soccer Field; and people just enjoy eating and talking and walking with other families!  It was a great finish to Quarter One! A number of photos of children and teachers in their Broadway characters follow, along with some pictures from the FunFest evening activities.  Enjoy!

Below are the pictures from the evening at FunFest!

This is John Won, my friend and General Manager of "on the Border" in Seoul.  OTB had a food booth at FunFest and gave a good % of what they made to YISS.

Some of the game booths on the Soccer Field!

This was Middle School's "Water Toss" booth.  Various students and teachers sat on the chairs for 15 minutes at a time and were attacked by water balloons!  The young man on the left is now in Middle School and we have continued our friendship since I met him for a discipline problem in Grade 2.  His name is Ian and it has been exciting to see how he has grown and matured!

I threw some water balloons when Ian was on the chair and he came back to return the favor when I was on the chair! If you look at the bottom of my jeans, you will be able to tell that everything else was completely soaked after my 15 minutes! :-)

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In addition, Friday was a busy day as I was invited to attend the Grade 3A Science Exhibition and the Kindergarten's "Kinder Publishing Parade," which showcased the writing these little cherubs have been doing.  They were so cute parading with their hats and books throughout the school, as well as getting cheers and encouragement from students, teachers, and administrators.

3A's Science Exhibition

Grade 3A students sharing with parents and teachers about their science experiments!

I loved going from display to display throughout 3A's classroom and listening to each student share her/his experiment and what each discovered!

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Kindergarten's Publishing Parade

KA's Teaching Assistant, Ms. Lee, carrying the banner as the Kinder

                     cherubs parade through the hallways!

Here they are with their writing caps on and carrying the book each

one had written!                                    

They made a stop at the Elementary School Office

  and were eagerly waiting for us to come out and 

           greet them and look at their books!

Another view of the Kinder cherubs parading!    

This little man wanted me to see his illustrations!

Here are the ladies that make up our teaching team in Kindergarten!  They are awesome!

My buddy, Eli, knows I love his smile every day so he wanted to make sure I got a picture of him!

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The week began with a professional development day for staff that included a great seminar by our High School Principal, Mr. David Baniszewski, on biblical worldview integration, or as Mr. B calls it - "illumination."  There were meetings for our Accreditation Self-Study Committees in preparation for our Accreditation Visit in March.  Time was given for teachers to complete their Atlas Curriculum Mapping and begin working on Quarter One Comments and Grades for each student.

Monday evening I enjoyed a special dinner meeting at Holee Chow with a group of administrators from Cairn University (formerly Philadelphia Biblical University.  The president of Cairn, Dr. Todd Williams came to Korea to visit several schools to meet students who may be interested in higher education possibilities at Cairn as well as explain the special graduate program Cairn has for international teachers.  It was great to see my friend, Todd, once again as well as hear about the goal of getting more Asian students involved in Cairn's education program.

Here is the group of faculty and staff who met with Dr. Todd Williams, the president of Cairn University, and two other staff members from Cairn at Holee Chow!  (Todd is next to me.)

Several of us enjoyed General Tso's Chicken!  Very tasty!

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Last week was also an exciting time as we were informed that the work on the floor and walls in the Elementary Gymnasium is complete and we can once again, use the Gym for Physical Education classes as well as Quarter Two After School Activities!  Our very patient P.E. teachers, Mr. Resende and Ms. Prater were soooo excited and so was I!  The gym was used by students on Tuesday and by our After School Basketball activity on Tuesday afternoon!  The kids were thrilled!

Two pictures of one of our Grade 5 classes enjoying the updated ES Gym with their Phys. Ed. teacher, Mr. Resende!

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Right in the middle of this very busy week was the day elementary cherubs had their school photos taken.  It is always fun to watch kids get ready for their school pictures!  They always make me smile.  All went well with the picture shoot on Wednesday.  Now, hopefully, the parents will like the pictures! :-)

Ms. Han doing some fun exercises with her cherubs

while waiting for the others in Kindergarten B class

                 to have their pictures taken!

Kinder students waiting their turn for their school photo!

Mrs. Roll getting some of the Kinder cherubs ready for their photo!

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As I close this week, I would ask you to pray for the following items as we go into this coming week:

1 - Teachers have their comments and grades due by Tuesday afternoon!  Because of the new technology programs the school instituted this year, there are still some bugs in the system.  It is causing some extra work for teachers and administrators in order to make everything work.

2 - Online registration begins on Monday at 8:00 AM.  The first day of online registration is always a frantic time of activity with questions coming via email and phone and in person from parents who have not read the information about the ASA before registering.  Please pray that all of the technology works and that this old man keeps from getting too stressed! :-)

3 - In addition to working with the online registration for ASA, I will need to be reading and proofing about 170 students' comments sent to me by teachers and then checking grades for those 170 students.

4 - Last weekend I had recovered from my "acute laryngitis" (that's what is listed as the diagnosis) and then on Thursday, I felt it returning.  I went to Dr. Kim yesterday and he said the infection has returned and gave me more medication.  He said I should rest a lot, but I don't see that happening this week with all that needs to be accomplished.  Thanks for praying.

OK, I will stop. Thank you so much for your encouragement, love, care, mail, prayers, and support. They are very much appreciated.  Just think, October is half over! :-)  I hope you are enjoying some excellent weather!

Love, Gregg