Sometimes Kids are Cute

Though my students are rebellious balls of havock-wreaking energy 99% of the time, occasionally I am reminded that they're really my favorite peeps around. Today we spent 50 minutes making Christmas cards in one of my classes. The kids were allowed to make their card for anyone they wanted. But a good many of them picked... ME! That's right: Ms. Joyce. We gave them a sheet with a lot of christmas phrases translated into English/Japanese that they could pick from to write on their cards.
My favorite card that I received came from a 15 year old boy, whose name I don't even know:

After blinking at it for a moment, I gently pointed out that I'm not a man, and he needed to add "wo-". Unfortunately, he thought I was telling him to call me a Wo, without the Man. Oh well. I'm still flattered. A Wo is as good a thing to be as any, indeed.

Here's a few more cards that I received. I have to say, I was dissapointed that I didn't get any cards from the girls. Take what you can get though (once again, for the low-tech folk: click on a picture to see a bigger version of it).












Some of my girls are really amazing artists. In only about 45 minutes, they produced some mighty fine works of art. Ah, I mustn't forget the boys. Here is a sampling, the last one is by a boy (he drew himself, his best friend, and his favorite cartoon. They all look very true to like, it's uncanny):













My favorite card all in all, however, was not one given to me. Take a look at Chikayo's fine artwork, and clever English phrases (she dared to wander off into the realm of non-Christmas-worksheet English):

A brief chat with Chikayo lead me to the surprising discovery that she does not, in fact, own a dog. Nor does she know anyone who owns a dog. But she does wish that she had one. And that's what counts on Christmas.