most of the kids at our school have to choose english names when they start studying english, and natalie had the good idea of naming kids after friends from back in canada. i thought that might be fun, so when the new session started back in march i got a class of kids studying english for the first time, so most of them needed names. here's a few of them.

yes, mr. wong, i named this rambunctious little guy after you. he's really eager to learn, but he can be a bad boy at times. at one point he called me a really bad word in korean (he didn't think i'd know it, i guess), and i dragged him out of class with one shoe on and told him to go home. five minutes later he was sobbing in the hallway, and i let him come back in after making him say sorry. he's been pretty good since then.

he's pretty new to the class. he knows a lot of words but he doesn't know his letters yet. usually he's pretty good, but sometimes he gets fresh. take away a sticker from his tally on the board and he falls right back in line.

today when he was talking i took a sticker away and he went into a total downward spiral. he kept talking to complain about getting the sticker taken away, so i kept taking them away, until he was down to just two when everyone else had about six. he got back on track later and almost caught up, but at the end of class when i was about to give out all the stickers, he grabbed my eraser and erased the tally on the board. well there went his stickers, and i made him stand in the corner with his hands up.

don't you just love how this started as a post about how i've named all these kids after my friends but it's turned into a detailed account of how i discipline each of them?

clockwise from left there's kevin 1, kevin 2 (behind kevin 1), charles, john, steve, and julie (looking thrilled to be the only girl in the class). that half a head in the bottom is sam. we also used to have a casey that i named after my old roommate, but i heard today he's moved to another class. he's a really nice kid, i'll try and get a picture of him up here for you, k to the c.

if i haven't named a kid after you yet, don't fret. there are some names that are already being used in different classes (like anna, michael, and jason), others that they just didn't go for when i suggested them (sorry david), and still others i just don't think i can give them (like dao or litza). but i'm sure over the course of the year there will be lots more new kids, so i plan on keeping it going. by keeping it going, of course i mean both naming them after my friends and subsequently scolding them as much as possible.