Lately we've been grilling and chilling, enjoying time together - Isaac, his brother and I. This has been the hottest summer since we've moved to Louisville, and save for a few days, it's been unbearable. But at least there's good food to take our minds off the heat.Some days our desire for the specific food motivated us to huddle around the hot grill - like Isaac cooking Korean grilled pork belly to the right. Other days we got more creative - like grilling out steaks at 10:45 am on July 4th.
Lately we can't get enough Korean food and I have added a few new dishes to my repertoire. Korean food with its many plates and bowls, and having Isaac's brother here mean that we've finally gotten into the habit of using our dining table every night. It seems silly, but our tiny tables on the floor in the living room (both in Suwon and Louisville) were enough previously and were plenty comfortable. But I'm really happy to have upgraded to using our dining table now three years into our marriage.
Just check out a few of these spreads, I felt pretty proud of them.
Above is dakgomtang (닭곰탕), a refreshing clear soup made with chicken meat and bones perfect to cleanse the body on these hot summer days. Iced barley tea was a great sidekick too.
Here's a few favorites altogether. Seaweed soup, kimchi pancake and a spicy salad of green onions, carrots and sesame leaves.
Hot pot is loved throughout Asia, but I steered our shabushabu (샤브샤브) toward Korean tastes by making the broth using specific ingredients like anchovy, seaweed, Korean radish and red pepper paste (gochujang). Once I had the bubbling broth to our liking and all of the veggies chopped, we just set about cooking everything little by little, and eating as each thing finished. I bought fish cakes as an after thought, but was surprised by the fun and flavor they added to the meal.
We went to the fossil park (Falls of the Ohio) but were surprised to see the dam open, most of the fossil beds flooded. But it was a rare cool weekend so we still enjoyed our picnic among the rocks, and you can see below our cooler a large coral-like fossil (all of the small whitish circles). Boiled eggs and two kinds of kimbap - kimchi and cucumber, spicy tuna and avocado. We couldn't explore the fossil beds, but the high water made the peaceful slushing of continuous gentle waves which we haven't heard in a long time.
Bibim naengmyeon (비빔냉면) and odeng (오뎅) satisfied two cravings and the seemingly odd pair worked out. Bibim naengmyeon is cold noodles served with equally summer-suited toppings like asian pear, radish, carrots and cucumbers. The orange sauce is a puree of onions, garlic and asian pear with red pepper paste, giving the dish a truly unique sweet and spicy taste. Odeng just seems like the fishy version of a hotdog - a squishy texture that's fun to smack on and a salty and spicy sauce to dip it in.
So here we are midway through July, and the 2017-2018 school year is a thing of the past. Target is telling me that everyone else has already moved on and is preparing for first days this fall. I don’t want to blabber on too long about this past school year, but I am a sucker for reflection. Talking about it a little bit feels like putting the bow on a present, adjusting the book cover so it sits just right before placing one of my new favorites on the bookshelf.
I spent the 2017-2018 school year in an elementary school about half the size as where I worked the previous year. Both are title 1, meaning a high percentage of the children are from low income families. I was assigned to a kindergarten classroom, the first time I’ve worked at great lengths with children that young.
As far as academics, leading kindergarteners is full of firsts and so is extremely satisfying. We taught many of the kids their letters and numbers for the first time. Then we got to help them put these components together, learning to read words, then sentences, to add and subtract, and count to one hundred.
I was taught and I believe that regardless of students’ age, it is crucial to make them feel loved and safe if you want to teach them anything. With 5 and 6 year olds, building this sort of atmosphere and relationship is much more overt than with older grades. The upper elementary students seem to require a more subtle method of tiptoeing towards trust with conversations and expressions of empathy and care; my kiddos this year loved hugs and overt acknowledgement of every little booboo, mishap or accomplishment.
Last year I struggled a lot making math curriculum and stem activities that were relevant, engaging and effective for my 2nd through 5th grade students. It was a challenge to think of a new way to explain and practice a math concept that the kids already felt indifferent or even negative about. This year was much less about curriculum and more about making kids feel safe, comfortable and loved.
Because of privacy I am remaining vague, but I still wish to make my main point. I will just say that I spent the year with some kids that were naturally lovable - from their demeanors and behaviors to their appearance - and some that seemed to deter affection - their demeanors, behaviors, appearance and even smells working against them. Children seem so much more transparent at this age, a product of their home environments and external factors more so than when they are older and have the options and opportunities to change and decide for themselves. I had to acknowledge that much of how I saw kids act was a reflection of what they had experienced outside of school - the good and the bad. Then I needed to move past the shallow biases that felt natural to me (helping a grateful child, moving on from a child who is disrespectful and unfocused) and consciously fight them each day.
Spending my year with the same group of 20 odd kids (as opposed to last year’s 80+ kids) took me back to the roots of my teaching philosophy. As an educator, I have to believe that each child is capable of greatness and improvement, even when they give no evidence after weeks and months of teachers' hard efforts. Every day, it is still my job to show them care and support and a better way to live and learn. I take away a lot of funny and heartwarming memories - blue icing cupcakes that led to messy blue stomach aches and worse the following day, surprise hugs around the waist at just the right moments. But this is by far my biggest take away - the importance of believing and acting out every day that every kid is capable and worthy of love and success. It is something more easily done from a distance; daily practicing that belief up close and personal is wearing, but in the end it rewards the heart. Thinking back over the year, it is easy to see that tying soggy shoelaces or repeating directions for the umpteenth time are nothing compared to knowing those students left the classroom with the memory and certainty that their teachers cared for them.
