"Teacher....me??...Rock Star?"

I accidentally trained my 1st graders to associate getting the answer right with, "Rock Star" (said in a very enthusiastic tone of voice).  It was not even registering with me that I was saying this until today!  But, apparently I have said it enough that my kids now think that "rock star" means "doing a good job" or "getting the answer right".  Today, when they correctly wrote out the word 'cat' one of them said, "teacher?? me?  rock star?", pointing at their correct answer.  Then, systematically the rest of my 1st graders wanted confirmation of their correct answer with me saying, "rock star".   Oops.   My contribution to the Korean Educational System. 

I have honestly never been more aware of my choice of words and how much or how little I say in my life, like I have been with working with ESL children.  The entire time I have been in Korea, I have been limiting my use of "extra" words or complicated words and trying to be as clear and concise as possible, because if you say something like, "It sure is nice outside today, with that nice warm breeze" they then have to pick through all the extra words to try and make meaning of your sentence.  But if you limit your words to, "The weather is nice" you have a much higher success rate at them understanding you.  My point in this is: I can't believe I have been concentrating this insanely hard on my vocabulary and delivery for 8 months straight, yet still managed to let "ROCK STAR" slip in without me being remotely aware of it.  Who the heck says that anyway??!!   Ugh.  Not yet sure how I am going to untrain them, even though it cracked me up to no end when I heard it.  I mean, who wouldn't love a cute little kid looking at you with wide, innocent eyes making inquires about their rock star status?

Korean children love to share their food with you.  Nothing quite makes my day like a small Korean child, fresh from the bathrooms, reaching into the bottom of his book bag, producing squishy food.  They get a look of absolute seriousness on their faces, looking from me to the food, while I silently panic thinking, "ohh sh**, please don't give it to me, please, please" and like all battles with Korean children, I lose.  They say, "Teacher, here" and smile at me waiting for my enthusiastic response, which involves gestures like rubbing my stomach, saying, "Mmmmmmmmm thank you, my favorite".  You can't say "no" to the food that is gifted to you, no matter how creepy it is.  I mean, you get lint filled chocolate treats dug out of their pockets and placed before you (pocket treats are the grossest of all).  Today I scored, chips that were fondled & sampled by three different 5 year olds, before finally being gifted to me; a 95% eaten bag of popcorn that lived in the bottom of a 5 year old's backpack for who knows how many days; and a somewhat warm lolli-pop.   It was a good day at school.