Baby, Baby, Baby Ohhh!!!

It is officially the last week of school. Final exams are complete, marked and grades submitted. Report cards are being written and the school is being cleaned and ready for the holiday....FINALLY! This next semester is going to fly in comparison to this one. It feels like I have been waiting forever for a break. To end the week we are instructed to plan fun supplementary lessons and use this time to make sure our classes have learned the required songs for this semester. Some classes have been cancelled due to cleaning time and semester ending activities. For those of us who still have classes to teach we can do as we like. Instead of watching videos ... I was the idiot who decided to make sure all of my classes know their songs and sing them AGAIN.

My grade ones have been rocking out the ABC's, the Eency Weency Spider and our latest hit Walking, Walking. For this one I added some sweet hand puppets of giant running shoes, boots and slippers for them to act out the song. But these songs for forty minutes can make you just about loose your mind. For added entertainment we sing the songs in super slow motion ... to the point I pretend to fall asleep and then switch it up to super fast singing. By the end of class I am exhausted while the kids are laughing ... but still can hardly sing a word of any of the songs. Yeah!!

In grade two we are learning This is the Way We Take a Bath. This one we nailed after one class so reviewing this song was short and sweet. Our new song was London Bridge is Falling Down. I thought this would be a piece of cake, until I read the lyrics that had been selected... I had NO idea that there were so many verses to this song. Building it up and locking away some lady? Since when? I thought it was about a bridge and it came down. Done and done. So I had to teach the kids some real useful vocabulary like iron bars and bend and break. As we sing the song on the fly I made up a bunch of actions to help the students remember the words and the song comes out really cute. They can all sing along and do the actions. Finally we attempt to play London Bridge in a tiny classroom with 30 kids. . . crowd control was a priority!

Finally, my grade five students got to learn Stand By Me. This one they can follow pretty easily and I used a video of Timone and Pumba singing the song as some motivation. Otherwise some kids don't give a shit if they learn to sing this song or not. Others are right pumped to get on stage in front of the class and belt it out. I use youtube lyrics like karaoke and everyone can sing along. They also enjoy my terrible dancing along with the music. The second song is too long and I have never heard of it before ... Seasons in the Sun? It is terrible and long and SUPER high pitched. I had the kids read the words in English and Chinese so they were familiar with the meaning of the song but then decided to try and have some fun with the kids. So, I introduced my classes to Justin Bieber! Some girls squealed as they recognized the name and other kids started to cheer as I sang the chorus from the song we would be learning ... Baby, baby, baby ohh!!

That is right. For over a week I have been singing and dancing around my classroom to pre-teen tunes and LOVING IT!

I hear students in the hallway after class singing the chorus because we all know once you hear that song it is burned into your brain! I can not stop singing it and I don't even like the kid! I totally missed out on Bieber fever being here in Taiwan ... I don't know his songs or that many new pop songs at all. But it is in my head ... at work, on my scooter or at home. JP turned to me the other day and said I need to stop Justin Biebering him ... it was cruel! I didn't even notice I was still singing it all of the time.

Then, the next morning I got a taste of my own medicine as the first thing I heard and saw when I woke up was JP in my face belting BABY BABY BABY OHHHHH!!

Come on Thursday I am ready for a break!!!!