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Sue Wagner

I met this 4th grade boy, Logan, at 2007 Summer English camp that his county, Young Kwang, and Promise Cyber School gave at the end of our very first semester. Camp participants were the students in need of catching up with basics of English-phonics. Logan was one of the youngest students in his group which was made of 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. One day at the camp, Logan was being beaten by a big 6th grade boy. Logan, small and skinny for his age was not a match with the bully. Unable to stop the bully, he cried and cried. After the incident I became closer with Logan and was able to learn; he had never seen his mom, his father was living in a city and he was being raised by his grandparents in a remote village. Logan was in my class, so I was able to see him write Korean sound beneath new English vocabulary; he did not fully understand about phonics and used his amazing memory in sounding English names of each picture in English. I taught my kids as best as I could at 3 nights and 4 days English and Nature Camp and came back to USA. I had forgotten about him until about a year later.

About a year later, I happened to observe Mrs. King's Blended English Classroom and was delighted to hear Logan's voice loudest and clearest with confidence as he was reading along with his US online teacher. The title of the book he was Clara and Bookwagon. Mrs. King chatted to let me know that Logan was the winner of English speaking contest at his school and many of our Cyber Reader Club students had participated at the contest!

Matt Barry

I have been teaching virtual English classes as a Promise teacher for 4 years. Having taught hundreds of students throughout Korea, Ihave had the unique opportunity to see how students grow from year to year. I have taught students who started out tiny little elementary school students ,unable to even say hello. After months and months of class, those same students were able to ask me about my weekend, my hobbies, my family, and life in America. In some of my classes, I have watched students progress all the way through from 4th grade into middle school. Along with their growing minds and bodies has come a new confidence and interest in language and culture. Though I am supposed to be teaching them about English, I have found that they have taught me even more about Korea. The students I teach are eager to learn and have shown me the highest respect. I feel that we both are able to learn from each other and look at ourselves and our cultures with a new perspective. It is a blast teaching these kids every day!

Allison Reavis

There has not been a Promise class that I have not loved! Right now I am teaching a 5A class. At first, I could barely hear any of the students, because when they talked, they mumbled without confidence. I would have to keep asking, “What? Repeat please?” which did not help their attitudes. But what a difference a semester has made! During the most recent class, every student acted out a part of the story Pinocchio. They projected their voice and clearly annunciated. It was a beautiful performance!

Not only do we get to share learning experiences, I love getting to hear about their lives in Korea. I think I was probably as happy as Eunbi’s parents when she got into the music high school she auditioned for, or when Jae accepted the offer to his top choice college. I’ve enjoyed learning about CRC’s students’ brothers and sisters. I love learning about the on-site teachers as well! Many of them are incredibly talented and generous teachers, and hearing about their weekends and classes they teach is a fascinating experience.

Bebe

It has been my pleasure and privilege to work with Lucy, Kim Min Joong, at Nam Yang E this semester. I have enjoyed watching her comfort level in English increase steadily. At the beginning of the semester, she sat in the back row and appeared uncomfortable if I called on her to speak. The onsite teacher needed to give her several prompts and she spoke quietly and with not much confidence. We read the story of Pinocchio and practiced having one student ask a question about the story while another student answered. We repeated this several times and I have noticed that Lucy is now comfortable asking questions to her fellow students and answering without the help of the onsite instructor. Her voice is strong and confident! She has moved to the front row and happily brings her workbook to the camera to show me her work. Recently we created a finger puppet show using the characters of Pinocchio and Gepetto. Lucy read the lines for each character with animation as she moved her fingers to interpret the dialogue. She has not only improved her comfort with English but she has also learned about the elements of a story including characters, settings and plot. Great job, Lucy!

Mendy

I’ll never forget the day I logged into one of my classes (I believe it was a Namyang 5A) and when I asked who was absent the students all shouted, "John!" It was his 3rd class (the entire week) so I asked if he was sick. They started making the universal sign for dead making it look like they were cutting their heads off with their arms. I was horrified. Quickly the onsite teacher explained that John was not dead, however he had in fact lost his mother to cancer. I felt relieved that John was ok but I knew his heart must have been broken. I cannot imagine going through childhood or adulthood for that matter without my mother. This just reminded me of the situation that a lot our students are in. Many of them live with grandparents or one parent while the other lives perhaps as far as an entirely different country trying to support their family. I understand this struggle on some level because my husband travels all year for his job and is home one two times per month. These children sometimes go more than a year or two before getting to reconnect with their parent(s). One such student was named Estell. She was a CRC student of mine for about 1.5 years. I loved my CRC classes because it was more of a personal experience. Estell was very quiet the first few months and would disrupt the class to go get food and color on the whiteboard when I asked another student to fill in answers…I was frustrated and thought she must have a low level of English comprehension or was just bored. I tried to play games as much as possible but she just wouldn’t cooperate. One day she was my only student and I just spent the entire class time asking her all about herself. She talked a bit but in choppy sentences and seemed like she didn’t want to talk at all. The next class the other two students were still absent. I took this time to tell her more about my life and I asked her to ask me anything she wanted. Her first question was if I liked art. I said yes, but that I was not good at it. She said she loved art but her parents say she is not very good. She showed me a drawing and I was beyond impressed. It looked like something a paid artist would create. I praised her and expressed gratitude that she had shared it with me and asked to see more. From that day on she became animated and interested in our lessons. She showed up early for class and stayed late so that we could have conversation about our lives even if it was just to talk about her new puppy or a TV show she had seen. She lived in an apartment building above her grandmother’s pharmacy with her mother, sister and grandparents. Her father was a Botanical Gardener and had to live in China for work. Whenever she mentioned him it was briefly and she would get somber. It broke my heart for her so I made sure to give her all the attention before and after class that she desired. It was in those times that she shared her talents with me. She took violin lessons and hated them but she loved art class. I looked forward to seeing her work when she was brave enough to share. For a 12 year old I could not believe the talent she had. In 2011 I had emergency surgery that took me away from my classes for about two weeks. When I returned Estell literally yelled at me, “Teacher WHEREWERE YOU! I AM ANGRY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE NEVER COMING BACK!” I apologized and explained that I had been in the hospital and was very sorry and that I had missed her very much. She softened and said, “Teacher, I missed you too. I love you. Don’t scare me again. ” I had no idea that she appreciated our classes so much. Over the next year, Estell became a really good student who spoke in complete sentences and was getting better and better with written responses as well. But I can honestly say that what I am most proud of was that I had touched her enough to evoke such emotion from her when I was absent. When my CRC classes ended there was very little time to say goodbye. That last class with Estell felt like torture and I had a knot in my throat the entire time. When it was time to say goodbye I told her how special she would always be to me and she drew a picture of herself crying and the tears made an ocean that she swam across to get to Kansas so she could see me every day and learn English. I cried like a baby and laughed at the same time. I cried several times over the next few weeks as I mourned my several amazing students. Estell is one that is forever etched into my heart. She reminded me that I, one little person can have an effect on another person's life all the way across the world. We have an amazing opportunity with this little part time work that we do to really create a change in these children. I try my best to boost their confidence and let them know that someone all the way out in Kansas, USA cares about each of them.