Hannah Montana is off to China!

Well I am sad to say that one of my favorite little kiddos, I'll call her Hannah Montana, is going to be leaving in December for 6 months to move to China. She is incredibly excited to go and join a Chinese school. I asked her how she was feeling about it and she said she is going to be just like Gooney Bird Green (a story we read in class). She thinks she is going to come back with all these adventures and new experiences. She also thinks she will come back fluent in Chinese. I think this is so admirable for her because I would be scared out of my mind! Her parents are leaning toward total immersion in the schools. I asked her if she was scared and she said no because she knows how to say hi and thank you in Chinese already. Another interesting part of this story is that she said while in school she is going to be like K ad R (2 ELL students in our class). I asked her why she said this and she said because she is going to sit in class and not know a lot of the language like they do. I was so amazed that she is aware of what those students go through. It never occurred to me that the other english speaking students were even aware that the other kids were different because of their language. It was just yet another moment that proved kids are so much smarter than we usually give them credit for!