This is a great activity for Christmas! Why not have your students write a letter to Santa!
Two options.
They can either write a letter to Santa which someone in the class will write back to.
OR
Students can write a real letter to Santa and email to the address below. They will get a response and the Canadian government has a mass of volunteers to respond. Even send an email to Santa!
Santa Claus
North Pole, Canada
HOHOHO
It is summer holiday for many of us teachers. I’d love to find out more about what other teachers are doing this summer holiday. Blog about it or throw up a few comments here! I was inspired to write this by Anton’s amazing post and pictures about his summer rafting trip on EFL Classroom 2.0
I only had time for a mini getaway (but will have time this fall for my “real” holiday – visiting my beautiful parents and writing a book I’ve long been planning). I traveled east from Seoul to the beautiful city of Sokcho. It is a quick 2 hour and 20 min (or 3 hours if you take the scenic bus over the mountains) and is on the east coast, up north near the DMZ (demilitarized zone with N.Korea).
It is a jewel! Not heavily visited but lots to do! It has great beaches, lots of lakes and clean streets. Seorak mountain is its backdrop – one of the most famous mountains/national parks in Korea. It is also the main place for the ferry to Russia and Vladivodstok – so you’ll meet quite a few Russians. I stayed a few days in the city and took in the sites and baked on the beach. Then a few days in the mountains in a nice luxury hotel.
I highly recommend the following.
1. Seorak Nat. Park – the cable car, the views! All the hiking you’ll ever want. All levels. Best in fall but great any time of year.
2. Sokcho beach. Clean, not crowded at all (unless you go during the 2 week peak summer period)
3. Chongchoho Lake. Right in the middle of the city, it is a place of quiet respite, horseback riding, leisure sports and peace and quiet.
4. The “pull boat” and the N.Korean village. Right downtown, you take a small pullboat across the river. Made famous in some Korean soapopera, it is something all Koreans do. Then, stop in the N.Korean village for some great grilled fish or famous “sondae”, a specially made sausage.
5. The city tour bus. I usually hate these things but it is a double decker with great views. You stop at all the sites and for $7 , can’t be beat.
Here are some photos from my trip. How about you? What are you doing this summer to recharge your teaching batteries?
Sokcho Port
Seorak San – very high up.
Seorak from below
Try some Pajeon!
The Beach
Me and the Mermaids
I don’t share much of myself here. But I do believe I should and will try to open up more….I’ve no secrets 
Today, while searching for some other poetry, I came across one of my own poems! Wow! Yeah, I wrote poetry for many years. Essays too. Published in small journals (big in Canada but small comparatively). I had a head on me as big as a moose and really thought that “I was it”. Ah, the vagrancies and lightness of being – that is youth!
However, the poem is about Thanksgiving. Also, quite autobiographical and from my own lonely youth on the farm, living close to nature and enjoying my Mom’s wonderful turkey dinners each Oct. (yes, in Canada Thanksgiving is Oct. ).
So here it is. Just enjoy it. I’ve no more pretense about being a “poet”. ……
THANKSGIVING DAY
I remember well
those bright dead days of autumn,
how my brother, the great white hunter
crushed the wee head of the partridge
he had winged.
Crushed it slow and rythmically
with the heel of his heavy boot.
How the farmer, ‘cross the road
filled the burlap sack
with sure and steady hand.
Filled it with a litter of pups
and flung it into the
cold clear water of the crick.
I remember
how my grandpa, at the dinner table
sucked and gummed his turkey
with intense joy and abandon.
The juices edging out the sides
of his eager, hungering mouth.
How my young friends and I
squatted over the chilled stiff fly
and with the delicate hands
of surgeons or lovers to be,
slowly one by one
pulled each leg out from under
its soft blue body.
I remember well
those cool receding days of autumn.
I remember so I give my thanks.
My thanks not a sacrifice to a glaring Moloch
but only,
thanks that I am a man
and not anything else.
