April Fool's Day
Today was April Fool's Day (만우절 in Korean, or 萬愚節 if you prefer the Chinese characters) and mine passed by rather quietly. In years past I've tried to trick my students by telling them that they'll have to take their big level test, though with the way our academy's schedule turned out today really was when everyone had to take their level tests. I did manage to get two classes convinced their test was canceled and we'd be having a pizza party instead, but they were also students who I started teaching this month and who don't know me that well yet. My 'regular' classes weren't so easily swayed by mention of snack food on test day.
One other trick that I tried - after my students knew it was 만우절 - was to come up with two obvious lies when talking with students. Something like saying "I love you" to a male student, telling someone that I would go to their house for dinner, or confiding to a student that I was really a girl. After the obvious falsehoods were out in the open I'd go up to a third student, always the best in the class, and tell them "you're a good student". This usually confused everyone as they saw it first as a compliment and then as a trick before finally asking how I'd intended it to come across. This is where picking the best students became important, as their self-esteem and confidence is usually high enough where they could laugh at the joke and wouldn't see it as an attack on their abilities.
Overall it looked like everyone enjoyed the teasing, especially given how some of it was self-directed. None of my students tried to pull one over on me today, though my favorite 만우절 moment from year's past was the girl who approached me before class to say:
"Teacher, today is my last day at the academy!"
"Oh, really? Why is today your last day?"
"Well, I think you're a bad teacher. I asked my mom to change to a new school."
" ... "
"Noooo. It's a joke teacher. 만우절!"