miércoles, enero 19, 2005
dramatico mucho?
today was as interesting as yesterday was good and satisfying. before dawn on monday morning, one of my students (who lives in a trailer park that houses many of my kids) watched his home and everything in it burn down. today he came back to school and we spent the morning routine time talking about what happened to him and his family. luckily, everyone got out unharmed but he literally has nothing anymore--yet has an amazing attitude and seems totally unphased. kids are amazing sometimes. parents, on the other hand, still piss me the fuck off. watching this student go through so much with such grace makes everyone else's problems seem uber-trivial, so i was less than enthusiastic when a "problem mom" marched in this morning asking to talk to me in private. i stuck firm to the decision i made with the asst. principal to not allow pushy moms to take up learning time, but i think that just pissed her off even more. she was up in arms about the maldicion drama from yesterday, but hopefully i got it all resolved today with a little patient (if not silently annoyed) listening and a talk with the kid in question.
science fair is drawing dangerously near, so we drew actual scale pandas and made big bamboo plants. sometimes i wish we had more time for fluff like drawing and singing, i really miss it sometimes. my cell phone went off in class (i have a selena ringer) and the kiddos went CRAZY. i gotta remember to bring that CD to class to bribe them on bad days.
anyway, so my favorite parts of the day happened in the afternoon during our pre-assembly hecticness. kids were coloring the pandas on the carpet area, and my clumsy ass tripped over a pencil box, sending crayons flying all over the place. one of my kids shrieked "¡ay maestra!" with what i think was a 6-year-old's version of disdain, but another just gave me the world's biggest hug, as if to say "I don't care if you're unable to walk straight, i still love you and think you're the bomb." then a bit later, my "behavior problem" gave me a picture of a bamboo plant with a heart over it that said "amor". i confirmed that it was for me, and asked him if i could give him a hug. he wouldn't let go. strange. i'm beginning to think i might have made a connection with him. how bizarre.
the assembly was totally idiotic, i cannot believe the dumbass stuff teachers are subjected to for the supposed benefit of schoolchildren. i wanted to go to sleep SO BADLY. once it was over, i rushed my kids through a quick dismissal then ran to a bilingual teacher training that left me with a million questions about how to do ESL and how to transition my students into english. and i think i might have networked a little bit. this teaching life is getting a little surreal.
science fair is drawing dangerously near, so we drew actual scale pandas and made big bamboo plants. sometimes i wish we had more time for fluff like drawing and singing, i really miss it sometimes. my cell phone went off in class (i have a selena ringer) and the kiddos went CRAZY. i gotta remember to bring that CD to class to bribe them on bad days.
anyway, so my favorite parts of the day happened in the afternoon during our pre-assembly hecticness. kids were coloring the pandas on the carpet area, and my clumsy ass tripped over a pencil box, sending crayons flying all over the place. one of my kids shrieked "¡ay maestra!" with what i think was a 6-year-old's version of disdain, but another just gave me the world's biggest hug, as if to say "I don't care if you're unable to walk straight, i still love you and think you're the bomb." then a bit later, my "behavior problem" gave me a picture of a bamboo plant with a heart over it that said "amor". i confirmed that it was for me, and asked him if i could give him a hug. he wouldn't let go. strange. i'm beginning to think i might have made a connection with him. how bizarre.
the assembly was totally idiotic, i cannot believe the dumbass stuff teachers are subjected to for the supposed benefit of schoolchildren. i wanted to go to sleep SO BADLY. once it was over, i rushed my kids through a quick dismissal then ran to a bilingual teacher training that left me with a million questions about how to do ESL and how to transition my students into english. and i think i might have networked a little bit. this teaching life is getting a little surreal.
