Catholic School, Girls Rule and Boys Drool (no bias; Joyce played the part of a princess in my skit)

Ray woke us up at 6:30 this morning. For a casino culture where stores don’t open until 11, this is really early. We didn’t have to wake up for an hour. The good news: he made us breakfast. It consisted of curry noodles with tofu and veggies. It was fabulous. He takes good care of his girls. The other day he brought us all PB sandwiches with chocolate and craisins….just as a snack. Nice guy.

Today started with 5^th graders. “Gude Mourning Miss Hawwww.” It’s cute. The school I teach at on Wednesdays is a Catholic school and I’m beginning to understand why my father turned out so perfect. (You’re welcome, Dad.) Okay so maybe the part about my dad was a stretch, but if most Catholic schools are anything like the one I teach at, there is structure, structure, structure. I was concerned at first that  teacher (me) would be doing something wrong during one of their routines because I wasn’t aware of all of them. Also interesting is that the teachers switch classes instead of the students. I guess with multiple levels and primary school aged children, this makes sense.

My first class of 5^th grade boys were a little out of order today. Yes, I’m aware that contradicts what I said above. It’s difficult to discipline the whole class. I can raise my voice and threaten the ones that understand me, but for those that don’t know much more than a lick of English (which I’m finding is closer to 20 to 25% of my class), they don’t know what ‘be quiet’ means. Hmmm. How do you sign that? Your actions.

Interesting connection and side note—I saw two men signing Chinese Sign Language to each other on the bus today. I never really figured out why there was both Chinese Sign Language and ASL (American Sign Language). I’m sure there’s a reason.

Okay, back to the school. The second and third classes of fifth graders were much better behave, though much poorer English. It’s interesting how I go in with one lesson plan and teach it differently to each class. The skit I chose failed EPICALLY in my first class so I skipped it for the second class. The third class tried it and it was a successful teaching method I felt. It’s all Joyce….she’s my girl!

We had English corner today with many of the similar lunch table students. The girl from Beijing was back. She asked Ray about his political views—which kind of blew us out of the water because she’s from mainland China and they don’t seem to generally talk politics unless it’s repeating something the government told them…at least that’s my experience. Maybe she realizes she can discuss it for the first time in her life.

I barely had enough time to start grading my papers from my 5^th graders before I had to leave for my second class of 1^st graders. Today went much better. These kids had wayyyy more energy, but it was still controlled. The issue was the technical issues. I’m not sure how I was supposed to upload the songs I was using online if the computer was having issues…But I find that a teacher’s number one motto must be “back up, back up, back up plan.” So we sang the song “I’m an H, an F, a B” to what you probably know as  “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” We made the letters with our bodies while we sang, kind of like how you do in the song “YMCA.”

When it was time to part ways, I had to take the kids to the gym to meet their parents. The Chinese assistant teacher asked me to hold the hand of one little boy who couldn’t take the stairs alone. I think that was the best part of my day. It hit me that I haven’t had human touch since the airport in the U.S. outside of handshakes. Human touch is surprisingly important to mental health and growth (as shown in some research study someone probably got paid too much to do). It’s not that I long for touch—don’t pity me or get sad now, I’m doing great here—but it just helped me realize firsthand how incredibly lonely some people are on an ongoing basis because no one will touch them. So go hug somebody, or at least put an arm around them if you can’t do the 2 arm hug.  Even if they stink, you can always shower later (some of you guys probably need motivation to shower anyway ;) ).

The work day is over, but I’m excited that my next venture is dinner with a girl from church. She’s one of the ones I had lunch with and she has a sense of sarcasm. LOVVVE IT!!! She shares my faith and my true language (the one other than English…sarcasm). She said for her Teach for America interview they’d asked what would make her break her 2 year contract. She answered, “if I fell in love with one of my students.” She actually said that! And she still got a job offer! Great stuff.

So I’m off to laugh. As if I ever do anything else...

Oh yeah, here's the view from my computer right now. The camera doesn't do it justice.