School Daze

Yes, I’ve been in a little bit of a fog going back to the elementary classroom, to be honest. Actually more like I got smacked in the face and didn’t know what hit me. After two weeks I can say it’s more manageable, and that it’s getting easier to think about going to work, but the beginning was plain ugly.  I was very spoiled by working in a school where there were common agreements about things like walking in the hallway, etc. And I’m never going to learn to love the 6:30 wake up call, or the long contract day, but I believe I’ll be able to do another 180 days, unless things start going downhill.

One of my many challenges was trying to walk beginning level English speakers of the first grade variety from one wing of a very large school to another just to start class each day.  These are students whose teachers don’t practice having them walk in the hallway quietly and in a line, so guess what, they don’t!  That was just where the challenges began, not ended. Today I hit the apex of loopy with my fourth grade group:  The boy with severe behavior issues likes to break into song with the opening bars of the Hallelujah Chorus several times during our 90 minutes together, and he competes for audio time with a sweet girl who has a serious nervous tick of snorting like a pig if she’s asked anything, and whenever she’s writing. 

In my first grade class, I rarely had the same students two days in a row, even though I was supposed to have the same 13 students for every day.  Why?  Confusion arose when the Koreans decide to change their name to an English name and two in the same room choose Frank and two choose Julia, and when you try to take roll to see if you have everyone for the marathon non-walk to my classroom, they won’t answer to their Korean names, and they won’t tell you their English one, so I had to go with whomever was left standing in my line after the other two ESL teachers took their students.  There was usually a kid or two who didn’t belong in my group and a few that had gone with another teacher, or stayed in class.  WHEW! Enough of school….you have to be a teacher to understand how chaotic it can get when students are left to their own devices.

On another note, sometimes I get a big kick out how the Chinese roll.  They have a “I don’t care if it’s not cool, I’m doing it anyway” attitude that I find refreshing most of the time.  Like when you go to IKEA here, it’s common to see people trying out the beds, actually taking naps or relaxing while their spouse shops.  Or if it’s hot, men routinely pull up their shirts over their bellies, and walk around with exposed midriffs, or take them off all together.  The other day at a sports store I was trying to choose some free weights, when a man walking by stopped and picked up a couple and did some reps. In the next aisle there was a group of women getting their exercise with hula hoops, and the kids in the bike section riding the bikes around the aisles, and a ball game was in session in the middle aisles. Then there are the grandparents who bring their freshly bathed grandchildren to the common playground in our compound in the early evening, wearing their own pajamas as well.  You gotta love that level of honey badgering.

Finally, we went to another beautiful garden this weekend, the Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty.  It was drizzling, so we almost had the place to ourselves, and we wanted to move it, it was so serene and beautiful.  Enjoy the pics here:  https://flic.kr/s/aHsk29ZG39