Wow, what a day. Having 13 kids is almost a surreal experience. At times, you look around and think to yourself, "Where is the rest of the class?!" and then you realize that they're all there. Nobody is up talking with the principal, no kids are off in the "Language!" program, nobody's at music, blah blah blah. It's great. When you're in a pinch and need something quick-like, you grab your TA, and she runs off to make the copies for you. Wow. I can't tell you how many times in the last decade plus I've really needed something and had to "wing it" because I couldn't get back up to the office (or conversely, you roll the dice and kind of saunter out the door, making it look like you're NOT going anywhere, then SPRINTING to the office to make the copies, check your mailbox, etc.). Now, those days are behind me. We're not in LUSD anymore...
The kids. What can I say about the kids? Well, they're just nice. Nice and smart. I obviously haven't seen too much of their intelligence yet, but just the fact that they're all bilingual impresses me. Even the vast majority of the "American" kids are actually half Polish, or French, or Indian. Additionally, nearly every kid here lives in the old-fashioned household, where mom stays home and dad's off to work at his IT or engineering job. It's kind of crazy that way. My group was definitely super well behaved, and immensely enjoyed watching me misplace things, struggle with technology (at points, I vacillated between threatening the Apple TV/LCD projector and sweet talking it, and then all the way to pleading with it to work). What's super hilarious to me is the fact that I can tell that these kids aren't used to having a joker for a teacher. There's this one kid, Paul (who's French) who I swear spent the first hour of the morning wondering if I was mentally stable or not. He was the first kid I met, and I started joking with him and his mom. The whole time I was trying to elicit some laughter from him, he was looking at me as if to say, "Are you joking? Do I laugh now? Are you crazy and are you going to hurt me?" You could just tell that he was uncomfortable with my banter. However, about an hour into class, after I had cracked them all up a number of times, it was like a lightbulb went off in his head and suddenly he was thinking more like, "This dude is hilarious! What's he going to say/do next?!" Seriously, by the end of the day, he'd laugh SO hard at my jokes, which just encouraged more jokes. It was like I was the funniest dude in the world, and everyone in the crowd was my biggest fan in the world. I threatened them with having to work in the junkyard next door if/when they didn't do homework, I told them that they were all going to have to come up and sing their favorite song to the whole class, I told them that when the class traveled together, everyone would have to hold hands, I said that their first homework assignment was to write a five-page paper on how handsome their teacher was, and my favorite, halfway through class I acted like I had been teaching the wrong class the entire time and that I was actually a kindergarten teacher. Boy, they REALLY fell for that one. They went completely silent as I went over to my laptop and pretended to look up my "actual" room number. They were buying it all! The downside is that now they will probably question everything I tell them from now on, but hey, it was fun while it lasted. Oh, and then my day ended with a personal thank-you email from my principal asking how my day was, thanking me for being on the staff, and then asking if there's anything I need. Quite the contrast from my last six years (and that's putting it lightly)...
Alright, more tales to come, but I need to get down to the pool. Also, after I get home, I'm going to my first meditation class tonight from 6:30-9:00. That's gonna be intense. After that, I imagine that I lie down in bed and faintly remember my head hitting the pillow.
Ben
BTW- I'm uploading the four pictures of the four groups of kids on my FB page. Way easier than uploading to here.
The kids. What can I say about the kids? Well, they're just nice. Nice and smart. I obviously haven't seen too much of their intelligence yet, but just the fact that they're all bilingual impresses me. Even the vast majority of the "American" kids are actually half Polish, or French, or Indian. Additionally, nearly every kid here lives in the old-fashioned household, where mom stays home and dad's off to work at his IT or engineering job. It's kind of crazy that way. My group was definitely super well behaved, and immensely enjoyed watching me misplace things, struggle with technology (at points, I vacillated between threatening the Apple TV/LCD projector and sweet talking it, and then all the way to pleading with it to work). What's super hilarious to me is the fact that I can tell that these kids aren't used to having a joker for a teacher. There's this one kid, Paul (who's French) who I swear spent the first hour of the morning wondering if I was mentally stable or not. He was the first kid I met, and I started joking with him and his mom. The whole time I was trying to elicit some laughter from him, he was looking at me as if to say, "Are you joking? Do I laugh now? Are you crazy and are you going to hurt me?" You could just tell that he was uncomfortable with my banter. However, about an hour into class, after I had cracked them all up a number of times, it was like a lightbulb went off in his head and suddenly he was thinking more like, "This dude is hilarious! What's he going to say/do next?!" Seriously, by the end of the day, he'd laugh SO hard at my jokes, which just encouraged more jokes. It was like I was the funniest dude in the world, and everyone in the crowd was my biggest fan in the world. I threatened them with having to work in the junkyard next door if/when they didn't do homework, I told them that they were all going to have to come up and sing their favorite song to the whole class, I told them that when the class traveled together, everyone would have to hold hands, I said that their first homework assignment was to write a five-page paper on how handsome their teacher was, and my favorite, halfway through class I acted like I had been teaching the wrong class the entire time and that I was actually a kindergarten teacher. Boy, they REALLY fell for that one. They went completely silent as I went over to my laptop and pretended to look up my "actual" room number. They were buying it all! The downside is that now they will probably question everything I tell them from now on, but hey, it was fun while it lasted. Oh, and then my day ended with a personal thank-you email from my principal asking how my day was, thanking me for being on the staff, and then asking if there's anything I need. Quite the contrast from my last six years (and that's putting it lightly)...
Alright, more tales to come, but I need to get down to the pool. Also, after I get home, I'm going to my first meditation class tonight from 6:30-9:00. That's gonna be intense. After that, I imagine that I lie down in bed and faintly remember my head hitting the pillow.
Ben
BTW- I'm uploading the four pictures of the four groups of kids on my FB page. Way easier than uploading to here.
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