I tried to wake up in a good mood.
I ran to the bus in a good mood.
I went to my first class in a good mood.
I left my last class in a good mood.
I went to the house of the children I am to tutor in a good mood.
But at some point around there, I lost the good mood and thought to myself, "What have I gotten myself into?"
The only word 5 year old Marta wanted to learn was "Poop."
The only word 7 year old Carlos cared to pay attention to was "Soccer."
I give Marta credit - she understood 75% of what I said only in English for 45 minutes. Or, at least, she followed the directions really well if she was just interpreting my gestures. Carlos, on the other hand, couldn't have seemed less interested. Marta kept bursting through his door asking if I was going to come back tomorrow to give her and her teddy bear more classes. Carlos looked at his toy cars and puzzles longingly and wished I would get out of his room already.
Both were jumpy, distracted at times, and refused to speak English. I mean, they're young... okay... but still. The kids in my school are SO disciplined. And now I know why. Their teachers are SO STRICT. Today I brought in a US Flag coloring project for the 2nd graders. When the first three kids finished, the teacher asked them to bring it up to her. She tore each one to pieces, saying their coloring abilities were seriously lackluster and their ability to stay in the lines abysmal. O_O
Later, in 6th grade, I had a teacher SCREAMING at the students for being lazy and disorganized and messy and noisy and awful. When she handed the class over to me, I quickly figured out why she was being so severe.
Kids don't just come disciplined. They need some serious breaking in, apparently. And Spain's not afraid to dish it out.
I'm not sure I can teach these age groups. If you don't care about the subject matter enough to be respectful, then I rather you just stay in the bathroom the whole class rather than interrupt those who actually care. Seriously. I'm not interested in yelling at kids. If they don't care, that's their own issue. They can go away. I had to put up with so many of those types taking my precious learning time away that I have no patience for them. Shit or get off the pot, kids. I'm not here to corral you like goats.
I've always thought I'd be that cool, friendly teacher. But after today I think I'll be more like Sra. Hinchey - my 6-8th grade Spanish teacher. Every boy said that she favored girls, but really she just favored the students who tried and gave a shit. And if you didn't care about Spanish, she didn't give a flying f*** about you. End of story.
This one kid today would not SHUT UP in Spanish. Finally I said he liked to talk so much in Spanish because he was making up for the fact he couldn't say two words in English. He was 10. I felt victorious when he ceased his noise and proved me right.
I'm in these kids' classrooms for ONE hour a week. If you can't be respectful than I don't have any respect for you.
Jeeze, the Spanish education dogma is rubbing off on me quickly...
It'd be a hilarious joke to try to teach American kids after a year longer here at this strict, private colegio where you get scolded for using the wrong colored pen at the wrong time!!!
It's starting to come back to me now how I always wanted more dolls when I was a little girl so that I could line them all up and pretend to be their school teacher. I got dry erase boards for each doll. I got tape strips for each board demonstrating correct cursive (btw - kids here seem to LEARN TO WRITE using cursive... it's way weird... and they are taught to write their 'p's with no close on the circle... so it looks more like an l that thought about being a r and then got confused... o_O). I gave them grades and corrections on all their assignments.
Maybe I have always been interested in teaching.
But it's one of those things that seems so simple until you do it. I always thought my teachers were just slow, but it turns out it's the kids that are slow. For example, I prepared a plan for my 2nd graders today and out of the 9 things I had planned, they got to ONE of them... and even then couldn't complete it... and then whined when I told them to TAKE IT HOME TO FINISH COLORING IT. Are you serious!?!?!? o_O
If I ever return to Colorado, I would like a shot at teaching at Challenge School - where I went to middle school. The gifted and talented environment is clearly the environment in which I need to be teaching. None of this Ineedmorethan30minutestocoloraflag bullshit. No more of this Ican'tshutupfortwoseconds crap.
I see why teachers in Spain yell. Give me one more week and I'll be one of them.
So far, 4th grade is the best grade (though Jr. year in HS isn't bad surprisingly). That's the grade my mom taught. That's the grade my friends teach. And I can see why. They're actually interested in what you have to say, but they're disciplined enough to be able to retain it.
Anyway - the conclusion is that after 1 week and 1 day, I'm still not sure if I'm really interested in this whole teaching thing. Maybe if I had my own classroom and I could do whatever I wanted with them (haha)... but clearly I need more time to decide.
In positive news, I've been possibly presented with TWO more tutoring jobs outside of school, which would mean more money, but even less time for SANITY. o_O But there IS this really cute dress down the street that I really want... and I'd love to travel somewhere cool sometime in the next month or two... ;o)
XOXO
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