Day 154: Picasso

The day started off nicely when Cristina informed me that my absolute favorite student in the whole school - an 11th grader - had specifically asked her if I could give his oral exam.

^_^

Um, awesome.

First period was thus spent with my three favorite Bach ("Bachillerato") boys, reminiscing about our favorite little kid shows and watching Super Bowl commercials. Those three guys are so awesome. :)

Later on I got to give out the second batch of letters to the 4th graders, who were beyond excited to receive them. One girl had given my student her address to snail mail her, and so I had the brilliant idea of Google Street Viewing her house. The whole class just about lost it when they saw her house pop up on the screen. It was a fairly standard American middle-class house, but to the people of Spain, it looked like a mansion. See, people here almost exclusively live in apartments or "chalets" - which is a fancy word for something like a quadraplex, but instead of four mini houses being bunched together, it's more often eight or more. And individual garages aren't really so much a thing here, either - or, if they are, they're underground and fairly small. So to see an individual house, with a big yard and two car garage and no huge metal fence around it made them all shout out that this girl must be the most wealthy girl in America. They all started exclaiming that they wanted to move to America when I told them that this wasn't a rich person house, but a fairly standard one. Who knows... Maybe I unwittingly gave them more motivation to study English harder... Haha!

The rest of the school day went by and before long it was time to start my new lesson with a third grade boy from one of my classes (from here on out, named "Picasso"). I had been warned all day long by Laura that he was a disaster (he'd just gotten a 27% on his last English exam), so I was actually a little scared to start... But as it turned out, it went really well!

On th car ride to their home, his mom was telling me (in English) how excited he was to have me coming over and then, a bit out of the blue, how I was their last hope! She even offered me a live in position with their family for the month of July if I was interested! (Um... Maybe I am!?) The two of them were so enthusiastic, and I couldn't help but feel so myself. After all, this is why I had decided to quit the other family - I wanted to work with someone who could actually benefit from my time and expertise. I wanted someone who looked forward to their time with me and didn't want me to leave. Someone who I could inspire and make a difference with.

And honestly, it looks like I may have found EXACTLY that!

His teacher and mom had told me he was dyslexic and very timid (in fact, I'd never heard him speak in class and barely recognized him as one of my students!)... But I'm never one to go off of what people say until I've given the kid a chance. One of those education studies I learned about in AP Psych Junior year of high school that really stuck with me...

We started with science (something he adores), and his excitement was adorable. We covered planets and space and he was obsessed. I used my coke can to go over the poles and hemispheres. He used his iPad to show how the sun reflected off of surfaces. Brilliant!

But then it was time to get to business - English. Now, science is all in English and he's fine with that, but when it comes to English grammar and writing, etc... He loses all interest. I had him write a few basic things to gauge where he was at. There was no punctuation in his sentences and everything was misspelled - even the words right in front of him. I sympathized, remembering my first Spanish test in Mrs. Hinchey's class and how I'd failed it because of spelling and such things. This wasn't dyslexia... This was just not understanding some basic tricks! No need for these adults to get their diapers in a bundle and then tell him there was something intrinsically wrong, which is why he couldn't do it.

So I started simple. I started with the period.

"Great job! So, I have something to tell you... After every sentence, we need to put a BIG period... Can you draw one?!"

He drew a huge dot and exclaimed, "It's a planet!" He started laughing.

Man, what a clever kid.

"Yeah! It is!! Every sentence needs a big, awesome planet! Let's draw some more planets!"

Oh he was into it now. At the end of all the sentences he drew big, scribbly planet periods, the whole time beaming from ear to ear. Of course, some of the sentences had been questions... And so I told him:

"So, when a sentence is a QUESTION, we put an EXPLODING planet at the end, like this!" I proceeded to draw a question mark.

"Awesome!"

We spent some time discussing how to determine if a sentence was a question or not. And then reviewing that a question makes a planet explode with curiosity and the unknown.

Practice ensued and he got them all correct.

I was prepared to stop there, feeling pretty good about my creativity and general BAMFness when he practically yelled, "You know what my favorite is?" He started to draw something. "A comma!" He has drawn a mini planet with a curvy tail.

I smiled, "You mean... Comet commas?!"

He squealed. I think I did, too. What a BAMF kid! He proceeded to suggest we make a theatrical piece about the planet, exploding planet and comet using his Angry Bird stuffed animals. Hell yes! Let's!

Just then his mom came in and told him it was time for me to go.

Aww, man! I was genuinely a little bummed. I told him to work on the play for next time, and in it desciribe when to use the period, question mark or comma. He was beyond excited and said he'd do a great job! He begged his mom to let me stay, but she insisted I leave on time. :)

She remarked how happy she was to hear him speaking so much (and 100% in English), and how happy he sounded studying something that has given him such troubles for years. And so, the whole experience was just what I'd quit my job for, hoping I would be able to find!! Yay!!