Day 183: Enthusiasm to the Rescue

Finally... finally... finally... Enthusiasm returned to my teacher spirit, and, at the same time, so did crazy initiative. Today, instead of going to lunch, I sat down for an hour and a half and mapped out the next two and a half weeks of school for every single class I have, and planned out what I'd do for all of them - all 17 of them.

Holy crap.

This morning I introduced my 3rd graders (one of my most adorable and favorite classes) to their new penpals - and they were ENTHRALLED with the whole thing!! They set right to work writing them back and took it SO seriously. At the end of class when we told them to get ready for recess and then all whined, asking for a few more minutes of class. Then, a few of them begged us if they could take their letters home with them for homework. Yes, 3rd graders BEGGED for HOMEWORK and wanted DESPERATELY to stay in English class instead of go to the PLAYGROUND. o_O

Can you say "BAMF TEACHER AWARD"?! Uh, 'cause I sure can...

Today was also the classes with those two classes (5th and 6th) who I subbed for the other week... and, as per the new norm, they were wonderful. I taught the 5th graders the etymology of the word "ok," and taught the 6th graders the word "moody" by going up to one and being super nice and then going up to one and shaking him and throwing his books on the floor and stomping on them. Aaaaand they will never forget that word. Kinda like how the 4th graders will NEVER forget the word thunder because of the epic day I threw a book on the floor with as much might as I could, and then calmly looked up and said, "And that's the sound thunder makes. Any other questions?" They now beg me every class to demonstrate thunder to them again. Hee hee... ;) And the other awesome thing I taught the 6th graders? "K I S S I N G... First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage!" Yep. I went there. And yep, they loved it... Except maybe the two towards whom everybody directed the song! ;)

Another adorable happening was in 1st grade, where I decided it was Cat in the Hat day. Who knows... Anyway, I put on a video of Justin Bieber (!) reading the book, and gave them little finger puppets of the characters to color and cut out. It turned out to be THE most successful class I've had with those tiny people and they just ATE IT UP. They were all going around the room at the end, finger puppets on fingers, talking to their friends' finger puppets... in English. Oh, my. What have I done!? o_O Haha!! Another cute thing was a girl came up to me and told me that her mom went and saw the Lincoln movie last weekend. "But Lincoln is dead, you know. He died in America. My mom told me. It was in the movie." Welp... can't win 'em all... but the fact an ADD Spanish 6 year old has some semblance of an idea of who Lincoln was probably knocked the SOCKS off of that girl's mom... which I'll totally settle for. ;)
 
But what really got me excited today was the plan I created for my Bachi boys' class. Oh. My. God. It's going to be the craziest, most awesome thing ever. More or less. ;) I asked their teacher if she had any plans for them for the next two weeks before break and she said no and was overjoyed that I wanted to take up four class periods with them. AWESOME!! And so here's their new project - which will commence at 10:05 tomorrow morning:

Their class will be converting itself into a burgeoning indie magazine start-up. The topic of the magazine? SPRING BREAK: 2013!!! ^_^ Each of the 10 students will be a reporter for the magazine and will write four articles each on four specific topics: Destination, Music, Fashion and Food. We have four class periods to complete the project - which is not by chance. See, for the first 15 -20 minutes of each class, I will begin by briefing them on the topic and will pull up some information and images for them and give them a little background on the day's topic. Reporters will then workshop ideas and brainstorm, resulting in each signing up for a subtopic and an angle. An angle you ask? Yes. An angle. Two of their four articles will need to be written from a creative angle, such as: an advertisement, a multiple choice quiz, an infographic, a poem, a flowchart quiz, a recipe, etc. Reporters will then have the second half of class to research and write their article. Articles must be finished and edited before the next class. I am the editor and will edit for English grammar and spelling mistakes. Each article gets one go around with the editor. After that, any mistakes present in the final draft will count against their grade.

Students will be assessed on four catergories:
1) Participation in Workshopping
2) English Grammar and Spelling
3) Creativity, Presentation and Style
4) Content of articles

To step things up a level, awards will be given for the top article in each of the four categories, so students must work hard to have their article win. At the end of the project, all students will be given a copy of their complete magazine!

UM, I would just like to take this chance to say that I. Am. Amazing.

When I burst through the door tonight at 11:30 and spilled my ideas to Abby, she looked at me with sleepy eyes and then said, "I don't know why you're always saying you're a bad teacher and you're not cut out for the job. You seem to really get a kick out of it all."

Why yes, yes I do. But mostly because I just really don't take it that seriously. I really don't go into a class and think to myself, "How am I best going to teach my students something new today and open up their worlds for the future?" Instead, I think to myself, "How can I make them giggle and really just totally amuse them today so that they go home and when their parents ask at the dinner table, 'What did you do today?' they start giggling to themselves and blurt out something really random I did that day, their parents will look at each other with confusion, but the kid will know it was awesome." There's just so much dullness in the school day - and so many adults who have forgotten what it's like to be kids. It's just like the Petit Prince says when he notes how adults tend to need to be explained things multiple times, and even then, they probably still won't get it. And how adults do crazy stupid things all the time, but are too serious to realize it.

Which brings me to the last bit about my day...

Mr. Nacho Man.

:-/

How many blogs have I written about our adorable classes together?? So, so many. But the past few weeks with him have just been... bad. It all started the day he grabbed my glasses and bent them so far that I thought he was going to break them. I grabbed his hands and told him very sternly to STOP it. It very much startled him, as I'd never raised my voice with him, and the rest of the class was very unpleasant... as all of them have been since then (except last Tuesday when we dressed up the Barbies... but even that only was half of the time). I knew I was going to have to get to the bottom of it, but I had no idea how to. And then today happened.

In class, he sort of ignored me, as he has been doing the past two weeks, but by the end he was having fun with his finger puppets along with the rest of him. On the car ride he was quiet, as his mom had told him she wasn't feeling well and after he got on her nerves a few times, he chilled out. But at some point as we neared home, he started grabbing my scarf and basically choking me. I took my scarf off so as not to start another scene, and he hid it in his lunchbox. When we got home, he made some comment about how I was missing my scarf and his mom yelled at him for leaving it in the car, when all of a sudden he pulled it out of his lunchbox and laughed. This did not help things. When we got in front of their door, she told him to hold his school bag with her bag of students' notebooks on top, but when he began to fool around again, the whole thing fell over and made a huge noise, as things spilled everywhere. This was pretty much the end of the line for his mom and she smacked him on the nose - not hard at all, but the motion itself was enough to completely startle him, and he started to cry. She told him to quit crying and that it was his fault.

And that's how the lesson began. Joy.

When I went inside and got to his room, he told me to leave. I told him I couldn't, so he told me to stand in the corner. He left and I started to look for markers for our daily coloring sheet we both do, but when he came back and saw me looking through his drawers, he lost it. He said it was his stuff and his house and I could just leave. But when he saw the coloring sheet, he told me to give it to him. I told him no - if he couldn't share, neither could I. He told me fine - I should leave his house. I walked out of the room and closed the door and held it closed, when he tried to open it, I kept it closed... which made him really lose it. When I opened it, he ran to his mom crying, telling her I was being mean and that he wanted me to leave right now. She told him to get his big boy pants on and to stop being so whiny and to go play.

He calmed down for a little while, but then he was trying to glue papers to my new jacket, color with green markers on my neck, tie me to a door and steal my cell phone - and when he succeeded at this, he took it into the dining room and played with it under the table. I followed him, trying not to make a scene (he'd already been yelled at enough), but then he lost his grip on my phone and it flew across the room and under the couch. And THAT was a loud enough noise to alert his mom.

She stomped into the room and SCREAMED at him. He screamed back that it was all my fault and she screamed back that she's never seen me angry before, so he must have really been being a naughty boy. He told her he never wanted me to come back. She told him that if he couldn't play nice, he would never go to Chuck E. Cheese again (well, Spain's version of it, anyway). That threat really got him, and so he shut up and stomped to his bedroom. When I got there, he told me to leave. She heard him and screamed his name. He ran and hid under the chair, under his desk.

Holy crap.

I gotta say, I'm really not a big confrontation girl. Not when it comes to my parents. Not when it comes to my relationships. Not when it comes to my friends. Not when it comes to strangers. And not when it comes to little kids. I. Just. Don't. Do. Confrontation. Well. (AT ALL). The only two times I've had major confrontation issues here in Spain I've 1) ... literally run away as fast as I could and went missing for a few hour and cried to an old lady who told me the good word of Jesus and handed me a Jesus calendar to cheer me up. 2) ... listened to Maroon 5 as loud as I could for an hour, took a train as far away from the person as I could get, and then didn't speak to them much for 48 hours until I could deal with it all.

So imagine how great I am when trapped in the same room as a Spanish 6 year old who is crying, scared, upset, mad, furious and cowering under a chair.

SHIT.

No doubt I'm the only adult in THAT situation... now what?!

I tried to channel some zen Chelsea master (aka my yearish of "therapy" court ordered during my parents' divorce), and took a deep breath. I sat as far away from him as I could in that room, with him still being able to see me, to get on his level. I then asked him why he was so angry with me.

(In Spanish - for the first time all day, actually:) "Because every time you're here my mom gets mad at me and it's not fair because it's your fault."

(In English - 'cause I never talk to him in Spanish:) "What is all my fault?"

(In Spanish and English:) "That you get mad and are mean. And I don't ever want you to come to my house again."

(In English:) "Well I'm sorry. I just don't like you drawing on my skin and gluing things to my coat and taking my phone. I've told you that."

(In English:) "No. You've NEVER told me that."

"I haven't?"

"No."

"Oh... Well, would you like me coloring on you and gluing things to you and hiding your stuff from you?"

"No..."

"Well, I don't really like it, either."

We both fell silent. For at least five minutes. Maybe more. I didn't know what else to say. The kid had made some valid points - his mom DID seem to get mad at him a lot around me, but that WAS because he was doing stuff he shouldn't be doing, but it WAS true I'd never explicitly told him I really didn't like it in a calm way. Suddenly, I could see where he was coming from. And it was all because I'd calmly asked him and he'd answered - and, what's more was, he answered mostly in ENGLISH!! O_O

Seriously, I could never be that emotional and understand somebody in Spanish and, on top of it, answer them with emotionally charged answers, still half crying, in Spanish. How does this kid do it so flawlessly!? Man!!

While I sat there - looking at the floor, not wanting to make any sounds or movements, but just let him know that I was still there and not any sort of a threat - I marveled at what had just taken place: A Spanish 6 year old had just opened up to me about what was really bothering him, all because me, the American 23 year old, had calmly sat down and earnestly asked him why he was so upset. And I didn't try to defend myself, I just really wanted to know and to hear him. And how many adults do that? And then apologize for making a kid feel bad, after they've heard their reasoning? And then give them their space again?

The only other time this had happened with me was one time with Sam. He was a little older than Nacho, I think, but only maybe by a year. Sam had had a friend over while he and I were there alone together. I was doing something and his friend and him were being super loud and annoying. I must have already been in a bad mood, because I lost it with them. I yelled at them to stop being so obnoxious and totally embarrassed Sam in front of his friend - and I quickly realized it. I didn't mean to... but that's what had happened. Sam and I didn't talk for the rest of the day, but later, at night, when we were watching the Discovery Channel together and laying on the sofa together, I wrote him a note and apologized for yelling at him and his friend. I told him I'd had a bad day, but it was no excuse and I felt really bad. He read it and wrote me back that it was okay, but as he wrote it he had the tiniest smile on his face - and he really meant it when he wrote that it was okay now. I felt pretty good about it all that a 7 year old and an 18 year old could have a tiff and then make up in such a way. I'm pretty sure the next day I took him to McDonald's to make it up to him, though - 'cause I still felt hella bad about it.

After the 5ish minutes past, Nacho slowly came over to me, and climbed over my knees to leave the room. Two seconds later he came back. I flipped over to make a lump for him to step over this time, and he giggled a little. When he came back the other way I made a bridge for him to go under. This came continued for another five or ten minutes until the doorbell rang, signaling time was over. By the time we left his room, we were both giggling and all smiles again. <3

When I went to leave, his mom told me she didn't know what'd come over him, but that she assured me every day he'd ask why I couldn't come over and play that day, too. That all his talk about never wanting me to come back was silly, because he always asks if I can come over more. It was good to hear that, because for the past few weeks, I keep wondering if one day she'll come up and tell me that he really doesn't want me to come and that she thinks it's time to quit the lessons. The money is nice, but really I would just be devastated because I really do adore the little guy. I really hope tonight's conversation will change things a little and that we can get back to being the awesome duo we've always been.

And - either way - I'd just like to say that this kid's English has gone from 0 - practically fluent in a matter of six months... and that's just ridiculous and awesome, at the same time! ;)

XOXO