Day 249: Chivar

I got in trouble twice at school today - and I only had two hours of class! >_<

First class of the day: Difficult 2nd Grade Boy was being difficult. I tried to ignore it, but when he hit one of my favorite kids in the face, I grabbed him and put him in a corner of the classroom. I told his behavior was not okay and told him to sit down cross legged and cross his arms and to think about what he'd just done. I left them in that corner for 8 minutes (just like Super Nanny instructs), and when I came back I asked if he was ready to do his work and behave properly. I couldn't believe he'd sat there like I'd told him the whole time - he usually runs around screaming - and I couldn't believe he calmly talked about things afterwards and agreed. I shook his hand and smiled at him and he smiled back. I gave him the option of reading instead of coloring (he doesn't like coloring, and dude I can't blame him), and he gladly took a book and sat down.

All the kids tried to tell on him about reading and tell me that he'd thrown his work away. I looked at him and he started to get defensive, but I simply asked him if it was true. He said it wasn't, so I went to the bin, noticed nothing was in there, and told the kids they were wrong and not to tell me incorrect information. Again, he smiled.

At the end of class, I realized he hadn't made any other distrubances, which is a super big rarity for him, and was proud of him. He'd brought a frisbee to school and had started playing with it at the beginning, but when I'd told him he could pass it to one friend if he'd put it away after that, he got really excited and did just that. But as class was over, he got it out to bring out to recess. He was clearly really excited about it, so I asked him to toss it to me. You'd think I'd just told him that today was actually Christmas and to go home and eat candy and open presents!! Ha.

As soon as he threw it, though, the teacher looked at me and said, "Um, Chelsea. BAD IDEA."

UGH.

Teachers are around kids all day, and yet have TOTALLY forgotten what it's like to be a kid. What the hell.

At least the teacher said it to me and not the kid. But what did suck was based on my swooping in and taking the kid to the corner like that, the teacher realized something was wrong (even though he hadn't been paying attention to even realize it himself) and gave the kid a red sticker in his agenda with a note for his parents to sign for his bad behavior.

Sometimes that red sticker thing is helpful, but more often than not it's like a way for the teachers to "tattle" on the kids and I hate it. He and I had dealt with the situation as it'd happened and all was well again, so why drag it out further? That's one thing Super Nanny promotes - deal with the behavior in the moment and then make sure the kid knows you're happy with them after it's resolved. Seriously.

But what happened in the second class was way worse.

 SECOND CLASS: The students were all working on their blog when I came in (as usual), and so I went around to talk to them (after all, it is an "English Conversation" class). The two most fluent ones in the class didn't have a computer that was working, so I mostly talked to them since they couldn't work on their blog during class time. We got on the topic of their English vocab test in the next hour and I asked to see the list. I was floored when I read the 50 words they were supposed to memorize. Swift. Drag. Barrister. Thumbnail. Demonstration (synonym for "protest"). WHAT THE HELL?! These kids are in 10th grade, and 7/10 of them don't always even use the present simple tense correctly... so why would they ever need words like these?? I always say, if I don't know the word in Spanish, there is no reason a middle or high schooler needs to learn it. In all honesty.

So I was honest with them. I told them to do their best on the test but not to stress about it, because my guess was their teacher probably didn't know half of the words herself. We had a good giggle about it and I went on to try to help them with some of the more difficult ones by making them funnier (Taylor SWIFT, DRAG queen, etc.). I find my strongest aspect about myself as a teacher to be the fact that I am real with kids. I don't act like I'm superior to them in any way. I see no point to being so condescending, because it's honestly just insulting. I remember those kinds of teachers. I learned nothing from them. All they cared about was seeming powerful and it was pathetic. This was one of the classes at the beginning of the year that I was told never ever spoke English because they were too emabarassed and shy to, but I'd gotten at least half of them out of their shell and initiating conversations and giggling about things and enjoying English... all by being real with them. We went over a few more words, giggling about it and then it happened.

Out of NOWHERE the other teacher (who is actually the German teacher, but who has to sit in on my high school classes just 'cause) started YELLING (in Spanish) at the kids I was talking to. She yelled at them for studying for another exam while in this class. She yelled at them for not doing their work on their blog. She yelled at them for sitting around and just talking.

I was FLOORED.

How dare she?!!?!?!?

Last time I checked, this was ENGLISH CONVERSATION CLASS and these kids were CONVERSING WITH A NATIVE IN ENGLISH ABOUT ENGLISH. Exactly where was the problem with that!?!?!?!?

They, being BAMFs about it, argued back. But the more they tried to explain themselves, the more she told them that they were being insubordinate because she was the adult and she was right and how dare they talk back to her.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a quote that says, "Don't raise your voice, make your argument better."

Seriously.

What audacity.

I walked away from them before I became too much more angry and shouted back at her myself.

She left he room in a huff and WENT TO FIND THEIR ENGLISH TEACHER TO TELL ON THEM. And while she was gone I looked at those three with a "WTF was that!?" look on my face. They looked at me and said, "This is nothing new. We're always getting in trouble for doing nothing. Now we're going to have to stay after school on Friday for an hour because of it. You have to help us."

I assured them I'd talk to their English teacher myself - who is my superior and a really awesome person.

When the German teacher got back, it was time to go, but the English teacher was right in tow. I went up to her and briefly explained I had no idea what the problem was, but that the three students should absolutely not be punished for anything. The only response I got was a glare. I was in shock.

I walked out of the room and there was the German teacher, now talking to the head mistress, all whispers.

!?!?!???!??!?!?!?!?!!?!?

It was the most petty, immature, juvenile, ridiculous thing I have ever experienced in this school. I adore this school. There are plenty of things I would change, but on the whole, I love working there and I think the students are lucky to be there. But this one German teacher... she's never liked me... and, to be honest, I've never liked her, either. She's one of those, "I'm better than you" teachers and is always in a huff and always is "so stressed" and is just so dramatic and self important. But to undermine me like that, start gossiping about it and get kids in trouble and treat them like that? I was APPALLED.

I was so upset after that. My blood felt that gross way it feels when it feels like it's about to curdle. I wondered if it would influence the head mistress' notion about offering me a job. But as I began to cool off, I remembered a quote:

"When someone is nasty or treats you poorly, don't take it personally. It says nothing about you, but a lot about them."

So. True.


The second half of my day was significantly better. First, I went to the university to "moderate" at the Bilingual Conference. It was nothing too exciting, but it was a nice change of pace from the usual Friday afternoon of "pereza." :-P

A little later, I went into the city to meet with my friend Jisoo to do our final project for one of our classes. :) We had a ducky time working together and got it all done sitting at a cafe on Gran Via and then recording the voiceover to our PowerPoint in the bathroom of the cafe - hahaha!!! ^_^

After that, I met up with a guy for a conversation exchange. We went out for pizza and then walked around La Latina and he showed me the Main Street with all of the cute tapas bars I'd never managed to find on my own! After walking in a big circle, we went to Malasaña and ended up in an Irish pub drinking cider. I somehow didn't get home until 4am, and yet, truth be told, I really didn't have a super good time - nor did I even speak in Spanish the whole time. >_< Fail.

Anyway, it was a Friday with ups and downs, but an adventurous one all the same. :) And that makes me happy.
XOXO