The Details of My Day
I had 2 hours of science first. With no science book or curriculum and little time to plan, I had decided to spend the first hour making snakes (drawing spirals on green paper and cutting them out), which Valerie had done the week before. The students loved this; however I had not planned on them not having scissors (since I had just bought scissors for Sophia, as Valerie had told me that she needed them for class, so I simply assumed the students all had some). Most of the students were patient and good at sharing.
One sweet little girl, Andrea (need I say it? not her real name) drew a very good snake, but was unhappy. I drew one for her. Still unhappy. I gave her an extra sheet of paper. She threw it on the floor. When the assistant came in, she learned from Andrea that she was unhappy because she did not draw a snake, so the assistant helped her make one. I explained to her that I had attempted to help her, I was not simply ignoring her.
Alex was a big problem this time. He spent more time screaming and making paper airplanes than even pretending to work. At one point he ran out of the classroom. I tried to chase him down, then realized that this would make it worse. When I resumed teaching, he poked his head out from behind the classroom's open door.
Towards the end of the period, I gave out stickers to students who had finished their snakes and had cleaned up their trash. Alex pretty much threw a tantrum. It was time to go to the canteen and get breakfast, but he refused to budge. All he would do was scream "STICKER!" The assistant begged me to give him a sticker, so he would go eat. I could not believe her lack of understanding about discipine and refused. Although I did feel a bit sorry for her. But, really, if he didn't get breakfast because he chose to throw a fit about the sticker, then maybe he would learn a lesson.
After breakfast and later in the day the assistant tried to help him finish his snake. He never did. He never got a sticker.
He reminds me exactly of a certain student I had last year, even his face looks the same (despite the difference in nationality).
Another student, Ryan, cut himself with scissors. I was alone with the students and had no clue what to do. Luckily, the teacher's room is across from my room, so I chanced leaving the room--with Alex in it--to go to the teacher's lounge. My teachers were not there, but other Kazakh teachers were there, and they took him to the nurse. She put something on it, like a goo or something. He kept playing with it and it bled some more, so I finally gave him a band-aid from my purse. Band-aids are very American, and when he saw it, he shouted with joy, "Sticker!"
For the second hour of science I read a book called "Nests." I wrote on the board, "Animals have homes." I made the students copy the sentence into their Russian notebooks. Then they drew pictures of the animals in the story. Other than Alex, who continued to throw a tantrum, and Andrea, who continued to pout. I moved Matthew away from Andrea. He drew pictures of men and other things, not the animals, and he and Andrew were bothering each other.
Alex at one point ran from the classroom and open the door just enough to continually spit into the classroom. When students pointed this out to me, I said as clearly I as could, "He wants me to look at him. So I do not look at him. If he is good, I will look at him." I think they got the point, and smiled and ignored him too.
During this hour I managed to give stickers to two boys, David and Ryan, who had not previously earned stickers. However, I made a point of taking away their stickers when they got out of their seats to punch someone. And I returned the stickers when they returned to their tasks.
After the lesson, the Saudi Arabian boy's nanny asked the assistant what was up with Alex. The answer? "He wanted a sticker." Both the nanny and I knew that that was NOT the answer.
After a "free" period (planning and organizing, yet not in the classroom because the students are in there, with another teacher) I went to teach math to 2B. The assistant and Kazakh teacher spoke little English, yet were very friendly and seemed to have a firmer grip on discipline. The 2nd graders were much better behaved than the 1st graders, although they too got noisy. I had to move one boy to another seat, at which point he promptly got to task and behaved.
We did the numbers to 20, and the students moved more swiftly than my 1st graders had. I luckily had quickly made copies of a worksheet, as work for early finishers. I had to write down in the teacher's book what the homework was, so I put down to finish the worksheet. They had asked me for the homework at the beginning of the period--I didn't even know if homework is given at this school! So of course I did not know. The students stay at the school until 5:00, in after school activities or just bored in the classroom with the assistant. It's a long day, I was thinking perhaps they don't need homework after such a long day.
When I heard the Kazakh music in the hall, I assumed that this meant that the lesson was over, but the kids stayed in their desks. We had finished our lesson--was I supposed to teach more? I could work on higher numbers or review the lower numbers. Luckily the assistant came in shortly and she confirmed that the lesson was over. Just that these students don't run like madmen into the hall when the music sounds.
I then had another free period, and then went to lunch with Valeria. Yes, lunch is provided every day, I believe it is free, and we do not eat with the students (the assistants do that). Yes, most of the Kazakhs eat every bite. I cannot do that, but I do appreciate a free, healthy meal. That can be my dinner, and I don't have to worry about cooking for me.
After lunch I had more free time, which was mostly spent with the assistant principal. We have to do a long-range plan of some sort for our subjects (English, Math, and Science). It does not look too hard. I voiced my concerns about Sophia in the 1st grade. I asked how old the children are in 2nd grade. After teaching them, I could see that they were not ahead of Sophia in English or math, but more advanced than the 1st grade, and perhaps that would be a better fit for Sophia. She is almost 7 now already. The vice principal admitted over and over that he really was not in a position to know. He does not know about the younger grades, although he has worn himself thin helping to teach the upper grades this past month. I said that I would talk to Christie, see what she thinks, as she taught 1st grade last year and teachers 2nd this year, and would know best about what they learn in the classes. He said I should also talk to the principal, of course. He did ask, though, if Sophia was reading, implying that the 2nd graders are reading. I answered that she was reading better than the 2nd graders were!
After school Sophia proudly showed me the Russian book her Russian teacher had given her. She had asked Sophia to read a page. I stared dumbfounded at the page filled with Russian words, in Russian letters. Really? I'm teaching my kids "Hello" and the Russian teacher is trying to get Sophia to read?
After my meeting with the assistant principal, I had one more class--math--to teach. We did a worksheet just like the one the 2nd graders did, however this took the whole class period. There is no clock in the room, and my cell phone is off a bit on the time, and so I had no idea the period was nearly over when the Kazakh music sounded that class was over.
Alex was well-behaved and did his work (I think that someone had a talk with him) and was very pleased when I gave him a smiley face. Andrea and a few others had a hard time.
Then I had more planning time, which quickly went by. That afternoon I used the computer when the room was empty, and Andrea snuck up on me and tickled me. Since she had spent most of the day not working and ignoring me, I was pleased to have her interact with me. She stayed in the room quite a while, sneaking up on me and tickling me and giggling.
I was in the room when parents came in, and so I got to talk to a few. Alex's father was completely unlike the parents of the boy that he reminds me of. He was very friendly and responsive when I explained that Alex had trouble doing his work. (I did not go into detail about the spitting, yelling, etc.)
Another parent asked about her son, who had been absent yesterday I explained that in one day, I could not tell much, but I did tell her what we had done and said I was definitely willing to talk with her ever day about what we did (as she asked.)
After school Sophia was very talkative I let her play on the playground a bit. I asked her if it was hard being in a classroom where the other students don't speak English. But they do speak English, she protested, a little. And she explained how she was had helped the Chinese girl learn English. And the Chinese girl had shared her chocolate with Sophia. And she giggled a lot as she talked about how she saw so many boys in their underwear (apparently, the girls and boys do not change separately for PE. Today was her PE day. She wore jeans and a t-shirt. Most the kids were in sweats or something similar.) She had a teacher take her to the bathroom to change, because in South Carolina, boys and girls don't see each other naked.
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