Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday

I am putting all three of those days together, because honestly I can’t really remember the difference between each day…the fact of it is that my week was horrid…even Monday was bad…but I will try to highlight on the more interesting things.

Forgetting: You can ask anyone in my family and they will tell you that I have this amazing memory…and I still can’t understand why they say that…because I don’t. But they will still ask me to remember things and I will forget and then remind them two hours or even days later. So on Wednesday (which was a particularly bad day) around 2:35 I marched one of my kids down to Miss Cramer’s room to go and stand in the corner. And went back into my classroom where my kids were talking and screaming and had to lecture them about what I expected and how disappointed I was of them and how I did not want them to act this way on Thursday. By then it was 3 o’clock and one of my kids ran up and said “Teacher it is three!” At which point I told the kid…”Well you all aren’t doing what I asked you to do…so you are staying in the classroom until you do it.” So after a few minutes of me shouting and them shushing each other I had prayer and they were able to go home…I looked around the classroom to make sure that all of them took their stuff and then wondered why Kota left his back pack. But still I had no clue…that is until Robert one of the 3rd graders came into my classroom and said “Miss Ford!” That was when it hit me. “Kota!” I had forgotten Kota. I pushed my way through all of the kids that were on the porch and entered Miss Cramer’s classroom…and there was Kota who had been standing for 30 minutes waiting for his teacher to come back…faithful little Kota just staring at the corner of the wall…hoping to be remembered…and I his teacher who had sent him to be punished had forgotten him. As I walked him back I told him to look on the bright side…he missed the lecture that I had given his classmates…but he was silent and when he got to the classroom he picked up his backpack and asked if he could go...

What did I just tell you: Now there are simple things that I will ask my kids to do, like quietly standing in line or please work on this worksheet quietly…but that concept my kids just can’t understand…my kids are never quiet unless their heads are down and I am standing over them telling them that I don’t want to see their eyes…that I want them to be intensely studying their desks. Even then some of the kids don’t understand what I mean when I say “heads down” they are sitting up or looking around or drinking water or coming up to me and asking if they can go pee. Then those that have their heads down will rock back and forth in their chairs or tap their pencils on their desks or make these really annoying hiccupping noises…so even then they aren’t truly quiet, but sometimes that is all the time that I need.
And when my kids step out of line and are talking and yelling I will have to scream over them and ask “What did I just tell you!” and I am usually greeted by a classroom full of little blank faces as my kids just give me the look of sheer stupidity. As if to say “Why teacher we are perfect little angels…does it really matter that we weren’t listening? We always do what we want in the classroom…even if you take away our recesses and send us to Miss Cramer’s classroom or even to the principal’s office. What a silly question to ask.” But after a few seconds of me giving them “the look”…one of my kids will stutter and then say “Teacher, you…you told us to stand quietly in…in line while…you…you checked our spelling” Bingo…nice to know that teachers still have the power to give “the look” and instill fear into the hearts of their children…that is like the only thing that will make my students stop whatever they are doing without me having to even raise my voice…

New Student: On Wednesday Mrs. McGuire came into my classroom and told me that outside I had a new student. Oh joy, thought I…I now have 18 little children to follow me around. So I walked out the door and looked around…and found my new student clinging to the wall. The poor little kid was “shy” as his mother said…but the problem was I couldn’t get him to let go of the wall…All too soon TM came out and started talking to Trumaine (my new student) and finding that they knew each other I was hoping that TM could get him inside…but that certainly didn’t work. Although I could totally understand…new school, new teacher, seventeen kids that he had never seen…well actually he knew two so only 15 kids that he didn’t know. But still new things can be scary…I felt so bad that I had this little kid outside my room that was too scared to come in to the classroom…I couldn’t continue teaching knowing that I had this scared little child outside my door…so I stopped and looked out the door…I walked over and got down to his level and asked him if he would live to join our class…he nodded his head, but wouldn’t let got of the wall…I took his hand and told him that he would have to let go of the wall if he wanted to join our class…I called TM over and he tried to force his friend into the classroom…that was when I saw his father coming up the stairs…”Oh no…Please tell me that you aren’t going to beat him right in front of my students” (apparently that is what they do here on the island if their kids misbehave…they beat them) Mother and Father stooped down and just calmly started talking to their son. I went in and started teaching my students because they were more interested in what was going on outside then I wanted them to be. As I was reading the worship story in came the mother holding a squirming Trumaine…she apparently took matters into her own hands. He squirmed and tried to run until she plopped him into his seat next to TM…that was when he stopped crying and looked calmly around the classroom…totally content in his new surroundings. I found it rather amusing that he really did want to come in…but oh the effort his parents had to put in to get him through that door.

A Bad Day: Now how my housemates can tell that I have had a bad day…is that as soon as I come into the apartment after four I immediately change into my Pajamas, find a book to read…make some food and sit on the sofa and remain silent until asked a question…then I tell them about my day and go into my room and sleep for one or two hours…when I wake up I am usually more chipper and ready to look at things in a more positive light. This week was horrible and today being Thursday that is just what I did…when Becky came in the apartment as I was walking out of our bedroom she remarked “Already in your pajamas? Was today really that bad?” I told her that my week had been horrid and I didn’t know what to do with my class…I have tried just about everything that I can think of to make them excited about learning and to make them listen…and so far I have failed at every attempt…just makes the end of your week wonderful…but tomorrow is Friday and the class picnic…and I am determined to have fun with my kids…no matter what…besides water balloon fights are always fun. Not to mention children high on candy.