目前分類：School Days (25)

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Children tease each other all the time. Most of the time, they are harmless jokes. However, when the teasing becomes a pattern, it creates a lot of social problems and can easily get out of hand to become a bullying issue. As most of you know that I am such a no nonsense straight shooter with a bit of a twisted sense of humour in me. So, here is a funny incident happened last Friday.

I was on a yard-duty before the school started. Most of the students at this time were usually hanging out in the school yard. Different grade levels tend to hang out with their own respective group. The grade two and three boys have been heavily into basketball, so they like to hang out and play by the basketball net. Some of the older boys like to get involved occasionally and grab their ball just to torment them.

On this particular day, Abdulla came to me suddenly with a scowling face to report an encounter he had with two grade 5 boys. He explained that the boys were bugging him for his soccer ball because he left his soccer ball unattended under the basketball net. They told him that they would give him “3000 boogers” to trade for his soccer ball.

Now, we are dealing with kids here, so it is pretty gross for a little guy to hear that. Plus, this is not a new incident. Some of the little guys often have to put up with this type of nonsense jokes from the older boys. Plus, those two boys, though not considered as bullies at my school, are the usual suspects for enough share of schoolyard mischief.

I know they might be just teasing the little guys, but they surely needed to be taught a lesson. So, I told Abdulla that I would help him settle this matter but he needed to play along with me. He looked at me with a puzzled look, but then he smiled at me and agreed with an OK.

We slowly walked over to the other side of the yard where the grade 5 students were. I called out those two boys and said, “I heard that there is a trading going on. Apparently, you two boys would like to trade with Abdulla for his soccer ball with 3000 boogers. Well, I thought that is a pretty fair trade, so here is the ball. And, Abdulla and I would like to see those 3000 boogers right now!” I turned to look at Abdulla and said, “Right, Abdulla?” Abdulla showed a big grin from ear to ear and nodded.

The boys were stunned and looked at me like I was nuts. I said, “Come on, boys! Here is the ball. I am here to be the negotiator because I thought it is pretty hard to come up with 3000 of that gross stuff. I thought it is a fair trade. So, show me the boogers and here is your ball!”

Those two boys did not move at all. One of the boys sheepishly replied, “It was just a joke. We were joking with him.” I replied, “That is what I thought, too, but he obviously did not think it was funny at all. If you were simply joking with him, you should have told him after he and his friends got really grossed out by you.” I continued, “I am also joking with you, but I don’t see you enjoy my joke very much, either. Correct?”

The boys nodded and later apologized to Abdulla, and so, life moved on from there.

I later shared the story with those two boys’ teacher and my principal. Their teacher and others in the staff room got a kick out of that story because this is not the first time for those two boys. They like to be cool dudes going around to play jokes on others. It is about time for them to realize that they have to be careful when doing that to people they don’t know.

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Last evening, it was our school musical for the grade 2 to grade 5 students. All the classes had to sing in the choir for the musical. Each class as a group had taken a different role in the musical and had to learn quite a few songs. My class was the opening act. They had to sing and dance as “the elves”. I made each student a red scarf. It looked great with the elf hat that I bought for each one of them. A year ago, I found some mini finger flashlights from the dollar store. I had been saving them for a whole year for a special opportunity. We finally used them last night. Each student had two flashlights, one on each hand. The students were just adorable with the whole outfit. The music teacher and I told everybody to wear a white top with dark pants because the elf outfit would be totally perfect with the white. We went through a few dress rehearsals without any problem.

 I have a really good group of students this year. Half of the class has been with me for two years, so they know me and my expectations very well. A couple of the new additions to the class, however, might be a bit challenging at times, but don’t we all have one or two students who are sort of the “mission of the year”? Hahah… Anyway, here is what happened to one of those students last night.

 The concert started at 7:00, so most students were told to arrive at 6:40. However, I told my class to arrive at 6:30 because we were the opening act and we should be getting ready on stage at 6:55. I warned them not to be late or they would be missing the first performance. It did happen before that some students arrived really late, right after their class performances. It broke their hearts!

 All my students arrived on time and wore the appropriate attire. They looked so adorable! Anyway, all of them arrived, except one! The clock ticked and I finally had to give up waiting for her. I grabbed that student’s lights, hat and scarf and lead the class onto the stage. The curtains were drawn and a few minutes before our performance, the girl finally ran up to the stage to join the line, but with a pink and black sweater on! Goodness Gracious! What was she thinking?

 We had been through the rehearsals, and in fact, we had a dress rehearsal that afternoon. I even prepared extra white shirts for people who needed a white shirt. Now she arrived late and with a totally different outfit for the choir. I almost had a fit. I could not drag her off the stage since the show was ready to start. I quickly put the scarf and the hat on her, and send her back to the line.

 All in all, they had a fantastic performance last evening. Today, we had a little discussion in class about last night. I asked the girl why she did not follow the instructions to wear the proper attire for the choir. She said, “My mom said I should be different and be who I want to be.” (What? Can I smack that mother of hers?) Then, I asked her if she actually realized that she was NOT singing as a soloist but in a “choir” for a musical, just like the choir in the church. She said, “I don’t go to church, so I don’t know about the church choir.”  I replied, “I don’t go to church, either, but if I were singing as a member in a church choir, I would have to be singing in unison and dress the same as the others. It is called the teamwork!” Plus, we all got the same instructions as the other classes. Why should she be special? I know the little girl did not make the decision to arrive late, but she did not deliver the messages home correctly, either.

 I am so fed up with people who are so righteous about whatever they want to do and totally disregard the rest of the world. I know I should not be upset with a little girl. However, if she was not told about how her personal decision may affect the team, she would grow up to be another arrogant adult who thinks her personal “freedom of expression” is more important than the priority of the team. Can you imagine seeing a basketball player who decided to ditch the team colour and wear his own jersey instead? That would never happen in the real world. I find that children sometimes behave certain way that mirrors their parents’ attitude. This girl’s mother often comes in to talk to me. Once she had admitted that she is very disorganized herself, and no wonder that the child has difficulty getting herself organized.

 Anyway, my students had a superb performance and the concert is now over. Not only did they sing as the elves, they also worked like the elves helping me promote the holiday food drive for the community. They helped broadcast over the PA system on the daily public announcement, and they went to different classes to collect food. They are good citizens in training. It’s better to start them up when they are young. They are truly my angels of the year!


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 This is a long reply to an article, 學習英語 由閱讀開始, re-posted by 台灣英語網.

http://english.tw/space-3-do-thread-id-1515.html

I would like to post my reply here to share with all of you since a lifelong reading habit should be highly promoted and fostered when the children are young.

 

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Vivian does have a lot of good points for parents. I don't know about her definition on "guided reading", but here is my take on reading English books with children. It is also applicable to adult learners if it is of interest to any of you.

 

Little kids can't read just yet. So, even “guided reading” has its limit depending on the age and language proficiency of the individual. Here is my professional view on reading strategies that we teachers practise in the school setting here. These methods are also highly recommended to all parents who read to/with their children at home.

 

There are four different approaches to teaching reading: modeled reading, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading. All four approaches are intertwined when teaching reading to children. My suggestion is to start with modeled reading, shared reading, guided reading, and then gradually move on to independent reading. You simply lead the children to reading on their own. Nevertheless, one approach does not disappear while the other is being dominantly applied.

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One fairy tale that I love to share with my students at this time of year is The Little Match Girl, written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1845. The story has such a profound impact on my view about child poverty in the past and the present. I often read this story to my students before I launch the Community Food Drive in my school.

 

The setting of this story was taken place between Christmas and New Year, the most joyful time of the year for every family. Nowadays, how many children can really relate to the main character who was selling matches on the street in the cold New Year's Eve? However, some of my students are occasional food bank users, or they know somebody who uses the food bank. So, they certainly can understand how the hungry girl must have felt when dreaming of that fat juicy meal on the table. 

 

This story is one of those fairy tales that does not have a happy ending. Most fairy tale characters live a life happily ever after, but in real life, not all of us can live a fairy tale ending. I don't try to give my students a harsh life lesson. I just want them to understand while we live a comfortable life with our family and friends, we should also extend our compassion and empathy to those who are in need in our community.  It is a great feeling to be able to help those people put a hot meal on their table through this holiday season. Don't forget to contribute as much as you can to help others!

 

The following is the story of The Little Match Girl translated by Jean Hersholt.

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My class is currently working on the Canadian Native Studies. A First Nation lady from the Ojibwa tribe visited our school today. She presented many artefacts about the native way of living. 

 

The First Nation Peoples' ways of living are very much attached to the land and Mother Nature. I always like to read a book of the Mohawk Thanksgiving Prayer to my class before I teach the unit. I want my students to understand why the first Nation Peoples are very respectful to the earth that provides them with the materials for food, clothing, shelters and transportation needs. 

 

Unfortunately, I could not find my book to re-post it here. I discovered a few similar First Nation's prayers online. The first one below was adapted from the Iroquois tribe. The second and the third ones are the Mohawk prayers which are very similar to the book I usually read to my students.

 

Enjoy the reading and Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends!

   

 Thanksgiving Prayer  

We return thanks to our mother, the earth, which sustains us.

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This is one of many true stories that happened in a little school here.

 

One lunch recess, the music teacher came to the office to report her cell phone missing from her desk. Since this was the first incident of cell phone theft at the school and it was taken from a teacher’s desk, we had a serious and lengthy discussion about how to solve this problem. Teachers didn’t usually lock their classroom door, but all the doors were usually closed with the lights out at recess. For the personal belongings, we just simply locked in the desk or the cupboard. There wasn’t any sighting of visitors that day. So, we concluded that the thief could be one of the students who just had the music classes before lunch. For four classes of students who had passed by the music room that day, how on earth were we going to catch the thief without searching all the students? The body search, of course, is a big NO-NO at school.

 

All of a sudden, one teacher suggested that maybe the music teacher should dial her cell phone number and call her cell. The cell phone was locked, which meant it wouldn’t be turned off just yet without her personal password, but it would still be able to receive phone calls. What a brilliant idea! Anyway, we waited till all the classes have come inside after recess. Then, the music teacher dialed the number. Bingo! The eleven-year-old kid who stole the cell phone still had the phone in his pocket. The phone kept ringing and ringing. The teacher followed the rings and caught him right there.

 

We had a good laugh afterwards. You might think that this would be the end of the story. Well, not yet!

 

The principal later called home to his parent to report this incident. The mother finally came to pick up the child in the afternoon. She yelled at the principal that it was not his child’s fault to take the cell phone. He was just borrowing it. It was the teacher’s fault because she left her phone on her desk to “tempt” the child. What?

 

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Other than the incident during my first year of teaching, I had never doubted my decision to teach in Canada except about four years ago when I had another interesting incident happened in my class.
 
We teachers always have different strategies as rewards in the classroom. Teachers use all kinds of incentives in the classroom depending on different circumstances, the individual classroom management style and routine in the class. Some are internal rewards such as verbal recognition, leadership opportunities, or a pat on the shoulder. Often, we use external incentives such as a sticker, a certificate or a small treat to reward students on special occasion. I don’t like to use the same external rewards because when the teacher uses external rewards too often and too frequently, they would become an expectation by many. I believe any reward should be for some extraordinary acts or to recognize special performances; for example, when students perform their personal best with evident improvement or personal excellence beyond expectation.
 
Anyway, four years ago when I taught a grade two class, I had a candy jar filled with different kinds of treats in my room. I didn’t usually put the jar on my desk but students know that the jar was where I kept my treats. Once a while, when my students least expected, I would reward them for their impressive performance or the behavior they had shown me. The occasional rewards with candy certainly worked wonder for that group of students.
 
One hot summer day, our classroom had reached that unbearable temperature that we all had to retreat from our add-on porta-pad classroom to a cool location in the school concrete building. You see, we don’t have any air-conditioner in the school. We can not close the school unless the room temperature had reached 45 degrees Celsius which is the maximum temperature for health and safety concern (It’s really stupid but that is the regulation. As far as I am concerned, when it is over the 40 degrees C, the children’s bodies are literally "cooking". Their brains can’t really function properly.)
 
Our porta-pad classroom was like a steel-box microwave oven in the hot summer afternoon sun. I finally took my class out to the end of the hallway where we could sit on the smooth concrete cement floor to work. The hallway was on the other side of the concrete wall, which was sheltered from the sun then. It was also peace and quiet there away from the other classes. The polished concrete floor was just smooth, cool and comfy. Before the recess bell, I gave out freezies (frozen ice in a plastic tube) to my students for their outstanding cooperation under that kind of heat.
 
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Kids say the darnest thing sometimes. I often wish that I have written down every interesting thing that kids said to me. Those words along with each and every incident happened may seem trivial to you readers, but they are really priceless in my view and it is great fun to recall some of those incidents. JZ is one of those students who I will never forget.
 
JZ was a natural performer who possessed excellent articulation skills. He was so full of “street smart” that you couldn’t tell that he was a child with learning difficulty. It took some skills to motivate this child to tap into his academic potentials because he pretty much believed that he was good at nothing at school. I was in touch with JZ’s parents soon after the first few weeks of school. His parents, as well as JZ’s grandmother, aunt and uncle who were taking care of him after school, were really on board to support me. We kept close contact with each other on the daily basis.
 
JZ often told me in class that he had done his best and there was simply nothing more he could do. Sometimes, trying to motivate him could simply become another power struggle between him and me. In fact, for children like JZ, he himself was really his own worst enemy because he believed that he couldn’t do anything right, refused to nothing more and then simply gave up. JZ might not be confident about his academic performance but he actually thought quite highly of himself.
 
JZ had many friends and he was very friendly to all his classmates. In fact, he was a great leader and quite willing to defend his friends when something was up. Friendship was such an important part of his school life. The only problem was that JZ was involved in the wrong crowds sometimes. So, when something did not work out between JZ and his friends, we certainly could hear about it and see it on JZ’s face right away.
 
One day, JZ had some run-ins with his up-to-no-good pals outside. When the class came in, almost everyone rushed to tell me about how JZ got into the argument with the other students. To be honest, the argument was really the secondary problem of my story. The main problem was JZ came in with a chip on his shoulder and already showed me his big attitude before I even got to him.
 
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As a teacher, it is always a bonus to get sweet little things from students. There was no exception for this Valentine’s Day. Kids usually like to draw their own Valentines or stick a candy or chocolate on their card. I always have to set a class time aside for them to give out their lovely Valentines to each other. I don’t promote it but somehow they all know how to do it, amazing! Last week I gave them a period in the afternoon to finish their heart-shaped pocket and then hand out the cards to each other.
 
I got quite a pocketful of treats and sweet Valentine’s as well. While I was opening the cards, I noticed that one particular note was from a parent. In two simple sentences, she thanked me for taking all these children in and treating them as my own. Those simple words brought tears to my eyes. I have no word but heart-felt emotions churning inside me………………….
 
I guess the class was all too excited about the treats and cards. Someone accidently knocked down the cup filled with water and the flowers that I just received from my secret Valentine (my colleague, note 1). I was very disappointed that the person who tipped the cup did not say anything right away and the water spilled all over my desk. My Valentine’s Day ended with a sour note that I had to throw out all the paper and to clean up the massive mess on my desk.
 
The next morning while I was in my class getting ready for the day, a parent peeked in my room and said, “Yes, she is in there.” Behind her was her son who had a small bundle of roses in his hand. The mother told me that the child asked her to get a small bundle of roses for me because he said that my Valentine’s flowers were ruined yesterday and I wouldn’t have flowers for myself. I couldn’t believe my ears because the child is such a typical jumpy boy and who would have believed that he is so sensitive and thoughtful inside? He comes from a single parent family and they live on a very tight budget. I am just grateful for their kind thoughts. The boy later made a comment that the bad thing about roses is that they are full of thorns and people can get hurt. Well, my boy, the thorns may prick me but the pain is worth it.
 
All of these little things made my days, every single one of them. How can I not treat these children as my own? They are my Valentines!
 
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I was really upset when I read about the recalls of leaded toys on the news before Christmas. What a lie! It is impossible for all the toys to be retracted back to the manufacturers. I know that some of these toys will be eventually filtered through to the neighbourhood dollar stores or thrift stores everywhere. For poor families that do not have means, these stores were like the heaven outposts for holiday presents. Somehow, there are always “seasonal” stores sprung up everywhere in town just before the holiday season to compliment these thrift stores for the shopping rush. (Christmas, Eid and Hanukah are usually happening in the same month.) Somehow, the families that have a tight budget always know where to shop for the bargains.

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PH was a student in my class last year and I had known him since he was in kindergarten. I remember that his kindergarten and Grade one and two teachers used to ask me to act as an interpreter during the parent teacher interview time. His mother spoke very little English but she could understand a little Mandarin. I was invited to sit in to help explain to the parent about his behaviour in class because PH had trouble learning all throughout his primary grades. Naturally, he was then put in my class when he came to Grade three.

PH’s family ran a Chinese herbal medicine business. His mother gave me a can of tea and a few kind words for Christmas. It was very thoughtful for her to do that. On the last day of school last year, PH came to school with a bottle of ice wine. (Note 1) I almost fell off my chair when PH timidly presented the present to me. First of all, I would never entrust a child with a bottle of alcohol to bring to school. Furthermore, it is too much to thank a teacher with a bottle of ice wine. It is an expensive present from a student! I thanked PH for the present but I told him that I needed to talk to his mother at the end of the day when she came to pick him up.

In the same afternoon, while all the classes were at the school assembly, another parent showed up in the auditorium with a backpack. I taught the student a year before when he first arrive at our school. This parent saw me in the hallway and came up to me. She reached into her backpack to grab a bottle and gave it to me. She said she was sorry that she did not give me anything last year and she wanted me to have this bottle as a present. I looked at the bottle. Wow, it was another bottle of ice wine. I kindly thanked her for the gift and told her that I appreciated the thought but it was a very expensive present. She should really give such an expensive item to the current homeroom teacher. With a big smile, she opened her backpack to show me what she carried inside. Gosh, there were so many bottles of ice wine in the backpack! (What’s going on? The neighbourhood store must be having a sale or what? Wait, it is still an expensive present for a teacher or anybody!)

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Before the Christmas break or the end of each school year, teachers usually receive small presents from some students. It is not a practice that teachers would encourage students or parents to do; however, I, as well as many others, have accumulated lot of mugs, candles and countless knick-knacks over the years. Sometimes, it is really awkward for me to accept those presents because I know some of my students come from families that don’t have much for themselves to begin with. Although most of these presents were probably picked out by my little students from a “dollar store” or a thrift store, the fact is that the families have spent their hard earned dollars to buy me a present!

When the students present to me with their pride and joy, it is very difficult to tell them that I can’t accept the gift. Seeing their sparking eyes with big smiles on their faces when presenting the present, I simply can not nor do I want to crush their sweet little hearts with rejection. They present their priceless present with dignity and I have to respect that by accepting it. Well. It is really a catch-22 for me! (For the last few years, I came up with a different strategy to make it up to these children and I will explain in detail later.) Last year, I had a very sweet class but many of the students were from needy families. In fact, I had to do a special emergency Christmas shopping to help one particular family whose presents were stolen last year. (Note 1) 

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On the last day of school before Christmas break last year, I was given a special present from a student who was from one of the needy families. The child came to school with a beautiful golden package for me. She had a glorious smile on her face and proudly presented the present to me. She told me that her mother thought I would definitely enjoy it. I was so surprised to see the size of the box! It couldn't possibly be from the dollar store or the thrift store! Could it be?

It is very common that most students would pressure me to open the presents in front of the class. It took me a few years to get used to this custom because I was brought up not to open presents in front of the gift-givers. In Taiwan, it is considered a bad taste to open presents immediately while the guests are still present. Now I have adjusted to this custom and always ask the students first if they really want me to open their presents. Some of them may not want me to do just that.

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Look at the painting. This is the reason why I have been so busy lately. In addition to the Food Drive and million other projects I have to complete before Christmas Break, I have to finish painting the backdrop for the winter musical, Snow Biz, as well. I finally finished the painting this afternoon. It took me two afternoons to finish it with the help from a friend at school. Every two years, we have a musical production for the junior students. I have been in charge of painting the backdrop for the last six years. A nickname of “Michelangelo” was given to me years ago because I always climbed up the 16-foot tall ladder to paint the backdrop. (My insurance company would not be too happy to hear about this.) The canvas is 15’ by 15’ and extremely heavy. Anyway, I decided not to risk my life this year, so the entire painting was done on the ground. I am aching all over because of the bending, kneeling and squatting for two long days. (Where is my massage therapist? Sigh…) Does the painting look all right? It was intended to look a bit cartoony.

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I did not know people would be so curious about my crazy announcement for the crazy hat day. Well, this Cuckoo Banana here, Me (Moi), have been making a lot of morning announcements lately because I am also organizing a Food Drive at school. This is the time of year that a lot of families would be struggling to get ready for Christmas holiday. It is also a time when many people would generously open their pockets or cupboards to donate money or food to help needy people. Normally, our school would collect food for the Salvation Army food bank, but this year we decided to take care of our own community first.
 
I volunteered to take charge of the Food Drive and I have also incorporated the food drive campaign with my lessons. All my students became the elves for the Food Drive. My Grade 3 students worked cooperatively to discuss what messages we should deliver to our school population. In each small group, the leader appointed a recorder to write down their message and selected a speaker to do the daily morning broadcast for the charity work.
 
Of course, in order to teach my students how to make impressive announcements, I have to model a few myself or fill in when the announcer is not available. I pretended to be an obnoxious TV news reporter one morning reporting live from our school for the Food Drive, called Mission Possible. I ended my morning announcement with one of my kids saying, “This advertisement is sponsored by the Elves’ Association.” I also did another one and ended with a message like, “This public announcement is provided by the Elves’ Association which is not affiliated with Ms. X’s Retirement Saving Plan.” (Hehehe. I am Ms. X.) So far, the whole school seems to enjoy my morning broadcast after my “Cuckoo Banana” Crazy Hat Day.
 
When it comes to announcements, I am quite comfortable with hiding behind the scene and making all those noises behind the microphone in the little office. At least I don’t have to see all those listeners’ faces. The only problem is that the people in the office giggle too much whenever they see me show up for the announcement. Their chuckles almost made me have a few bloopers. Anyway, it is all for fun and all for good charity work, so I don’t mind clowning myself for a few days on the air.  In fact, I used to do this kind of fun broadcast on the air for three years when I was in Taiwan many years ago. Well, I was one of the volunteers to host “Co Co and Po Po Time”, a short radio program that taught English on the air, sponsored by “King Car Educational Foundation”. King Car has been mentioned quite often in a few weblogs I read. It is very interesting to read about their latest development. I guess I should write about that part of my personal experiences when I have some free time to spare. Are there any old “Co Co and Po Po Time” listeners out there?

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Last week I was in charge of the school spirit day and the monthly assembly. My school has a recognition assembly at the end of each month to recognize students who have shown outstanding achievement in a chosen subject area or a modeled behavior. The theme of the spirit day for the month of November was the crazy hat day. All teachers and students were encouraged to wear a crazy hat to school on that day. It was kind of funny that I was slotted to be in charge of the crazy hat day because they should have known that I would make the day become a totally crazy day. (Hahaha. For friends and family who know about my loud laugh, you can imagine that I could not stop laughing when I was writing this one. Hahaha....and even reading this blog now!)

First of all, I decided to make a morning announcement myself every day to promote the “crazy” school spirit. Junior students who know me are aware of my loud voice, special sound effects and my ability to let out my potential craziness in class but they had hardly ever heard of my voice over the PA system. (Homeroom teachers don’t usually do the morning announcements.) The primary students, who haven’t known all the teachers at school well, were simply too new to know about me and my potential craziness. Anyway, last week they finally witnessed the magic power of this crazy teacher over the PA system.

For two days, I went on the PA to tell them that they had a few days to get their crazy hats ready. I announced that I already had my crazy hat made (Note 1) and I was looking forward to seeing their (students’ and teachers’) crazy hats. Of course, my daily announcement was done with my typical twisted voice with cuckoo sound effects. Every morning, I would have a different crazy sound to start and end my message. I even incorporated the McKenzie brothers’ typical voice and sound into parts of my announcement. (Note 2) The whole point was to hype up the entire school for the prelude leading up to the school spirit day.

My announcement obviously got the children’s attentions because whenever I was on duty at recess last week, some primary students would come up to me and said, “Cuckoo, Cuckoo”. It was TOO funny! I had never seen so many cuckoo kids. Junior students usually like to act cool and they don’t usually get moved easily by crazy silly school spirit activities. Anyway, a few “cool” junior students came up to me and told me how impressed they were with my announcements. Apparently, some of their teachers mentioned to them that I used to work on a radio program and that was why I was quite good with broadcasting.

I was very touched by their comments as well as their teachers’ comments. It is easy to impress children, which I am quite good at clowning myself; however, it is a different story with adults, especially co-workers. Some of my co-workers have heard of me talking about my past experiences with radio broadcasting before. All of them are aware of my twisted sense of humour under the disguise of my seriousness. However, it was their first time to truly witness my crazy let-it-all-out type of announcement. It was quite interesting to see the smiles on their faces when I stepped out of the office after the daily morning announcement last week. I guess that I never cease to surprise them with what I can do.

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Wherever there is a war, atrocity or disaster happened in a particular country, we know that we would be getting a few students from that region in a year or two. Canada is quite well known for taking in refugees. Years ago, we had the children from Somalia. Then we had children from the Balkan region when the war was raging in Europe. Not too long ago, we had a surge of Afghan children. Now we are getting students from the Middle East. I have a student who just came from Iraq five months ago. All these refugee children have one thing in common; they do not speak a word of English when they arrive.
 
The little Iraqi boy I have is a very bright little boy. He landed in Canada with his family and registered at our school in June. It is amazing to see how much English he has picked up over the last few months. Whenever I am teaching in class, I could tell from his sparkling big eyes that his mind is trying to process all this information in a completely different language. He laughs at my jokes and shows so much enthusiasm to participate in class. So far, he seems to be able to follow the class’ momentum quite well.
 
One quarter of my class is ESL students and another quarter is children with special needs. The rest of the students are within a range from being average to tremendously smart. To teach a class like this, it takes a lot of thinking and planning ahead. Quite often I find myself being “a comedian” or I have to resort to use “physical drama” like a clown in order to teach a new concept to the class. I turned the lesson on “photosynthesis” into an action drama. The lesson on “pollination” was done without getting too much into the technical birds and the bees. My students seem to take the words such as “eggs” and “ovary” quite normal like a scientist without any woo or ahhh. (Hehehe….My drama professor would be very impressed with how I have applied everything I learned from her class.)
 
In September, the little boy and his mother came to our Curriculum Night for the first open house. The mother tried using her limited English to tell me that the boy really enjoys being in my class and he thinks that I am very funny. (Hahaha…. I AM very funny! Tell that to my sister. Maybe I should just forget about teaching and get into acting or stand-up comedy instead.) I was so pleased after I talked to his mother. At least I know he is grasping some of my instruction in class.
 
The other day, I was reading a book titled The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland. It is a lovely book that I read every year whenever I get to teach the part how some plants grow from seeds and the seeds can stay dormant for years. When I was reading the part that the main character and her family had to flee Vietnam and escaped from the war to come to a new country, I could see my little student from Iraq with tears swelled up in his eyes. I had to stop reading for a few seconds to pretend to cough and then secretly wiped away my tears. The boy UNDERSTOOD my story reading very well and he was able to relate his personal experience to the story.
 
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We went on a field trip to visit a very famous arboretum last Wednesday. The trip turned out to be very disappointing because of the rain during midday. However, the real downer was the surprised confrontational verbal conflict that we had witnessed before we left school.
 
All of my students were really excited about the first field trip of the year last Wednesday. I could sense their excitement in the air when they were lining up to entre the school. When we were ready to leave after the national anthem, O’ Canada, one of my students named RR reported to me that her lunch was missing. She insisted that she brought her lunch in a black backpack but it was no longer there on her hook. I told her to go to the office to call home in case that she left it at home. While we were on our way to the office, she returned in tears to tell me that her mom was coming to school to pick her up. I was very puzzled and told her that she could have half of my lunch if she did not mind sharing the lunch with me. My point was there was no reason for her to go home and not to go on the trip with the whole class because of her missing lunch. I told her to get in line and get ready to leave with us.
 
By the time we got to the office, the trouble showed up. The secretary told me that the mother was furious that RR’s lunch was “stolen” and she insisted on checking everyone’s backpack. Shortly after we got to the office, in come the mother, and she was obviously very upset and raising her voice in the office. She was stopped by the principal not to go further into our school and was advised to stop yelling in the office. I did not realize that there was bad water between the principal and the parent prior to this incident. They were arguing in front of two classes of school children and some of them were obviously shocked and shaken by the scene.
 
I quickly escorted my students on to the bus and asked the other teacher and parent volunteers to look after them for me. I returned to the office to get that poor girl who was crying and caught in the middle between the principal’s and her mother’s heated argument. The mother told me that she wanted her trip money back and the student was not going with us. The principal returned her comment by saying that we would give her the money back. I could see all the gloom faces in the office. It was such a chaotic situation!
 
I held on to the howling girl and explained to the mother that the child could share the lunch with me. I told her that the missing lunch was a problem that had already happened. A lunch would not just simply disappear. We would find it eventually if it was lost at school. If she did not let her daughter go on the trip, she was in fact creating a second problem for her daughter’s education. I insisted that the child needed to go! The parent volunteer who was in charge of the school-wide lunch program quickly gave me some snack packs to put in my backpack after she heard me. I grabbed on to the girl and gently lead her out the front door towards the bus. I was SO worried that the mother might follow and use force to have a “tug-of-war” with me to pull the girl back. Thank God, the mother did not argue with me. She followed me and the child but then let me take the sobbing child quickly out of the office. When she called the girl to turn around to get a bottle of water from her car, the rock was then finally settled in my heart. She actually listened to me!
 
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I didn’t mean to neglect my blog; however, September is always the
busiest time for teachers. We have to lay down the rules, set up
the routines in the classroom and map out the program for the year.
I have been so exhausted for the last two weeks trying to set up my
classroom. Students are finally in school this week, but I still
feel like unprepared for my class no matter how much time and
energy I have put into my long day of work.

In June, we moved out of the portables (temporary classroom in a
trailer) and into our brand new buildings in a flash. The portables
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On Friday, I received another lunch award in my mail box. At school, we give out two awards each week to the best Primary class and Junior class. This week’s award is another addition to many that my students have won this year. The other day I was going through some of the boxes I packed for the new classroom. I came across all the weekly lunchroom awards that had been awarded to my class this year. (I took them down from the wall before the move and I was too busy to notice the number of awards in the pile.) So, I counted all them when I took them out of the box. They have won 26 awards all together. That means, in addition to the latest award from last week, my class has won 27 weeks out of all 38 school weeks this year! How amazing they are!

 

I have the most well behaved class ever out of all classes I had taught for the last 11 years. I am really amazed at the way my students have turned out this year. They are able to take in every bit I taught them and internalize the rationale behind each and every rule in the classroom and at school. Our Behaviour Teaching Assistant praised me for the way I have trained them because this class has been as well-behaved as the one last year. I humbly told her that it is really the students’ effort. The class I had last year was under my care for two years, so all the students were familiar with my set of rules for the second year. The class this year has a very small group of 18 students. Usually a smaller class is easier to handle. I told her that if the class next year will perform just as well as the last two, then I would be glad to accept her compliments. But, honestly, deep down in my heart, I was just so proud of my students, all of them!

 

For the last two years, I spent a lot of time on promoting character development within my class. The community where I teach has been through a lot of changes, unfortunately, not for the better. The school location is becoming a very rough neighbourhood. Children come to school with baggage from home, some of which are due to societal factors that simply beyond school’s realm of responsibility. For a school community like ours, teachers have to take up a lot of professional responsibility for promoting academic achievement as well as social responsibility for ensuring the well beings of the students. The most difficult part of the job is dealing with students’ behavioral problems.

 

Sometimes, teachers are in conflict with many parents who are helpless with parenting strategies or with parents who are delinquent themselves and lack respect for themselves or the school. Often times, they simply choose to ignore or openly despise school’s authority. Children who grow up in this kind of family environment also learned to disrespect others. It takes tremendous effort to teach these children to become future rule-following and law-binding citizens, and more importantly, to respect others.

 

Before the students can apply and practice the concept of respect, they have to be taught directly about the concept of empathy and how to relate their feelings to others’. They have to be able to understand and emulate the feelings of others in order to show respect with sincerity. I often tell them to put themselves in someone else’s shoes to understand how the other person would feel. If they were put in the same situation, would they feel the same way, or would they take the same action? It was not easy to teach this lesson to kids (as well as adults) who have been taking things for granted while growing up. Nowadays, some children and adults alike are very self-centred and often failed to see beyond the thought of “I” in the modern society. Often times, they quickly criticize others when things don’t turn out the way they wanted them to be. I always tell my students not to point the finger at others because whenever you point your finger at others, three fingers on that hand also point towards “yourself”. I ask them to always reflect on the issue and “self” first instead of jumping into conclusion and blaming others, which is extremely difficult for all of us to do, including myself.

 

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What a Week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My report cards were due last Wednesday. What a relief when I sawall the printed reports in my mailbox! I thought all I needed to donow was just to proofread them! Surprisingly, right at the end ofthe day we were called into the staff room for an emergencymeeting. I was on traffic duty out in front of the school when myprincipal came out to call me in, which usually meant it must beBAD news. Sure enough, it was really bad!

We found out that we had to move out of the portables into the newclassrooms by the end of Friday. What! It was late Wednesdayafternoon, and students were supposed to be at their seats in thenew room by Friday afternoon? We were more than surprised. Everyoneimmediately put up this major panic mode. It would not be easy toteach and move at the same time unless we could get some help.Well, the only help we would have was from the custodial staff. Wegot five extra custodians for 4 hours on Friday to help move allthe heavy furniture. Four hours of five custodians for twentyteachers!

As you could imagine, when we heard of the news, all twentyaffected teachers were just hopping mad about the decision. All wecould think of was that it has been 30 degrees out there every daywithout any moving air. Some teachers have almost 30 kids in ascorching hot portable. Forget about teaching, now imagine they aresupposed to pack, move and set up the empty room with 30 rowdy kidsat the same time.

It was not an easy decision either. We had to follow this drasticmove because of safety reasons. Apparently, the hydro would bedisconnected in each portable in order to attach the new intercomand security system in the new classrooms. We could not have hydroin the portables or both sections, which posed as a major safetyissue for us because we would not have any communication with theoffice. In a portable out there, strangers could easily get in, andaccidents or any emergency could happen anytime. We can’t risk ourchildren for this kind of logistic nightmare. Did we have a choiceother than hopping mad? Hahahhaha.

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In many people’s eyes, I am a typical workaholic. Whatever I do, I do it with more than 100% of my work time and effort. I enjoy goingto work. I am a teacher; therefore, I enjoy going to school everyday. I guess if the school was open on weekends, I'd probably drop by when I had some spare time as well. (Hahahahahahaaaaa…..) No, I am just kidding. I won't go to that extreme, but I do love working on school related activities. I volunteer for social programs that benefit parents and students. I run homework clubs to provide some remedial support for my students. I organize extra curricular activities for students at lunch time. In the summer, I take art lessons or university courses, so I can be better at teaching my students or running a club. I go to workshops and then bring the ideas back to my classroom. It could be boring to run a rigid program because I am already big on routine in my class. I certainly don’t want to be like a "drill sergeant" all the time; therefore, I like to research fun ideas online or through a varietyof books for science experiments, games or plays at my spare time to make my programs interesting and innovative. Put it this way: I am a big kid myself! If I am not having fun learning in my classroom, neither do my students. If I was not passionate about learning, I couldn’t possibly expect my students to be motivated as well. Honestly, sometimes it is really difficult for me when I get sick and have to stay home. I LOVE SCHOOL! It is hard for me to plan fun activities for someone else to take over and run the fun program in the class. Oh heck, I get jealous because I will missall the fun time. Plus, I simply can not expect someone to come in to continue or finish the program that I have planned and taught the day before. This is why I hate to take a sick day. People tease me because I don't have a life. My friends think that I am nuts. Maybe I am. I AM crazy about school though. I certainly hope my students feel the same way. Last time I checked, they all loved to come to class. One kid even cried before he left at the end of each day for a few days. He said, “I love school!” (Hahahahaaaa……) Am I teaching a group of little nutty kids? Time will tell.

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