The Moon Smiled at Me

I was able to get a couple hours of sleep on my flight from Cairo to
Addis. As we flew through the black nothingness – darkness above us
and darkness below us – the only thing I could see out my window was
the brilliant moon. For some reason, it made me feel happy and at
peace. It was a crescent moon, just as I have seen for 22 years in
the States. However, the moon was on its side; it was smiling at me.
"Welcome to Ethiopia!" For some reason, I stared at the moon for the
fifteen minutes prior to landing in Addis. It held me in its trance
as I became more and more excited to finally be at my final
destination: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The past week has been a whirlwind of adventures from new foods to
rocky streets to handling classes of up to twenty six-year-olds. I
haven't exactly had time to write to my family to let them know I'm
alive, much less blog about all of the happenings. However, within
the next two weeks I should be moving into my apartment; we are in the
process of purchasing SIM cards and wireless internet devices so I
should soon be able to write more consistently. I will start from the
beginning: the Bole airport.

My flight arrived at around 2:30am in Addis, 45 minutes before it was
scheduled to land. I figured customs and getting my baggage would
take a while, but I also didn't realize that my flight would be the
only flight arriving at 3am and the airport was empty. I had been
talking to some Chinese gentlemen on the plane; they were with a tour
group that had just been visiting Cairo, but they were living in
Addis. The group of Chinese tourists plus a handful of
Spanish-speakers (I think from Spain), three Ethiopian families,
odds-n-ends Americans and Europeans, and I made up the customs line.
It went fairly quickly and as soon as I got to the baggage claim, my
luggage came around the corner. I was hoping to see a friendly face
or two waiting for me as I entered the lobby, but no one was there. I
pulled my bags to the side and then one of the Chinese gentlemen
approached me. He offered me his phone to call whoever was supposed
to pick me up – how kind! So I called Gail and fortunately her, Kyle,
and Dagm were sitting 20 meters away at a café looking area. Yayyy!
What a great welcome party! Apparently they had all gone to bed and
set their alarm to come get me.

The boys helped take my luggage and we exited the airport. Ethiopia.
I was finally in Addis. The moon was still smiling at me, and
although the city is unlike anywhere I have ever been it still felt
normal. I was talking to Kyle about this and he agrees that it is
very hard to explain. I have not been shocked by anything I have
seen. I came without expectations and I knew I would be living in a
Third World country. If anything, the thing that shocks me the most
is the weather. Yes, it is warm here, but I am freezing cold pretty
much all the time. 75 degrees at 7700 feet is not t-shirt and shorts
weather for this girl. I have worn pants and a cardigan every day,
and when I am not teaching I am usually wearing my jacket [again,
thank you Mona for helping me decide to buy it!]. At night I wear
thick socks, sweatpants, a t-shirt, a long-sleeved t-shirt, sometimes
a sweatshirt, and at least 5 blankets. Ok, back to the story.

We traveled to the Amare's house and I was given a brief tour.
Galen's not here yet so Kyle is staying with Dagm on the second floor
of the house where all of the Amare's sleep. There is also a bathroom
on the second floor. The first floor has the living room, dining
room, and kitchen. Next to the house is a smaller building which has
a room for the maids to stay, a prayer room which also has a tv and
couch along with a bed (my room), and then there is a playroom for the
kids. From the outside of the house, there is also a bathroom on the
first floor of the main house. The Amare's have 4 maids and one
guard, Yeeop. Yeeop has the most beautiful smile! I don't know all
of the maids' names and I feel bad about it, but Dagm said to just
learn one's name and she will tell the others whatever you need. Alam
is the one I know, and she seems to be the one who takes care of the
children. The reason why Dagm said it's not so important to learn
their names is that in a few months they might not even work here
anymore and they would get new maids. They also do not speak very
much English which means I do not interact with them very much.

Coming from the United States (which I now call "America" because more
people understand "America" than "the States" or "the US" or "the
United States"), it has been hard for me to adjust to having maids and
cooks. I didn't grow up in a house with a nanny, gardeners, and a
cook. My parents raised me to clean up after myself, to do my own
laundry, and to be self-sufficient. I am used to clearing my space
after dinner and even helping make the food. What makes this even
harder than just taking it easy is the fact that I am White. I have
never loathed my skin color so much. Because I am from the States, I
have grown up seeing the errors of the White man with regards to the
slave trade, segregation, and racism. Now, I feel like the ignorant
White girl who has Black women doing all of the work. It makes me
really uncomfortable. However, it is important for me to remember
that these workers are being paid and given a nice place to live. I
was excited to be moving into my apartment, but then I found out I
might be having a woman help with cooking, cleaning, and laundry.
This will definitely take a lot of getting used to.

Another thing that I need to be conscious of is money. Almost
everything is a lot cheaper here than it would be in the States.
However, for the people who live here, it is not "cheap". For the man
who makes 20USD a month, he is not able to afford some of the
conveniences that I still take for granted.

After being given the grand tour, Kyle and I caught up on what had
been going on for the past week or so including everything he had been
doing for One Planet before I arrived. We ended up talking until
5:45am which was when we needed to get up, so we got ready for school
instead of catching some z's. There is hot water at the Amare's
house, but I had trouble figuring out the shower. It's the typical
two handles – one for hot and one for cold – but I was having
difficulty balancing the temperatures. I ended up taking a freezing
cold and burning hot shower, alternating between the two until my body
could not take it any longer. It also made for a speedy shower as I
could not stand either temperature. I didn't have time to iron my
clothes (and I had trouble figuring out which suitcase held which
articles of clothing), but luckily my black dress pants were not
wrinkled at all and I was able to pair them with a wrinkle-free shirt
and cardigan. I slipped on my new black loafers, grabbed my bag, and
headed to school with Gail and the Amare children.

Driving in Ethiopia is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! There are few traffic
lights in the entire city (I finally saw my first traffic light today,
5 days after my arrival) and there are giant roundabouts and the lanes
aren't necessarily marked. Also, not every road is paved. The
Amare's live just off of a main road, so to get to the "New Road" (as
it is now being called, I think it's real name is "Addis Road" or
something) we have to go over a very bumpy, rocky road. I do not
understand how women wear heels. There are so many Ethiopian women
who wear heels everywhere, but the streets and sidewalks (if there are
even sidewalks) are full of rocks and holes – if I wear my heels, I
will most likely break my ankle. The driving is ridiculous because
everyone drives so close to each other and when you are in the
roundabout, cars just come at you and don't really let you in to get
to your exit. Also, pedestrians just walk wherever they want whenever
they feel like it. There are blue and white vans that fit 10-12
passengers and are taxis. However, the taxis here are not like in the
States. The taxis here are more like public transportation in that
they have a specific destination. There are also small blue and white
cars, called contract taxis, which take you where you want to go. You
usually have to bargain for the price and if there is a driver you
really like, you should get his number so you can call him if you're
out late sometime. I'm getting a sense of the city (which is huge),
but I am very dependent on Dagm and Kyle right now which is absolutely
fine with me. I don't think I've mentioned this: Dagm is the eldest
Amare boy; he's 18 and heading to Haifa, Israel, this week for his
year of service. He's been showing me and Kyle to ropes both in Addis
and at the school so hopefully we'll know our way around and how to
fit in better before he leaves.

Before I talk about the school, I'll finish up my blurb on Addis and
anything that has happened outside of One Planet. I could write a
whole entry on being White, but instead I will leave you with a few
thoughts on the subject. The first time I saw a White person (besides
Gail) was Thursday evening when Kyle and I went with Zelalem to the
Baha'i Center. First, the Baha'i Center is absolutely gorgeous and I
am so happy to be in the Bole Baha'i community because they hold Feast
at the Baha'i Center and I will hopefully be able to help with
activities there. They have their own printing machines and make
their own publications as well as materials such as the Ruhi books and
the Hidden Words in Amharic. Fantastic! The Baha'i Center is located
in an area where there are embassies and some foreign minister lives a
couple houses down. While Zelalem was in his meeting, the gentleman
who runs the printing services (I forget his name; I feel terrible but
these names are all 100% new, unique, never-heard-before and there are
a lot of names) showed Kyle and I a nice café to get macchiatos and
wait for the meeting to be over. When we sat down, I realized the
three people at the next table over were White. It was so bizarre! I
found myself staring at them. After being surrounded in a sea of the
most beautiful dark-skinned beings, White people just look ugly and
weird – kind of like aliens. Oh, I forgot to mention this: I have
determined that all Ethiopians are absolutely gorgeous. They are the
most beautiful people on the planet, and there is no such thing as an
ugly Ethiopian baby. The kids are so adorable!!! Back to weird White
people: the second time I saw White people was yesterday when we went
to Friendship Mall to get a wireless internet device (we don't have
SIM cards so we can't use it yet) and Dagm needed to get a suit. I
saw a mom and a dad carrying their sleeping daughters and I found
myself staring yet again. I guess if I stare this much at White
people, I shouldn't be so surprised when I find people looking at me.
I actually haven't noticed very many people looking at me, but Kyle
says they look at us all the time.

One day after school, Kyle and I got caught in the rain waiting for a
taxi. I saw a guy staring at Kyle; I can't tell if they stare solely
because we are White, or if it's also because we speak English. A lot
of people do not understand English here, but there are also a lot
that do. I feel like it's either hit or miss. Kyle knew exactly
where we were going and knew which taxi to take, but none of the taxi
yellers (the busses have a driver and one person who collects the
money; he hops out and yells the name of where the taxi is going) were
saying the place so we kept waiting. We waited for probably 45
minutes in the rain. I was fine with my awesome jacket, but Kyle's
jacket didn't have a hood and we hadn't brought our umbrellas that
day. It was a rather miserable 45 minutes for Kyle, and what was the
most frustrating was that the yellers were saying something very
similar to our final destination, but it sounded wrong. We ended up
taking a contract taxi and spending 35 birr (approximately 2.80USD)
instead of the 85 cents or so for a van taxi, but it got us out of the
rain and all the way home. It turns out the name they were calling
out was exactly where we wanted to end up. There are two groceries by
the Amare's house; one is the one Kyle knew about for the route we
were trying to take. The other is a few shops closer to the Amare's,
but he had never heard of it before. It was a good learning
experience and my dress pants got very dirty on the muddy road.

The hardest thing thus far (outside of school) was definitely last
night at Friendship Mall. As we were leaving, a child came up to us
and was begging for money. It is very easy for me to look the other
direction when I see adults begging for money. Yes, I feel sorry for
them and I know I can afford to give them a few cents, but I have no
idea what they will be using the money for. If I had food I would
give them my food, but I do not carry food around so I simply look
away. However, to look away from a child is very difficult. It
doesn't help that all the children are absolutely adorable. The only
thing that helped me get past the child was the thought that their
parents could be making them beg and using the money for something
unnecessary like alcohol or drugs instead of food. Rough stuff.

Tonight Kyle and I went to watch Dagm and Zelalem play soccer with
some friends at an Italian sports club. The field reminded me of the
Adidas commercials that play during the World Cup of kids playing
soccer on dirt. I think the field was made of bricks that were
covered in red dusty dirt. I would definitely not want to fall on
that stuff. I tried my first macchiato (delicious!) and an Ethiopian
donut while Kyle and I were waiting. They are more like bread than
those in the U.S. and I like them better. Then we headed outside to
watch the game which was fairly entertaining. While we were watching,
an Ethiopian wedding was beginning. It was so beautiful! We didn't
really see the wedding, but it was a traditional Christian Ethiopian
wedding and people were singing and there was a drum playing as the
guests were arriving. Everyone waited outside the building and
everyone was singing. I hope my wedding is full of music and energy
like I saw tonight [don't worry, there isn't a wedding anytime soon,
Mom & Dad]. We had to leave before the bride and groom arrived, but I
really want to see an Ethiopian wedding before I leave. We'll see if
that wish comes true.

My other White-girl story is from tonight at the sports club. When I
was finished using the toilet (everyone calls it the "toilet" instead
of the "bathroom", "washroom", "water closet", "rest room", etc.) I
walked out of the stall. Three Ethiopian women who were attending the
wedding looked up. Two were using the sinks and one was messing with
her phone. They said something in Amharic and then the lady using the
sink on the left moved over to share with the other women, motioning
for me to use that sink. I said "thank you" and started washing my
hands. The women on the far right took the soap bottle that was next
to her and instead of handing it to me, she squirted some soap onto my
hands. While this was all very nice of them, I felt like I was being
given special treatment because I am White. When I finished, I told
the lady she could use the sink and I thanked them again. I still
felt like a terrible person. I can easily wait my turn for the sinks.
Grrr.

I think those are all of my non-school stories. For the record: I am
better than Kyle at Wii Mariokart. It's pretty much the only thing
I'm better than him at, so I'm going to live it up. Also, I have
liked all of the food I've tried here. I will probably talk more
about food at another time. Now for One Planet stories!

One Planet Stories

As I said, I started my work at One Planet only a few hours after I
arrived. I am teaching Music and Virtues for grades 1-4 and Reading
(but I forget which grades). Kyle is teaching Computers for grades
1-4. Galen is teaching P.E. and Art for grades 1-4, some Reading, and
my Virtues class for grade 3. We have to make a curriculum sequence
for everything we want them to learn during the year and then we make
weekly lesson plans. I finished my four sequences on Friday before I
left school for the weekend, and Kyle and I were given an extension on
our lesson plans since we just figured out what we are teaching.
Everyone is called by their first name: Ms. Jasmin and Mr. Kyle. The
Amharic teacher for grades 1 and 2 is Ms. Meazash. The English
teacher for grade 1 and Amharic teacher for grades 3 and 4 is Mr.
Deresse. The English teacher for grades 2-4 is Mr. Olata. Mr. Samuel
(Mr. Sami) teaches Math for grades 1-4. Ms. Tsehay teaches Social
Studies (in English and Amharic) for grades 1-4. Ms. Hana teaches
Science for grades 1-4 and is the Teacher Facilitator. Mr. Jemal is
in charge of the primary grades and is referred to as the Deputy, but
I like to think of it as a sort of "Assistant Principal". Mr. Zelalem
is the principal (I'm living with his family currently). The school
has 300 children, 90 of which are in the primary grades. The other
portion of the school is sort of a day care/nursery school with
"Nursery", "Preparatory", "Lower Kindergarten", and "Upper
Kindergarten". Everything is taught in English except for Amharic and
Social Studies in Amharic. There are 6 periods in the day starting at
8:15am, morning assembly goes until 8:40am, one 20 minute break in the
morning between 2nd and 3rd periods, an hour lunch/recess break after
4th period, and "home time" is 3pm. Each grade has one homeroom
teacher, but after morning assembly all of the teachers rotate to
whatever class they are teaching. That means, almost all of the
students have every teacher (except 3rd and 4th who do not have Ms.
Meazash). What does this mean for me? It means I teach approximately
90 kids at One Planet since I teach all of the primary grades.

I have faced many difficulties this week both in the classroom and
outside. For the record: teachers do not make nearly enough money.
Before I left, my mom asked me what I would do if I came back and
decided I wanted to be a teacher instead of a doctor. I told her that
would never happen, but now I can say with absolute certainty, THAT
WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Oh my goodness. Maybe I could teach grades 4-8,
but definitely not the younger kids.

The first day we arrived at the school I was given the grand tour by
Dagm. The school is in two connecting compounds and I can't even
count how many classrooms there are. There will eventually be
pictures. The primary teachers have a staff room and I have my own
desk and shelf! Our desks and shelves were labeled: Ms. Jasmine & Mr.
Kayl. We got that fixed by the end of the week. [insert Jasmin's
goofy smile + thumbs up] I'm thankful for the labeling because it has
helped me remember the other teachers' names. The first day was
basically getting to know the school, looking over previous years'
lesson plans, learning the teachers' names, and realizing that I was
about to be in over my head. (At least I knew it was coming, right?)

Quick note on names: Sure, there are students named Marcus, Michael,
Solomon, Matthew, and Christina. These are only a handful of the 90,
though. Others have names like Fekr, Navav, Yisak, and Asema.
Looking at them written out makes it a million times easier to
understand and say them. However, in the classroom the students often
speak softly and when you have never heard these names before, it is
extremely difficult to process what they are saying. The first few
days were rough, but after getting used to hearing Amharic and
learning how to fragment the words into something I can process, I am
getting a lot better at learning names (and saying them correctly). I
know the entire fourth grade class (10 students) and I know a lot of
grades 1-2, but I have not taught grade 3 yet.

[Exit One Planet Stories for a short after-school story] On Monday, I
was sent home early because Zelalem said I needed to rest and there
wasn't much else for me to do at the school that I couldn't do
tomorrow. This also meant that Kyle got sent home early because I
obviously should not be traveling alone, especially on my first day.
Dagm came with us and we ended up just watching TV and all falling
asleep on couches in the living room. When Dagm and I woke up, we
found that Kyle had moved to his bed upstairs. We also realized that
we were almost late to see Year One with Toby (he works at the school,
I forget what his exact title is) so we quickly got ready and headed
to the theater. We took a contract taxi (it was after dark; the sun
sets before 7pm here) and arrived just in time. At malls, there are
security guards that check your bags and quickly pat you down as you
enter. Something to get used to. Also, the theater has ushers that
help you find your seat. I guess that is also different from the
States in that the theater has assigned seats. We took a contract
taxi back home afterwards and after a bit more hanging out, I had my
first night's sleep in Ethiopia. [Back to One Planet Stories]

Tuesday was my first difficulty with my responsibilities. I am
supposed to teach Reading, Music, and Virtues, but for some reason
there had been a miscommunication and Mr. Olata thought I was supposed
to also be his teaching assistant for English. I would love to be a
teaching assistant for English if I didn't have 20 other classes to
teach. He was giving me small assignments to do as his teaching
assistant and I was getting in way over my head. Not only did I have
to create 8 lesson plans, but I also had to do this small work on the
side for him. There just are not enough hours in the day to do
everything. After speaking with Mr. Zelalem, Mr. Jemal, and Ms. Hana,
it was clear that being a teaching assistant for Mr. Olata was not one
of my responsibilities. There had been an English teacher coming from
South Africa who ended up declining in August, so apparently she was
the person he was thinking about and just assumed it was me.

While the confusion with Mr. Olata was cleared up, Kyle and I had more
and more work piling up. As volunteers with at least a college
education, there is a lot more expected of us than of previous
volunteers with only a high school education. We were given the task
of fixing the schedule since each class was only given 2 computer
classes a week and the lab only has 10 computers (as of yet). This
means for a class of 20 students, each student only gets one computer
class a week. We had to make grades 1 and 2 (grade 1 has two
sections: A & B) have two additional computer classes, and in order to
make sure the other half of the class (the portion not in the lab) had
something to do, we gave them a reading class. From this, we had to
place everything perfectly in the schedule to not overlap with other
teachers' classes. Basically, it is way too complex for me to write
about. Just know that Tuesday night, Kyle and I spent 4.5 hours
working on the schedule.

Another task that was given to us was to proofread and edit the
assessment exams for English. I ended up falling asleep early
whatever night that was (Wednesday or Thursday) and Kyle didn't wake
me up to help, so Kyle gets full credit for that one. Friday after
classes, Mr. Zelalem pulled me and Kyle aside to have a talk with Mr.
Jemal and Ms. Hana in the library. First, getting asked to talk with
the principal still makes me nervous. I know I hadn't done anything
wrong, but our lesson plans weren't complete yet and we had planned on
asking Ms. Hana for an extension since had been busy with everything
else this week. The meeting was actually a brainstorming session
filled with consultation. Apparently some parents had noticed a lot
of mistakes in their childrens' notebooks from English class. The
school had hired a native English speaker to teach English, but she
had declined in the end (after having accepted the position earlier).
Mr. Olata and Mr. Deresse were supposed to serve as teaching
assistants to the native speaker, but when they could not find another
teacher they were given the task of being the teacher. What we came
up with was that the school would immediately begin searching for a
full-time English teacher so Mr. Olata and Mr. Deresse could continue
teaching as teaching assistants. In the mean time, Kyle and I would
serve to help the two gentlemen. We are still not exactly sure what
this means, and we both have around 20 classes to teach each week, so
we shall see what happens. Another thing that makes all of this
difficult is that Galen is not here yet. He'll be teaching after this
week, but right now Kyle and I are teaching his Art and P.E. classes.
I think from our consultation, Ms. Hana will be teaching P.E. and
there might be a nursery teacher who actually has a music background
who might come and take over my music classes until things are
settled. For all we know, this English arrangement could be for the
next week or for the next few months.

I will continue with my "difficult" stories and end with a happy one.
On Wednesday Kyle and I began teaching in the classroom. We didn't
know it was coming, so it was a bit of a surprise. I remembered to
stay firm and strict, but I put so many kids in time out it wasn't
funny. Grade 1A was my first class; I have noticed that the students
who cause problems usually sit together (they have desks that sit two
people in grade 1-2). There were two students in the back left and
two in the back right who were causing trouble and even in time out
(which is either facing the wall at the front of the room or standing
outside the door for a time no greater than their age) they were
poking each other. Yes, they would poke each other even when I told
them to stand approximately 3 feet away from each other. Grrr.
Basically a quick synopsis of my teaching for the day: grade 1A was a
nightmare and I almost cried after class change but I couldn't find
Kyle so I took some deep breaths and headed to grade 2. These
students were a little better behaved, but there is one student who
does not like to listen to anything and throws stuff and was overall
problematic. He was put in time out inside and outside the classroom.
On Thursday I actually took him to Mr. Zelalem's office for hitting a
kid after I had already told him multiple times to be nice to people
and not play basketball so rough. In grade 2 there are also a few
girls who sit in the back right and talk to each other, disregarding
the teacher's instructions. I have also found out that two of them
don't speak English and one of them (who seems to be their leader)
speaks very little English. She had been having after-school English
lessons last year, so we are going to see if she will be able to
continue those this year. She is on a scholarship and her sponsor is
in Switzerland. I think that's really cool and maybe someday I will
be able to sponsor a child somewhere. My last class for the day was
grade 1B. The 1B class as a whole behaved better than 1A, but there
were a few kids in the back left (why do they always sit in the
back!?) who were turning each others' ears and stomping on each
others' feet. Oh, I also had a student who needed to use the toilet.
We're not supposed to let them use the toilet during class (only in
emergency), but on my first day I let them because one girl said she
was going to pee her pants and then I couldn't just let one go and not
the others. So this student went to the bathroom, and then later he
raised his hand saying he was homesick. I tried to comfort him and
continued on with my lesson. Later, he was crying so I made someone
the class monitor (they watch over the class and write down the names
of anyone misbehaving or being good) and took him to find Ms. Hana. I
couldn't find her but I found Ms. Tsedenia (I forget her position) and
she comforted him and I think she said she was going to call his
parents, but later I realized I just assumed that was what she said
because she had been speaking in Amharic. Towards the end of class,
one of the students pointed out that he was crying and I said "I know,
Ms. Tsedenia is trying to get help" but I felt like something was very
wrong. So again, I put a class monitor in charge and I took him
outside to talk. He kept holding his stomach and I realized he wasn't
homesick but he was actually sick. The only person I could find was
Mr. Zelalem so I left the student in his charge. Back in the
classroom, a few minutes later, a student spoke up "Ms. Jasmin! He
vomited!" Except, "vomited" sounded like "fomed" and it took me a few
seconds to realize what he was saying. Sure enough, my student had
ralphed right outside the grade 1 classrooms. Trying to divert their
attention back to the lesson was difficult, but eventually they forgot
about the excitement. Good news: during the lunch break, the student
ran past me saying "Ms. Jasmin! I feel better now!"

After the first day of teaching in the classroom, I knew for sure that
I would never be a teacher. Emily, you are the teacher in our family
and I'm so proud of you! Remember to keep those munchkins in line at
Bigelow Hill! Teaching on my first day was very exhausting and I was
not looking forward to the rest of the year. I thought I was going to
be working a lot on curriculum and less of the teaching part, but this
year is definitely going to be a lot of teaching. Hopefully I will
have spare time to work on the curriculum. Kyle and I both agree that
there is a lot we want to do for the school in that area. There are
binders of old lesson plans and curriculum sequences, but there are
weeks and quarters missing. We want to make a very organized,
comprehensive binder including worksheets, activities, and songs.

Two other notes on difficulties at the school: there are a few
students who do not speak English. This makes it difficult to
communicate with them both in instructing and in asking questions.
Also, the kids who attend One Planet are rich. This means they are
used to bossing around their maids, cooks, and other house-workers.
They are also used to getting their way. Put that together with the
fact that few of them get quality time with their parents, and we have
a recipe for disaster. It is definitely difficult to maintain control
of the grade 1 and 2 classes. They like to talk a lot, and I have
learned that if you give them 5 minutes to talk about whatever they
want (while still raising their hands and waiting to be called on),
they pay attention more after story time.

My favorite class thus far has been Virtues for grade 4. 10 students
+ maturity = success. Kyle said he had some trouble with some of the
kids during his first class with them, but I left mine ecstatic! They
stay quiet, raise their hands, and have great input in class
discussions. They were my first class Thursday morning, and we talked
about respect. "Respect is giving consideration to others" was the
affirmation I used from a book I found in the library. We began class
with the question "what is respect?" and from there the students gave
examples of showing respect. I then gave the affirmation which was
repeated by all. Then I read from the book about different ways of
showing respect. One of the examples was "keeping myself clean and
brushing my teeth". A student asked how that was showing respect to
others. We had a brief discussion on self-respect and then also
discussed how if you have bad breath or your body smells bad, you are
not being considerate of others when talking to them or giving a hug.
From there I read a Berenstain Bears book about bad manners which all
of the students already knew, but they still wanted me to read it. We
discussed the book afterwards, and I asked the students what is
something they could do at the school to show respect for others.
They all said "listen to teacher" but that is something that is
already expected of them. So then we discussed being respectful of
the cleaning staff and instead of leaving messy tables behind after
lunch, the students could clean up after themselves. They all thought
that was a great idea and a few of the students wanted to clean up
after the younger students as well. 9 out of 10 students agreed that
they wanted to clean up after the younger students, so I said that if
everyone agrees and cleans up after the 4th grade class at lunch for
the next week, the class will get a surprise. I also said that if
they want to be super respectful, they could help clean up after the
younger students. What I found the most interesting is that in the
States, if a teacher ever says "you will get a surprise" students then
ask what the surprise will be. These students, however, were
absolutely content with getting a surprise no matter what it was. My
lesson filled the entire class period and I was able to learn
everyone's name. When the bell rang, Mr. Olata was there for English
so I said "bye" to my class and left the building with the biggest
smile on my face. Kyle was in class so I couldn't share my excitement
with him until later, but I was beaming. The cleaning up idea didn't
work quite so well because after lunch that day, Matthew came up to me
and said that no one was helping clean up. I had to explain to him
that no one will get in trouble for not cleaning up, they just won't
get the surprise. I also decided that it wasn't fair for one student
to not be rewarded just because the rest of the class bailed, so I
told him to remind his peers about their agreement and that whoever
helps will get a surprise. Rahel and Matthew cleaned up on Thursday,
and Matthew was the only one who cleaned on Friday. If he cleans
Monday-Wednesday this week, he is definitely getting a surprise!

I think that is all I should write for now. Thanks for reading if you
got to this point, and hopefully from now on I will be posting shorter
posts more frequently instead of a novel once a week.