11. Finally getting it through to my Thai student, whom I taught last year as well, how to make subjects and verbs agree. In only took a year and half to crack that nut.
10. During a pre-exam fun quiz one student group named themselves Obama '08! after my bumper sticker. They later confessed to seeking favour from the judge; they lost miserably. I gave extra candies on their way out of class, though, for their gumption.
9. - "Whoa, Miss, nice shoes!" (Indeed, I was wearing new shoes.)
- "Thank you very much...who are you?"
- "_____, Miss."
- "Nice to meet you, _____."
8. Tape a Co-worker's Personal Effects to the Ceiling Day. There is still a Chupa Chup stuck to the ceiling 4 months on.
7. After weeks of hearing, "Shut up, R!" shouted when I turned my back to the class (when in fact neither R. nor any other student was talking at all), I snapped.
-T.: "Shut up, R.!"
-Me, without taking my eyes off of what I was doing: "Shut up, T."
-T.: "Touche, Miss."
Satisfying, indeed.
6. A very Catholic, golly-goshing Media Studies teacher sat in our shared office, along with me and a host of atheists, hard-out chain smokers and a flamboyantly gay teacher with a penchant for sparkly cuff links. One day her "bring in a magazine" lesson during a print media unit yielded a skin mag thinly disguised as a car mag. Not knowing what to do, she had taken it off of the student and brought it up to the office wondering if she should call the boy's mother or just throw it away. The smoker, Mr. Cuff Links, and I raced over to her desk and had a hoot over the tawdry and airbrushed stuff. Let's just say that jokes and comments were made, which were loud enough to be heard by the Head of Department one office over, and said HOD had to come in, take the magazine away and tell us to get back to work. He never does this sort of thing, which leads us to believe that he still has the magazine.
5. A young Russian-born man who struggled with syntax all year, waving from the doorway on the last day of class, shouting over the din, "Thanks for the class, Miss!"
4. This same young man striding into my office the next week, only three days before the big exam, with four essays in hand. He thrusts the essays at me with panic in his face. "Will you give me some feedback on these?" They were all awesome.
3. After yet another discussion about why John Keats, and all Romantic poets for that matter, are fixated on booze, sex and the like, I heard a brief silence followed by about four kids simultaneously crying, "Aaaaahhhhh." The dirty euphemisms had just gained substantial meaning and they realised that sex is more than a physical thing; it's often just a conduit for other more important ideas or relationships. Therefore, all sniggering and fun was no longer allowed in class because it would make them look immature and stupid in the eyes of their peers. I was witness to the death of innocence in some small part.
2. Handing a student a battered copy of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest against his will, and then finding out through his speech project later that year that the book helped him better understand his relationship with religion. He had realised not that he was an atheist, but why he was an atheist, and could articulate this for the first time. I didn't expect this at all, seeing as Christian martyr imagery is so strong and (according to many) affirmative at the end of the book. After his speech he thanked me for making him read the book.
1. Hearing the guy who hired me tell me that he's awfully glad that he hired me.
2 comments:
That is a great year regardless of anything else! Good on ya, Sis.
Thanks, sis! Sounds like you're working on wrapping up the year nicely yourself. Now that I have time during the hours when you're likely to be awake I'll give you a call to catch up.
Oh, and thanks for reading my blog! I've neglected this one so much I'm surprised anyone still bothers to read the thing. All the more reason to keep it up.
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