relax and let go

last friday (the 10th) was not a good day. my guiding teacher left the room for 10 minutes to take care of something in the principal's office and i was with the students during their journal writing time. it was going well for about 2 minutes. the rest of the time was spent on crowd control - trying to keep the kids on task and clarifying what "chapter book" meant. i was super frustrated, with myself for not keeping it together with the students, and frustrated because they were being so squirrelly. the kids really were being a little obnoxious. so it was not a good morning, though the rest of the day went better - our class even got to check out half a fetal pig in science lab. still, i went home pretty bummed, feeling like i didn't have a handle on the whole class management aspect of teaching. but i've been told, sometimes, you just have to let it go.

this week was much better. i still don't have a handle on the management issue, but i'm learning as i go along. the kids were even more squirrelly this week, but it was ok. afterall, it was valentine's day this week and they had a big dance, which happened yesterday.

on valentine's day (which the students erroneously call "valentime's day"), i brought in a bunch of hershey's kisses for the class. they too brought valentine's day cards and candy. i received a bunch of cards and candy, a mug, a ring, and a little bracelet from the kids. they're too cute. "love" was/is in the air. the school sold valentine's day grams for students to buy and send to other people. on tuesday, they were delivered and Ms. F gave the purchasers the choice of giving it to the intended person themselves or having her give them out. Most of the boys chose to give them out on their own. one boy, david, just walked over to adriana's desk and plopped them down and walked away without saying anything. she looked so confused. it was soooooooo adorable. erik told me he tore up his card and when i asked him why , he said "i don't know" and smiled. neither Ms. F nor i remember who he bought it for. but it was cute anyway. somehow, they managed to be somewhat on task for the rest of the week.

on thursday, my advisor came by to observe me teaching another lesson. last time, it was in english, this time, i was teaching language arts in spanish. oi. i was nervous and given that i do not have a lot of confidence in my language skills, or a whole lot of opportunity to really practice speaking, it felt pretty good. i did lose a few moments here and there, but my advisor was really encouraging and had some good things to say. when i walked back into the classroom, all the kids wanted to know if i had "passed." haha...in their minds, my advisor is the gatekeeper to me becoming a full-fledged teacher. at the end of my lesson, which ended a little more awkwardly than i planned, the kids turned to look at my advisor, and then they clapped really enthusiastically, which had all of us laughing. they're so very sweet, trying to help me out as they can.

and yesterday. friday was a tough day to get through. i stayed the whole day since i was going to help chaperone their 4th/5th grade dance. i had no idea that the prospect of a dance would distract the students so much. they couldn't wait for the school day to be over so they could get to the dance. i'm talking about notes being passed back and forth, and whispers/giggles all around the classroom. ms. f and i just wanted the day to be over by the time it hit lunch. at lunch, one of the other 5th grade teachers made a fair case for the kids. he said that if he had had someone to go to a dance with at 10/11 years old, he wouldn't have been able to focus/concentrate either. haha... at the dance, the DJ, another teacher at the school, had a sound system, lights, smoke machine, etc. it was pretty impressive for elementary school, actually, probably for middle school/high school too. the kids got those glow-in-the-dark necklace/bracelet things and dance around in the dark. we teachers herded them away from dark corners like cattle. a bunch of the kids are really good dancers, with their own little circle of breakdancing performers. see, asians aren't the only ones who dance in circles - little kids in east LA too. and then there were the handful of girls/boys who were dancing like they were in a rap video - NOT OK. seriously, someone should put a stop to those kinds of music videos. that's not dancing, it's pretty much just moving like a stripper - and that needs to go. by the end, it felt like the longest day ever, in a good way.

after all that, a bunch of people went to hang out at rosa's. we ate, sat around, and basically, just hung out. there was a game of cranium (boys vs. girls - as always), and the girls totally won, naturally. :) then we spent the next few hours answering all the trivia questions from the datahead deck. i love trivia - if only i could make a living that way... anyway, we stayed up entirely too late, but it was a lot of fun. it was just nice to relax after feeling so busy for the last few weeks. and i still have the rest of this extended weekend to enjoy...hurrah!